Ghostty doesn't see fonts with fontconfig 2.18

[kj]

Issue Description

Arch Linux just updated to fontconfig 2.18 and I can no longer launch Ghostty if I set the font-family config option. If I comment it out, it launches (with my system default font of course), and if I downgrade to fontconfig 2.17, it works. Listing fonts with ghostty +list-fonts also lists nothing under fontconfig 2.18, but correctly lists all my fonts under fontconfig 2.17.

Expected Behavior

Ghostty launches successfully.

Actual Behavior

Launching Ghostty crashes immediately after:

warning(gtk_ghostty_surface): failed to initialize surface err=error.FontconfigNoMatch
warning(gtk_ghostty_surface): surface failed to initialize err=error.SurfaceError

Reproduction Steps

1. Using Arch Linux with latest fontconfig (2.18)
2. Configure Ghostty with a custom font-family
3. Launch Ghostty
4. Ghostty fails to launch (window opens for a fraction of a second and closes)

Ghostty Logs

warning(gtk_ghostty_surface): failed to initialize surface err=error.FontconfigNoMatch
warning(gtk_ghostty_surface): surface failed to initialize err=error.SurfaceError

### Ghostty Version

```text
Ghostty 1.3.1-arch2

Version
  - version: 1.3.1-arch2
  - channel: tip
Build Config
  - Zig version   : 0.15.2
  - build mode    : .ReleaseFast
  - app runtime   : .gtk
  - font engine   : .fontconfig_freetype
  - renderer      : renderer.generic.Renderer(renderer.OpenGL)
  - libxev        : io_uring
  - kernel version: 7.0.11-zen1-1-zen
  - desktop env   : other
  - GTK version   :
    build         : 4.22.2
    runtime       : 4.22.4
  - libadwaita    : enabled
    build         : 1.9.0
    runtime       : 1.9.1
  - libX11        : enabled
  - libwayland    : enabled

OS Version Information

Arch Linux

(Linux only) Display Server

Wayland

(Linux only) Desktop Environment/Window Manager

Niri

Minimal Ghostty Configuration

font-family = Liberation Mono

Additional Relevant Configuration

No response

I acknowledge that:

• I have reviewed the FAQ and confirm that my issue is NOT among them.
• I have searched the Ghostty repository (both open and closed Discussions and Issues) and confirm this is not a duplicate of an existing issue or discussion.
• I have checked the "Preview" tab on all text fields to ensure that everything looks right, and have wrapped all configuration and code in code blocks with a group of three backticks (```) on separate lines.

[kj]

This doesn't seem to affect my laptop for some reason (also Arch Linux with the same versions). So there must be something different in the environment on my desktop (I'll update if I can figure out what exactly). I haven't found anything else affected by this other than Ghostty.

[VadeveSi]

Hi, I'm experiencing this issue as well. Without setting a font-family, Ghostty will open. However, TUIs such as btop or cmus cause it to crash again. Interestingly, htop does not.

Also interesting: ghostty +list-fonts gives no results.

[anselm-helbig]

I had the same issue with GhosTTY and also saw effects in Alacritty ("random" crashes) and with the unicode-fonts package for Emacs (current development version, also crashing). As @kj mentioned that they are not affected, I checked my configuration and local fonts. The problem seems to be gone after I removed a subdirectory from ~/.local/share/fonts. I extracted an archive with the Monaspace fonts there previously. Having the Monaspace font files in ~/.local/share/fonts directly seems to work fine. I haven't figured out whether the nested directory structure or the other contents of the subdirectory are to blame.

[NfNitLoop]

Thanks @anselm-helbig -- removing my ~/.local/share/fonts/ directory also allowed Ghostty to start up again.

In my case, it was a flat directory, containing only two fonts:
Figtree-Italic[wght].woff2
Figtree[wght].woff2

Neither of those were used by my Ghostty config.

Seems like fontconfig 2.18 may have had a regression? (I'm heading there to check for bug reports next...)

[anselm-helbig]

That's interesting. The Monaspace font's folder also has a number of woff fonts, so that seems to be what we had in common. I moved the folder back and the issue didn't occur again. This makes me think it might be a caching issue. Once the fontconfig update hits the more widely used distros, there will be more people experiencing this issue. It's good to make the fontconfig developers aware of this.

[NfNitLoop]

Here's a related issue: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig/-/work_items/538

Update: The issue is the fontconfig cache in ~/.cache.

And I confirmed that locally:

• restore my ~/.local/share/fonts/ directory.
• Ghostty once again fails to start.
• rename/delete my ~/.cache/fontconfig directory
• Ghostty starts again.

[anselm-helbig]

The issue might indeed be related. I didn't see woff webfonts mentioned yet.

[kj]

Thank you @NfNitLoop! Deleting ~/.cache/fontconfig appears to work for me too.

[NfNitLoop]

I see this discussion is closed, but IMO the problem with fontconfig is still an issue Ghostty devs might want to keep in mind to work around. (Discussion is still ongoing over in https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig/-/work_items/538 about the correct fix.) Should we create an issue for that?

[kj]

Yeah I agree, I was debating with myself if I should mark the answer for that reason. It seems to be a fontconfig issue primarily? But Ghostty could still handle the error a little more gracefully.

[00-kat]

I'll reopen it for now then (but leave the answer marked), until it's decided whether this is purely upstream or if an issue should be created/this discussion be reused for it.