README.org (38739B)
1 #+TITLE: PDF Tools README 2 #+AUTHOR: Andreas Politz 3 #+EMAIL: mail@andreas-politz.de 4 #+Maintainer: Vedang Manerikar 5 #+Maintainer_Email: vedang.manerikar@gmail.com 6 7 [[https://app.circleci.com/pipelines/github/vedang/pdf-tools][https://circleci.com/gh/vedang/pdf-tools.svg?style=svg]] 8 [[https://elpa.nongnu.org/nongnu/pdf-tools.html][http://elpa.nongnu.org/nongnu/pdf-tools.svg]] 9 [[https://stable.melpa.org/#/pdf-tools][http://stable.melpa.org/packages/pdf-tools-badge.svg]] 10 [[https://melpa.org/#/pdf-tools][http://melpa.org/packages/pdf-tools-badge.svg]] [[https://ci.appveyor.com/project/vedang/pdf-tools][https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/yqic2san0wi7o5v8/branch/master?svg=true]] 11 12 The ~pdf-tools~ Wiki is maintained at https://pdftools.wiki. Head to the site if you find it easier to navigate a website for reading a manual. All the topics on the site are listed at https://pdftools.wiki/impulse. 13 14 * Table of Contents :noexport:TOC_3_gh: 15 - [[#about-pdf-tools][About PDF Tools]] 16 - [[#installing-pdf-tools][Installing pdf-tools]] 17 - [[#installing-the-epdfinfo-server][Installing the epdfinfo server]] 18 - [[#installing-the-epdfinfo-server-from-package-managers][Installing the epdfinfo server from package managers]] 19 - [[#installing-the-epdfinfo-server-from-source-on-windows--gotchas][Installing the epdfinfo server from source on Windows (+ Gotchas)]] 20 - [[#installing-the-epdfinfo-server-from-source-on-macos--gotchas][Installing the epdfinfo server from source on macOS (+ Gotchas)]] 21 - [[#common-installation-gotchas][Common installation gotchas]] 22 - [[#installing-optional-features][Installing optional features]] 23 - [[#installing-pdf-tools-elisp-code][Installing pdf-tools elisp code]] 24 - [[#updating-pdf-tools][Updating pdf-tools]] 25 - [[#features][Features]] 26 - [[#view-and-navigate-pdfs][View and Navigate PDFs]] 27 - [[#keybindings-for-navigating-pdf-documents][Keybindings for navigating PDF documents]] 28 - [[#keybindings-for-manipulating-display-of-pdf][Keybindings for manipulating display of PDF]] 29 - [[#annotations][Annotations]] 30 - [[#keybindings-for-working-with-annotations][Keybindings for working with Annotations]] 31 - [[#working-with-auctex][Working with AUCTeX]] 32 - [[#keybindings-for-working-with-auctex][Keybindings for working with AUCTeX]] 33 - [[#miscellaneous-features][Miscellaneous features]] 34 - [[#keybindings-for-miscellaneous-features-in-pdf-tools][Keybindings for miscellaneous features in PDF tools]] 35 - [[#easy-help-for-pdf-tools-features][Easy Help for PDF Tools features]] 36 - [[#configuring-pdf-tools-features][Configuring PDF Tools features]] 37 - [[#known-problems][Known problems]] 38 - [[#linum-mode][linum-mode]] 39 - [[#display-line-numbers-mode][display-line-numbers-mode]] 40 - [[#auto-revert][auto-revert]] 41 - [[#sublimity][sublimity]] 42 - [[#text-selection-is-not-transparent-in-pdfs-ocred-with-tesseract][Text selection is not transparent in PDFs OCRed with Tesseract]] 43 - [[#key-bindings-in-pdf-tools][Key-bindings in PDF Tools]] 44 - [[#tips-and-tricks-for-developers][Tips and Tricks for Developers]] 45 - [[#turn-on-debug-mode][Turn on debug mode]] 46 - [[#run-emacs-lisp-tests-locally][Run Emacs lisp tests locally]] 47 - [[#run-server-compilation-tests-locally][Run server compilation tests locally]] 48 - [[#add-a-dockerfile-to-automate-server-compilation-testing][Add a Dockerfile to automate server compilation testing]] 49 - [[#issue-template-for-bug-reports][Issue Template for Bug Reports]] 50 - [[#describe-the-bug][Describe the bug]] 51 - [[#steps-to-reproduce-the-behaviour][Steps To Reproduce the behaviour:]] 52 - [[#what-is-the-expected-behaviour][What is the expected behaviour?]] 53 - [[#desktop][Desktop]] 54 - [[#your-pdf-tools-install][Your pdf-tools install]] 55 - [[#additional-context][Additional context]] 56 - [[#faqs][FAQs]] 57 - [[#pdfs-are-not-rendering-well][PDFs are not rendering well!]] 58 - [[#what-emacs-versions-does-pdf-tools-support][What Emacs versions does pdf-tools support?]] 59 - [[#i-want-to-add-support-for-pdf-tools-on-my-fav-os-how-do-i-do-that][I want to add support for pdf-tools on "My Fav OS". How do I do that?]] 60 - [[#i-am-on-a-macbook-m1-and-pdf-tools-installation-fails-with-a-stack-trace][I am on a Macbook M1 and pdf-tools installation fails with a stack-trace]] 61 - [[#i-am-a-developer-making-changes-to-the-pdf-tools-source-code][I am a developer, making changes to the pdf-tools source code]] 62 63 * About PDF Tools 64 :PROPERTIES: 65 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 66 :ID: 5a884389-6aec-498a-90d5-f37168809b4f 67 :EXPORT_FILE_NAME: index 68 :END: 69 PDF Tools is, among other things, a replacement of DocView for PDF files. The key difference is that pages are not pre-rendered by, say, ~ghostscript~ and stored in the file-system, but rather created on-demand and stored in memory. 70 71 This rendering is performed by a special library named, for whatever reason, ~poppler~, running inside a server program. This program is called ~epdfinfo~ and its job is to successively read requests from Emacs and produce the proper results, i.e. the PNG image of a PDF page. 72 73 Actually, displaying PDF files is just one part of ~pdf-tools~. Since ~poppler~ can provide us with all kinds of information about a document and is also able to modify it, there is a lot more we can do with it. [[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2bc1is][Watch this video for a detailed demo!]] 74 75 * Installing pdf-tools 76 :PROPERTIES: 77 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 78 :ID: 6ceea50c-cbaa-4d8a-b450-8067c5e8c9da 79 :NEURON_DIRTREE_DISPLAY: false 80 :END: 81 Installing this package via NonGNU ELPA or MELPA or any of the other package managers is straightforward and should just work! You should not require any manual changes. The documentation below is *only if you are installing from source*, or for troubleshooting / debugging purposes. 82 83 ~pdf-tools~ requires a server ~epdfinfo~ to run against, which it will try to compile and build when it is activated for the first time. The following steps need to be followed *in this order*, to install ~pdf-tools~ and ~epdfinfo~ correctly: 84 85 - [[brain-child:e305cd0a-e798-4c2b-af27-21bcd936c1c9][Installing the epdfinfo server]] 86 - [[brain-child:32c4fc3b-b4ea-43bd-b92c-bdf2d3831fcf][Installing pdf-tools elisp code]] 87 88 ** Installing the epdfinfo server 89 :PROPERTIES: 90 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 91 :ID: e305cd0a-e798-4c2b-af27-21bcd936c1c9 92 :END: 93 If you install ~pdf-tools~ via NonGNU ELPA or MELPA, *you don't need to worry about this separate server installation at all*. 94 95 Note: You'll need GNU Emacs \ge 26.3 and some form of a GNU/Linux OS. Other operating systems are not officially supported, but ~pdf-tools~ is known to work on many of them. 96 97 The ~epdfinfo~ install script takes care of installing all the necessary pre-requisites on supported operating systems (see list below). See the section on [[id:A34704B9-1B51-4614-8806-C4059F7B42D5][I want to add support for ~pdf-tools~ on =My Fav OS=. How do I do that?]] to learn how to add your favorite Operating System to this list. 98 99 Similarly, package-managers are not officially supported, but ~pdf-tools~ is known to be available on some of them. See the section on [[id:fb5cef15-fed4-4dec-a443-52f7c00c7831][Installing the ~epdfinfo~ server from package managers]] to avoid manual installation of server / server prerequisites. 100 101 Installation Instructions for ~epdfinfo~: 102 #+begin_src sh 103 $ git clone https://github.com/vedang/pdf-tools 104 $ cd /path/to/pdf-tools 105 $ make -s # If you don't have make installed, run ./server/autobuild and it will install make 106 #+end_src 107 108 This should give you no error and should compile the ~epdfinfo~ server. If you face a problem, please report on the issue tracker! 109 110 The following Operating Systems / package managers are supported. *Note*: The package manager used to install pre-requisites should be installed on your OS for the script to work: 111 112 - Debian-based systems (~debian~, ~ubuntu~): ~apt-get~ 113 - Fedora: ~dnf~ 114 - macOS: ~brew~ 115 - Windows (MSYS2/ MingW): ~pacman~ 116 - NixOS: ~nix-shell~ 117 - openSUSE (Tumbleweed and Leap): ~zypper~ 118 - Void Linux: ~xbps-install~ 119 - Apline Linux: ~apk~ 120 - FreeBSD: ~pkg~ 121 - OpenBSD: ~pkg_add~ 122 - NetBSD: ~pkgin~ 123 - Arch Linux: ~pacman~ 124 - Gentoo: ~emerge~ 125 - CentOS: ~yum~ 126 127 *** Installing the epdfinfo server from package managers 128 :PROPERTIES: 129 :CREATED: [2022-02-13 Sun 23:10] 130 :ID: fb5cef15-fed4-4dec-a443-52f7c00c7831 131 :END: 132 ~pdf-tools~ can be directly installed from the package manager on some operating systems. Note that the packages available on these package managers are not maintained by the author and might be outdated. 133 134 - Debian: https://packages.debian.org/buster/elpa-pdf-tools-server 135 - Ubuntu: https://packages.ubuntu.com/impish/elpa-pdf-tools-server 136 - MSYS2 / MINGW (Windows): https://packages.msys2.org/package/mingw-w64-x86_64-emacs-pdf-tools-server?repo=mingw64 137 - FreeBSD: https://repology.org/metapackages/?search=pdf-tools&inrepo=freebsd 138 139 *** Installing the epdfinfo server from source on Windows (+ Gotchas) 140 :PROPERTIES: 141 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 142 :ID: d14e01ff-9bd5-47ee-86fc-859b4499d5d7 143 :END: 144 If using the GNU binaries for Windows, support for PNG and ~zlib~ must first be installed by copying the appropriate dlls into emacs' ~bin/~ directory. Most third-party binaries come with this already done. 145 146 1. [[https://www.msys2.org/][install MSYS2]] and update the package database and core packages using the instructions provided. 147 2. Open ~mingw64~ shell (*Note:* You must use ~mingw64.exe~ and not ~msys2.exe~) 148 3. Compile the ~epdfinfo~ server using Installation steps described in [[id:e305cd0a-e798-4c2b-af27-21bcd936c1c9][Installing the ~epdfinfo~ server]] 149 4. This should produce a file ~server/epdfinfo.exe~. Copy this file into the ~pdf-tools/~ installation directory in your Emacs. 150 5. Make sure Emacs can find ~epdfinfo.exe~. Either add the MINGW install location (e.g. ~C:/msys2/mingw64/bin~) to the system path with ~setx PATH "C:\msys2\mingw64\bin;%PATH%"~ or set Emacs's path with ~(setenv "PATH" (concat "C:\\msys64\\mingw64\\bin;" (getenv "PATH")))~. Note that libraries from other GNU utilities, such as Git for Windows, may interfere with those needed by ~pdf-tools~. ~pdf-info-check-epdinfo~ will succeed, but errors occur when trying to view a PDF file. This can be fixed by ensuring that the MSYS libraries are always preferred. 151 6. ~pdf-tools~ will successfully compile using Cygwin, but it will not be able to open PDFs properly due to the way binaries compiled with Cygwin handle file paths. Please use MSYS2. 152 153 *** Installing the epdfinfo server from source on macOS (+ Gotchas) 154 :PROPERTIES: 155 :CREATED: [2022-10-11 Tue 11:42] 156 :ID: 60CBCD65-5654-400A-913F-8B31901D071C 157 :END: 158 On macOS, ~autobuild~ adjusts ~PKG_CONFIG_PATH~ so that ~pdf-tools~ can find some of the keg-only packages installed by ~brew~. It is recommended that you review the output logs printed by ~brew~ during the installation process to also export the relevant paths to the appropriate ENV variables. 159 160 *** Common installation gotchas 161 :PROPERTIES: 162 :CREATED: [2022-10-11 Tue 11:04] 163 :ID: 3F4C0FDF-6AC0-4845-BA2D-ED7C2F40D894 164 :END: 165 In case you decide to install ~libpoppler~ from source, make sure to run its configure script with the ~--enable-xpdf-headers~ option. 166 167 *** Installing optional features 168 :PROPERTIES: 169 :CREATED: [2022-10-11 Tue 11:15] 170 :ID: 97FC4447-B567-457F-A498-7CCA74DD5657 171 :END: 172 One feature -- following links of a PDF document by plain keystrokes -- requires ~imagemagick~'s convert utility. This requirement is optional, the installation process will detect if you have ~imagemagick~ installed or not. 173 ** Installing pdf-tools elisp code 174 :PROPERTIES: 175 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 176 :ID: 32c4fc3b-b4ea-43bd-b92c-bdf2d3831fcf 177 :END: 178 ~pdf-tools~ requires ~tablist~ package (>= version 0.70) to be installed, for it to work correctly. Please make sure that the latest version of ~tablist~ is installed. 179 180 We have already run the steps necessary to install ~pdf-tools~ as part of [[id:e305cd0a-e798-4c2b-af27-21bcd936c1c9][the server installation]]! These are: 181 #+BEGIN_SRC sh 182 $ git clone https://github.com/vedang/pdf-tools 183 $ cd /path/to/pdf-tools 184 $ make -s 185 #+END_SRC 186 187 If the ~make~ command produced the ELP file ~pdf-tools-${VERSION}.tar~ you are fine! This package contains all the necessary files for Emacs and may be installed by either using 188 #+begin_src sh 189 $ make install-package 190 #+end_src 191 or executing the Emacs command 192 #+begin_src elisp 193 M-x package-install-file RET pdf-tools-${VERSION}.tar RET 194 #+end_src 195 196 You can test if the package has been installed correctly, by running 197 #+begin_src elisp 198 M-x pdf-info-check-epdfinfo RET 199 #+end_src 200 201 To complete the installation process, you need to activate the package by putting the code below somewhere in your ~.emacs~. Alternatively, and if you care about startup time, you may want to use the loader version instead. 202 #+begin_src elisp 203 (pdf-tools-install) ; Standard activation command 204 (pdf-loader-install) ; On demand loading, leads to faster startup time 205 #+end_src 206 207 Once the Installation process is complete, check out [[id:19a3daea-6fa6-4ac3-9201-d2034c46ad8c][Easy Help for PDF Tools features]] and [[id:8dccd685-18b8-4c98-977a-0fe2d66b724c][Configuring PDF Tools features]] to get started! 208 ** Updating pdf-tools 209 :PROPERTIES: 210 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 211 :ID: 9dd62314-f5ad-4bd4-83fa-8e28343e3d9c 212 :END: 213 Some day you might want to update this package via ~git pull~ and then reinstall it. Sometimes this may fail, especially if Lisp-Macros are involved and the version hasn't changed. To avoid this kind of problems, you should delete the old package via ~list-packages~, restart Emacs, run ~make distclean~ and then reinstall the package. Follow the steps described in [[id:32c4fc3b-b4ea-43bd-b92c-bdf2d3831fcf][Installing pdf-tools elisp code]]. 