pdflinkcheck 1.1.37

A purpose-built PDF link analysis and reporting tool with GUI and CLI.

pdflinkcheck

A purpose-built tool for comprehensive analysis of hyperlinks and link remnants within PDF documents, primarily using the PyMuPDF library. Use the CLI or the GUI.

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📥 Access and Installation

The recommended way to use pdflinkcheck is to either install the CLI with pipx or to download the appropriate latest binary for your system from Releases.

🚀 Recommended Access (Binary Files)

For the most user-typical experience, download the single-file binary matching your OS.

File Type	Primary Use Case	Recommended Launch Method
Executable (.exe, .elf, .pyz)	GUI (Double-Click)	Double-click the file (use the accompanying .bat file on Windows).
PYZ (Python Zip App)	CLI (Terminal)	Run using your system's python command: python pdflinkcheck-VERSION.pyz analyze ...

Installation via pipx

For an isolated environment where you can access pdflinkcheck from any terminal:

# Ensure you have pipx installed first (if not, run: pip install pipx)
pipx install pdflinkcheck

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💻 Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The tool can be run as simple cross-platform graphical interface (Tkinter).

Launching the GUI

There are three ways to launch the GUI interface:

1. Implicit Launch: Run the main command with no arguments, subcommands, or flags (pdflinkcheck).
2. Explicit Command: Use the dedicated GUI subcommand (pdflinkcheck gui).
3. Binary Double-Click:
   • Windows: Double-click the pdflinkcheck-VERSION-gui.bat file.
   • macOS/Linux: Double-click the downloaded .pyz or .elf file.

Planned GUI Updates

We are actively working on the following enhancements:

• Report Export: Functionality to export the full analysis report to a plain text file.
• License Visibility: A dedicated "License Info" button within the GUI to display the terms of the AGPLv3+ license.

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🚀 CLI Usage

The main command is pdflinkcheck analyze.

# Basic usage: Analyze a PDF and check for remnants (default behavior)
pdflinkcheck analyze "path/to/my/document.pdf"

Analyze Command Options

Option	Description	Default
<PDF_PATH>	Required. The path to the PDF file to analyze.	N/A
--check-remnants / --no-check-remnants	Toggle scanning the text layer for unlinked URLs/Emails.	--check-remnants
--max-links INTEGER	Set the maximum number of links/remnants to display in the detailed report sections. Use 0 to show all.	50
--help	Show command help and exit.	N/A

Example Run

pdflinkcheck analyze "TE Maxson WWTF O&M Manual.pdf" --max-links 10

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✨ Features

• Active Link Extraction: Identifies and categorizes all programmed links (External URIs, Internal GoTo/Destinations, Remote Jumps).
• Anchor Text Retrieval: Extracts the visible text corresponding to each link's bounding box.
• Remnant Detection: Scans the document's text layer for unlinked URIs and email addresses that should potentially be converted into active links.
• Structural TOC: Extracts the PDF's internal Table of Contents (bookmarks/outline).

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📜 License Implications (AGPLv3+)

pdflinkcheck is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 or later (AGPLv3+).

This license has significant implications for distribution and network use, particularly for organizations:

• Source Code Provision: If you distribute this tool (modified or unmodified) to anyone, you must provide the full source code under the same license.
• Network Interaction (Affero Clause): If you modify this tool and make the modified version available to users over a computer network (e.g., as a web service or backend), you must also offer the source code to those network users.

Before deploying or modifying this tool for organizational use, especially for internal web services or distribution, please ensure compliance with the AGPLv3+ terms.

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⚠️ Compatibility Notes

• Platform Compatibility: This tool relies on the PyMuPDF library. All testing has failed to run in a Termux (Android) environment due to underlying C/C++ library compilation issues with PyMuPDF. It is recommended for use on standard Linux, macOS, or Windows operating systems.
• Document Compatibility: While pdflinkcheck uses the robust PyMuPDF library, not all PDF files can be processed successfully. This tool is designed primarily for digitally generated (vector-based) PDFs. Processing may fail or yield incomplete results for:
  • Scanned PDFs (images of text) that lack an accessible text layer.
  • Encrypted or Password-Protected documents.
  • Malformed or non-standard PDF files.

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Run from Source (Developers)

git clone http://github.com/city-of-memphis-wastewater/pdflinkcheck.git
cd pdflinkcheck
uv sync
uv run python src/pdflinkcheck/cli.py --help