Problem with fontforge in a OS X 10.12.6

[armoucar]

I'm facing a problem trying to get an existent project to work on my machine. The problem seems to be on my fontforge. When grunt-webfont does the call to fontforge, the problem happens. I tried to reinstall fontforge in so many ways but still can get the task working. My coworker installed in his Ubuntu and it worked fine.

I tried to execute manually the failing command, and what I get is fontforge stuck in a process. Like this:

$ fontforge -script "/Users/me/dev/bb/workspace/gaw-plta-components/gaw-icons/node_modules/grunt-webfont/tasks/engines/fontforge/generate.py"
Copyright (c) 2000-2014 by George Williams. See AUTHORS for Contributors.
 License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
 with many parts BSD <http://fontforge.org/license.html>. Please read LICENSE.
 Based on sources from 22:36 UTC  1-Aug-2017-D.
 Based on source from git with hash: 

grunt-webfont version: 1.7.1

$ fontforge --version
Copyright (c) 2000-2014 by George Williams. See AUTHORS for Contributors.
 License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
 with many parts BSD <http://fontforge.org/license.html>. Please read LICENSE.
 Based on sources from 22:36 UTC  1-Aug-2017-D.
 Based on source from git with hash: 
fontforge 22:36 UTC  1-Aug-2017
libfontforge 20170801

Task executing in --verbose mode

Running "webfont:generate" (webfont) task
Verifying property webfont.generate exists in config...OK
Files: src/icons/user.svg -> src/fonts
Options: font="custom", hashes=false, template="tasks/misc/webfont/bem.scss", templateOptions={"baseClass":"ci","classPrefix":"ci--","mixinPrefix":"ci--"}, stylesheet="scss", relativeFontPath="../fonts", htmlDemoTemplate="./tasks/misc/webfont/demo.html", htmlDemoFilename="custom", destHtml="./docs/app/modules/icons/views"
Verifying property webfont.generate.src exists in config...OK
New hash: ba41fedf1554dc4b108fc2ab7a0ad97b - previous hash: b92824b8630879877c042c2786dec721
Copyright (c) 2000-2014 by George Williams. See AUTHORS for Contributors.
 License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
 with many parts BSD <http://fontforge.org/license.html>. Please read LICENSE.
 Based on sources from 22:36 UTC  1-Aug-2017-D.
 Based on source from git with hash: 

fontforge process has unexpectedly closed.
1. Try to run grunt in verbose mode to see fontforge output: grunt --verbose webfont.
2. If stderr maxBuffer exceeded try to increase execMaxBuffer, see https://github.com/sapegin/grunt-webfont#execMaxBuffer. 
Warning: Command failed: fontforge -script "/Users/me/dev/bb/workspace/gaw-plta-components/gaw-icons/node_modules/grunt-webfont/tasks/engines/fontforge/generate.py"
Copyright (c) 2000-2014 by George Williams. See AUTHORS for Contributors.
 License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
 with many parts BSD <http://fontforge.org/license.html>. Please read LICENSE.
 Based on sources from 22:36 UTC  1-Aug-2017-D.
 Based on source from git with hash: 
 Use --force to continue.

Aborted due to warnings.


Execution Time (2017-08-01 22:44:03 UTC)
loading tasks          71ms  ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 33%
loading grunt-webfont  71ms  ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 33%
webfont:generate       73ms  ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 34%
Total 216ms

[qkdreyer]

Fwiw, my previous fontforge installation was correctly working under macOS Sierra 10.12.6, and since last update it has also been broken.

I've rollbacked to a previous working version until this get patched.

[sparrox]

Same problem for me with grunt-webfont 1.6.0

Warning: Command failed: /bin/sh -c fontforge -script "/Users/wsbook/projects/eva/www/static/node_modules/grunt-webfont/tasks/engines/fontforge/generate.py" Copyright (c) 2000-2014 by George Williams. See AUTHORS for Contributors. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> with many parts BSD <http://fontforge.org/license.html>. Please read LICENSE.

[marcelfrenz]

Same problem for me with both grunt-webfont 1.6.0 and 1.7.1.

I upgraded the fontforge version (installed with brew):

Copyright (c) 2000-2014 by George Williams. See AUTHORS for Contributors.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
with many parts BSD http://fontforge.org/license.html. Please read LICENSE.
Based on sources from 09:48 UTC 9-Aug-2017-D.
Based on source from git with hash:
fontforge 09:48 UTC 9-Aug-2017
libfontforge 20170809

Grunt-Task Problem:

Warning: Command failed: fontforge -script ".../node_modules/grunt-webfont/tasks/engines/fontforge/generate.py"

...

in my case it seems that fontforge.font() in generate.py leads to an "Segmentation fault: 11"

[greenchapter]

I have the same problem, have anybody a solution for that problem?

[p2media]

We have the same issue after updating fontforge and libjpeg.
We solved this issue temporarily by manually changing the symlinks of fontforge and libjpeg to an older installed version.

[greenchapter]

The Problem is I have no old versions and I can't install an old brew bottle 🙄

[marcelfrenz]

Hey @greenchapter,

try to install an old version by picking an older commit and install formula by url (for details: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3987683/homebrew-install-specific-version-of-formula/4158763#4158763)

1. search for brew formula (http://brewformulas.org/), e.g. http://brewformulas.org/Fontforge
2. go to its git repo, e.g. https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/tree/master/Formula/fontforge.rb
3. pick older commit from history (https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/commits/master/Formula/fontforge.rb), e.g. https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/b0130244960e5c59756fb768a04d2a52ab0424d7/Formula/fontforge.rb
4. use raw url (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/b0130244960e5c59756fb768a04d2a52ab0424d7/Formula/fontforge.rb) to install
5. install via brew brew install {url}, e.g. brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/b0130244960e5c59756fb768a04d2a52ab0424d7/Formula/fontforge.rb
6. switch version brew switch {name} {version}, e.g. brew switch fontforge 20160404

maybe this will help you

[greenchapter]

This looks really good, thanks @marcelfrenz but the Problem is when I install the old version of fontforge you told me, I dont get an working version.

@p2media maybe you can tell me the full way how can I get an working version with brew bottles fontforge and jpeg. I need It 🙄

[qkdreyer]

@greenchapter
brew unlink fontforge
brew install --force-bottle https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/d1dfe7b506da542c8828ebd775a1f4f943e55ed7/Formula/fontforge.rb

Worked for me :)

[armoucar]

@qkdreyer that worked for me, thanks :)

[djmattski]

@qkdreyer That worked for me thanks! I had to follow this too (on Mac):
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32703296/dyld-library-not-loaded-usr-local-lib-libjpeg-8-dylib-homebrew-php

[greenchapter]

@qkdreyer this worked also for me, but I found an another good workaorund. I wrote a grunt reset command. This will reset all my npm modules on the current working branch. This means remove node_modules, clear cache and make a npm i. This works for me with an actual version of fontforge, but from time to time I have to run this command.