RFR: JDK-8304054: Linux: NullPointerException from FontConfiguration.getVersion in case no fonts are installed

[Matthias Baesken]

On Fri, 7 Apr 2023 02:19:29 GMT, Phil Race <prr at openjdk.org> wrote:

>>> @prrace Do you know any news about possibility to bundle some free/open fonts like https://dejavu-fonts.github.io/License.html?
>> 
>> Hi Sergey, this might be a good idea, but as long as it is not decided, should we better track the  'bundled fonts' proposal separately for example in another JBS issue ?
>
>> @prrace Do you know any news about possibility to bundle some free/open fonts like https://dejavu-fonts.github.io/License.html?
> 
> I think it quite unlikely it will get traction.
> Regardless of licensing 3rd party *anything* in JDK is a maintenance task.

> > @prrace Do you know any news about possibility to bundle some free/open fonts like https://dejavu-fonts.github.io/License.html?
> 
> I think it quite unlikely it will get traction. Regardless of licensing 3rd party _anything_ in JDK is a maintenance task.

Thanks for clarifying , so I guess we shouldn't wait for some bundled  default fonts to be included in OpenJDK, otherwise we would maybe wait forever .

> I interpret InternalError as meaning something wrong with the JDK itself, not something in the environment causing a problem, so RTE would be fine here.
> 
> But this NPE is coming from a field (head) that is initialised by code that reads a binary font configuration file. Are you quite sure you've diagnosed the root of the problem ? Or that this message is really in the right place ?
> 
> What does -Dsun.java2d.debugfonts=true reveal ?

Hi Phil, when looking  at the java.desktop  codebase ,  both  RuntimeException and InternalError are used quite a lot for  similar cases.

We had this error on a Linux machine with no fonts,  once some fonts were added the error went away.
I'll try to re-run with the property you suggested.

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PR Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/13045#issuecomment-1502882366
PR Review Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/13045#discussion_r1162451594