fontconfig default cache location is build-system specific

[Ede123]

For CI we use a minimal fonts.conf to reduce the time it takes to execute fc-cache.

It looks like the following:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig><dir>C:\builds\fonts</dir></fontconfig>

Recently I noticed fc-cache uses a nonsensical font cache location in this case which seems to be build-system specific:

$ fc-cache -rv
Font directories:
        C:\builds\fonts
C:\builds\fonts: caching, new cache contents: 22 fonts, 0 dirs
D:/a/_temp/msys/msys64/var/cache/fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
C:/msys64/home/Patrick/.cache/fontconfig: not cleaning non-existent cache directory
C:\msys64\mingw64\bin\fc-cache.exe: succeeded

(I'm refering to "D:/a/_temp/msys/msys64/var/cache/fontconfig")

Adding a <cachedir> entry to the above fonts.conf allows to workaround the issue, but a better default would be preferable for obvious reasons.

[Ede123]

(P.S. This might obviously be an upstream issue, but I suspect it has better chances to be picked up by capable hands here. I'd have a stab at it myself but am currently limited on time)

[Biswa96]

In my setup, the output looks like this

Click here to show the output

$ fc-cache.exe -rv
Font directories:
        C:/Windows/fonts
        F:/msys64/home/x/.local/share/fonts
        F:/msys64/home/x/F/fonts
        F:/msys64/mingw64/share/;F/fonts
        F:/msys64/usr/local/share/;F/fonts
        F:/msys64/usr/share/fonts
        F:/msys64/home/x/.fonts
C:/Windows/fonts: caching, new cache contents: 838 fonts, 0 dirs
F:/msys64/home/x/.local/share/fonts: skipping, no such directory
F:/msys64/home/x/F/fonts: skipping, no such directory
F:/msys64/mingw64/share/;F/fonts: skipping, no such directory
F:/msys64/usr/local/share/;F/fonts: skipping, no such directory
F:/msys64/usr/share/fonts: skipping, no such directory
F:/msys64/home/x/.fonts: skipping, no such directory
F:/msys64/mingw64/var/cache/fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
F:/msys64/home/x/.cache/fontconfig: not cleaning non-existent cache directory
F:/msys64/home/x/.fontconfig: not cleaning non-existent cache directory
F:\msys64\mingw64\bin\fc-cache.exe: succeeded

[Ede123]

You need to copy above fonts.conf and make sure it's used, e.g. using FONTCONFIG_FILE environment variable.

[Biswa96]

This might obviously be an upstream issue

This does not looks like upstream issue. In my opinion, this is another candidate for pathtools to relocate *nix style path to actual Windows path (like cygpath tool). BTW, there is a meson file in fontconfig tarball. Don't know if replacing autoconf with meson works.

The issue in src/fcinit.c file.

[MichelReims]

I have the same problem with xournalpp compiled with msys64.
I have a directory (D:/a/_temp/msys/msys64/var/cache/fontconfig) created when I open xournalpp,
How solve the problem ?

[Biswa96]

I have tried to build fontconfig with meson. It may fix the issue and the binaries do not have the absolute build directory. But fc-cache creates and searches for another out-of-tree directory. e.g.

• Correct path should be C:\mssy64\mingw64\var\cache\fontconfig
• But it also creates C:\mingw64\var\cache\fontconfig folder

I was also thinking about pathtools (see curl, ffmpeg etc.). But the cache directory path (FC_CACHEDIR) and config directory path (CONFIGDIR) is stored as default in fontconfig library. So, path relocation at runtime may be not too easy.

[mirh]

#9411 (comment)