214 215 This also applies when updating via MELPA / NonGNU ELPA (except for running the ~make distclean~ step). 216 217 * Features 218 :PROPERTIES: 219 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 220 :ID: 555b4a2a-7881-49ac-a066-7e3f10034ca4 221 :END: 222 + View :: View PDF documents in a buffer with DocView-like bindings. [[id:18d362e1-a1a3-4c51-9d45-04e2c53d8c0c][More information here]]. 223 + Isearch :: Interactively search PDF documents like any other buffer, either for a string or a PCRE. 224 + Occur :: List lines matching a string or regexp in one or more PDF documents. 225 + Follow :: Click on highlighted links, moving to some part of a different page, some external file, a website or any other URI. Links may also be followed by keyboard commands. 226 + Annotations :: Display and list text and markup annotations (like underline), edit their contents and attributes (e.g. color), move them around, delete them or create new ones and then save the modifications back to the PDF file. [[id:5fff6471-a933-46d7-8ae9-b2fa4a9de952][More information here]]. 227 + Attachments :: Save files attached to the PDF-file or list them in a dired buffer. 228 + Outline :: Use ~imenu~ or a special buffer (~M-x pdf-outline~) to examine and navigate the PDF's outline. 229 + SyncTeX :: Jump from a position on a page directly to the TeX source and vice versa. 230 + Virtual :: Use a collection of documents as if it were one, big single PDF. 231 + Misc :: 232 - Display PDF's metadata. 233 - Mark a region and kill the text from the PDF. 234 - Keep track of visited pages via a history. 235 - Apply a color filter for reading in low light conditions. 236 ** View and Navigate PDFs 237 :PROPERTIES: 238 :CREATED: [2021-12-30 Thu 18:25] 239 :ID: 18d362e1-a1a3-4c51-9d45-04e2c53d8c0c 240 :END: 241 PDFView Mode is an Emacs PDF viewer. It displays PDF files as PNG images in Emacs buffers. PDFs are navigable using DocView-like bindings. Once you have installed ~pdf-tools~, opening a PDF in Emacs will automatically trigger this mode. 242 *** Keybindings for navigating PDF documents 243 :PROPERTIES: 244 :CREATED: [2021-12-30 Thu 18:25] 245 :ID: 01864499-2286-4e64-91f5-f8133f53ec61 246 :END: 247 | Navigation | | 248 |-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------| 249 | Scroll Up / Down by Page-full | ~space~ / ~backspace~ | 250 | Scroll Up / Down by Line | ~C-n~ / ~C-p~ | 251 | Scroll Right / Left | ~C-f~ / ~C-b~ | 252 | First Page / Last Page | ~<~, ~M-<~ / ~>~, ~M->~ | 253 | Next Page / Previous Page | ~n~ / ~p~ | 254 | Incremental Search Forward / Backward | ~C-s~ / ~C-r~ | 255 | Occur (list all lines containing a phrase) | ~M-s o~ | 256 | Jump to Occur Line | ~RETURN~ | 257 | Pick a Link and Jump | ~F~ | 258 | Incremental Search in Links | ~f~ | 259 | History Back / Forwards | ~l~ / ~r~ | 260 | Display Outline | ~o~ | 261 | Jump to Section from Outline | ~RETURN~ | 262 | Jump to Page | ~M-g g~ | 263 | Store position / Jump to position in register | ~m~ / ~'~ | 264 |-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------| 265 | | | 266 Note that ~pdf-tools~ renders the PDF as images inside Emacs. This means that all the keybindings of ~image-mode~ work on individual PDF pages as well. 267 | Image Mode | | 268 |------------------------+---------------------------------------------| 269 | image-scroll-right | ~C-x >~ / ~<remap> <scroll-right>~ | 270 | image-scroll-left | ~C-x <~ / ~<remap> <scroll-left>~ | 271 | image-scroll-up | ~C-v~ / ~<remap> <scroll-up>~ | 272 | image-scroll-down | ~M-v~ / ~<remap> <scroll-down>~ | 273 | image-forward-hscroll | ~C-f~ / ~right~ / ~<remap> <forward-char>~ | 274 | image-backward-hscroll | ~C-b~ / ~left~ / ~<remap> <backward-char>~ | 275 | image-bob | ~<remap> <beginning-of-buffer>~ | 276 | image-eob | ~<remap> <end-of-buffer>~ | 277 | image-bol | ~<remap> <move-beginning-of-line>~ | 278 | image-eol | ~<remap> <move-end-of-line>~ | 279 | image-scroll-down | ~<remap> <scroll-down>~ | 280 | image-scroll-up | ~<remap> <scroll-up>~ | 281 | image-scroll-left | ~<remap> <scroll-left>~ | 282 | image-scroll-right | ~<remap> <scroll-right>~ | 283 |------------------------+---------------------------------------------| 284 | | | 285 286 *** Keybindings for manipulating display of PDF 287 :PROPERTIES: 288 :CREATED: [2021-12-30 Thu 18:33] 289 :ID: 73a18ea8-aa21-48d4-9d8b-dc64e3601000 290 :END: 291 | Display | | 292 |------------------------------------------+-----------------| 293 | Zoom in / Zoom out | ~+~ / ~-~ | 294 | Fit Height / Fit Width / Fit Page | ~H~ / ~W~ / ~P~ | 295 | Trim Margins (set slice to bounding box) | ~s b~ | 296 | Reset Margins | ~s r~ | 297 | Reset Zoom | ~0~ | 298 | Rotate Page | ~R~ | 299 |------------------------------------------+-----------------| 300 301 ** Annotations 302 :PROPERTIES: 303 :CREATED: [2021-12-30 Thu 16:58] 304 :ID: 5fff6471-a933-46d7-8ae9-b2fa4a9de952 305 :END: 306 ~pdf-tools~ supports working with PDF Annotations. You can display and list text and markup annotations (like squiggly, highlight), edit their contents and attributes (e.g. color), move them around, delete them or create new ones and then save the modifications back to the PDF file. 307 *** Keybindings for working with Annotations 308 :PROPERTIES: 309 :CREATED: [2021-12-30 Thu 17:08] 310 :ID: 243b3843-b912-430b-884a-641304755b92 311 :END: 312 | Annotations | | 313 |--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------| 314 | List Annotations | ~C-c C-a l~ | 315 | Jump to Annotations from List | ~SPACE~ | 316 | Mark Annotation for Deletion | ~d~ | 317 | Delete Marked Annotations | ~x~ | 318 | Unmark Annotations | ~u~ | 319 | Close Annotation List | ~q~ | 320 | Enable/Disable Following Annotations | ~C-c C-f~ | 321 |--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------| 322 | Add and Edit Annotations | Select region via Mouse selection. | 323 | | Then left-click context menu OR keybindings below | 324 |--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------| 325 | Add a Markup Annotation | ~C-c C-a m~ | 326 | Add a Highlight Markup Annotation | ~C-c C-a h~ | 327 | Add a Strikeout Markup Annotation | ~C-c C-a o~ | 328 | Add a Squiggly Markup Annotation | ~C-c C-a s~ | 329 | Add an Underline Markup Annotation | ~C-c C-a u~ | 330 | Add a Text Annotation | ~C-c C-a t~ | 331 |--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------| 332 | | | 333 334 ** Working with AUCTeX 335 :PROPERTIES: 336 :CREATED: [2021-12-30 Thu 18:37] 337 :ID: 698bdbad-e5f1-4958-b61e-9ed12d4b1234 338 :END: 339 *** Keybindings for working with AUCTeX 340 :PROPERTIES: 341 :CREATED: [2021-12-30 Thu 18:37] 342 :ID: ab7872c1-edd6-465d-9d1d-b621db6364a3 343 :END: 344 | Syncing with AUCTeX | | 345 |-----------------------------------------------+-------------| 346 | Refresh File (e.g., after recompiling source) | ~g~ | 347 | Jump to PDF Location from Source | ~C-c C-g~ | 348 | Jump Source Location from PDF | ~C-mouse-1~ | 349 350 ** Miscellaneous features 351 :PROPERTIES: 352 :CREATED: [2021-12-30 Thu 18:37] 353 :ID: bbefb49d-fca8-4d4f-9d16-4a4ad1946d89 354 :END: 355 *** Keybindings for miscellaneous features in PDF tools 356 :PROPERTIES: 357 :CREATED: [2021-12-30 Thu 18:35] 358 :ID: 9148deff-dd5a-46be-a48f-cd2f96b7ce19 359 :END: 360 | Miscellaneous | | 361 |-----------------------------------------------+-----------| 362 | Print File | ~C-c C-p~ | 363 364 ** Easy Help for PDF Tools features 365 :PROPERTIES: 366 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 13:49] 367 :ID: 19a3daea-6fa6-4ac3-9201-d2034c46ad8c 368 :END: 369 #+begin_src elisp 370 M-x pdf-tools-help RET 371 #+end_src 372 373 Run ~M-x pdf-tools-help~ inside Emacs, as shown above. It will list all the features provided by ~pdf-tools~ as well as the key-bindings for these features. 374 375 ** Configuring PDF Tools features 376 :PROPERTIES: 377 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 13:51] 378 :ID: 8dccd685-18b8-4c98-977a-0fe2d66b724c 379 :END: 380 Once you have read through the features provided by ~pdf-tools~, you probably want to customize the behavior of the features as per your requirements. Full customization of features is available by running the following: 381 #+begin_src elisp 382 M-x pdf-tools-customize RET 383 #+end_src 384 385 * Known problems 386 :PROPERTIES: 387 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:29] 388 :ID: 4baf936a-2454-41c9-99db-177133ee9568 389 :END: 390 391 ** linum-mode 392 :PROPERTIES: 393 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 394 :ID: 73625d02-d472-4e7d-9805-db6d3b60e0ff 395 :END: 396 ~pdf-tools~ does not work well together with ~linum-mode~ and activating it in a ~pdf-view-mode~, e.g. via ~global-linum-mode~, might make Emacs choke. 397 398 ** display-line-numbers-mode 399 :PROPERTIES: 400 :CREATED: [2022-01-03 Mon 08:31] 401 :ID: f178ba41-0f5a-4d22-b4a8-889af1af566e 402 :END: 403 This mode is an alternative to ~linum-mode~ and is available since Emacs 26. ~pdf-tools~ does not work well with it. For example, it makes horizontal navigation (such as ~C-f~, ~C-b~, ~C-x <~ or ~C-x >~ ) in a document impossible. 404 405 ** auto-revert 406 :PROPERTIES: 407 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 408 :ID: 24b671c6-c242-4983-9d11-38421d2752e9 409 :END: 410 Autorevert works by polling the file-system every ~auto-revert-interval~ seconds, optionally combined with some event-based reverting via [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/File-Notifications.html][file notification]]. But this currently does not work reliably, such that Emacs may revert the PDF-buffer while the corresponding file is still being written to (e.g. by LaTeX), leading to a potential error. 