nixos/fontconfig: Allow setting default emoji font

In fontconfig’s 60-generic.conf, order of preference is estabilished for emoji
font family. Because fontconfig parses the config files in lexicographic order,
appending each <prefer> from <alias> element to the family’s prefer list
(to be prepended before the family) [1], our font family defaults stored
in 52-nixos-default-fonts.conf will take precedence. That is, of course, unless
the default „weak“ binding [2] is used. Emoji family binds strongly [3],
so we need to set binding to “same” for our <alias>es to be considered before
the ones from 60-generic.conf.

By default, we will set the option to all emoji fonts supported by fontconfig,
so that emoji works for user if they have at least one emoji font installed.
If they have multiple emoji fonts installed, we will use the fontconfig’s
order of preference [4].

[1]: https://github.com/bohoomil/fontconfig-ultimate/issues/51#issuecomment-64678322
[2]: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/fontconfig/fontconfig-user.html#AEN25
[3]: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig/commit/cc8442dec85e9d416436d19eeae1783f2d3008f0
[4]: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig/commit/c41c9220181b203d1cf1f6435f6e3735cb7c84ac

1 files changed, 18 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix b/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix
index fe0b88cf4c26..bcb86f11ead7 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ let
   defaultFontsConf =
     let genDefault = fonts: name:
       optionalString (fonts != []) ''
-        <alias>
+        <alias binding="same">
           <family>${name}</family>
           <prefer>
           ${concatStringsSep ""
@@ -139,6 +139,8 @@ let
 
       ${genDefault cfg.defaultFonts.monospace "monospace"}
 
+      ${genDefault cfg.defaultFonts.emoji "emoji"}
+
     </fontconfig>
   '';
 
@@ -344,6 +346,21 @@ in
               in case multiple languages must be supported.
             '';
           };
+
+          emoji = mkOption {
+            type = types.listOf types.str;
+            default = ["Noto Color Emoji"];
+            description = ''
+              System-wide default emoji font(s). Multiple fonts may be listed
+              in case a font does not support all emoji.
+
+              Note that fontconfig matches color emoji fonts preferentially,
+              so if you want to use a black and white font while having
+              a color font installed (eg. Noto Color Emoji installed alongside
+              Noto Emoji), fontconfig will still choose the color font even
+              when it is later in the list.
+            '';
+          };
         };
 
         hinting = {