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Use of pdftk

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  Use of pdftk db <dieterhansbritz@gmail.com> - 2019-06-24 14:31 +0000
    Re: Use of pdftk Joe Makowiec <makowiec@invalid.invalid> - 2019-06-24 15:46 +0000
    Re: Use of pdftk Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2019-06-24 17:00 +0100
    Re: Use of pdftk Bit Twister <BitTwister@mouse-potato.com> - 2019-06-24 11:36 -0500
    Re: Use of pdftk Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> - 2019-06-24 14:21 -0400
    Re: Use of pdftk Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2019-06-24 18:38 +0000
      Re: Use of pdftk au76666 <britz@chem.au.dk> - 2019-07-05 08:09 +0000
    Re: Use of pdftk Jack Strangio  <jackstrangio@yahoo.com> - 2019-07-02 02:42 +0000

#27435 — Use of pdftk

I have a large number of pdf files I want to chain together into
a single file. They come from Windows and the names all have spaces
in them. I can do it by typing in, e.g.

pdftk 'ab c.pdf' 'e fg.pdf' ... output z.pdf

This has worked for me with a smaller set, but for this one it's
so many that I want to do it using a script. I tried something like
this:

pdftk 'ab c.pdf' \
'e fg.pdf' \
...
output z.pdf

(the names afre all long, hence the \),
as a script. Chmod it and try to run it, and it says it can't find
those files. What is the difference, and how can I do it? I would
use ls to get a list and emacs the extra stuff into it. But how
can I get it to run?

-- 
Dieter Britz

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#27436

On 24 Jun 2019 in comp.os.linux.misc, db wrote:

> I have a large number of pdf files I want to chain together into
> a single file. They come from Windows and the names all have spaces
> in them. I can do it by typing in, e.g.
> 
> pdftk 'ab c.pdf' 'e fg.pdf' ... output z.pdf
> 
> This has worked for me with a smaller set, but for this one it's
> so many that I want to do it using a script. I tried something like
> this:
> 
> pdftk 'ab c.pdf' \
> 'e fg.pdf' \
> ...
> output z.pdf
> 
> (the names afre all long, hence the \),
> as a script. Chmod it and try to run it, and it says it can't find
> those files. What is the difference, and how can I do it? I would
> use ls to get a list and emacs the extra stuff into it. But how
> can I get it to run?

xargs? I'm spitballing this, but maybe something like:

find /path/to/dir/ -name '*.pdf' | xargs -0 /path/to/pdftk output z.dpf

The -ZERO switch allows you to use files with spaces and other odd 
characters in filenames. "man xargs" for more information.

Note - didn't try this. It shouldn't be destructive, but you might want 
to run it on a copy of your files.

-- 
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.org/
Email: http://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/

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#27437

db <dieterhansbritz@gmail.com> writes:

> I have a large number of pdf files I want to chain together into
> a single file. They come from Windows and the names all have spaces
> in them. I can do it by typing in, e.g.
>
> pdftk 'ab c.pdf' 'e fg.pdf' ... output z.pdf
>
> This has worked for me with a smaller set, but for this one it's
> so many that I want to do it using a script. I tried something like
> this:
>
> pdftk 'ab c.pdf' \
> 'e fg.pdf' \
> ...
> output z.pdf
>
> (the names afre all long, hence the \),
> as a script. Chmod it and try to run it, and it says it can't find
> those files. What is the difference, and how can I do it? I would
> use ls to get a list and emacs the extra stuff into it. But how
> can I get it to run?

It’s not possible to debug a script without being able to see it. The
exact error message is also likely to be necessary. Seeing “something
like” it isn’t enough.

-- 
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

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#27438

On Mon, 24 Jun 2019 14:31:36 -0000 (UTC), db wrote:
> I have a large number of pdf files I want to chain together into
> a single file. They come from Windows and the names all have spaces
> in them. I can do it by typing in, e.g.
>
> pdftk 'ab c.pdf' 'e fg.pdf' ... output z.pdf
>
> This has worked for me with a smaller set, but for this one it's
> so many that I want to do it using a script. I tried something like
> this:
>
> pdftk 'ab c.pdf' \
> 'e fg.pdf' \
> ...
> output z.pdf
>
> (the names afre all long, hence the \),
> as a script. Chmod it and try to run it, and it says it can't find
> those files. What is the difference, and how can I do it? I would
> use ls to get a list and emacs the extra stuff into it. But how
> can I get it to run?

