Change fontconfig cache folder location on Windows

[Patrick Storz]

The cache folder of fontconfig is by default placed in the users temp folder on Windows. The font cache is needed when importing e.g. PDF files.

The problem is that the temp folder is often emptied out (manually or automatically by file system cleaning software), therefore the font cache needs to be rebuild afterwards.

Since rebuilding the font cache takes a very long time it always takes ages until the import dialog is shown in this case. Additionally until the import dialog is shown, there is no visual clue that Inkscape is actually starting.

I therefore suggest to change the fontconfig cache folder to something more
reasonable, e.g. "%APPDATA%\inkscape\fontconfig\cache".

As a personal workaround I currently set the cachedir in "\etc\fonts\fonts.conf" to something like "<cachedir>~/.fontconfig</cachedir>".

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Related:
- Bug #1021815 “PDF import needs ages (building font cache)”
  <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1021815>

[Patrick Storz (ede123)]

"LOCAL_APPDATA_FONTCONFIG_CACHE" seems like a good location for the cachedir, too (it was mentioned here: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.fonts.fontconfig/4738).

I didn't work in my Inkscape 0.48.4 though (probably it uses an older fontconfig version)

[Patrick Storz (ede123)]

This is fixed now:
- In devlibs64 r19 fontconfig was updated to version 2.11.94 which uses the variable location name "LOCAL_APPDATA_FONTCONFIG_CACHE" by default.
- In devlibs r63 [1] I implemented a workaround (the older version of fontconfig does not support that variable yet) that is equivalent on Windows Vista and later and should work just fine for XP, too

[1] http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape-devlibs/trunk/revision/63

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Just a reminder not to forget to update the 5.1 branch.

[Patrick Storz (ede123)]

5.1 branch includes fontconfig 2.11.1 according to readme.txt.

This version is the first to use "LOCAL_APPDATA_FONTCONFIG_CACHE" as cachedir per default, i.e. no update is needed!

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Thanks for the precision!