pdftk isn't all that friendly towards scripting...I'll say that much. I am going to work on this tomorrow...but to give you some feedback - and I appreciate all of the thinking that you did on this.. $ cat I-A-files.txt | sed 's/ /\\ /g' | xargs cat | pdftk - output I-A.pdf verbose result, only last pdf in list was inserted in output file $ cat I-A-files.txt |xargs -i pdftk "{}" cat output I-A.pdf verbose -sh-3.2$ FILES=`cat file.txt | sed 's/ /\\ /g' |xargs`; pdftk $FILES cat output I-a.pdf cat: file.txt: No such file or directory Error: No input files. Exiting. Errors encountered. No output created. Done. Input errors, so no output created. $ mkdir temp; IFS=$'\n'; for file in `cat I-A-files.txt | sed 's/ /\ /g'`; do cp -v "$file" temp; done; cd temp; pdftk *.pdf cat output ../I-a.pdf verbose ; unset IFS This last one sort of worked...It's fixable/workable anyway. Imagine publishing a book that is 400+ pages all separate Microsoft Word documents (now being converted to OpenOffice, adding form elements and then exporting into single page PDF documents...and I'm trying to script the collection into a single PDF book. Nothing about this has been easy. Thanks Charles Craig On Tue, 2008-03-04 at 20:53 -0700, Charles Jones wrote: > Ahh yeah...can't believe I didn't think of that. BTW, for pdftk, > "cat" is a command line option, not referring to the cat we know and > love. > > I think the final ver of the command would be: > > cat I-A-files.txt |xargs -i pdftk "{}" cat output I-A.pdf verbose > > Okay...my head hurts now :) > > -Charles > > Erich Newell wrote: > > xargs has additional flexibility...try using the "replace string" > > parameter > > > > So do: > > > > cat list.txt | xargs -i cat "{}" | pdftk output - > > > > The curly braces indicate where the input goes...in this case, > > between the quotes. Should handle those pesky spaces for you. > > > > Looks like this will dump a ton of pdf content to stdout....is that > > what you really want? > > > > > > > > > > On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 7:22 PM, Craig White > > wrote: > > Again, that works but it fails because the PDF includes on > > the last file. As I said, I don't think an xargs thing is > > going to work at all because as the man page states...the > > '-' option is to pass only a single file via stdin. > > > > Craig > > > > On Tue, 2008-03-04 at 19:10 -0700, Charles Jones wrote: > > > Ah those darn spaces sure cause problems :) Give this a > > try: > > > > > > $ cat I-A-files.txt | sed 's/ /\\ /g' | xargs cat | pdftk > > - output > > > I-a.pdf verbose > > > > > > It works for my test case: > > > $ cat file.txt > > > file with spaces > > > some other file > > > > > > $ cat "file with spaces" > > > This is the contents of a file with spaces > > > $ cat some\ other\ file > > > This is some other file > > > > > > $ cat file.txt | sed 's/ /\\ /g' |xargs cat > > > This is the contents of a file with spaces > > > This is some other file > > > > > > Probably a more elegant way to do it, but I'm late for > > dinner :-) > > > > > > -Charles > > > > > > > > > Craig White wrote: > > > > That doesn't seem to work. I quoted the part of the man > > page that the > > > > '-' is used to pass only a single PDF into pdftk via > > stdin and thus the > > > > xargs thing seems not to fly. > > > > > > > > $ cat I-A-files.txt | xargs -0 pdftk cat output I-A.pdf > > verbose > > > > Error: No input files. Exiting. > > > > Errors encountered. No output created. > > > > Done. Input errors, so no output created. > > > > > > > > Thanks > > > > > > > > Craig > > > > > > > > On Tue, 2008-03-04 at 17:24 -0700, Charles Jones wrote: > > > > > > > >> Give this a try: > > > >> > > > >> cat /path/to/filenames_file.xt |xargs pdftk > > > >> > > > >> -Charles > > > >> > > > >> Craig White wrote: > > > >> > > > >>> I have an awkward situation with pdftk > > > >>> > > > >>> I have a file with filenames that I want to pass to > > pdftk as input > > > >>> files. > > > >>> > > > >>> according to the man page... > > > >>> > > > >>> A list of the input PDF files. If you plan to > > combine these PDFs > > > >>> (without using handles) then list files in the > > order you want > > > >>> them combined. Use - to pass a single PDF into > > pdftk via stdin. > > > >>> > > > >>> and thus, this doesn't work... > > > >>> > > > >>> pdftk `cat "/mypath/to/I-A-files.txt"` cat output > > I-A.pdf verbose > > > >>> > > > >>> fails on spaces within the paths/filenames in that > > file. > > > >>> > > > >>> I have tried both escaping the spaces with \ and > > enclosing each path > > > >>> within a double quote but neither works. > > > >>> > > > >>> I have also tried (which fails)... > > > >>> > > > >>> $ cat "/mypath/to/I-A-files.txt" | pdftk - cat output > > I-A.pdf verbose > > > >>> Error: Failed to open PDF file: > > > >>> - > > > >>> Errors encountered. No output created. > > > >>> Done. Input errors, so no output created. > > > >>> sh-3.2$ ls -l > > > >>> total 4440 > > > >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 craig administrative 10 2008-03-04 > > 15:15 doc_toc.html > > > >>> -rw-r--r-- 1 craig administrative 1898 2008-03-04 > > 15:30 I-A-files.txt > > > >>> > > > >>> Any suggestions on this? > > > >>> > > > >>> T > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - > > PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail > > settings: > > > > > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - > > PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail > > settings: > > > > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - > > PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > > > > > > > -- > > "A man is defined by the questions that he asks; and the way he goes > > about finding the answers to those questions is the way he goes > > through life." > > > > ____________________________________________________________________ > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss