update-canna-dics_dir(8)

💖 update-canna-dics_dir — the System Manager's Manual era 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because this one is a System Manager's Manual classic and honestly? it's giving "quiet little script that holds the whole font game together" 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

update-canna-dics_dir — compile a dics.dir file. that's it, that's the job, she's a compiler, she compiles, periodt 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

okay so funny thing, bestie — the synopsis section is literally empty in the original. no usage line, no flags, nada. she simply arrives and does her thing. main character energy with zero introduction, and honestly? iconic. 👑

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so update-canna-dics_dir assembles a dics.dir file in the Canna dictionary, using one or more alias files that live in a subdirectory of /etc/X11/fonts/. ✨

like, when is she typically called? basically only from the post-installation and post-removal scripts of a package that contains fonts (fonts that provide aliases for their names) for the X Window System. BUT — and this is the important part, bestie — she can be invoked at any time to reconstruct fonts.alias files. she's not clocked in, she's on call 24/7, no cap. 💖

here's the tea for each directory you hand her. the directory is either:

• an absolute path to an X font directory, or
• (preferably!) just the last component of its path — like "75dpi" or "misc"

and then update-canna-dics_dir will assemble:

/usr/lib/X11/fonts/directory/fonts.alias

from the files found in:

/etc/X11/fonts/directory/package.alias

this whole situation is what lets multiple packages provide aliases for fonts in the same directory. and here's why that's safe: no font package actually provides the fonts.alias file in the X font directory itself, so there is zero danger of overwriting one package's aliases with another's. no drama, no fighting, just vibes. 🌈

for instance, the two packages "xfonts-base" and "xfonts-cjk" may both install fonts into the directory /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc. they each place their fonts.alias files in:

• /etc/X11/fonts/misc/xfonts-base.alias
• /etc/X11/fonts/misc/xfonts-cjk.alias

(respectively, of course 🎀) and update-canna-dics_dir concatenates these two files — as well as any others that match /etc/X11/fonts/misc/*.alias — into /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/fonts.alias. it's a whole friend group of aliases moving in together and nobody's losing their identity. obsessed. 🫶

the format for fonts.alias files is given in the mkfontdir(1) manual page. go check her out, she's the source of truth, iykyk. 💜

and if you're a package maintainer wondering how to actually use update-canna-dics_dir in your scripts? there's an example provided in the Debian Policy Manual. it's giving "read the group chat pinned message." ⭐

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• mkfontdir(1)

that's the only one, bestie. quality over quantity. 🍓

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💀 DIAGNOSTICS 💀

update-canna-dics_dir exits with status 1 if its arguments are absent or invalid.

so like… if you pass her nothing, or you pass her nonsense, she's leaving. status 1. door slam. no note. 😭

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🙈 BUGS 🙈

bugs live here, bestie:

• See <http://bugs.debian.org/canna>.

and if you wish to report a bug in update-canna-dics_dir, please see:

• /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt
• the bug(1) command
• or the reportbug(1) command

pick your fighter, all three are valid, slay. 🔥

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

update-canna-dics_dir is written and copyrighted by ISHIKAWA Mutsumi. 💖

it is licensed under the GNU GPL, version 2. so like, respect the license, she's protected, she's legally iconic. 💅

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aaaand that's the whole page, bestie!! 🌸 this one shipped with Debian GNU/Linux, dated 25 August 2001 — a genuine elder millennial of a manual page, and we love her for it. stay hydrated, read your mkfontdir(1), and go reconstruct some fonts.alias files. mwah. 🫶✨🎀