Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file: No such file: (null)

[brummer10]

Hi, as mentioned on irc, here is the issue report. I created a bare bone repository demoing the issue. https://github.com/brummer10/CairoFontTest

So, when build this on my local machine I get this:

when I build local using PawPaw, I get the same view, but a warning like this: Fontconfig warning: "/home/brummer/PawPawBuilds/targets/linux-x86_64/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/05-reset-dirs-sample.conf", line 6: unknown element "reset-dirs"

when I build it on github service I get this:

and a warning: Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file: No such file: (null)

resutling binary is here: https://github.com/brummer10/CairoFontTest/actions/runs/15520333037/artifacts/3283935293

now, when I run export FONTCONFIG_PATH=/etc/fonts the warning is gone and the fonts been displayed correct.

this could be reached as well by issue setenv("FONTCONFIG_PATH", "/etc/fonts", true); in the main function, but I guess it isn't a good idea to do so in a plugin.

this font issue could become more wired depending on the machine were the binary runs, look here for example: https://github.com/brummer10/NeuralRack/issues/18

Note, the same warnings appear when I didn't select a font for cairo but just use the default one. Do you've any idea how we could solve that?

[falkTX]

the pics you have uploaded seem to be the same..?

[brummer10]

Not really. Look at the "a" in "Sans", and the "i" in "Serif". That are not the same fonts. For the roboto fonts, it seems they are loaded correct.

[brummer10]

So the only suitable solution I found was to add export FONTCONFIG_PATH=/etc/fonts to my ~.profile file.

[falkTX]

env vars are not nice. we will need to either patch fontconfig or just change build to not use install prefix as the /etc location. something like ./configure --prefix=~/PawPawBuilds/... --etcdir=/etc but didnt check if this is possible yet

[brummer10]

I've tried to build fontconfig in PawPaw with --sysconfdir=/etc That should do the trick, but then fontconfig fail on the install step with no permission to write to '/etc'

[falkTX]

huh that is not very nice. then I guess here we have no chance but to patch the sources to hardcode its location.

[brummer10]

I got it working, somehow I added FONTCONFIG_EXTRAFLAGS+=" --prefix=/usr" to the bootstrap-plugins.sh, and then after it is build, I run to all makefiles in the fontconfig subfolders and change prefix=/usr with prefix= the contend of "${PAWPAW_PREFIX}". Also RUN_FC_CACHE_TEST needs to be disabled, as it fail, by set RUN_FC_CACHE_TEST = false in the topdir makefile Then one could run make install successful. Doing a build test shows that a resulting binary now use Fontconfig from /usr/share/

[brummer10]

Okay, a bit easier will be just add the --prefix=/usr EXTRAFLAG and then implement DESTDIR="${PAWPAW_PREFIX}" before make install. That worked!

[brummer10]

So this is what works for me:

--- a/bootstrap-plugins.sh
+++ b/bootstrap-plugins.sh
@@ -169,13 +169,19 @@ if [ "${MACOS}" -eq 0 ]; then
     FONTCONFIG_EXTRAFLAGS+=" --enable-libxml2"
 fi

+if [ "${LINUX}" -eq 1 ]; then
+    FONTCONFIG_EXTRAFLAGS+=" --prefix=/usr"
+fi
+
 # workaround missing implementation, see https://github.com/emscripten-core/emscripten/issues/12093
 if [ "${WASM}" -eq 1 ]; then
     export EXTRA_CFLAGS="-Duuid_generate_random=uuid_generate"
 fi

+FONTCONFIG_DESTDIR="${PAWPAW_PREFIX}"
+
 download fontconfig "${FONTCONFIG_VERSION}" "${FONTCONFIG_URL}"
-build_autoconf fontconfig "${FONTCONFIG_VERSION}" "${FONTCONFIG_EXTRAFLAGS}"
+build_autoconf fontconfig "${FONTCONFIG_VERSION}" "${FONTCONFIG_EXTRAFLAGS}" "${FONTCONFIG_DESTDIR}"

--- a/setup/functions.sh
+++ b/setup/functions.sh
@@ -214,6 +214,7 @@ function build_autoconf() {
     local pkgname="${1}"
     local version="${2}"
     local extraconfrules="${3}"
+    local extradestdir="${4}"

     local pkgdir="${PAWPAW_BUILDDIR}/${pkgname}-${version}"

@@ -247,7 +248,11 @@ function build_autoconf() {

     if [ ! -f "${pkgdir}/.stamp_installed" ]; then
         pushd "${pkgdir}"
-        make ${MAKE_ARGS} install -j 1
+        if [ -z "${extradestdir}" ]; then
+            make ${MAKE_ARGS} install -j 1
+        else
+            DESTDIR=${extradestdir} make ${MAKE_ARGS} install -j 1
+        fi
         touch .stamp_installed
         popd
     fi