Utility to perform commands on PDF files
Project description
PDFCMD - Utility to Perform Commands on PDF Files
This is a Linux command line utility to perform commands on PDF files. It uses the PyPDF2 library. The following commands are presently implemented, each as an independent plugin.
usage: pdfcmd [-h] {info,cat,pages} ...
Utility to perform commands on PDF files.
positional arguments:
{info,cat,pages} Available commands:
info Show PDF document information.
cat Concaternate selected pages of one or more PDF files into
a single file.
pages Output list of page labels/numbers, or total number of
pages.
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
info
command
usage: pdfcmd info [-h] file
Show PDF document information.
positional arguments:
file PDF file
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
cat
command
usage: pdfcmd cat [-h] [-o OUTFILE] [-H] ...
Concaternate selected pages of one or more PDF files into a single file.
positional arguments:
fileranges Sequence of alternating file names and page ranges
(see -H)
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-o OUTFILE, --outfile OUTFILE
output file, default = stdout
-H, --helppage print help page describing page range/slice syntax
How to specify files and page ranges is described by typing pdfcmd cat -H
, which outputs the following:
Concaternate selected pages of one or more PDF files into a single file.
Arguments are specified as a sequence of alternating file names and page
ranges:
file1 pagerange1 file2 pagerange2 ..
Page ranges refer to the previously specified file and are specified in
Python "slice" notation, assuming each page is like an element in a
sequence, starting at 0.
For example, concatenate all of head.pdf, all but page seven of
content.pdf, and the last page of tail.pdf, producing output.pdf:
pdfcmd cat -o output.pdf head.pdf content.pdf :6 7: tail.pdf -1
A file not followed by a page range means all pages of that file, for
example:
pdfcmd cat chapter*.pdf >book.pdf
You can also assign a single upper case "handle" to a file at first use
and then use that handle later as shorthand. For example, output the
first page from document1.pdf, the first page of document2.pdf, then
the remaining pages from document1.pdf and document2.pdf:
pdfcmd cat -o output.pdf A=document1.pdf 0 B=document2.pdf 0 A 1: B 1:
Remember, page indices start with zero.
Page range expression examples:
: all pages. -1 last page.
22 just the 23rd page. :-1 all but the last page.
0:3 the first three pages. -2 second-to-last page.
:3 the first three pages. -2: last two pages.
5: from the sixth page onward. -3:-1 third & second to last.
The third, "stride" or "step" number is also recognized.
::2 0 2 4 ... to the end. 3:0:-1 3 2 1 but not 0.
1:10:2 1 3 5 7 9 2::-1 2 1 0.
::-1 all pages in reverse order.
pages
command
usage: pdfcmd pages [-h] [-c] file
Output list of page labels/numbers, or total number of pages.
positional arguments:
file PDF file
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-c, --count just print the total count of pages
The latest documentation and code is available at https://github.com/bulletmark/pdfcmd.
INSTALLATION
Arch Linux users can install pdfcmd from the
AUR.
Python 3.5 or later is required. Note pdfcmd is on
PyPI so just ensure that
python3-pip
and python3-wheel
are installed then type the following
to install (or upgrade):
$ sudo pip3 install -U pdfcmd
Alternatively, do the following to install from the source repository.
Note that the python-pypdf2
package is required.
$ git clone http://github.com/bulletmark/pdfcmd
$ cd pdfcmd
$ sudo pip3 install -U .
UPGRADE
$ cd pdfcmd # Source dir, as above
$ git pull
$ sudo pip3 install -U .
REMOVAL
$ sudo pip3 uninstall pdfcmd
LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2021 Mark Blakeney. This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ for more details.
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