fc-cache(1) fc-cache(1)
NAME
fc-cache - build font information cache files
SYNOPSIS
fc-cache [ -EfrsvVh ] [ --error-on-no-fonts ] [ --force ] [
--really-force ] [ [ -y dir ] [ --sysroot dir ] ] [ --system-only
] [ --verbose ] [ --version ] [ --help ] [ dir... ]
DESCRIPTION
fc-cache scans the font directories on the system and builds font
information cache files for applications using fontconfig for their
font handling.
If directory arguments are not given, fc-cache uses each directory in
the current font configuration. Each directory is scanned for font
files readable by FreeType. A cache is created which contains
properties of each font and the associated filename. This cache is
used to speed up application startup when using the fontconfig library.
Note that fc-cache must be executed once per architecture to generate
font information customized for that architecture.
OPTIONS
This program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long
options starting with two dashes (`-'). A summary of options is
included below.
-E Raise an error if there are no fonts in dir or directories in
the configuration if not given.
-f Force re-generation of apparently up-to-date cache files,
overriding the timestamp checking.
-r Erase all existing cache files and rescan.
-s Only scan system-wide directories, omitting the places located
in the user's home directory.
-v Display status information while busy.
-y Prepend dir to all paths for scanning.
-h Show summary of options.
-V Show version of the program and exit.
dir Directory to scan for fonts.
RETURN CODES
fc-cache returns zero if the caches successfully generated. otherwise
non-zero.
FILES
%cachedir%/*-%arch%.cache-%version%
These files are generated by fc-cache and contain maps from file
names to font properties. They are read by the fontconfig
library at application startup to locate appropriate fonts.
SEE ALSO
fc-cat(1) fc-list(1) fc-match(1) fc-pattern(1) fc-query(1) fc-scan(1)
The fontconfig user's guide
<URL:https://fontconfig.pages.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig-
user.html>
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Keith Packard <keithp@keithp.com> and
Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org>.
August 13, 2008 fc-cache(1)
fontconfig 2.17.1 - Generated Thu Apr 9 13:36:04 CDT 2026