[Gnome-print] gnome-font-install and packaging

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

I'm working now to fix up our gnome-print package to be somewhat more
robust and sensical. In particular, I've run into some issues with
how gnome-font-install is supposed to work.

* I don't believe the location of the fontmap2 file
  in ${prefix}/share/fonts is correct. I'm not sure whether to categorize
  this file as a configuration file, or a cache file, but in either
  case, it doesn't belong in /usr: it's contents are dynamic, and it
  might include files that are in directories outside the user hierarchy
  such as /opt.

  (We at Red Hat have an informal policy that every file in /usr must be
  come from some package... dynamically generated files can't be in /usr)

* I don't really understand the intended mode of operation of 
  gnome-font-install. Currently all packages I know of gnome-print
  (Ximian, Red Hat, Plain GNOME), install run-gnome-font-install somewhere,
  run it when installing gnome-print. 

  This picks up at least some of the fonts that are be on the system 
  when gnome-print is installed, but unless the gnome-print package
  explicitely as a PreReq on a font package, the font package might
  well be installed _after_ gnome-print. (The Red Hat packages PreReq
  the urw-fonts, so at least those get found.)

  I get the idea that the envisioned usage is a little different -- 
  perhaps each font package is supposed to drop a .font file for
  itself into a standard location, then, if gnome-print is installed,
  run:
         gnome-font-install -f /standard/directory

* It's impossible (as far as I can tell), to remove fonts from the 
  knowledge of gnome-print without actually removing them from 
  the system. (Or blowing away your fontmap2 and starting over.)

* I think it's probably wrong that gnome-font-install when run with 
  --target= reads in the current contents of ${prefix}/share/fonts/fontmap2 
  instead of the new target file. As far as I can tell, if I was using
  gnome-font-install to maintain ~/.gnome/fontmap, then I'd have to
  include all my personal directories every time.

I don't have a lot of recommendations of how things should work at the
moment ... still thinking about that. But it seems somehow that there
should be a better separation between:

 * Configuration - what font directories and/or fonts do I have
   installed on my system.

 * Cached state about what is known about the system state.

Reactions?
                                        Owen

[ 
  Font cataloging is, of course, a much more general problem - systems
  using Type1 and TrueType fonts shipped with Red Hat include at least:

    xfs, libXft, VFlib, a2ps, gnome-print, ghostscript, groff, Tex

  Each of of these has a separate method of locating fonts and
  information about fonts... :-(  Programs/systems for updating
  font catalogs include:

   ttfm, ttmkfdir, chkfontpath, gnome-font-install, mkfontdir

 Some postulates about how font installation should work:
 
 * Packages of fonts when installed or removed should update cause
   all relevant font catalogs to be updated. This should be 
   robust against the order installation of the font packages
   and the systems using various catalogs.

 * System adminstrators should be able to add and remove fonts
   from all relevant catalogs with one centralized tools without
   going through the packaging systems.

 * Users should, to the extent that the relevant systems allow it,
   be able to augment their fonts with personal fonts not in 
   their home directories.

]