Inkscape

Change fontconfig cache folder location on Windows

Bug #1196373 reported by Patrick Storz
26
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Inkscape
Fix Released
Wishlist
Patrick Storz
Inkscape 0.92 "0.92"
Inkscape Devlibs
Fix Released
Low
Patrick Storz

Bug Description

The cache folder of fontconfig is by default placed in the users temp folder on Windows. The font cache is needed when importing e.g. PDF files.

The problem is that the temp folder is often emptied out (manually or automatically by file system cleaning software), therefore the font cache needs to be rebuild afterwards.

Since rebuilding the font cache takes a very long time it always takes ages until the import dialog is shown in this case. Additionally until the import dialog is shown, there is no visual clue that Inkscape is actually starting.

I therefore suggest to change the fontconfig cache folder to something more
reasonable, e.g. "%APPDATA%\inkscape\fontconfig\cache".

As a personal workaround I currently set the cachedir in "\etc\fonts\fonts.conf" to something like "<cachedir>~/.fontconfig</cachedir>".

Revision history for this message
su_v (suv-lp) wrote :

Related:
- Bug #1021815 “PDF import needs ages (building font cache)”
  <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1021815>

tags: added: packaging win32
tags: added: fonts
Revision history for this message
Patrick Storz (ede123) wrote :

"LOCAL_APPDATA_FONTCONFIG_CACHE" seems like a good location for the cachedir, too (it was mentioned here: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.fonts.fontconfig/4738).

I didn't work in my Inkscape 0.48.4 though (probably it uses an older fontconfig version)

su_v (suv-lp)
Changed in inkscape:
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Patrick Storz (ede123) wrote :

This is fixed now:
- In devlibs64 r19 fontconfig was updated to version 2.11.94 which uses the variable location name "LOCAL_APPDATA_FONTCONFIG_CACHE" by default.
- In devlibs r63 [1] I implemented a workaround (the older version of fontconfig does not support that variable yet) that is equivalent on Windows Vista and later and should work just fine for XP, too

[1] http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape-devlibs/trunk/revision/63

Changed in inkscape:
assignee: nobody → Eduard Braun (eduard-braun2)
status: Confirmed → Fix Committed
jazzynico (jazzynico)
Changed in inkscape:
milestone: none → 0.92
Revision history for this message
jazzynico (jazzynico) wrote :

Just a reminder not to forget to update the 5.1 branch.

Changed in inkscape-devlibs:
assignee: nobody → jazzynico (jazzynico)
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Patrick Storz (ede123) wrote :

5.1 branch includes fontconfig 2.11.1 according to readme.txt.

This version is the first to use "LOCAL_APPDATA_FONTCONFIG_CACHE" as cachedir per default, i.e. no update is needed!

Revision history for this message
jazzynico (jazzynico) wrote :

Thanks for the precision!

Changed in inkscape-devlibs:
assignee: jazzynico (jazzynico) → Eduard Braun (eduard-braun2)
status: In Progress → Fix Released
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
Changed in inkscape:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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