NAME

App::PDFUtils - Command-line utilities related to PDF files

VERSION

This document describes version 0.010 of App::PDFUtils (from Perl distribution App-PDFUtils), released on 2022-09-08.

SYNOPSIS

This distribution provides tha following command-line utilities related to PDF files:

• add-pdf-password

• compress-pdf

• grep-from-pdf

• pdf-has-password

• pdfgrep

• pdfnopass

• remove-pdf-password

FUNCTIONS

add_pdf_password

Usage:

 add_pdf_password(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]

Password-protect PDF files.

This program is a wrapper for qpdf to password-protect PDF files (in-place). This is the counterpart for remove-pdf-password.

This function is not exported.

Arguments ('*' denotes required arguments):

• backup => bool (default: 1)

  Whether to backup the original file to ORIG~.

• files* => array[filename]

• password* => str

Returns an enveloped result (an array).

First element ($status_code) is an integer containing HTTP-like status code (200 means OK, 4xx caller error, 5xx function error). Second element ($reason) is a string containing error message, or something like "OK" if status is 200. Third element ($payload) is the actual result, but usually not present when enveloped result is an error response ($status_code is not 2xx). Fourth element (%result_meta) is called result metadata and is optional, a hash that contains extra information, much like how HTTP response headers provide additional metadata.

Return value: (any)

compress_pdf

Usage:

 compress_pdf(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]

Make PDF smaller.

This utility is a wrapper for gs (GhostScript) and is equivalent to the following command:

 % gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=output.pdf input.pdf

with support for multiple files and output files automatically named INPUT.compressed.pdf.

This function is not exported.

Arguments ('*' denotes required arguments):

• files* => array[filename]

• overwrite => bool

• setting => str (default: "ebook")

Returns an enveloped result (an array).

First element ($status_code) is an integer containing HTTP-like status code (200 means OK, 4xx caller error, 5xx function error). Second element ($reason) is a string containing error message, or something like "OK" if status is 200. Third element ($payload) is the actual result, but usually not present when enveloped result is an error response ($status_code is not 2xx). Fourth element (%result_meta) is called result metadata and is optional, a hash that contains extra information, much like how HTTP response headers provide additional metadata.

Return value: (any)

convert_pdf_to_text

Usage:

 convert_pdf_to_text(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]

Convert PDF file to text.

This utility uses one of the following backends:

• pdftotext

This function is not exported.

Arguments ('*' denotes required arguments):

• file* => filename

  Input file.

• fmt => bool

  Run Unix fmt over the txt output.

• output => filename

  Output path.

• overwrite => bool

• pages => uint_range

  Only convert a range of pages.

• return_output_file => bool

  Return the path of output file instead.

  This is useful when you do not specify an output file but do not want to show the converted document to stdout, but instead want to get the path to a temporary output file.

Returns an enveloped result (an array).

First element ($status_code) is an integer containing HTTP-like status code (200 means OK, 4xx caller error, 5xx function error). Second element ($reason) is a string containing error message, or something like "OK" if status is 200. Third element ($payload) is the actual result, but usually not present when enveloped result is an error response ($status_code is not 2xx). Fourth element (%result_meta) is called result metadata and is optional, a hash that contains extra information, much like how HTTP response headers provide additional metadata.

Return value: (any)

pdf_has_password

Usage:

 pdf_has_password(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]

Check if PDF file has password.

This function is not exported.

Arguments ('*' denotes required arguments):

• file* => filename

  Input file.

• quiet => bool

Returns an enveloped result (an array).

First element ($status_code) is an integer containing HTTP-like status code (200 means OK, 4xx caller error, 5xx function error). Second element ($reason) is a string containing error message, or something like "OK" if status is 200. Third element ($payload) is the actual result, but usually not present when enveloped result is an error response ($status_code is not 2xx). Fourth element (%result_meta) is called result metadata and is optional, a hash that contains extra information, much like how HTTP response headers provide additional metadata.

Return value: (any)

remove_pdf_password

Usage:

 remove_pdf_password(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]

Remove password from PDF files.

This program is a wrapper for qpdf to remove passwords from PDF files (in-place).

The motivation for this program is the increasing occurence of financial institutions sending financial statements or documents in the format of password-protected PDF file. This is annoying when we want to archive the file or use it in an organization because we have to remember different passwords for different financial institutions and re-enter the password everytime we want to use the file. (The banks could've sent the PDF in a password-protected .zip, or use PGP-encrypted email, but I digress.)

You can provide the passwords to be tried in a configuration file, ~/remove-pdf-password.conf, e.g.:

 passwords = pass1
 passwords = pass2
 passwords = pass3

or:

 passwords = ["pass1", "pass2", "pass3"]

This function is not exported.

Arguments ('*' denotes required arguments):

• backup => bool (default: 1)

  Whether to backup the original file to ORIG~.

• files* => array[filename]

• passwords => array[str]

Returns an enveloped result (an array).

First element ($status_code) is an integer containing HTTP-like status code (200 means OK, 4xx caller error, 5xx function error). Second element ($reason) is a string containing error message, or something like "OK" if status is 200. Third element ($payload) is the actual result, but usually not present when enveloped result is an error response ($status_code is not 2xx). Fourth element (%result_meta) is called result metadata and is optional, a hash that contains extra information, much like how HTTP response headers provide additional metadata.

Return value: (any)

HOMEPAGE

Please visit the project's homepage at https://metacpan.org/release/App-PDFUtils.

SOURCE

Source repository is at https://github.com/perlancar/perl-App-PDFUtils.

SEE ALSO

diff-pdf-text from App::DiffPDFText.

AUTHOR

perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>

CONTRIBUTING

To contribute, you can send patches by email/via RT, or send pull requests on GitHub.

Most of the time, you don't need to build the distribution yourself. You can simply modify the code, then test via:

 % prove -l

If you want to build the distribution (e.g. to try to install it locally on your system), you can install Dist::Zilla, Dist::Zilla::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, Pod::Weaver::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, and sometimes one or two other Dist::Zilla- and/or Pod::Weaver plugins. Any additional steps required beyond that are considered a bug and can be reported to me.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2022, 2021, 2020, 2017 by perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=App-PDFUtils

When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.

cpanm App::PDFUtils

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install App::PDFUtils