GNU bug report logs - #40018
How to diff PDF files?

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Peng Yu <pengyu.ut <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-diffutils <bug-diffutils <at> gnu.org>
Subject: How to diff PDF files?
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2020 16:15:52 -0500

Hi,

I'd like to diff PDF files.

$ seq 10 | gs -q -P- -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite
-dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -sstdout=%stderr -sOutputFile=1.pdf -f -
$ pdftk 1.pdf output 2.pdf uncompress
$ diff {1,2}.pdf
Binary files 1.pdf and 2.pdf differ

Since PDF files contains both texts and binaries, just saying that
they are binary files and refusing to show the difference is not very
helpful. Is there a way for me to easily see the differences between
PDF files. Thanks.

-- 
Regards,
Peng

Message #8 received at 40018 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Deplagne <Eric <at> Deplagne.name>
To: Peng Yu <pengyu.ut <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 40018 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: [bug-diffutils] bug#40018: How to diff PDF files?
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2020 22:31:19 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

  Hi

    $ diff -a {1,2}.pdf
    Should show something, it being readable is another story...

  Regards.

On Tue, 10 Mar 2020 16:15:52 -0500, Peng Yu wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'd like to diff PDF files.
> 
> $ seq 10 | gs -q -P- -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite
> -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -sstdout=%stderr -sOutputFile=1.pdf -f -
> $ pdftk 1.pdf output 2.pdf uncompress
> $ diff {1,2}.pdf
> Binary files 1.pdf and 2.pdf differ
> 
> Since PDF files contains both texts and binaries, just saying that
> they are binary files and refusing to show the difference is not very
> helpful. Is there a way for me to easily see the differences between
> PDF files. Thanks.
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
> Peng

-- 
  Eric Deplagne

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

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