pdf-verification-cli

PDF Verification with Command-Line Tools

When verifying PDF files during task execution, Python libraries like PyPDF2 may not be available in the environment. This skill provides a reliable alternative using standard command-line tools from the poppler-utils package.

When to Use This Skill

• Need to verify PDF page count
• Need to inspect PDF text content
• PyPDF2 or similar Python PDF libraries are unavailable
• Working in minimal/containerized environments

Core Tools

1. pdfinfo - Extract PDF Metadata

Use pdfinfo to get page count and other metadata:

# Get full PDF info
pdfinfo document.pdf

# Get only page count
pdfinfo document.pdf | grep Pages

# Extract page count as a number
pdfinfo document.pdf | grep Pages | awk '{print $2}'

Key metadata fields:

• Pages: Number of pages in the PDF
• Title: Document title
• Author: Document author
• Creator: Application that created the PDF
• Producer: Application that processed the PDF
• CreationDate: When the PDF was created
• ModDate: Last modification date

2. pdftotext - Extract Text Content

Use pdftotext to inspect the actual content of the PDF:

# Extract all text to stdout
pdftotext document.pdf -

# Extract text to a file
pdftotext document.pdf output.txt

# Extract text from specific page range
pdftotext -f 1 -l 3 document.pdf output.txt

# Preserve layout (rough formatting)
pdftotext -layout document.pdf output.txt

Verification Workflow

Step 1: Check Tool Availability

# Check if tools are installed
which pdfinfo
which pdftotext

# Or test with --help
pdfinfo --help 2>&1 | head -1

Step 2: Install if Needed

# Debian/Ubuntu
apt-get update && apt-get install -y poppler-utils

# RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
yum install -y poppler-utils
# or
dnf install -y poppler-utils

# macOS (with Homebrew)
brew install poppler

Step 3: Verify PDF Properties

# Verify page count matches expected
EXPECTED_PAGES=4
ACTUAL_PAGES=$(pdfinfo document.pdf | grep Pages | awk '{print $2}')

if [ "$ACTUAL_PAGES" -eq "$EXPECTED_PAGES" ]; then
    echo "✓ Page count verified: $ACTUAL_PAGES pages"
else
    echo "✗ Page count mismatch: expected $EXPECTED_PAGES, got $ACTUAL_PAGES"
fi