I'm trying to use the update_info command in order to add some bookmarks to an existing pdf's metadata using pdftk and powershell.
I first dump the metadata into a file as follows:
pdftk .\test.pdf dump_data > test.info
Then, I edit the test.info file by adding the bookmarks, I believe I am using the right syntax. I save the test.info file and attempt to write the metadata to a new pdf file using update_info:
pdftk test.pdf update_info test.info output out.pdf
Unfortunately, I get a warning as follows:
pdftk Warning: unexpected case 1 in LoadDataFile(); continuing
out.pdf is generated, but contains no bookmarks. Just to be sure it is not a syntax problem, I also ran it without editing the metadata file, by simply overwriting the same metadata. I still got the same warning.
Why is this warning occurring? Why are no bookmarks getting written to my resulting pdf?
using redirection in that fashion
pdftk .\test.pdf dump_data > test.info
will cause this known problem by building wrong file structure, so change to
pdftk .\test.pdf dump_data output test.info
In addition check your alterations are correctly balanced (and no unusual characters) then save the edited output file in the same encoding.
Note:- you may need to consider
Use dump_data_utf8 and update_info_utf8 in order to properly display characters in scripts other than Latin (e. g. oriental CJK)
I used pdftk --help >pdftk-help.txt to find the answer.
With credit to the previous answer, the following creates a text file of the information parameters: pdftk aaa.pdf dump_data output info.txt
Edit the info.txt file as needed.
The pdftk update_info option creates a new pdf file, leaving the original pdf untouched. Use: pdftk aaa.pdf update_info info.txt output bbb.pdf
I need to share information from a plist with someone who is not technically inclined. Is there a common free editor that one can use to view plist info in a similar way in which it is presented in Xcode? Or is there a way to print it out?
In other words I would like to view the plist without all the xml-like mark up and without the use of Xcode.
Command-line options for viewing Plist files:
For viewing only: Use plutil -p, which prints the content of a property-list in JSON-like format (the format is meant for human consumption only).
Example (append | open -tf to view output in a text editor):
plutil -p ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
Alternative: Use /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c print, which outputs in JavaScript-object-literal-like format:
Example:
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c print ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.airplay.plist
Caveat:
If the plist has properties containing binary data, PlistBuddy will include it in raw form (by contrast, non-binary properties in the same file are printed properly). If XML output is desired, add option -x.
Note that PlistBuddy:
can be used to extract properties selectively using :-separated, case-sensitive property paths; e.g., /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'print :favorites:ShowRemovable' ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
is also capable of modifying Plist files from the command line (including, with limitations, importing from previously exported-to XML files).
See /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -h for details.
The standalone "Property List Editor" is gone since Xcode 4, you can use Pref Setter which is free but last updated 4 years ago.
To save the contents without the xml tags see this example:
NSDictionary *dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:[#"~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist" stringByExpandingTildeInPath]];
[[dict description] writeToURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:[#"~/Desktop/loginwindow.txt" stringByExpandingTildeInPath]] atomically:YES encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:nil];
You can use visual studio code to open and edit Plist files.
Just need to install an extension in the visual studio code called Binary Plist:
Binary Plist
Publisher: David Nicolson
Marketplace Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dnicolson.binary-plist
There is a way to get the old Property List Editor working on Mac OS X Lion, if you don't want to use bloated XCode 4 for this.
There is a "Property List Editor" app as part of OS X (or there used to be, I'm away from my machine at the moment so can't check).
Failing that, you could write one in about half an hour!
I want to write an asciidoc document and convert it into a pdf document. However, I want to use a format style different than the default ones. To do so I convert the txt file to docbook using asciidoc and then try to convert the resulting docbook xml to a pdf file using dblatex.
The idea is to set a particular tex style for dblatex to obtain the desired pdf result. I've copied the existing docbook.sty style as it is recommended here to do a small style modification. The only change done in the ./docbook file is \setlength{\textwidth}{18cm} to \setlength{\textwidth}{12cm}. However, when I run the command
dblatex --texstyle=./docbook.sty test.txt
Or the command
dblatex -s ./docbook.sty test.txt
Both produce the same result in the style change: none. I mean, no matter which modification I do to ./docbook.sty file, these modifications are not applied to the output. I obtain always the same result, a pdf with the default formatting. Do you guys have any idea where is the problem?
