fira-code: don't use variable font

[dotlambda]

Motivation for this change

fixes #118891
Also, Arch Linux's ttf package installs the same files.

Things done

• Tested using sandboxing (nix.useSandbox on NixOS, or option sandbox in nix.conf on non-NixOS linux)
• Built on platform(s)
  • NixOS
  • macOS
  • other Linux distributions
• Tested via one or more NixOS test(s) if existing and applicable for the change (look inside nixos/tests)
• Tested compilation of all pkgs that depend on this change using nix-shell -p nixpkgs-review --run "nixpkgs-review wip"
• Tested execution of all binary files (usually in ./result/bin/)
• Determined the impact on package closure size (by running nix path-info -S before and after)
• Ensured that relevant documentation is up to date
• Fits CONTRIBUTING.md.

[r-rmcgibbo]

Result of nixpkgs-review pr 123220 at 856969f run on aarch64-linux 1

2 packages built successfully:

• fira-code
• fira-mono

---

Result of nixpkgs-review pr 123220 at 856969f run on x86_64-linux 1

2 packages built successfully:

• fira-code
• fira-mono

[midchildan]

It looks to me the real issue lies in luaotfload. luaotfload isn't properly matching the font family name, so it is falling back to finding the font by filename instead.

❯ luaotfload-tool --find 'Fira Code' --fuzzy
luaotfload | db : Reload initiated (formats: otf,ttf,ttc); reason: Font "Fira Code" not found.
luaotfload | resolve : sequence of 3 lookups yielded nothing appropriate.
luaotfload | resolve : Cannot find "Fira Code" in index.
luaotfload | resolve : Looking for close matches, this may take a while ...
luaotfload | query : Distance from "firacode": 5
    Fira Code Light
    file-icons

luaotfload is mistakenly thinking that "Fira Code Light" is the family name, so the following works:

\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Fira Code Light}

[midchildan]

I'd prefer keeping the variable font unless it causes more problems because it's more customizable while being smaller in size. The non-variable ttfs are 1.8 MB combined while the variable one is only 260 KB.

[dotlambda]

The non-variable ttfs are 1.8 MB combined while the variable one is only 260 KB.

That's a stark difference indeed.

It looks to me the real issue lies in luaotfload. luaotfload isn't properly matching the font family name, so it is falling back to finding the font by filename instead.

Do you have an idea how to fix that? As a workaround, can we maybe change the filename from FiraCode-VF.ttf to FiraCode.ttf?

[midchildan]

For a complete fix, I believe this would have to be reported upstream at latex3/luaotfload. We could rename the file for Fira Code, but fixing it upstream would solve the problem for other fonts that may suffer from the same issue.

I'm not familiar with Lua but from a cursory look, it seems that luaotfload rolls its own parser for font files so any fixes would probably have to be made there.

[stale]

I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info

[rycee]

I think installing FiraCode-VF.ttf as FiraCode.ttf sounds like a good idea. It would keep the variable font while, I guess, also work with lualatex.

[minijackson]

What about the solution proposed by #196087, keeping them both? The fira-code variable font also makes xdvipdfmx fail when I use xelatex

[drupol]

Dear @dotlambda,

The original issue this PR has been created for is fixed. Is this PR still relevant?

If not, can you please close it?

Thanks!

[minijackson]

I can confirm that the issue that I had is fixed on nixpkgs master.

[drupol]

Could you please fix the merge conflict ?

[minijackson]

Note: I'm confirming that for my usecase, this PR was not needed.

[drupol]

Oh, ok.

@dotlambda Are you ok to close this PR ?

[minijackson]

Sorry for necrobumping the pull request, but I can reproduce the issue on master again.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}\setmonofont{Fira Code}
\begin{document}
Let's test the “programming ligatres” \verb|hello <> === ok nein|.
\end{document}

nix shell 'nixpkgs/master#texlive.combined.scheme-full'
latexmk -pdf -xelatex test.tex

Fails with:

------------
Running 'xdvipdfmx -E -o "test.pdf"  "test.xdv"'
------------
test.xdv -> test.pdf
[1
xdvipdfmx:warning: Invalid TTC index (not TTC font): /nix/store/3nvjhw65a3vqf411g0w3nyyjmmwlxc75-fira-code-6.2/share/fonts/truetype/FiraCode-VF.ttf
xdvipdfmx:fatal: Invalid font: -1 (1)

No output PDF file written.
Latexmk: Errors, so I did not complete making targets
Collected error summary (may duplicate other messages):
  xdvipdfmx: Command for 'xdvipdfmx' gave return code 256