pdftopdf produces non-standard-conform pdf files.

pdftk uses the itext library and a mail on its mailing list gave me the right hint:
 http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.java.lib.itext.general/46855/focus=46859

The printed pdf file is not standard conform [1].
The information dictionary of the document is a direct object, not an indirect reference as in the pdf that works.
So this is mainly a bug in the used pdf generator, not in pdftk. However, pdftk should produce a more user-friendly error message.

Can you provide the version of the cups / cups-pdf package which you have installed, please?

[1]: See table 3.11 on page 61 in http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/pdf/PDFReference13.pdf :
"Info dictionary (Optional; must be an indirect reference)"

The bug is in pdftopdf from the cups package. It wrongly writes the document information dictionary as a direct object.
The attached patch should solve the problem.

Johann Felix Soden, thank you for the patch. I have tried it, but after patching pdftopdf pdftopdf dumps core:

cat ~/ghostscript/gpl/testfiles/CityMap-evince.pdf | PPD=/etc/cups/ppd/pxl.ppd /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftopdf 1 1 1 1 "" > ~/ghostscript/gpl/testfiles/CityMap-evince-pdftopdf2.pdf*** glibc detected *** /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftopdf: free(): invalid pointer: 0x00007fefeed46b88 ***

It always dumps core, independent of the input file and the PPD file. The backtrace in gdb is:

#0 0x00007f3aa7c20a85 in raise () from /lib/libc.so.6
#1 0x00007f3aa7c24520 in abort () from /lib/libc.so.6
#2 0x00007f3aa7c5a3e7 in ?? () from /lib/libc.so.6
#3 0x00007f3aa7c64406 in ?? () from /lib/libc.so.6
#4 0x00007f3aa7c6ac93 in free () from /lib/libc.so.6
#5 0x00007f3aa89b3ad9 in Dict::~Dict() () from /usr/lib/libpoppler.so.5
#6 0x00007f3aa8f29690 in P2PDoc::output (this=<value optimized out>,
    str=0x7f3aaa484ba0, deviceCopies=<value optimized out>,
    deviceCollate=<value optimized out>) at P2PDoc.cxx:124
#7 0x00007f3aa8f285cb in main (argc=<value optimized out>,
    argv=<value optimized out>) at pdftopdf.cxx:716

I am on Lucid 64-bit.

Doing

dpkg -l cups cups-pdf

gives me:

||/ Name Version Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii cups 1.4.1-5ubuntu2 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - server
ii cups-pdf 2.5.0-8ubuntu1 PDF printer for CUPS

Oh, I'm also on 64bit, Karmic, btw.

Thanks, Till Kamppeter, for testing the patch! (Testing is really needed - I have not much experience with poppler).
I found the error: some missing strdup commands. The corrected patch is attached.

The patch works now, thank you.

Committed to Debian/Ubuntu BZR repository of CUPS. Fix will be in the next CUPS package of Lucid.

Till, I don't see the commit. Did you perhaps forget to push or so?

I have done the push now, this "bzr push" is really my every-time-forgetter.

Thanks for accepting the patch!

The "bug" with non-conform pdf files in pdftk is still not really solved yet: There should be a clear error message why pdftk fails.

PS: There is a a small mistake in the bzr commit: Duncan Lock found and reported this bug. I am responsible for the patch.

Thanks for your help guys - really appreciated the first class service!! :)

Is there any way to get this updated version of CUPS if I'm running Karmic,
except compiling it myself? Is this likely to get backported, or upstreamed,
or whatnot? Is there anything I can do to help this process?

Thanks,
Dunc

On 23 March 2010 15:22, Johann Felix Soden <email address hidden> wrote:

> Thanks for accepting the patch!
>
> The "bug" with non-conform pdf files in pdftk is still not really solved
> yet: There should be a clear error message why pdftk fails.
>
>
> PS: There is a a small mistake in the bzr commit: Duncan Lock found and
> reported this bug. I am responsible for the patch.
>
> --
> pdftopdf produces non-standard-conform pdf files.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/544636
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

This bug was fixed in the package cups - 1.4.2-10

---------------
cups (1.4.2-10) unstable; urgency=low

  [ Till Kamppeter ]
  * debian/local/filters/pdf-filters/pdftopdf/P2PDoc.cxx: Output of the
    pdftopdf filter was not completely complying with the Adobe specs for PDF.
    Thanks to Duncan Lock for finding and reporting the bug and supplying a
    fix (LP: #544636).

  [ Martin Pitt ]
  * Add no-conffile-timestamp.dpatch: Disable time stamps in conffiles, to
    avoid ever-changing files in /etc. Thanks Joey Hess!
    (Rejected upstream, STR#3067; Closes: #549673)
  * CVE-2010-0393.dpatch: Replace with patch from upstream, and tag
    header. (Closes: #572940)
  * debian/local/filters/pdf-filters/*: Disable call of setErrorFunction() on
    armel for now, since armel's libpoppler is broken. This works around
    #575262, so that cups can finally go into testing again (which is more
    than overdue).

cups (1.4.2-9.1) unstable; urgency=high

  * Non-maintainer upload by the Security Team.
  * Fix loading of localized message string from arbitrary files
    through exporting the LOCALEDIR environment variable when lppasswd
    has a setuid bit set (CVE-2010-0393).
 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:50:56 +0100

Please, a link or explanation about how to apply the patch to an Ubuntu 9.10 system?