Validate

Any PDF file you would like to process with pdfcpu needs to pass validation.

This command validates inFile against:

• PDF 1.7: PDF 32000-1:2008

• PDF 2.0: PDF 32000:2 (ongoing task!)

Validation can also check for broken links.

Have a look at some examples.

Usage

pdfcpu validate [-m(ode) strict|relaxed] [-l(inks)] inFile

Flags

name	description	required	values	default
m(ode)	validation mode	no	strict, relaxed	relaxed
l(inks)	check links	no

Common Flags

name	description	values
v(erbose)	turn on logging
vv	verbose logging
q(uiet)	quiet mode
-o(ffline)	disable http traffic
c(onf)	config dir	$path, disable
opw	owner password
upw	user password
u(nit)	display unit	po(ints),in(ches),cm,mm

Arguments

name	description	required
inFile	PDF input file	yes

Mode

Strict

This mode validates against the PDF specification covering all PDF versions up to 2.0.

Relaxed

This is the default mode for validation.
It behaves like strict but does not complain about common seen violations of the specification by PDF writers.

Examples

An example using strict validation:

pdfcpu validate -mode strict test.pdf
validating(mode=strict) test.pdf ...
validation ok

An example using default validation:

pdfcpu validate test.pdf
validating(mode=relaxed) test.pdf ...
validation ok

Check for broken links:

pdfcpu val -l PDF32000_2008.pdf
validating(mode=relaxed) PDF32000_2008.pdf ...
validating URIs..
...........................
Page 8: http://www.aiim.org/pdfrefdocs status=404
Page 10: http://adobe.com/go/pdf_ref_bibliography status=404
Page 10: http://www.adobe.com/go/pdf_ref_bibliography status=404
Page 11: http://www.aiim.org/pdfnotes status=404
Page 753: http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TTRefMan/ status=404
Page 754: http://www.agfamonotype.com/printer/pan1.asp status=404
Page 755: http://www.rsasecurity.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2125 status=404
validation error: broken links detected