Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 113899
xclock -digital does not obey the -fn (font) switch
Last modified: 2007-04-18 13:01:39 EDT
Description of problem: With the -digital option, xclock does not obey the -fn (font) switch. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): XFree86-tools-4.3.0-2.90.43 (XFree86 was the closest thing in the bugzilla list.) How reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: 1. xclock -digital -fn 6x10 2. xclock -digital -fn 12x24 3. Actual results: The two commands display the identical font. Expected results: Each command should display the specified font. Additional info: xterm obeys the -fn switch just fine.
Not sure if this is a bug, or due to xclock now using Xft/fontconfig for it's font rendering. It's of a trivial enough nature however, that it should be reported instead to XFree86.org directly via their own bugzilla, located at: http://bugs.xfree86.org Once you've reported it there, please paste a URL here to the upstream bug report, and I will track it upstream.
Since I have the repo tree locally, I did a quick cvs rdiff of xclock, and found manpage updates which indicate that -fn is not valid when using -digital. Here is the snippet: +.B \-face \fIpattern\fP +This option specifies the font to use in digital mode when the +Xrender extension is used. So, when using -digital, you must use the -face option instead due to it using Render support.
Curious inconsistency in the switches. The RHL 9 man page does not describe -fn or -face. The "-h" usage message shows both. I tried -face with '6x10' and '12x24' as arguments, but it did not appear to have any effect. As I don't have ready access to documentation on how the -face switch is used, I tried a few things. Using 'courier-<n>' appears to work. It looks like the man pages and usage messages need to be brought in sync with the code. I'll make an attempt to report this to bugs.xfree86.org. On a related note, I can't seem to get the -hd option in analog to work. Do you have a reference to what options have replaced the old options for analog color settings? Thanks.
I searched XFree86's bugzilla and found #331 relating to xclock -digital's font options and #437 relating to the -analog hand color options. I posted an addition asking whether the man pages and usage message inconsistency should be reported as a separate bug. The bug reports did say the -norender option would restore old functionality, and it appears this does return the -fn and -hd options to their old behavior. I just added that option to my .Xclients, so now I'm happy for now. :-)
The manpages we ship are the manpages that XFree86.org supplies. Any inconsistancies and/or errors or ommisions are upstream deficiencies rather than something we've added, and should thus be reported and addressed upstream. We do occasionally make modifications to manpages and other documentation when the issue involved is rather non-trivial or drastic, or is a problem reported to us by a large number of users, of which a small doc update may resolve. We don't generally review the upstream manpages for correctness and verify the operation of every commandline switch and permutations of them for all included applications however, as that would incur a massive amount of QA resources dedicated to testing it all, and would not provide much bang for the buck. Generally speaking, we rely and expect upstream to document what they supply more or less accurately and reflecting the operation of the software. Hopefully they do. ;o) Setting bug to UPSTREAM state, for later review of upstream bug reports.