pdftosrc(1) General Commands Manual pdftosrc(1)
NAME
pdftosrc - extract source file or stream from PDF file
SYNOPSIS
pdftosrc PDF-file [stream-object-number]
DESCRIPTION
If only PDF-file is given as argument, pdftosrc extracts the embedded
source file from the first found stream object with /Type /SourceFile
within the PDF-file and writes it to a file with the name /SourceName as
defined in that PDF stream object (see application example below).
If both PDF-file and stream-object-number are given as arguments, and
stream-object-number is positive, pdftosrc extracts and uncompresses the
PDF stream of the object given by its stream-object-number from the PDF-
file and writes it to a file named PDF-file.stream-object-number with
the ending .pdf or .PDF stripped from the original PDF-file name.
A special case is related to XRef object streams that are part of the
PDF standard from PDF-1.5 onward: If stream-object-number equals -1,
then pdftosrc decompresses the XRef stream from the PDF file and writes
it in human-readable PDF cross-reference table format to a file named
PDF-file.xref (these XRef streams can not be extracted just by giving
their object number).
In any case an existing file with the output file name will be overwrit-
ten.
OPTIONS
None.
FILES
Just the executable pdftosrc.
ENVIRONMENT
None.
DIAGNOSTICS
At success the exit code of pdftosrc is 0, else 1.
All messages go to stderr. At program invocation, pdftosrc issues the
current version number of the program xpdf, on which pdftosrc is based:
pdftosrc version 3.01
When pdftosrc was successful with the output file writing, one of the
following messages will be issued:
Source file extracted to source-file-name
or
Stream object extracted to PDF-file.stream-object-number
or
Cross-reference table extracted to PDF-file.xref
When the object given by the stream-object-number does not contain a
stream, pdftosrc issues the following error message:
Not a Stream object
When the PDF-file can't be opened, the error message is:
Error: Couldn't open file 'PDF-file'.
When pdftosrc encounters an invalid PDF file, the error message (several
lines) is:
Error: May not be a PDF file (continuing anyway)
(more lines)
Invalid PDF file
There are also more error messages from pdftosrc for various kinds of
broken PDF files.
NOTES
An embedded source file will be written out unchanged, i. e. it will not
be uncompressed in this process.
Only the stream of the object will be written, i. e. not the dictionary
of that object.
Knowing which stream-object-number to query requires information about
the PDF file that has to be gained elsewhere, e. g. by looking into the
PDF file with an editor.
The stream extraction capabilities of pdftosrc (e. g. regarding under-
stood PDF versions and filter types) follow the capabilities of the un-
derlying xpdf program version.
Currently the generation number of the stream object is not supported.
The default value 0 (zero) is taken.
The wording stream-object-number has nothing to do with the `object
streams' introduced by the Adobe PDF Reference, 5th edition, version
1.6.
EXAMPLES
When using pdftex, a source file can be embedded into some PDF-file by
using pdftex primitives, as illustrated by the following example:
\immediate\pdfobj
stream attr {/Type /SourceFile /SourceName (myfile.zip)}
file{myfile.zip}
\pdfcatalog{/SourceObject \the\pdflastobj\space 0 R}
Then this zip file can be extracted from the PDF-file by calling
pdftosrc PDF-file.
BUGS
Not all embedded source files will be extracted, only the first found
one.
Email bug reports to pdftex@tug.org.
SEE ALSO
xpdf(1), pdfimages(1), pdftotext(1), pdftex(1),
AUTHORS
pdftosrc written by Han The Thanh, using xpdf functionality from Derek
Noonburg.
Man page written by Hartmut Henkel.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1996-2006 Han The Thanh, <thanh@pdftex.org>
This file is part of pdfTeX.
pdfTeX 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 2 of the License, or (at your op-
tion) any later version.
pdfTeX 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
for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with pdfTeX; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
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