411 412 With a recent [[https://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/][AUCTeX]] installation, you might want to put the following somewhere in your dotemacs, which will revert the PDF-buffer *after* the TeX compilation has finished. 413 #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp 414 (add-hook 'TeX-after-compilation-finished-functions #'TeX-revert-document-buffer) 415 #+END_SRC 416 417 ** sublimity 418 :PROPERTIES: 419 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 420 :ID: 4766d18a-c02a-456d-8398-701bbea3ee80 421 :END: 422 L/R scrolling breaks while zoomed into a pdf, with usage of sublimity smooth scrolling features 423 424 ** Text selection is not transparent in PDFs OCRed with Tesseract 425 :PROPERTIES: 426 :CREATED: [2022-09-19 Mon 18:50] 427 :ID: C3A4A7C0-6BBB-4923-AD39-3707C8482A76 428 :END: 429 430 In such PDFs the selected text becomes hidden behind the selection; see [[https://github.com/vedang/pdf-tools/issues/149][this issue]], which also describes the workaround in detail. The following function, which depends on the [[https://github.com/orgtre/qpdf.el][qpdf.el]] package, can be used to convert such a PDF file into one where text selection is transparent: 431 #+begin_src elisp 432 (defun my-fix-pdf-selection () 433 "Replace pdf with one where selection shows transparently." 434 (interactive) 435 (unless (equal (file-name-extension (buffer-file-name)) "pdf") 436 (error "Buffer should visit a pdf file.")) 437 (unless (equal major-mode 'pdf-view-mode) 438 (pdf-view-mode)) 439 ;; save file in QDF-mode 440 (qpdf-run (list 441 (concat "--infile=" 442 (buffer-file-name)) 443 "--qdf --object-streams=disable" 444 "--replace-input")) 445 ;; do replacements 446 (text-mode) 447 (read-only-mode -1) 448 (while (re-search-forward "3 Tr" nil t) 449 (replace-match "7 Tr" nil nil)) 450 (save-buffer) 451 (pdf-view-mode)) 452 #+end_src 453 Note that this overwrites the PDF file visited in the buffer from which it is run! To avoid this replace the ~--replace-input~ with ~(concat "--outfile=" (file-truename (read-file-name "Outfile: ")))~. 454 455 * Key-bindings in PDF Tools 456 :PROPERTIES: 457 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 458 :ID: fa99285a-437e-4be4-9a65-426db019019f 459 :END: 460 - [[brain-child:01864499-2286-4e64-91f5-f8133f53ec61][Keybindings for navigating PDF documents]] 461 - [[brain-child:243b3843-b912-430b-884a-641304755b92][Keybindings for working with Annotations]] 462 - [[brain-child:73a18ea8-aa21-48d4-9d8b-dc64e3601000][Keybindings for manipulating display of PDF]] 463 - [[brain-child:ab7872c1-edd6-465d-9d1d-b621db6364a3][Keybindings for working with AUCTeX]] 464 - [[brain-child:9148deff-dd5a-46be-a48f-cd2f96b7ce19][Keybindings for miscellaneous features in PDF tools]] 465 466 * Tips and Tricks for Developers 467 :PROPERTIES: 468 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 469 :ID: fd64c10c-4ea5-4ece-8d95-b723098dd4f6 470 :END: 471 ** Turn on debug mode 472 :PROPERTIES: 473 :CREATED: [2021-12-29 Wed 18:34] 474 :ID: 100fc888-7064-4dd3-9db4-c84a7e8f4af0 475 :END: 476 #+begin_src elisp 477 M-x pdf-tools-toggle-debug RET 478 #+end_src 479 Toggling debug mode prints information about various operations in the ~*Messages*~ buffer, and this is useful to see what is happening behind the scenes 480 481 ** Run Emacs lisp tests locally 482 :PROPERTIES: 483 :CREATED: [2022-05-09 Mon 21:27] 484 :ID: 1CBE7325-A5A1-479B-9A98-BEEFBAC9D8FF 485 :END: 486 You can go to the ~pdf-tools~ folder and run ~make test~ to run the ERT tests and check if the changes you have made to the code break any of the tests. 487 488 The tests are written in ERT, which is the built-in testing system in Emacs. However, they are run using ~Cask~ which you will have to install first, if you don't have it already. You can install ~Cask~ by following the instructions on their site at https://github.com/cask/cask 489 ** Run server compilation tests locally 490 :PROPERTIES: 491 :CREATED: [2022-07-20 Wed 16:42] 492 :ID: 5327945D-9D92-4462-8172-7237DEF4C359 493 :END: 494 You can go to the ~pdf-tools~ folder and run ~make server-test~ to check if the changes you have made to the server code break compilation on any of the supported operating systems. 