Some PDF documents cause pdftk 1.44 to loop forever

[robinhouston]

Some PDF documents, notably those created by HP Digital Sending Device, will cause pdftk 1.44 to go into an infinite loop trying to uncompress them. Examples of such documents on WDTK include:

• http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/11212/response/32511/attach/5/CMS%20Grant%20Letter%20-%20redacted.pdf
• http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/93515/response/233843/attach/2/C%20Moss%20Freedom%20of%20Information.pdf
• http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/36190/response/90561/attach/3/HoL%20Visual%20Identity%20Guidelines.pdf
• http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/15755/response/38355/attach/3/PO%20Boxes%20A%20to%20L%20th%20August%202009.pdf
• http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/40464/response/107779/attach/2/FOI%20340742.pdf
• http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/87534/response/234016/attach/12/HC9.pdf
• http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/87534/response/234022/attach/6/HC14.pdf
• http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/87534/response/234022/attach/8/HC16.pdf
• http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/87534/response/234022/attach/9/HC17.pdf

[robinhouston]

The problem can be resolved (at some inconvenience) by rebuilding pdftk 1.44 with this patch.

There is a Debian package of this patched pdftk available on the mySociety Debian package server.

[sebbacon]

I can't find a pdftk issue tracker or similar -- did you send the patch to the maintainer by email? (Just asking so we can somehow track if your patch has been committed or not).

[robinhouston]

Yes, I just sent it by email and he didnt reply.

I suspect pdftk is more or less unmaintained at the moment, sadly.

Robin

On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 11:45 AM, Seb Bacon <
reply@reply.github.com

wrote:

I can't find a pdftk issue tracker or similar -- did you send the patch to
the maintainer by email? (Just asking so we can somehow track if your
patch has been committed or not).

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/sebbacon/alaveteli/issues/305#issuecomment-3353540