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pdftotext-fallback

Recover readable text from PDFs when read_file or Python extraction fails. Use pdftotext, a command-line text extractor, with options to preserve layout, specify character encoding, or save extracted content to a file.

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Recover PDF text extraction when read_file returns binary data by using pdftotext via shell

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适用场景

  • Recovering text after PDF reading fails
  • Extracting text while preserving page layout
  • Saving text from large PDFs to a file
  • Retrying extraction with a specified character encoding

包含的文件(2)

  • SKILL.md3.1 KB
  • .skill_id32 B

SKILL.md(原文)

安装前可以查看交给 AI 代理的指令内容。

pdftotext Fallback for PDF Text Extraction

When to Use

Apply this pattern when:

  • read_file on a PDF returns binary/image data instead of readable text
  • Python-based PDF extraction (PyMuPDF, pdfplumber, etc.) in execute_code_sandbox fails or returns garbled content
  • You need reliable text extraction from PDF files as a recovery strategy

Why This Works

The pdftotext utility (from poppler-utils) is a mature, command-line tool that handles many PDF edge cases that confuse Python libraries or the read_file tool. It's pre-installed on most Linux systems and provides consistent, reliable text extraction.

Steps

Step 1: Detect the Failure

Recognize extraction failure when:

  • read_file returns binary content, image data, or garbled text
  • Error messages indicate encoding issues or unsupported formats
  • Python PDF libraries in sandbox fail with import errors or extraction failures

Step 2: Use pdftotext via run_shell

Extract to stdout (recommended for quick extraction):

pdftotext /path/to/file.pdf -

The - argument outputs directly to stdout for easy capture in your tool response.

Example:

run_shell("pdftotext document.pdf -")

Step 3: Handle Complex PDFs

Preserve layout (maintains original formatting):

pdftotext -layout /path/to/file.pdf -

Extract to a file (for large PDFs):

pdftotext /path/to/file.pdf /path/to/output.txt

Then read the output file with read_file.

Handle encoded text:

pdftotext -enc UTF-8 /path/to/file.pdf -

Step 4: Verify and Continue

  • Check the extracted text for completeness
  • If text is still garbled, the PDF may be image-based (scanned) - consider OCR tools
  • Proceed with your task using the extracted text

Code Examples

Basic extraction:

# Simple text extraction
text = run_shell("pdftotext document.pdf -")

With error handling:

# Try extraction, check for success
result = run_shell("pdftotext document.pdf - && echo 'SUCCESS' || echo 'FAILED'")

Multi-page PDF with layout:

# Preserve tables and formatting
text = run_shell("pdftotext -layout document.pdf -")

Troubleshooting

IssueSolution
pdftotext: command not foundInstall poppler-utils: apt-get install poppler-utils
Garbled/special charactersTry -enc UTF-8 or -enc ASCII7
Missing formattingUse -layout flag
Scanned PDF (no text)Requires OCR (e.g., tesseract), not text extraction
Large PDF timeoutExtract to file instead of stdout

Limitations

  • Does not work on image-only (scanned) PDFs without embedded text
  • May lose complex formatting, tables, or embedded objects
  • Requires poppler-utils to be installed (common on Linux, may need installation on other systems)

Related Tools

  • pdfinfo: Get PDF metadata (pages, size, etc.)
  • pdftoppm: Convert PDF pages to images
  • tesseract: OCR for scanned PDFs

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