Re: Short installation guide for Arch Linux users.

Hi Branden,

Thanks for taking a look at it.

On 2026-02-10 G. Branden Robinson wrote:

> Yes.  "INSTALL" is a generic file that gnulib provides as an overview of
> the GNU build system.  "INSTALL.extra" is the groff-specific supplement,
> and it documents the matter of URW fonts.

> https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/INSTALL.extra?h=1.24.0.rc3#n142
>
>> I think that maybe INSTALL.REPO file might be pertinent?
>
> That file is aimed at people seeking to build from a Git checkout/
> working copy (which I observe is the procedure you document below).  It
> incorporates "INSTALL.extra" by reference.
>
> https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/INSTALL.REPO?h=1.24.0.rc3#n18
>
>> Or perhaps the file MORE.STUFF?
>
> That's not a good place, because it deals with stuff that (roughly)
> builds on top of groff, rather than stuff that groff itself builds upon.

All right, so it seems there isn't a suitable place for it as of now. But
maybe there ought to be a file for something like this, not only for Arch
but for whatever quirks there might be with other distros as well.

> I _was_ going to say that this should no longer be true as of
> 1.24.0.rc3, because there was a bug (reported by Alexis H.) that has
> since been fixed...
>
> _but_, this _exact_ directory name is not in our Autoconf macro
> `GROFF_URW_FONTS_CHECK`.  Is that really the directory into which Arch
> installs these fonts?
>
> Here's the search path:
>
> https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/m4/groff.m4?h=1.24.0.rc3#n340
>
> Please double-check this.  I'm happy to add yet another directory to the
> search path (and, as noted in the foregoing file, update "Foundry.in" as
> well), but I want to be sure.

$ pacman -Ql gsfonts-type1

  gsfonts-type1 /usr/
  gsfonts-type1 /usr/share/
  gsfonts-type1 /usr/share/fonts/
  gsfonts-type1 /usr/share/fonts/Type1/
  gsfonts-type1 /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010013l.afm
  gsfonts-type1 /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010013l.pfb
  [...]


Regards,
Morten