Re: AFM files & Solaris...

Marc Espie (espie@clipper.ens.fr)
Tue, 18 Mar 1997 13:29:00 +0100 (MET)


En reponse a Gisle Aas:
> 
> Marc Espie <espie@clipper.ens.fr> writes:
> > I've got a Solaris 2.5 box with the afm files installed as
> > /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/F3/afm
> > 
> > strange location, most certainly...
> > libwww should probably include some system-dependent configuration
> > information, at least so that I can tell it where to find the afm
> > files...
> 
> You can set the METRICS environment variable.  The documentation says:
> 
>      METRICS   Contains the path to seach for AFM-files.  Format
>                is as for the PATH environment variable. The
>                default path built into this library is:
> 
>                 /usr/lib/afm:/usr/local/lib/afm:/usr/openwin/lib/fonts/afm/:.
> 
Yes, I've seen that variable. But IMHO, this is not a good solution...
This is a sysadmin thing. I fail to see why the default path should be 
hardcoded while it is obviously a system-dependent thing.

Also, having such a queer and long path strikes me as inefficient...
why bother putting directories that DON'T exist in the path ? especially
when they are searched each time I'm asking for a new afm file... 
more NFS traffic for nothing. This should be configured at installation.

> > Ideally, the scheme should be in site_perl/arch as it may depend
> > on the actual machine used...

> Or you can just patch the path in Font::AFM before you install it.

Yes, I can... I mainly contend this should be automated.

-- 
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`Seiza no matataki kazoe, uranau koi no yuku e.'
	Marc Espie (Marc.Espie@ens.fr)