libfontenc errors out during the autoconf/autogen steps if font-util 1.1 or later is not installed: $ ./autogen.sh autoreconf2.50: Entering directory `.' autoreconf2.50: configure.ac: not using Gettext autoreconf2.50: running: aclocal configure.ac:42: error: must install X.Org font-util 1.1 or later before running autoconf/autogen configure.ac:42: the top level autom4te: /usr/bin/m4 failed with exit status: 1 aclocal: error: echo failed with exit status: 1 autoreconf2.50: aclocal failed with exit status: 1 On the other hand font-util, i.e. mkfontscale, has a dependency on libfontenc (it links against it). This creates problems for distribution builds. In my particular case it was an OpenEmbedded/Yocto build but from my searches it looks like other distros are running into this too, e.g Debian: * https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=717843 * https://wiki.debian.org/CircularBuildDependencies The common solution appears to be a staged build process. It would be preferable if libfontenc build dependency on font-util could be removed/avoided.
If you've bundled font-util & mkfontscale together, that's a problem in your packaging - we provide them separately upstream: https://www.x.org/releases/individual/font/font-util-1.3.1.tar.bz2 https://www.x.org/releases/individual/app/mkfontscale-1.1.2.tar.bz2 font-util has no dependency on libfontenc, only on xorg-macros.
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