I can not find pdftk rpm for my Mageia Linux Release distribution.

I did install pdfsam rpm which has a gui front end for a few of the pdf
apps that do the work. I did find pdfunite which does not use/require
the "output" keyword.

Using ls -1Q | sort -V I got the file list double quoted, added pdfunite
and desired output filename, result, ignore leading whitespaces.
    pdfunite \
    "1 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "2 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "3 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "4 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "5 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "6 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "7 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "8 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "9 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "10 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "11 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "12 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    "13 pdfsam 2018TaxReturn.pdf" \
    /home/bittwister/a/z.pdf

and had no problems.

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#27441

On Mon, 24 Jun 2019 14:31:36 -0000 (UTC), db wrote:
>
> I have a large number of pdf files I want to chain together into
> a single file. They come from Windows and the names all have spaces
> in them. I can do it by typing in, e.g.
>
> pdftk 'ab c.pdf' 'e fg.pdf' ... output z.pdf
>
> This has worked for me with a smaller set, but for this one it's
> so many that I want to do it using a script. I tried something like
> this:
>
> pdftk 'ab c.pdf' \
> 'e fg.pdf' \
> ...
> output z.pdf
>
> (the names afre all long, hence the \),
> as a script. Chmod it and try to run it, and it says it can't find
> those files. What is the difference, and how can I do it? I would
> use ls to get a list and emacs the extra stuff into it. But how
> can I get it to run?

Something like

gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=output.pdf "*.pdf"

should work.
-- 
Andreas

My random thoughts and comments
https://news-commentaries.blogspot.com/

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#27442

db <dieterhansbritz@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a large number of pdf files I want to chain together into
> a single file. They come from Windows and the names all have spaces
> in them. I can do it by typing in, e.g.
> 
> pdftk 'ab c.pdf' 'e fg.pdf' ... output z.pdf
> 
> This has worked for me with a smaller set, but for this one it's
> so many that I want to do it using a script. I tried something like
> this:

Why use a script?  If they are the only PDF's in the current dir that 
you want to combine, then this should work (even with spaces):

pdftk *.pdf output z.pdf

If they are not the only pdf's in the current dir, then move them into 
their own temporary directory, and run the pdftk command from within 
that temporary directory.

Note that this will combine them in the order that they sort by looking 
at the filenames as a string of bytes.  If you want them reordered into 
a different order than what their names sort into, then you either have 
to manually enter each (tab key helps here) or you have to rename them 
so they are ordered the way you want first (i.e., prefix 0000- 0001- 
0002- 0003- etc. to each to put it in its ordering, you can also use 
the old BASIC programmer trick of number by 10's to leave space to put 
something in the middle).

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#27552

On Mon, 24 Jun 2019 18:38:56 +0000, Rich wrote:

> db <dieterhansbritz@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I have a large number of pdf files I want to chain together into a
>> single file. They come from Windows and the names all have spaces in
>> them. I can do it by typing in, e.g.
>> 
>> pdftk 'ab c.pdf' 'e fg.pdf' ... output z.pdf
>> 
>> This has worked for me with a smaller set, but for this one it's so
>> many that I want to do it using a script. I tried something like this:
> 
> Why use a script?  If they are the only PDF's in the current dir that
> you want to combine, then this should work (even with spaces):
> 
> pdftk *.pdf output z.pdf
[...]

That was it, thanks! Why didn't I think of that? You can't
answer that.

-- 
Dieter Britz

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#27521

db <dieterhansbritz@gmail.com> writes:
> I have a large number of pdf files I want to chain together into
> a single file. They come from Windows and the names all have spaces
> in them. 
> 
> This has worked for me with a smaller set, but for this one it's
> so many that I want to do it using a script. I tried something like
> this:

Get your script to disregard spaces (etc) when reading in argument
lines by inserting this line near the top of it

IFS="$(printf '\n\t')"

That will then consider a tab or a newline ONLY as separators. 

Then you can read in a whole list of filenames without the spaces killing
your input arguments.

Regards,

Jack

-- 
"I'm a home-loving girl. And that's where I wish I was."
"At home ..."
"Loving."
               - Laugh-In, 1968

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