[GRASS-dev] [GRASS GIS] #2448: Fontconfig error with cairo on Windows

[Paul Kelly]

On Thu, 10 Sep 2015, GRASS GIS wrote:

> see https://grass.osgeo.org/grass70/manuals/g.mkfontcap.html
>
> there is a -s flag:
>
> -s  Write font configuration file to standard output instead of
> $GISBASE/etc
>
> a feasable way may be:
>
> - another flag e.g. to write fontcap file to %APPDATA%GRASS7 where already
> the addons are stored
> - all the modules which are working with fonts seems to search for the
> fontcap file in $GISBASE/etc; adding a second search path (e.g.
> %APPDATA%GRASS7) to these modules if the file is not available in
> $GISBASE/etc

Similar to this, I was just going to suggest why don't you set the 
GRASS_FONT_CAP environment variable to a path that *is* writable. Then 
g.mkfontcap, and all the modules that use the fontcap, will simply use 
that instead of the fontcap in $GISBASE/etc. This mechanism is explicitly 
designed for the situation where a user doesn't have write access to 
$GIBASE/etc and needs to override the system fontcap file.

However, I don't think this is a good solution if the installation is 
required to be available to other users on the same Windows machine as the 
writable path will likely only be available to that user, if I understand 
correctly.

Paul