On Monday, 19 January 2026 21:01:02 GMT Bruno Haible via GNU roff typesetting system discussion wrote: > On Manjaro 23, the build fails: > > BuildFoundries: warning: line 85: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-AB' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 86: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-ABI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 87: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-AI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 88: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-AR' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 89: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-BMB' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 90: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-BMBI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 91: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-BMI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 92: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-BMR' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 93: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-CB' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 94: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-CBI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 95: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-CI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 96: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-CR' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 97: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-HB' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 98: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-HBI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 99: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-HI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 100: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-HNB' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 101: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-HNBI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 102: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-HNI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 103: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-HNR' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 104: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-HR' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 105: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-NB' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 106: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-NBI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 107: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-NI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 108: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-NR' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 109: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-PB' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 110: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-PBI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 111: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-PI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 112: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-PR' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 113: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-S' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 114: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-TB' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 115: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-TBI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 116: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-TI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 117: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-TR' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 118: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-ZCMI' > BuildFoundries: warning: line 119: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-ZD' > make: *** [Makefile:19938: font/devpdf/download] Error 2 > > Find attached the log files.
First, a little introduction on how gropdf interacts with fonts. There are 3 different service levels:- A) Full service All 35 URW fonts are available plus their appropriate afm files. This means all 35 postscript fonts are available, in both grops flavour with traditional 256 glyphs defined (default) and extended glyph coverage (including cyrillic) as the "U" foundry. B) Intermediate service All 35 fonts are found but without their accompanying afm files. Only the traditional 256 glyphs will be available, no "U" foundry. C) Basic service No fonts found at all. Only the base 14 fonts are available for gropdf to use. The "-e" flag (to embed the fonts in the pdf) will trigger an error. Of course the best results are obtained when the URW fonts and their accompanying afm files are available during the build, and there is a configure parameter to let the build know where the files are stored. The intermediate service tends to occur when only ghostscript is installed with local copies of the fonts (debian is cleverer by populating /usr/share/ ghostscript/X.Y.Z/Resource/Font with links to the actual URW fonts in /usr/ share/fonts/type1/urw-base35 - which includes the afm files)). The program BuildFoundries understands these 3 service levels and outputs a warning when it discovers issues which detract from providing a full service. On Manjaro 23 the messages like:- BuildFoundries: notice: copied grops font AB [..] BuildFoundries: warning: line 85: cannot locate AFM file for font 'U-AB' Indicate gropdf would be operating in intermediate mode because the afm files needed to build the "U" foundry are not found. For Alpine linux the config.log identifies that only the basic service level will be available and the messages in the make.log are as expected:- BuildFoundries: notice: copied grops font HR BuildFoundries: warning: line 53: groff font 'NB' will not be available for PDF output; unable to locate Which indicates that font HR will be available (one of the base-14 fonts) but NB is not. A change in this release is that warnings from BuildFoundries now abort the build, which essentially means that you must have all the URW fonts (and their afm files) available in order to have a successful build. Cheers Deri