Thanks in advance.
I would recommend:
Copy the Dblatex docbook.sty to a new filename in your working directory which is "obviously yours" (e.g., mydbstyle.sty).
Continue to supply a full or relative path argument to the --texstyle option (e.g., /path/to/mydbstyle.sty or ./mydbstyle.sty). Failing to do so requires that mydbstyle.sty be in a directory enumerated by the TEXINPUTS environment variable (which you likely have not explicitly set).
Within mydbstyle.sty, use the following directives to initialize your style:
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}
\ProvidesPackage{mydbstyle}[2013/02/15 DocBook Style]
\RequirePackageWithOptions{docbook}
% ...
% your LaTeX commands here
Pass a DocBook 4.5 XML file as an argument to Dblatex (in your example you are passing test.txt which makes me uncertain whether you're passing an AsciiDoc source file).
dblatex --texstyle=./mydbstyle.sty mybook.xml
This isn't really a programming question, is there a command line or Windows tool (Windows 7) to get the current encoding of a text file? Sure I can write a little C# app but I wanted to know if there is something already built in?
Open up your file using regular old vanilla Notepad that comes with Windows.
It will show you the encoding of the file when you click "Save As...".
It'll look like this:
Whatever the default-selected encoding is, that is what your current encoding is for the file.
If it is UTF-8, you can change it to ANSI and click save to change the encoding (or visa-versa).
I realize there are many different types of encoding, but this was all I needed when I was informed our export files were in UTF-8 and they required ANSI. It was a onetime export, so Notepad fit the bill for me.
FYI: From my understanding I think "Unicode" (as listed in Notepad) is a misnomer for UTF-16.
More here on Notepad's "Unicode" option: Windows 7 - UTF-8 and Unicdoe
If you have "git" or "Cygwin" on your Windows Machine, then go to the folder where your file is present and execute the command:
file *
This will give you the encoding details of all the files in that folder.
The (Linux) command-line tool 'file' is available on Windows via GnuWin32:
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/file.htm
If you have git installed, it's located in C:\Program Files\git\usr\bin.
Example:
C:\Users\SH\Downloads\SquareRoot>file *
_UpgradeReport_Files; directory
Debug; directory
duration.h; ASCII C++ program text, with CRLF line terminators
ipch; directory
main.cpp; ASCII C program text, with CRLF line terminators
Precision.txt; ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators
Release; directory
Speed.txt; ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators
SquareRoot.sdf; data
SquareRoot.sln; UTF-8 Unicode (with BOM) text, with CRLF line terminators
SquareRoot.sln.docstates.suo; PCX ver. 2.5 image data
SquareRoot.suo; CDF V2 Document, corrupt: Cannot read summary info
SquareRoot.vcproj; XML document text
SquareRoot.vcxproj; XML document text
SquareRoot.vcxproj.filters; XML document text
SquareRoot.vcxproj.user; XML document text
squarerootmethods.h; ASCII C program text, with CRLF line terminators
UpgradeLog.XML; XML document text
C:\Users\SH\Downloads\SquareRoot>file --mime-encoding *
_UpgradeReport_Files; binary
Debug; binary
duration.h; us-ascii
ipch; binary
main.cpp; us-ascii
Precision.txt; us-ascii
Release; binary
Speed.txt; us-ascii
SquareRoot.sdf; binary
SquareRoot.sln; utf-8
SquareRoot.sln.docstates.suo; binary
SquareRoot.suo; CDF V2 Document, corrupt: Cannot read summary infobinary
SquareRoot.vcproj; us-ascii
SquareRoot.vcxproj; utf-8
SquareRoot.vcxproj.filters; utf-8
SquareRoot.vcxproj.user; utf-8
squarerootmethods.h; us-ascii
UpgradeLog.XML; us-ascii
Another tool that I found useful: https://archive.codeplex.com/?p=encodingchecker
EXE can be found here
Install git ( on Windows you have to use git bash console). Type:
file --mime-encoding *
for all files in the current directory , or
file --mime-encoding */*
for the files in all subdirectories
Here's my take how to detect the Unicode family of text encodings via BOM. The accuracy of this method is low, as this method only works on text files (specifically Unicode files), and defaults to ascii when no BOM is present (like most text editors, the default would be UTF8 if you want to match the HTTP/web ecosystem).
Update 2018: I no longer recommend this method. I recommend using file.exe from GIT or *nix tools as recommended by #Sybren, and I show how to do that via PowerShell in a later answer.
# from https://gist.github.com/zommarin/1480974
function Get-FileEncoding($Path) {
$bytes = [byte[]](Get-Content $Path -Encoding byte -ReadCount 4 -TotalCount 4)
if(!$bytes) { return 'utf8' }
switch -regex ('{0:x2}{1:x2}{2:x2}{3:x2}' -f $bytes[0],$bytes[1],$bytes[2],$bytes[3]) {
'^efbbbf' { return 'utf8' }
'^2b2f76' { return 'utf7' }
'^fffe' { return 'unicode' }
'^feff' { return 'bigendianunicode' }
'^0000feff' { return 'utf32' }
default { return 'ascii' }
}
}
dir ~\Documents\WindowsPowershell -File |
select Name,#{Name='Encoding';Expression={Get-FileEncoding $_.FullName}} |
ft -AutoSize
Recommendation: This can work reasonably well if the dir, ls, or Get-ChildItem only checks known text files, and when you're only looking for "bad encodings" from a known list of tools. (i.e. SQL Management Studio defaults to UTF16, which broke GIT auto-cr-lf for Windows, which was the default for many years.)
A simple solution might be opening the file in Firefox.
Drag and drop the file into firefox
Press Ctrl+I to open the page info
and the text encoding will appear on the "Page Info" window.
Note: If the file is not in txt format, just rename it to txt and try again.
P.S. For more info see this article.
I wrote the #4 answer (at time of writing). But lately I have git installed on all my computers, so now I use #Sybren's solution. Here is a new answer that makes that solution handy from powershell (without putting all of git/usr/bin in the PATH, which is too much clutter for me).
Add this to your profile.ps1:
$global:gitbin = 'C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin'
Set-Alias file.exe $gitbin\file.exe
And used like: file.exe --mime-encoding *. You must include .exe in the command for PS alias to work.
But if you don't customize your PowerShell profile.ps1 I suggest you start with mine: https://gist.github.com/yzorg/8215221/8e38fd722a3dfc526bbe4668d1f3b08eb7c08be0
and save it to ~\Documents\WindowsPowerShell. It's safe to use on a computer without git, but will write warnings when git is not found.
The .exe in the command is also how I use C:\WINDOWS\system32\where.exe from powershell; and many other OS CLI commands that are "hidden by default" by powershell, *shrug*.
you can simply check that by opening your git bash on the file location then running the command file -i file_name
example
user filesData
$ file -i data.csv
data.csv: text/csv; charset=utf-8
Some C code here for reliable ascii, bom's, and utf8 detection: https://unicodebook.readthedocs.io/guess_encoding.html
Only ASCII, UTF-8 and encodings using a BOM (UTF-7 with BOM, UTF-8 with BOM,
UTF-16, and UTF-32) have reliable algorithms to get the encoding of a document.
For all other encodings, you have to trust heuristics based on statistics.
EDIT:
A powershell version of a C# answer from: Effective way to find any file's Encoding. Only works with signatures (boms).
# get-encoding.ps1
param([Parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$True)] $filename)
begin {
# set .net current directoy
[Environment]::CurrentDirectory = (pwd).path
}
process {
$reader = [System.IO.StreamReader]::new($filename,
[System.Text.Encoding]::default,$true)
$peek = $reader.Peek()
$encoding = $reader.currentencoding
$reader.close()
[pscustomobject]#{Name=split-path $filename -leaf
BodyName=$encoding.BodyName
EncodingName=$encoding.EncodingName}
}
.\get-encoding chinese8.txt
Name BodyName EncodingName
---- -------- ------------
chinese8.txt utf-8 Unicode (UTF-8)
get-childitem -file | .\get-encoding
Looking for a Node.js/npm solution? Try encoding-checker:
npm install -g encoding-checker
Usage
Usage: encoding-checker [-p pattern] [-i encoding] [-v]
Options:
--help Show help [boolean]
--version Show version number [boolean]
--pattern, -p, -d [default: "*"]
--ignore-encoding, -i [default: ""]
--verbose, -v [default: false]
Examples
Get encoding of all files in current directory:
encoding-checker
Return encoding of all md files in current directory:
encoding-checker -p "*.md"
Get encoding of all files in current directory and its subfolders (will take quite some time for huge folders; seemingly unresponsive):
encoding-checker -p "**"
For more examples refer to the npm docu or the official repository.
Similar to the solution listed above with Notepad, you can also open the file in Visual Studio, if you're using that. In Visual Studio, you can select "File > Advanced Save Options..."
The "Encoding:" combo box will tell you specifically which encoding is currently being used for the file. It has a lot more text encodings listed in there than Notepad does, so it's useful when dealing with various files from around the world and whatever else.
Just like Notepad, you can also change the encoding from the list of options there, and then saving the file after hitting "OK". You can also select the encoding you want through the "Save with Encoding..." option in the Save As dialog (by clicking the arrow next to the Save button).
The only way that I have found to do this is VIM or Notepad++.
EncodingChecker
File Encoding Checker is a GUI tool that allows you to validate the text encoding of one or more files. The tool can display the encoding for all selected files, or only the files that do not have the encodings you specify.
File Encoding Checker requires .NET 4 or above to run.
The .XFDL file extension identifies XFDL Formatted Document files. These belong to the XML-based document and template formatting standard. This format is exactly like the XML file format however, contains a level of encryption for use in secure communications.
I know how to view XFDL files using a file viewer I found here. I can also modify and save these files by doing File:Save/Save As. I'd like, however, to modify these files on the fly. Any suggestions? Is this even possible?
Update #1: I have now successfully decoded and unziped a .xfdl into an XML file which I can then edit. Now, I am looking for a way to re-encode the modified XML file back into base64-gzip (using Ruby or the command line)
If the encoding is base64 then this is the solution I've stumbled upon on the web:
"Decoding XDFL files saved with 'encoding=base64'.
Files saved with:
application/vnd.xfdl;content-encoding="base64-gzip"
are simple base64-encoded gzip files. They can be easily restored to XML by first decoding and then unzipping them. This can be done as follows on Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install uudeview
uudeview -i yourform.xfdl
gunzip -S "" < UNKNOWN.001 > yourform-unpacked.xfdl
The first command will install uudeview, a package that can decode base64, among others. You can skip this step once it is installed.
Assuming your form is saved as 'yourform.xfdl', the uudeview command will decode the contents as 'UNKNOWN.001', since the xfdl file doesn't contain a file name. The '-i' option makes uudeview uninteractive, remove that option for more control.
The last command gunzips the decoded file into a file named 'yourform-unpacked.xfdl'.
Another possible solution - here
Side Note: Block quoted < code > doesn't work for long strings of code
The only answer I can think of right now is - read the manual for uudeview.
As much as I would like to help you, I am not an expert in this area, so you'll have to wait for someone more knowledgable to come down here and help you.
Meanwhile I can give you links to some documents that might help you:
UUDeview Home Page
Using XDFLengine
Gettting started with the XDFL Engine
Sorry if this doesn't help you.
You don't have to get out of Ruby to do this, can use the Base64 module in Ruby to encode the document like this:
irb(main):005:0> require 'base64'
=> true
irb(main):007:0> Base64.encode64("Hello World")
=> "SGVsbG8gV29ybGQ=\n"
irb(main):008:0> Base64.decode64("SGVsbG8gV29ybGQ=\n")
=> "Hello World"
And you can call gzip/gunzip using Kernel#system:
system("gzip foo.something")
system("gunzip foo.something.gz")