According to mkfontdir's manual page, it is supposed to give priority to the binary font files (such as PCF) over the BDF sources. This is how life was under earlier XFree86. Currently, however, running mkfontdir in a directory, which contains both the source BDF fonts and the derived PCF binaries results in a fonts.dir, which is twice bigger, than it used to be -- because it lists each font twice. This is not only wasteful, and contrary to the behaviour documented in the (still current) manual page, but also breaks things, when only the PCF fonts (and the fonts.dir) end up installed -- the server looks for the BDF files (which are listed first) and rejects a client's request for the font.
I do not understand why this was assigned to me...
Bugzilla Upgrade Mass Bug Change NEEDSINFO state was removed in Bugzilla 3.x, reopening any bugs previously listed as NEEDSINFO. - benjsc fd.o Wrangler
commit b0860282c3229d088840fa0758d8473ea6d8813b Author: Juliusz Chroboczek <jch@pps.jussieu.fr> Date: Mon Apr 28 19:53:11 2008 +0200 Add bdf and pcf to font priority table. This mirrors the behaviour of the old mkfontdir, which prefers pcf to bdf fonts.
Use of freedesktop.org services, including Bugzilla, is subject to our Code of Conduct. How we collect and use information is described in our Privacy Policy.