495 496 The tests build ~Podman~ images for all supported operating systems, so you will have to install ~Podman~ first, if you don't have already. You can install ~Podman~ by following the instructions on their site at https://podman.io/getting-started/installation 497 498 Podman is compatible with Docker, so if you already have ~docker~ installed, you should be able to ~alias podman=docker~ on your shell and run the tests, without having to install Docker. (Note: I have not tested this) 499 500 ** Add a Dockerfile to automate server compilation testing 501 :PROPERTIES: 502 :CREATED: [2022-07-20 Wed 16:52] 503 :ID: A401543C-308B-4175-8212-5B78CD6C8389 504 :END: 505 The ~server/test/docker~ folder contains Dockerfile templates used for testing that the ~epdfinfo~ server compiles correctly on various operating systems ([[id:5327945D-9D92-4462-8172-7237DEF4C359][more details here]]). 506 507 To see the list of operating systems where compilation testing is supported, run ~make server-test-supported~. To see the list of operating systems where testing is unsupported, run ~make server-test-unsupported~. To add support, look into the ~server/test/docker/templates~ folder (~ubuntu~ files are a good example to refer to) 508 509 ** Issue Template for Bug Reports 510 :PROPERTIES: 511 :CREATED: [2022-12-02 Fri 13:30] 512 :ID: F563A2A4-FCF8-4F04-94CA-19E80E4841A6 513 :END: 514 Please use the 'Bug Report' issue template when reporting bugs. The template is as follows: 515 516 *** Describe the bug 517 A clear and concise description of what the bug is. 518 519 *** Steps To Reproduce the behaviour: 520 1. Go to '...' 521 2. Click on '....' 522 3. Scroll down to '....' 523 4. See error 524 525 *** What is the expected behaviour? 526 A clear and concise description of what you expected to happen. 527 528 *** Desktop 529 Please complete the following information: 530 531 - OS: [eg: MacOS Catalina] 532 - Emacs Version: [This should be the output of ~M-x emacs-version~ ] 533 - Poppler Version: [eg: output of ~brew info poppler~ and similarly for other OSs] 534 535 *** Your pdf-tools install 536 Please complete the following information: 537 - ~pdf-tools~ Version: [ ~M-x package-list-packages~ -> Search for ~pdf-tools~ -> Hit Enter and copy all the details that pop up in the Help buffer] 538 - ~pdf-tools~ customization / configuration that you use: 539 540 *** Additional context 541 - If you are reporting a crash, please try and add the Backtrace / Stacktrace of the crash. 542 - If you are reporting a bug, please try and attach an example PDF file where I can reproduce the bug. 543 - If you can attach screenshots or recordings, that is a great help 544 - Please try reproducing the bug yourself on Vanilla Emacs before reporting the problem. 545 546 * FAQs 547 :PROPERTIES: 548 :CREATED: [2021-12-30 Thu 22:04] 549 :ID: 3be6abe7-163e-4c3e-a7df-28e8470fe37f 550 :END: 551 ** PDFs are not rendering well! 552 :PROPERTIES: 553 :CREATED: [2021-12-30 Thu 22:04] 554 :ID: 20ef86be-7c92-4cda-97ec-70a22484e689 555 :END: 556 ~pdf-tools~ version ~1.1.0~ release changed the default value of ~pdf-view-use-scaling~ to ~t~ (previously, it was ~nil~). This has been done keeping in mind that most modern monitors are HiDPI screens, so the default configuration should cater to this user. If you are not using a HiDPI screen, you might have to change this value to ~nil~ in your configuration 557 558 #+begin_src elisp 559 (setq pdf-view-use-scaling nil) 560 #+end_src 561 562 to scale the images correctly when rendering them. 563 564 ** What Emacs versions does pdf-tools support? 565 :PROPERTIES: 566 :CREATED: [2022-01-02 Sun 10:12] 567 :ID: f44c66e6-402d-4154-b806-6bb4180a0a5b 568 :END: 569 ~pdf-tools~ supports the 3 latest versions of Emacs major releases. At the moment of this writing, this means that the minimum supported Emacs version is ~26.3~. 570 ** I want to add support for pdf-tools on "My Fav OS". How do I do that? 571 :PROPERTIES: 572 :CREATED: [2022-04-25 Mon 21:50] 573 :ID: A34704B9-1B51-4614-8806-C4059F7B42D5 574 :END: 575 I'm working on automating ~pdf-tools~ installation as much as possible, in order to improve the installation experience. If you want to add support for a new / currently unsupported Operating System, please modify the ~server/autobuild~ script. Say you want to support a new Operating System called MyFavOS. You need to do the following work: 576 577 1. Search for the ~Figure out where we are~ section. Here, add a call to ~os_myfavos~ right below ~handle_options~ at the end of the existing call chain. Here we try and pick up the correct Operating System and install the relevant dependencies. 578 2. Add handling for the ~--os~ argument in ~os_argument~ for ~myfavos~, so that the appropriate function can be called to install pre-requisites. ~--os~ is the argument that we pass to the script from the command-line to indicate which OS we are on. 579 3. Create a ~os_myfavos~ function. This function checks if we are running on MyFavOS. If we are running on MyFavOS, it sets up ~PKGCMD~, ~PKGARGS~ and ~PACKAGES~ variables so that the appropriate package manager can install the dependencies as part of the rest of the ~autobuild~ script. 