Re: [Freetype] Errors compiling apps re FT_SEEK_STREAM, others

[David Turner]

Hello John,

John LeMay wrote:
> This is a problem that has haunted me for ages. When compiling apps that 
> require freetype and pango, I get errors like:
>
> /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i486-suse-linux/3.2/../../../libpangoxft-1.0.so: 
> undefined reference to `FT_Seek_Stream'
> /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i486-suse-linux/3.2/../../../libpangoxft-1.0.so: 
> undefined reference to `FT_Get_Short'
> /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i486-suse-linux/3.2/../../../libpangoxft-1.0.so: 
> undefined reference to `FT_Forget_Frame'
> /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i486-suse-linux/3.2/../../../libpangoxft-1.0.so: 
> undefined reference to `FT_Access_Frame'
> /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i486-suse-linux/3.2/../../../libpangoxft-1.0.so: 
> undefined reference to `FT_Get_Long'
>
> I've found references to this being a version incompatibility between 
> pango and freetype. For reference, here is what I have installed (on my 
> SuSE 8.1 box):
>
> freetype-1.3.1-740
> freetype2-2.1.3-36
> freetype2-devel-2.1.3-36
> pango-1.0.5-0
> pango-devel-1.0.5-0
>
> Is there a "formal" resolution for this? I've seen references that 
> downgrading freetype2 to 2.0.9 helps, but I'd rather not move backwards. 
> I know this isn't a pango list, but would recompiling pango 1.0.5 
> against freetype2-2.1.3 (or I could probably upgrade to 2.1.4) make a 
> difference?
The problem comes from the fact that Pango uses internal FreeType 2
functions to read input files. And these have changed between releases
of the font engine (that's why they're internal after all :-)

The Pango sources take care of that with various autoconf-tricks, so
compiling a recent version of Pango with any version of FT2 should always
work. However, trying to use an "old" binary of Pango with a newer version
of FT2 will not work..

The obvious fix is to upgrade your Pango version.. Another one is to fix
either Pango or FreeType to solve the problem once for all, but it's not
really a big priority...

Patches are welcome :-)

Hope this helps,

- David Turner
- The FreeType Project  (www.freetype.org)