xfs - X font server

xfs [-config configuration_file] [-daemon] [-droppriv] [-ls listen_socket] [-nodaemon] [-port tcp_port] [-user username]

Xfs is the X Window System font server. It supplies fonts to X Window System display servers.

The server is usually run by a system administrator, and started via boot files like /etc/rc.local. Users may also wish to start private font servers for specific sets of fonts.

-config configuration_file

Specifies the configuration file the font server will use. If this parameter is not specified, the default file, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fs/config will be used.

-ls listen_socket

Specifies a file descriptor which is already set up to be used as the listen socket. This option is only intended to be used by the font server itself when automatically spawning another copy of itself to handle additional connections.

-port tcp_port

Specifies the TCP port number on which the server will listen for connections. The default port number is 7100.

-daemon

Instructs xfs to fork and go into the background automatically at startup If this option is not specified, xfs will run as a regular process (unless xfs was built to daemonize by default).

-droppriv

If specified, xfs will attempt to run as user and group xfs (unless the -user option is used). This has been implemented for security reasons, as xfs may have undiscovered buffer overflows or other paths for possible exploit, both local and remote. With this option, you may also wish to specify "no-listen = tcp" in the config file, which ensures that xfs will not to use a TCP port at all.

-nodaemon

When xfs is built to daemonize (run in the background) by default, this prevents that and starts xfs up as a regular process.

-user username

This is equivalent to -droppriv except that xfs will run as user username.

SIGTERM

This causes the font server to exit cleanly.

SIGUSR1

This signal is used to cause the server to re-read its configuration file.

SIGUSR2

This signal is used to cause the server to flush any cached data it may have.

SIGHUP

This signal is used to cause the server to reset, closing all active connections and re-reading the configuration file.

The configuration language is a list of keyword and value pairs. Each keyword is followed by an '=' and then the desired value.

Recognized keywords include:

catalogue (list of string)

Ordered list of font path element names. Use of the keyword "catalogue" is very misleading at present, the current implementation only supports a single catalogue ("all"), containing all of the specified fonts.

alternate-servers (list of string)

List of alternate servers for this font server.

client-limit (cardinal)

Number of clients this font server will support before refusing service. This is useful for tuning the load on each individual font server.

clone-self (boolean)

Whether this font server should attempt to clone itself when it reachs the client-limit.

default-point-size (cardinal)

The default pointsize (in decipoints) for fonts that don't specify. The default is 120.

default-resolutions (list of resolutions)

Resolutions the server supports by default. This information may be used as a hint for pre-rendering, and substituted for scaled fonts which do not specify a resolution. A resolution is a comma-separated pair of x and y resolutions in pixels per inch. Multiple resolutions are separated by commas.

error-file (string)

Filename of the error file. All warnings and errors will be logged here.

no-listen (trans-type)

Disable a transport type. For example, TCP/IP connections can be disabled with no-listen tcp

port (cardinal)

TCP port on which the server will listen for connections.

use-syslog (boolean)

Whether syslog(3) (on supported systems) is to be used for errors.

deferglyphs (string)

Set the mode for delayed fetching and caching of glyphs. Value is "none", meaning deferred glyphs is disabled, "all", meaning it is enabled for all fonts, and "16", meaning it is enabled only for 16-bits fonts.

#
# sample font server configuration file
#

# allow a max of 10 clients to connect to this font server client-limit = 10

# when a font server reaches its limit, start up a new one clone-self = on

# alternate font servers for clients to use alternate-servers = hansen:7101,hansen:7102

# where to look for fonts # the first is a set of Speedo outlines, the second is a set of # misc bitmaps and the last is a set of 100dpi bitmaps # catalogue = /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/speedo, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/

# in 12 points, decipoints default-point-size = 120

# 100 x 100 and 75 x 75 default-resolutions = 100,100,75,75 use-syslog = off

One of the following forms can be used to name a font server that accepts TCP connections:

    tcp/hostname:port
    tcp/hostname:port/cataloguelist

The hostname specifies the name (or decimal numeric address) of the machine on which the font server is running. The port is the decimal TCP port on which the font server is listening for connections. The cataloguelist specifies a list of catalogue names, with '+' as a separator.

Examples: tcp/fs.x.org:7100, tcp/18.30.0.212:7101/all.

One of the following forms can be used to name a font server that accepts DECnet connections:

    decnet/nodename::font$objname
    decnet/nodename::font$objname/cataloguelist

The nodename specifies the name (or decimal numeric address) of the machine on which the font server is running. The objname is a normal, case-insensitive DECnet object name. The cataloguelist specifies a list of catalogue names, with '+' as a separator.

Examples: DECnet/SRVNOD::FONT$DEFAULT, decnet/44.70::font$special/symbols.

X(7), The X Font Service Protocol,

Font server implementation overview

Multiple catalogues should be supported.

Dave Lemke, Network Computing Devices, Inc

Keith Packard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology