Hi all,

As many of you know, my bare metal distro is Void Linux, a rolling
release. Rolling releases are like a canary in a coal mine: They're the
first to drop dead when there's a problem.

In this case, the GCC folks quit supplying libgjc, pdftk depends on
libgjc, so pdftk vanished from Void. I hear it's already vanished from
Redhat.

My book production system relies on pdftk to read and modify PDF
metadata, including adding new metadata keys. This means I can't
produce books until finding and implementing a replacement.

Luckily, I've already experimentally used exiftool to add a new key to
a PDF's metadata, and to read it back. Today I'll perform the not
inconsiderable task of replacing every instance of pdftk with exiftool
in build scripts for ten books.

If anybody needs help transitioning from pdftk to exiftool, a very
difficult transition, let me know. But I should tell you that it's
entirely possible that long before Devuan encounters the dropped libgcj,
pdftk's author Sid Steward will have created a sans-libgcj version of
pdftk.

SteveT

Steve Litt
October 2017 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21