Re: linux, alot of fonts and slow window startups

[Vincent LADEUIL <v ladeuil alplog fr>]

> > > > > "zentara" == zentara  <zentara1 sbcglobal net> writes:

    zentara> Hi, This is just a general question.  Recently I
    zentara> tried to get my homemade American linux system to
    zentara> run utf-8. So I changed the required lines in
    zentara> .bashrc and installed a bunch of fonts (which were
    zentara> suggested in the various unicode setup tutorials).

    zentara> Well after installing the fonts, my Perl/Gtk2
    zentara> windows seemed to take alot longer to come onto the
    zentara> screen.  Like "a fraction of a second before" to "3
    zentara> or 4 seconds after".  My Perl/Tk programs were not
    zentara> affected.

    zentara> What would cause this?

fontconfig should recalculate a cache at each start.

This is  normally avoided when you install  fontconfig after your
fonts, because the install procedure issued a 'fc-cache' as root.

You can verify this by looking at a '.fonts.cache-1' in your home
directory.

A size bigger than a few kB and a changing last-modification time
are generally a good hint of such a problem.

The  solution  is to  issue  a  'fc-cache'  command as  root  (or
'fc-cache -v'  if you're curious)  that will build  various cache
files in your font directories.

    zentara> P.S. I backed up before doing this, and I put the
    zentara> old font dirs back in, so everything is back to
    zentara> normal speed.

Yes.  Your old font  dirs should  contain up-to-date  cache files
(named 'fonts.cache-1' (without initial dot)).

Hope that helps,

     Vincent