[Fontconfig] Font preferences and aliases

[Dan Nicholson]

Hi,

I realize that there are many older mailing list threads about using
the <alias> and <prefer> tags with fontconfig, but I was hoping
someone could straighten out a couple things that are confusing me.

Assume I've installed some new font "MyFont Mono" and I want to now
make it the preferred font for any generic usage of monospace.
Seemingly, adding this entry to ~/.fonts.conf would achieve that:

<alias>
	<family>monospace</family>
	<prefer>
		<family>MyFont Mono</family>
	</prefer>
</alias>

My question is, how does this affect the <alias> and <prefer> lists in
fonts.conf?  Specifically, these lists in /etc/fonts.conf:

        <alias>
                <family>Bitstream Vera Sans Mono</family>
                <family>Courier</family>
                <family>Courier New</family>
                <family>Andale Mono</family>
                <family>Luxi Mono</family>
                <family>Cumberland AMT</family>
                <family>Nimbus Mono L</family>
                <family>NSimSun</family>
                <family>FreeMono</family>
                <default><family>monospace</family></default>
        </alias>

        <alias>
                <family>monospace</family>
                <prefer>
                        <family>Bitstream Vera Sans Mono</family>
                        <family>Andale Mono</family>
                        <family>Courier New</family>
                        <family>Cumberland AMT</family>
                        <family>Luxi Mono</family>
                        <family>Nimbus Mono L</family>
                        <family>Courier</family>
                        <family>Miriam Mono</family>
                        <family>Kochi Gothic</family>
                        <family>AR PL KaitiM GB</family>
                        <family>Baekmuk Dotum</family>
                        <family>FreeMono</family>
                </prefer>
        </alias>

What effect does its inclusion or exclusion from the two above lists
influence font selection?  Since it is not listed in the first list
above mean that "MyFont Mono" is not an alias for the monospace
family?  Since I've added a new <prefer> list, does this mean that
I've invalidated the second list above?

In short, what is the appropriate way to add an arbitrary new font to
one of the generic family names?

Thanks in advance.

--
Dan Nicholson