qpdf: issues with error at * in numeric range *output.pdf:

[say_hello]

hallo dear Debian-experts good day,


currently i struggle with some command-line-errors.

yes - it looks like i have very interesting issues where i struggle with... - could it be that the linux notebook does not have some ordinary text encoding (utf8 or something similar). Note i am not able to copy and paste the data into commandline.

i will start with the first line and will type each of the four lines and will run each of the four commmand..

note: i guess that i have issues with the characters...

you wrote to run the following commands:

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qpdf 98_225.pdf --pages 98_225.pdf 1-z:odd -- even.pdf
qpdf 98_225.pdf --pages 98_225.pdf 1-z:even -- odd.pdf

Edit. Ah, now I see, they weren't created because of an error. Try to replace the file name with a single dot:

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qpdf 98_225.pdf --pages . 1-z:odd -- even.pdf
qpdf 98_225.pdf --pages . 1-z:even -- odd.pdf

Looks like there is an extra character somewhere. Retype the commands into the terminal rather than copy-pasting them.[/QUOTE]
see what i have got back if i try to (okay copy and paste ) the commands:

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martin@mx:~/Dokumente/kalender/ueberschaar__fixes_urlaub
$ qpdf 98_225.pdf --pages . 1-z:even -- odd.pdf

qpdf: error at * in numeric range 1-z*:even: unexpected character

Usage: qpdf [options] infile outfile
For detailed help, run qpdf --help

martin@mx:~/Dokumente/kalender/ueberschaar__fixes_urlaub
$ 
martin@mx:~/Dokumente/kalender/ueberschaar__fixes_urlaub
$ qpdf 98_225.pdf --pages 98_225.pdf 1-z:odd -- even.pdf

qpdf: error at * in numeric range 1-z*:odd: unexpected character

Usage: qpdf [options] infile outfile
For detailed help, run qpdf --help

now i finally encountered that there something is totally wrong with my system: i cannot copy and paste commands - this does not work here. so i finally do one thing: i will type all the commands character by character...


question: should i type each of the four lines - i guess so. i guess that i need all the four lines.


i will come back later and will report all the findings.

update 1 well i guess that my notebook does have some issues with the utf8 encoding - is it possible that the character-set does not work propperly!? Very very strange things are going on here... . I will work on and will try to find out what goes wrong here.... i will come back and report all the findings...

update 2: - regarding the complaints of the shell (i am on a mx-linux-machine [https://mxlinux.org ])i found interesting news on github/qpdf see below:

here is what i ve got:

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$ qpdf 98_225.pdf --pages 98_225.pdf 1-z:odd -- even.pdf
qpdf: error at * in numeric range 1-z*:odd: unexpected character

see here - very interesting - https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/issues/11

Windows/PowerShell users also need to put quotes around the -- argument.

For example, running this:

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qpdf --empty --pages input.pdf -- output.pdf

Results in this error:

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qpdf: error at * in numeric range *output.pdf: unexpected character

The correct syntax for PowerShell is this:

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qpdf --empty --pages input.pdf '--' output.pdf

well - exactly the same issue as i have: but i am not on windows and i do not use powershell

well i need to digg deeper - guess that i run into very strange issues here ..



regards

[arochester]

i am on a mx-linux-machine [https://mxlinux.org ]

MX Linux Forum? https://forum.mxlinux.org/

[say_hello]

hi there

- sure thing - some things in the world are relying on the system that one entity is relying on. But others don t.
i guess that a command-line-issue like this is pretty common - and therefore i guess that here some ideas, suggestions and tips could come up..

but anyway: if you think that all those assumptions are useless then i take this experience as a lession.... and stop asking such general questions here...

regards

[cuckooflew]

Yes , that would be appreciated,

I deleted my other posts, this topic makes no sense to me, and has been posted of 4 different forums, (counting this one), https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/issues/11# ... -542315288
===
https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/issues/11# ... -667705898
=========
https://www.linuxquestions.org/question ... ost6151676
=============================
https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/issues/461

now i finally encountered that there something is totally wrong with my system: i cannot copy and paste commands - this does not work here. so i finally do one thing: i will type all the commands character by character...

question: should i type each of the four lines - i guess so. i guess that i need all the four lines.

It was answered, maybe, but the OP does not respond:

My guess is that you are using an old version of qpdf. What version do you have? The :even and :odd syntax was added in qpdf 9.1.

"qpdf" is available for Debian, and works as expected for me.

[say_hello]

dear cuckooflew


many thanks for the help & support untill now. This post makes maximum-sense to me. You have helped me - i recognized the response on github due to your hint. Many thanks for that.


by the way: regarding the issues see below:

https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/issues/461

My guess is that you are using an old version of qpdf. What version do you have? The :even and :odd syntax was added in qpdf 9.1.

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martin@mx:~
$ qpdf --version
qpdf version 8.4.0
Run qpdf --copyright to see copyright and license information.
martin@mx:~$ 

so - i think that i need a newer version...

i have seen in the mx-installer a newer version:

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mx-test-repository: 
10.0.1-2-mx19+1

i will update to this newer version and will try again to run the even and odd commands


i will report the findings

have a great day

[cuckooflew]

Ok, and your welcome, I think that might very well be the problem, ...Something to consider, since I am not using MX, and not sure about their repositories, etc, with Debian, it is important that the software package is appropriate for the version of the OS you are using.
On the copy /paste, that depends on what text editor (perhaps "note pad" does not support it, I don't know) and terminal emulator, me ,using xterm for my CLI terminal, and the text editor joe, I had no problems, copying / pasting commands , etc,