qpdf-announce — announcements of qpdf releases and news

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 9.0.1

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I have released qpdf 9.0.1. This is a small, bug-fix release that includes
a few build and test fixes for big-endian systems and systems with unsigned
char by default as well as a few minor bug fixes for recently reported
problems that have been in qpdf for a while. You can download from the
usual place: https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/releases/tag/release-qpdf-9.0.1 and
see the releates notes at
http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.release-notes

[Qpdf-announce] Future plans for C++-11 in qpdf (post qpdf 9)

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

qpdf 9.0.0 still does not use any C++-11 features, but I'm strongly
considering requiring a C++-11 compiler starting with qpdf 10. If this is
of interest to you, please continue reading.  If you are concerned about
this, please let me know with a private reply. If you're use of qpdf is
just that you build it with a reasonably current compiler (anything from
the past 4 to 5 years) or use an OS package, then this is probably of no
concern to you. If you build qpdf on lots of exotic compilers, especially
really old ones, you might care.

Most major compilers have supported this for a few years now. Current
versions of Microsoft Visual C++ and gcc support C++-14 by default without
any special flags. In preparing qpdf 9.0.0, I did a lot of work fixing up
integer conversions and arithmetic so that qpdf builds warning-free with
additional integer type warnings enabled. This is good from a security
standpoint and also reduces the (low) risk of silent data loss on very
large files. It would have been much easier to do this with c++-11 and, in
fact, I ended up re-implementing parts of <type_traits>. There would be
other benefits to supporting C++-11: migration from PointerHolder to
std::shared_ptr, use of more efficient std::unique_ptr internally in some
places, possibly using std::function and supporting lambdas as alternatives
to callback and handler classes that are common in qpdf's interface, and
lots of internal changes that just improve readability and maintainability
of the code, such as use of the "auto" keyword. Also, there have been many
times when I have avoided a change because of concerns about breaking
thread safety, and using c++ standard library threading constructs, I could
potentially solve some of those issues in a portable way. It's been at
least 5 years since most mainstream compilers had decent c++-11 support, so
I think it's reasonable to just say it's time to move. I know there are
some people out there who build qpdf with older, more limited compilers,
and I know this change would make life more difficult for those people, so
I am not taking the decision lightly.

I have a c++-11 feature test file that exercises the parts of c++-11 I want
to be able to use, and I have a branch that I have run through CI to ensure
that it works on all the platforms I build for. I am happy to share this,
or you can find it (subject to change) at
https://github.com/jberkenbilt/qpdf/blob/c%2B%2B11/libtests/cxx11.cc. This
branch also has a re-implementation of PointerHolder that uses
std::shared_ptr under the covers and is bidrectionally convertible to
std::shared_ptr. With this change, it would be possible for people to just
start using std::shared_ptr in their own code and still interoperate with
qpdf PointerHolders. A more radical possibility would be for me to actually
replace PointerHolder with std::shared_ptr everywhere in the API. For
backward compatibility, people could still include <qpdf/PointerHolder.hh>
and it would usually work with no changes to the source code. I've done
some experiments with this, and it's pretty smooth. The main places where
it breaks are that PointerHolder has an automatic constructor for bare
pointers where std::shared_ptr does not, so it breaks to just pass a raw
pointer in where a std::shared_ptr is expected, but this is easily fixed by
either wrapping the pointer in an explicit std::shared_ptr constructor or
by using std::make_shared. Also, while PointerHolder can automatically
convert to std::shared_ptr, containers of PointerHolder don't automatically
map. If you're still reading, I'm interested to know whether you think the
benefits of replacing PointerHolder with std::shared_ptr in qpdf's API are
sufficiently high to make migration to qpdf 10 require some source-level
changes, or whether we should live with PointerHolder forever. I'm on the
fence about this one. I think qpdf's interface would be improved by using
standard library smart pointers, but I have also taken pains not to break
source compatibility except when absolutely necessary, such as removing a
method that never worked right in the first place.

If you're interested in my other thoughts about C++-11, look at the section
of https://github.com/jberkenbilt/qpdf/blob/master/TODO where I discuss it.

I'm interested in any thoughts my developers might have. Either way, there
most likely won't be a qpdf 10 for some time. Unless something forces me to
break ABI, qpdf 9 should be around a while. But next time I am forced to
break ABI, or if I have to fix something that really would be much easier
using C++-11, then I will make a decision.

Still reading? Thanks!

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 9.0.0

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I have released qpdf 9.0.0. You can find it at
https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/releases. This version contains many
enhancements and fixes including some security hardening, safer integer
conversion and overflow detection, and a few build changes. For a full list
of changes, please see the release notes
<http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.release-notes>.

P.S. Maybe if I don't say anything, you won't notice that the exit code fix
for linearization warnings is mentioned three times in the releates. I've
already fixed that, but it missed the train. So 9.0.1 or whatever's next
will have corrected 9.0.0 release notes. Oh well.

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 8.4.2

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I have released qpdf 8.4.2. There is only one change from 8.4.1: a fix to a
buffer overrun in Windows only that may overwrite one or two bytes of
memory when opening a file. There are no other changes to any other code.
Releases can be obtained from the usual locations including
https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/releases/tag/release-qpdf-8.4.2.

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 8.4.1 is out

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I have release qpdf version 8.4.1. It contains a small handful of minor CLI
enhancements and a few bug fixes from 8.4.0 including handling of Unicode
filenames in Windows, a performance bug with --split-pages and a few
others. For a full list of changes, please see the release notes
<http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.release-notes>.

The release can be found in the usual places, including
https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/releases/tag/release-qpdf-8.4.1.

I have uploaded the debian package to unstable. I'm not sure what will
happen to it with the freeze in effect. I am going to request a freeze
exception, but I don't know whether it will be granted.

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 8.4.0

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I have released qpdf 8.4.0. This release has almost as many improvements as
8.3.0. Highlights include better handling of Unicode passwords,
enhancements to image optimization and appearance generation,
overlay/underlay, better inline image support, and other changes. It also
includes an important bug fix for page splitting. For a full list of
changes, please see the release notes
<http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.release-notes>.

[Qpdf-announce] data loss bug in qpdf >= 8.1.0

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

For the first time in qpdf's history, someone found a case in which qpdf
could silently lose data on a valid input file. The case occurs when
merging/splitting files and dropping unreferenced resources. There is a
one-line fix which can be found in
https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/commit/4bc434000c42a7191e705c8a38216ca6743ad9ff.patch

If you package qpdf for a distribution and have a way of updating qpdf with
this patch, I think it would be a good idea. Users can work around the
issue by using the --preserve-unreferenced-resources flag when splitting
and merging.

Details can be found here: https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/issues/276

This was basically a typo. The comment explains the exact situation of the
bug and explains what to do about it, but the code that implemented the fix
was missing the critical one line, and the test suite didn't have a file
with the particular problem. The next commit after the one that fixes the
bug adds a ChangeLog entry and test suite updates. I would usually keep
those in one commit, but I wanted the patch to be easily accessible for
anyone who wants to include the patch. I will update the debian package
momentarily. Master is updated. The fix will be in 8.4.0.

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 8.3.0

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I have released qpdf version 8.3.0. This is big release with lots of
enhancements and a few fixes. You can see check the release notes
<http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.release-notes> for
details. Here are a few highlights:

   - Shell completion for bash and zsh -- just *eval $(qpdf
   --completion-bash)* or *eval $(qpdf --completion-zsh)*
   - JSON mode for querying PDF files from the CLI -- useful for the many
   people who are using qpdf from non-C-based languages or just for having an
   easy way to dig into the guts of PDF files
   - Flattening of form fields and annotations
   - Basic appearance stream generation for interactive form fields
   - Inclusion of automatically generated files in source control for
   easier build from pristine git checkout
   - Improvements to handling of page numbers and outlines during splitting
   and merging
   - Page collation mode
   - Several new helper classes and library improvements

*SPECIAL NOTES FOR PACKAGERS*

If you package qpdf for some operating system distribution, please pay
careful attention to the "Notes for Packagers" section of the release
notes. For this release, here's what you need to know:

   - qpdf detects outdated automatic files. This may clash with your
   packaging system if it generates autofiles on its own. To assist with
   packaging, you can pass the *--disable-check-autofiles* flag to
   *./configure*. This is completely safe.
   - The source distribution includes bash and zsh completion files in the
   *completions* directory. These are not installed by make install, so
   packagers are encouraged to install them wherever your system puts
   vendor-supplied completion scripts. They are both one-liners.

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 8.2.1

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I added a flag --keep-files-open to the qpdf CLI and released qpdf version
8.2.1. There are no library changes from 8.2.0. See the release notes
<http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.release-notes> for
details.

On Sat, Aug 18, 2018 at 9:25 AM Jay Berkenbilt <ej...@ql...> wrote:

> My performance improvements weren't good enough. I'm going to try to
> release 8.2.1 today, so if you're planning on grabbing 8.2.0, wait for
> 8.2.1.
>
> On Fri, Aug 17, 2018 at 10:07 PM Jay Berkenbilt <ej...@ql...> wrote:
>
>> I have released qpdf version 8.2.0. It contains a few bug fixes and
>> performance improvements, some minor API enhancements, and a few other
>> small changes. For details, please see the release notes
>> <http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.release-notes>.
>> I have also uploaded debian packages. These should show up in debian
>> unstable momentarily and should make it into Ubuntu in time for the 18.10
>> code freeze.
>>
>>
>> --Jay
>>
>

Re: [Qpdf-announce] qpdf 8.2.0

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

My performance improvements weren't good enough. I'm going to try to
release 8.2.1 today, so if you're planning on grabbing 8.2.0, wait for
8.2.1.

On Fri, Aug 17, 2018 at 10:07 PM Jay Berkenbilt <ej...@ql...> wrote:

> I have released qpdf version 8.2.0. It contains a few bug fixes and
> performance improvements, some minor API enhancements, and a few other
> small changes. For details, please see the release notes
> <http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.release-notes>. I
> have also uploaded debian packages. These should show up in debian unstable
> momentarily and should make it into Ubuntu in time for the 18.10 code
> freeze.
>
>
> --Jay
>

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 8.2.0

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I have released qpdf version 8.2.0. It contains a few bug fixes and
performance improvements, some minor API enhancements, and a few other
small changes. For details, please see the release notes
<http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.release-notes>. I
have also uploaded debian packages. These should show up in debian unstable
momentarily and should make it into Ubuntu in time for the 18.10 code
freeze.

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 8.1.0

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I have released qpdf 8.1.0. You can get it from the usual places: either
sourceforge <https://sourceforge.net/projects/qpdf/files/> or github
<https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/releases>. This version includes a few good
usability improvements, such as pruning unreferenced images and fonts when
splitting pages even if the page's resources dictionary references the
images or fonts, and not keeping all files open when merging so that you
can merge more files on the command line than the operating system's open
file limit. There are also some API enhancements, including the addition of
new "helper" classes to provide higher level APIs. New APIs have been
included to assist with working with interactive forms. For details, please
see the release notes
<http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.release-notes>.

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 8.0.2

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

Yes, it's been a lot of releases in a few days, but 8.0.2 is out.
Version 8.0.2 contains two small bug fixes: proper handling of pages
with no content, and better handling of files with loops following cross
reference tables. I am planning on taking a break now. There was a big
push to get some changes in for Ubuntu 18.04.

You can find the releases on sourceforge
<https://sourceforge.net/projects/qpdf/> and github
<https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/releases>.

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 8.0.2 coming....

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I'm going to release qpdf 8.0.2 one day after releasing 8.0.1 because of
one more, unrelated enhancement to yet another class of broken file.
Then I'm going to pause and let this sink in. Does anyone have any
issues with 8 that they are waiting to report? If so, I'll hold off a
day or so. :-)

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] 8.0.1 is out

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I just made a release of qpdf 8.0.1. This is a very minor update from
8.0.0. It just contains two small enhancements that missed the train:
handle zlib streams with data checksum errors, and, in the command line
tool, allow specification of page numbers counting from the end in page
ranges. I'm unable to update sourceforge right now, but you can grab the
releases from https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/releases

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 8.0.0 is out

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I have released qpdf version 8.0.0. The main change in qpdf 8 is the
support of token filters that allow developers to do custom filtering of
qpdf streams with lexical awareness. There are new token types for
comments, whitespace, and inline images, and several new APIs and
examples to support this. As always, see http://qpdf.sourceforge.net for
a link to the latest manual and release notes. There are also some bug
fixes and small enhancements including one big change that allows qpdf
to recover from cases where objects in the PDF file are of unexpected
type. This moves several more bad files into the category of files that
qpdf can recover from instead of crashing on.

This is also the first release of qpdf to be hosted on both sourceforge
and github, so you can see releases at
https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/releases in addition to the usual download
location on sourceforge. This version also features an AppImage
(https://appimage.org), which is a convenient way to run qpdf on Linux
without having to build it or use a possibly outdated OS package.

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 7.1.1 release

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I have released qpdf 7.1.1. This is a minor bugfix release that includes
fixes to some compilation and build issues on some platforms and fixes
one linearization bug affecting files whose first /ID component was not
16 bytes long. I intend to release qpdf 8.0.0 soon with several
additional enhancements.

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 7.1.0

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I've released qpdf 7.1.0 with a few enhancements. Specifically,
remaining PNG and TIFF filters are implemented for LZW and Flate
compressed streams, and a few small bugs were fixed. Also a new option
for allowing the raw encryption key used for encrypted files to be both
displayed and specified for decryption was added. Releases are available
in the usual place on sourceforge (see https://qpdf.sourceforge.net).
Debian packages have been uploaded to unstable and should show up soon.

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 7.0.0 is out

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I have released qpdf 7.0.0. I'm cutting and pasting the release notes
<http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.release-notes>from
the manual <http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html> right
into this email to avoid repeating myself. If you package qpdf for
distribution somewhere, please take note of the first section here since
it mentions changes to licensing and dependencies.

--Jay

-----

7.0.0: September 15, 2017

      *

        Packaging and Distribution Changes

          o

            QPDF's primary license is now version 2.0 of the Apache
            License <http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0> rather
            than version 2.0 of the Artistic License. You may still, at
            your option, consider qpdf to be licensed with version 2.0
            of the Artistic license.

          o

            QPDF no longer has a dependency on the PCRE (Perl-Compatible
            Regular Expression) library. QPDF now has an added
            dependency on the JPEG library.

      *

        Bug Fixes

          o

            This release contains many bug fixes for various infinite
            loops, memory leaks, and other memory errors that could be
            encountered with specially crafted or otherwise erroneous
            PDF files.

      *

        New Features

          o

            QPDF now supports reading and writing streams encoded with
            JPEG or RunLength encoding. Library API enhancements and
            command-line options have been added to control this
            behavior. See command-line
            options |--compress-streams| and |--decode-level| and
            methods |QPDFWriter::setCompressStreams| and |QPDFWriter::setDecodeLevel|.

          o

            QPDF is much better at recovering from broken files. In most
            cases, qpdf will skip invalid objects and will preserve
            broken stream data by not attempting to filter broken
            streams. QPDF is now able to recover or at least not crash
            on dozens of broken test files I have received over the past
            few years.

          o

            Page rotation is now supported and accessible from both the
            library and the command line.

          o

            |QPDFWriter| supports writing files in a way that preserves
            PCLm compliance in support of driverless printing. This is
            very specialized and is only useful to applications that
            already know how to create PCLm files.

      *

        Enhancements to the *qpdf* Command-line Tool. All new options
        listed here are documented in more detail in Chapter 3, /Running
        QPDF/
        <http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.using>.

          o

            Command-line arguments can now be read from files or
            standard input using |@file| or |@-| syntax. Please
            see Section 3.1, “Basic Invocation”
            <http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/files/qpdf-manual.html#ref.invocation>.

          o

            |--rotate|: request page rotation

          o

            |--newline-before-endstream|: ensure that a newline appears
            before every |endstream| keyword in the file; used to
            prevent qpdf from breaking PDF/A compliance on already
            compliant files.

          o

            |--preserve-unreferenced|: preserve unreferenced objects in
            the input PDF

          o

            |--split-pages|: break output into chunks with fixed numbers
            of pages

          o

            |--verbose|: print the name of each output file that is created

          o

            |--compress-streams| and |--decode-level| replace |--stream-data| for
            improving granularity of controlling compression and
            decompression of stream data. The |--stream-data| option
            will remain available.

          o

            When running *qpdf --check* with other options, checks are
            always run first. This enables qpdf to perform its full
            recovery logic before outputting other information. This can
            be especially useful when manually recovering broken files,
            looking at qpdf's regenerated cross reference table, or
            other similar operations.

          o

            Process *--pages* earlier so that other options
            like |--show-pages| or |--split-pages| can operate on the
            file after page splitting/merging has occurred.

      *

        API Changes. All new API calls are documented in their
        respective classes' header files.

          o

            |QPDFObjectHandle::rotatePage|: apply rotation to a page object

          o

            |QPDFWriter::setNewlineBeforeEndstream|: force newline to
            appear before |endstream|

          o

            |QPDFWriter::setPreserveUnreferencedObjects|: preserve
            unreferenced objects that appear in the input PDF. The
            default behavior is to discard them.

          o

            New |Pipeline| types |Pl_RunLength| and |Pl_DCT| are
            available for developers who wish to produce or consume
            RunLength or DCT stream data directly.
            The |examples/pdf-create.cc| example illustrates their use.

          o

            |QPDFWriter::setCompressStreams| and |QPDFWriter::setDecodeLevel| methods
            control handling of different types of stream compression.

          o

            Add new C API
            functions |qpdf_set_compress_streams|, |qpdf_set_decode_level|, |qpdf_set_preserve_unreferenced_objects|,
            and |qpdf_set_newline_before_endstream| corresponding to the
            new |QPDFWriter| methods.

Re: [Qpdf-announce] qpdf 7.0.0 will be released under Apache License version 2.0

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I've decided to release 7.0.0 under Apache 2.0 but with the option of
continuing to use Artistic 2.0. This is to make life easier for some of
the people who are using qpdf in commercial products or other
specialized environments who had to get specific approval for the
licensing terms, and also to reduce headache for any distribution
packager who misses the notice. The next word from me will be to
announce 7.0.0, hopefully within the next few days.

On 09/12/2017 03:14 PM, Jay Berkenbilt wrote:
> QPDF is currently released under version 2.0 of the Artistic License.
> Starting with version 7.0.0, I plan on relicensing with Apache License,
> version 2.0. Since there are no patent claims, there are no practical
> differences between the two licenses that affect qpdf, as far as I can
> see (though I am not a lawyer). It is certainly my intention to not
> change any aspect of what the license does or does not permit. My
> original choice of the Artistic License reflects qpdf's Perl heritage,
> but I think Apache 2.0 is probably a better fit, and people are
> generally more familiar with it.
>
> If for some reason, anyone on this announcements list thinks there is a
> compelling reason for me not to change the license, please let me know.
> I can still change my mind. I've already done the work on my "work"
> branch, but I have not pushed to master yet.
>
> I'm hoping to get 7.0.0 out in the next few days.
>
> --Jay
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
> engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
> _______________________________________________
> Qpdf-announce mailing list
> Qpd...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/qpdf-announce
>

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 7.0.0 will be released under Apache License version 2.0

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

QPDF is currently released under version 2.0 of the Artistic License.
Starting with version 7.0.0, I plan on relicensing with Apache License,
version 2.0. Since there are no patent claims, there are no practical
differences between the two licenses that affect qpdf, as far as I can
see (though I am not a lawyer). It is certainly my intention to not
change any aspect of what the license does or does not permit. My
original choice of the Artistic License reflects qpdf's Perl heritage,
but I think Apache 2.0 is probably a better fit, and people are
generally more familiar with it.

If for some reason, anyone on this announcements list thinks there is a
compelling reason for me not to change the license, please let me know.
I can still change my mind. I've already done the work on my "work"
branch, but I have not pushed to master yet.

I'm hoping to get 7.0.0 out in the next few days.

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 7.0 beta 1 is out

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

(If you package qpdf for distribution, please read -- there's important
information for you here.)

Hello all. I have just uploaded a release of qpdf 7.0.b1 to sourceforge.
This is a major release with many improvements and represents a revival
of my work on qpdf after a break of almost two years. I have closed
dozens of issues reported on github and made many improvements that I've
been wanting to make for a long time. 7.0.b1 is very close to what the
final 7.0 will look like. I still have to bring the "C" API up to date
with some of the new changes, and I still have to prepare proper release
notes and take a pass through the documentation. If anyone is interested
in doing some early testing, I'd appreciate some feedback before the 7.0
release. I don't plan on adding any substantial features prior to 7.0.

Here are the highlights:

  * Substantial improvements in qpdf's ability to recover from all kinds
    of corrupted files. qpdf is able to recover many more types of
    damaged files than it could before, and most damage that it cannot
    recover from now results in just skipping or preserving the bad
    parts of the file rather than crashing.
  * Several infinite loop issues were addressed.
  * Many new features were added including page rotation, an option for
    efficient splitting of files into groups of fixed numbers of pages,
    the ability to read command-line arguments, including passwords,
    from stdin or files, the ability to preserve unreferenced objects
    when writing files, support for DCT (JPEG) and RunLength encoding
    filters, and various other improvements to the API.
  * Changes were added to QPDFWriter to facilitate creation of PCLm
    files for driverless printing support from the linux printing project.

For those of you who are packaging qpdf for distributions or who
routinely build from source, please note that there have been changes in
qpdf's dependencies. In particular, qpdf no longer uses PCRE
(perl-compatible regular expressions), so this is no longer a
dependency. There is one added dependency: some version of the jpeg
library is required to support DCT filters. The jpeg library is
ubiquitous and available on every conceivable platform. With jpeg and
zlib as the only external dependencies, qpdf should still be easy to
support in a wide range of environments.

I have already uploaded a new version of debian's "experimental"
distribution and will be packaging it in debian as soon as I release
7.0. I also have reason to believe that the changes will be accepted
into Ubuntu 17.10.

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf :significant enhancements on the way

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

Hello all. I've awoken from a deep two-year slumber (called "life") and
spent some time making enhancements to qpdf. There are some external
contributions from the linux printing project coming in this summer, and
once they are in, I will be releasing qpdf version 7.0.0. The most
important enhancement in this version is that qpdf will be much more
robust at recovering from bad files. I had a collection of a few dozen
broken files from various email messages and bug reports that caused
qpdf to report a fatal error or get into an infinite loop, and most of
these are recoverable now. There are also many small improvements and
feature requests including the ability to read command-line arguments
from files, which among other things, allows you to avoid passing
clear-text passwords on the command line.

If you're interested in trying out these enhancements or have small
requests about qpdf, now would be a good time. Please take a look at
https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf if you have the tools required to build
from source. If there is enough interest, I can put out a 7.0.0 alpha
release. The current qpdf is not binary compatible with either 6.0.0 or
what will eventually be 7.0.0, though it is source compatible. If you're
interested, reply privately to this message, or if you have requests,
email me or create an issue on github. Keep in mind that this is a
moderated list, so reply all will still only reach me.

Thanks!
--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 6.0.0 is out

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

I release qpdf 6.0.0. It is identical to 5.2.0 except that I bumped the
shared library soname because of ABI compatibility issues. This is the
last time I will make that mistake. I intend to run automated tests for
that with every release now, not just every release where I think I
might have changed the ABI.

For those of you who are packages with Linux distributions who have
already included 5.2.0 and want a patch that reverts the ABI breakage,
you can find one at
https://github.com/jberkenbilt/debian-qpdf/blob/master/debian/patches/fix-abi.patch.
This removes the deterministic ID functionality while keeping the other
fix and avoids any changes to binary files from the 5.2.0 release. I
have included this patch in the debian package while I am waiting for
6.0.0 to clear debian's NEW queue but will replace it with 6.0.0 as soon
as possible.

Sorry for the hassle on this one. Hopefully 6.0.0 should be smoother.

--Jay

[Qpdf-announce] qpdf 5.2.0 breaks ABI

[Jay B. <ej...@ql...>]

Looks like I broke ABI compatibility accidentally with qpdf 5.2.0 in
spite of my best explicit efforts not to do that. I will be re-releasing
5.2.0 as 6.0.0 with a bumped soname. If you are a distribution and
haven't taken 5.2.0 yet, please hold off until 6.0.0 is out hopefully
today. I will not be doing any more releases without automating that check.