Introduction
Common command-line options are used in all Appligent server applications. These options deal with product information, progress messages, and file maintenance. Information that is specific to FDFMerge is distinguished by green text.
General options — summary
The following table provides a summary of the general command-line options:
| Option | Parameter | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -r | <RegNum> | Pass registration number to FDFMerge Lite or FDFMerge. |
| -l | <logfile> | Write progress information or errors to log file. |
| -p | Display progress messages to the console or screen. | |
| -n | Do not write anything to the console or screen. | |
| -v | Display version information. | |
| -h or -help | Display usage information. | |
| -i | Perform incremental save. | |
| -w | Linearize the file upon save. | |
| -optimize | Optimize the output file to try to reduce file size. | |
| -iso32000 | Set file for ISO 32000 compliance (PDF 1.7). | |
| -nowarning | Do not issue warnings about unused fields | |
| -d | <string> | Owner password to open this document |
| -o | <outfile.pdf> | Save output to a new file or directory. |
General options — detailed
The following sections provide details on using the general command-line options.
-r <RegNum> — Pass registration number to FDFMerge Lite or FDFMerge
This option can be used to supply your registration number to FDFMerge Lite or FDFMerge from a script or another application:
$fdfmergeliteapp -r XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX [other options]
$fdfmergeapp -r XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX [other options]
This option is typically not necessary and is available for use in cases where the Appligent License File can not be located by the application because of runtime environment restrictions.
-l <logfile> — Create a log file (optional)
Specify a text file for any errors and progress messages. This option is helpful for debugging. The -l <logfile> option must be followed by a file name. If there are no errors, no file is written. If a log file is not specified, errors are written to the default log file fdfmergelite.log or fdfmerge.log. Make sure that your log file is write enabled.
-p — Show progress (optional)
Write progress messages to the screen STDOUT, the standard output of your system and to the default log file fdfmergelite.log or fdfmerge.log. This option is helpful for debugging and for understanding how FDFMerge Lite or FDFMerge works.
A note on using -p and -l <logfile> together
As outlined in the above sections, the -p option gives you progress messages on your screen and the -l <logfile> option writes error messages to a file if errors occur. The table below provides more detail on using these options alone or together.
| -l | -p | Errors Found | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| ✔ | Nothing will be written to the screen or to the log file you specify. | ||
| ✔ | Progress messages will be written to the screen and fdfmergelite.log or fdfmerge.log. | ||
| ✔ | ✔ | Progress messages will be written to the screen and to the log file you specify. | |
| ✔ | A fdfmergelite.log or fdfmerge.log file will be created with the errors in your working directory. | ||
| ✔ | ✔ | Errors will be written to the log file you specify. | |
| ✔ | ✔ | Errors will be written to fdfmergelite.log or fdfmerge.log and your screen. | |
| ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Both progress and error message will be written to the screen and to the log file you specify. |
Therefore, -l <logfile> used on its own will only go into action if there are errors. With -p and -l <logfile> combined, you will get a text file with full details on FDFMerge Lite or FDFMerge operations whether there are errors or not.
-n — Do not write anything to the screen (optional)
Do not write anything to the screen (or STDOUT). If you are running batch mode, this prevents progress message from building up.
-v — Display version information (optional)
Display the version of FDFMerge Lite or FDFMerge you are running. This is important when corresponding with support@Appligent.com. In order to better understand your problem, we must know what version of the software you have. FDFMerge Lite or FDFMerge will not do anything else if you use this option.
-h or -help — Show usage (optional)
Display all available command-line options. FDFMerge Lite or FDFMerge will not do anything else when you use these options.
-i — Perform incremental save (optional)
An incremental save appends changed information to the end of the file. This is faster than a full save, but may result in a larger file. A full save is similar to using the “Save As..” command in Adobe Acrobat. It is a save that attempts to clean up a PDF file, often reducing its size.
-w — Linearize the file upon save (optional)
Save the output file as a linearized document, also known as optimized. Linearization reorganizes the file to make it more efficient for web delivery. Individual pages can be rendered before the entire document has downloaded, so the user can start reading the document sooner.
-optimize — Optimize the file (optional)
This flag will do the following: 1) encode any non-encoded streams using Flate compression, 2) remove ASCII85 filters from all streams, 3) replace LZW encoded streams with Flate encoding, 4) merge identical XObjects and images, 5) optimize common sequences in page content, and 6) merge identical font descriptors and encodings. This option will usually result in a smaller file size.
-iso32000 — Set file for ISO32000 compliance (optional)
This flag will set the file for ISO 32000 compliance, resulting in a document that is PDF version 1.7.
-nowarning – Do not issue warnings about unused fields
This flag will suppress messages to STDOUT when form fields appear in the FDF file but not in the PDF form.
-d <string> — Owner password to open the document (optional)
If the PDF document you wish to stamp has been encrypted, you must pass the owner password with the -d <string> option in order to stamp the file. If you are processing more than one input file at a time, the owner password must be the same for all files.
-o — Create a new output file or directory
Save the modified file as a new PDF.