Peter Hoyer wrote:

Am Samstag 13 Februar 2010 13:34:48 schrieb Istvan Gabor:

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Hello:

I've just realized that pdftk is not included in the the official openSUSE 11.2 repositories. I don't understand why, I think it is really a basic package for manipulating pdf files.

You can use pdfmod a graphical gtk frondend instead.

kind regards

Peter Hoyer

The _point_ of pdftk is that it's non-interactive and scriptable. pdftk requires libgcj because it's a java app that's written to use gcj to produce a native binary instead of the normal way java apps work with a jar file that's unzipped and interpreted at run-time. In the end, it's like any other small binary that requires a large library. What's so hard to understand about that? That describes most of your system. What you might more rightly complain or wonder about is not that it needs libgcj, which was probably already on your system, but that it requires a specific version of libgcj, the previous version or older. That is what caused the extra download. That's because gcj changed and now the pdftk code no longer compiles with it. That means, in order to build pdftk, one must either overhaul the pdftk code to work in current gcj (which I, the aljex repo owner, do not have time to do, and the upstream pdftk authors have not done, nor anyone else I can find) or, edit the package to require specifically the older version of gcj. Since that older version is actually still maintained and available in the current stock 11.2 oss repo, that is by far the simplest answer. Hopefully before that version of gcj drops out of such ready availability, I or someone will have managed to update the pdftk code to work on newer gcj. It's unlikely I can. I am not a c or a java coder and have nothing to do with pdftk other than that, like the OP, I need it, and so was forced to start maintaining the package above when SUSE stopped doing so. For the record, the build errors just look like some functions that get used a lot gained a parameter, or perhaps the interface didn't change but a parameter used to be optional and now it's mandatory. Either way, probably a relatively small change needs to be made in many places. But there could be other less obvious adjustments that need to be made. I don't have the time to persue it as long as I have a working package for now just by forcing the use of the older gcj. I need to finish developing procedures, documentation, and rc start/stop scripts for using LXC on openSUSE far more than I need that slight improvement to the pdftk package. (almost there, just working on a shutdown system now, then I'll be able to include it as an rc script in an lxc rpm. Until then I have at least documented how to set up the host system, create and configure container systems using zypper instead of relying on hand-crafted OpenVZ template systems, and manually start and stop them, and a crude start script that at least starts them automatically when the host boots up. http://en.opensuse.org/LXC ) -- bkw -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sat February 13 2010 11:22:33 Istvan Gabor wrote:

It was not the file size I found problematic. I had an apparently wrong presumption that this requirement was a mistake or at least unnecessary. I did not know that pdftk is a java application. In the meantime I found out I was wrong, see my previous post. Nevertheless the question remains, why this program is not included in openSUSE official distribution. And thank you for making this piece available for us who need it.

Cheers,

Istvan

There is already a request in openFATE (https://features.opensuse.org/308435), but only 5 of us have voted for it. If we get more support, we increase the chances of it being included in 11.3. -- Carlos F Lange University of Alberta -- Recursive: Adj. See Recursive. -- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Hi, On Sunday 14 February 2010 Marcus Meissner wrote:

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There is already a request in openFATE (https://features.opensuse.org/308435), but only 5 of us have voted for it. If we get more support, we increase the chances of it being included in 11.3.

Actually you probably increase the chances more by offering to maintain it for openSUSE. Including the lifetime support with providing security and bugfixes after release.

I cannot find easily why Toms dropped it though, the history is really lacking.

I'm merely a writer, not a developer. Usually pdftk compiled and I was happy. However, some time ago, it stopped to compile. I investigated it further, wrote also to our internal research mailinglist, but neither I nor others could fix it. Unfortunately, I had to drop it as I had neither enough time nor enough Java background to fix it. Maybe the situation has changed now, I don't know. Tom -- Thomas Schraitle ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SUSE LINUX GmbH >o) Documentation Specialist Maxfeldstrasse 5 /\\ 90409 Nuernberg _\_v http://en.opensuse.org/Documentation_Team http://lizards.opensuse.org/author/thomas-schraitle/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org