580 4. If you are adding support for your favorite operating system, consider adding automated testing support as well, to help me ensure that ~epdfinfo~ continues to compile correctly. See [[id:A401543C-308B-4175-8212-5B78CD6C8389][Add a Dockerfile to automate server compilation testing]] for more details. 581 582 The idea here is to make the ~server/autobuild~ file the single place from which installation can happen on any Operating System. This makes building ~pdf-tools~ dead simple via the ~Makefile~. 583 584 This seems like a lot of work, but it is not. If you need a reference, search for ~os_gentoo~ or ~os_debian~ in the ~server/autobuild~ file and see how these are setup and used. The functions are used to install dependencies on Gentoo and Debian respectively, and are simple to copy / change. 585 586 When you make your changes, please be sure to test [[id:1CBE7325-A5A1-479B-9A98-BEEFBAC9D8FF][the elisp changes]] as well as [[id:5327945D-9D92-4462-8172-7237DEF4C359][the server code changes]] as described in the linked articles. 587 588 ** I am on a Macbook M1 and pdf-tools installation fails with a stack-trace 589 :PROPERTIES: 590 :CREATED: [2022-05-09 Mon 20:29] 591 :ID: 96D389D8-DD23-4FB0-996C-2D6F70A76BB2 592 :END: 593 There have been a number of issues around ~pdf-tools~ installation problems on M1. ~M-x pdf-tools-install~ throws the following stack trace: 594 #+begin_example 595 1 warning generated. 596 ld: warning: ignoring file /opt/homebrew/opt/gettext/lib/libintl.dylib, building for macOS-x86_64 but attempting to link with file built for macOS-arm64 597 ld: warning: ignoring file /opt/homebrew/Cellar/glib/2.72.1/lib/libglib-2.0.dylib, building for macOS-x86_64 but attempting to link with file built for macOS-arm64 598 ld: warning: ignoring file /opt/homebrew/Cellar/poppler/22.02.0/lib/libpoppler-glib.dylib, building for macOS-x86_64 but attempting to link with file built for macOS-arm64 599 ld: warning: ignoring file /opt/homebrew/Cellar/glib/2.72.1/lib/libgobject-2.0.dylib, building for macOS-x86_64 but attempting to link with file built for macOS-arm64 600 ld: warning: ignoring file /opt/homebrew/Cellar/poppler/22.02.0/lib/libpoppler.dylib, building for macOS-x86_64 but attempting to link with file built for macOS-arm64 601 ld: warning: ignoring file /opt/homebrew/Cellar/cairo/1.16.0_5/lib/libcairo.dylib, building for macOS-x86_64 but attempting to link with file built for macOS-arm64 602 ld: warning: ignoring file /opt/homebrew/Cellar/libpng/1.6.37/lib/libpng16.dylib, building for macOS-x86_64 but attempting to link with file built for macOS-arm64 603 ld: warning: ignoring file /opt/homebrew/Cellar/zlib/1.2.11/lib/libz.dylib, building for macOS-x86_64 but attempting to link with file built for macOS-arm64 604 Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64: 605 #+end_example 606 607 This happens because M1 architecture is =ARM64=, whereas the Emacs App you are using has been compiled for the =x86_64= architecture. The way to solve this problem is to install a version of Emacs which has been compiled for the M1. As of today, [2022-05-09 Mon], the latest version of Emacs available on https://emacsformacosx.com/ is natively compiled and you will not face these issues on it. Please remove your current Emacs App and install it from https://emacsformacosx.com/. 608 609 Thank you. 610 611 PS: How do I know if the Emacs I'm running has been compiled correctly? 612 613 You can see this by opening the =Activity Monitor=, selecting =Emacs=, clicking on the =Info= key, and then clicking on =Sample=. The =Code Type= field in the Sample output will show you how your Application has been compiled. Here is the output for EmacsForMacOSX (you can see that it's =ARM64=): 614 #+begin_example 615 Sampling process 61824 for 3 seconds with 1 millisecond of run time between samples 616 Sampling completed, processing symbols... 617 Analysis of sampling Emacs-arm64-11 (pid 61824) every 1 millisecond 618 Process: Emacs-arm64-11 [61824] 619 Path: /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs-arm64-11 620 Load Address: 0x1007f0000 621 Identifier: org.gnu.Emacs 622 Version: Version 28.1 (9.0) 623 Code Type: ARM64 624 Platform: macOS 625 #+end_example 626 627 If your Emacs is compiled for x86, the =Code Type= will be =x86_64=. 628 629 ** I am a developer, making changes to the pdf-tools source code 630 :PROPERTIES: 631 :CREATED: [2022-05-09 Mon 21:31] 632 :ID: 2D173424-C211-4474-B0D0-83F4381CAFFA 633 :END: 634 Thank you for taking the time to contribute back to the code. You may find some useful notes in the [[id:fd64c10c-4ea5-4ece-8d95-b723098dd4f6][Tips and Tricks for Developers]] section. Please be sure to check it out!