[ale] X Font Server

[Michael Hirsch]

On Sun, 2002-09-01 at 08:18, David Corbin wrote:
> Now that I've got my laptop running X from my desktop, I need to get my 
> fonts fixed up.  Which machine  (X Server or X Client) is the one that 
> looks for and talks to the Font Server?

I didn't see any answer to this, so I'll give one.

The font server is a server and usually runs on the same machine as the
X server (though I'm sure there is some circumstance when this is not
optimal).  It appears to me that the X server brokers all font
conversations, so the client never knows where the font server is.  I
don't claim any real expertise, but it appears to me that the X server
can act as its own font server (especially in the old days of XFree
3.3.x) of can talk to an external x server as is usual (but not
mandatory, I believe) with XFree 4.x.x.  My belief is founded on the
line in XF86Config that sets the X font path to a unix domain socket.  I
bet it could be any kind of socket.

I don't know if that halped you any--you didn't say what problem you
were trying to solve.  My comments are based on educated guesses, I have
never read any documentation that says this is how it works.

--Michael


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