openjdk-6-jre-headless update 6b34-1.13.6-1ubuntu0.12.04.1 broke path to dejavu fonts

[Simon Déziel]

The security update 6b34-1.13.6-1ubuntu0.12.04.1 introduced a patch [1] that changed the paths used to access the DejaVu fonts. The problem is the new paths now point to a inexistent directory. The new fontconfig.properties used those paths like this one:

  filename.DejaVu_Sans=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf

Yet, the ttf-dejavu* packages install fonts under:

  /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu

So in one case, the "ttf-" prefix is missing.

This regression appears to be related to LP: #1362099.

More informations:

# lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS
Release: 12.04
# apt-cache policy openjdk-6-jre-headless ttf-dejavu-extra
openjdk-6-jre-headless:
  Installed: 6b34-1.13.6-1ubuntu0.12.04.1
  Candidate: 6b34-1.13.6-1ubuntu0.12.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 6b34-1.13.6-1ubuntu0.12.04.1 0
        500 http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     6b24-1.11.1-4ubuntu2 0
        500 http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
ttf-dejavu-extra:
  Installed: 2.33-2ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.33-2ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.33-2ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

1: https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~openjdk/openjdk/openjdk6/view/head:/patches/fontconfig-dejavu.diff

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Jamie Strandboge (jdstrand)]

Mathias-- can you comment on why this change was made? Should it be conditional on the Ubuntu release?

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Yes, this change was made because the path is different between Ubuntu releases unless the ttf-dejavu transitional package is installed. The openjdk-7 changelog makes it clear this is intended only to be applied in later releases:

  * Don't use the compatibility path names from the ttf-dejavu packages
      for recent releases. LP: #1362099.

It seems this fix was incomplete for openjdk-6.