xorg-x11 supplies the /etc/init.d/xfs script. This script contains the following: # While we at it, update fontconfig's cache as well if [ -x /usr/bin/fc-cache -a "${changed}" = "yes" ] then ebegin "Updating FC cache" HOME="/root" /usr/bin/fc-cache -f eend 0 fi It appears that the -f flag rebuilds all the font caches even if they are up to date. When there are a lot of fonts installed, this is a big waste of time, and significantly slows down boot-up time (the code always executes on boot-up). On my system, fc-cache -f takes 2 minutes to execute, while fc-cache takes under a second, both in the typical scenario of no caches to update. Since fc-cache can apparently detect for itself when rebuilding a cache is necessary, why is the shell-script check there, when you can just omit the -f flag instead? I would rewrite the above code as: # While we at it, ensure fontconfig's cache is up to date if [ -x /usr/bin/fc-cache ] then ebegin "Updating FC cache" HOME="/root" /usr/bin/fc-cache eend 0 fi Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce:
You're clearly correct that the -f is a bad idea on a number of levels. But since we already have ${changed}, why waste the time of even running fc-cache if it's unnecessary?
I didn't know it was there, 'fc-cache -f' was bad for the fonts eclass (altough that will change). But I think there is indeed little point in having it.
Fixed in 6.8.2-r2 and 6.8.99.5. Thanks!
Closing.
