Command-line verbs do nothing

[Tim White]

Steps to reproduce:

inkscape -f test1.svg --verb=EditSelectAll --verb=ObjectRotate90 --export-area-drawing --export-pdf=test1.pdf

Opening test1.pdf shows it to be unrotated.

If instead --shell is used, i.e.:

inkscape --shell
(Following 2 lines entered at Inkscape's ">" prompt:)
-f test1.svg --verb=EditSelectAll --verb=ObjectRotate90 --export-area-drawing --export-pdf=test1.pdf
quit

then after typing the first line, I also see 3 error messages:

** (inkscape.exe:4452): CRITICAL **: Inkscape::XML::Document* sp_repr_read_file(const gchar*, const gchar*): assertion `Inkscape::IO::file_test( filename, G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS )' failed

** (inkscape.exe:4452): CRITICAL **: Inkscape::XML::Document* sp_repr_read_file(const gchar*, const gchar*): assertion `Inkscape::IO::file_test( filename, G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS )' failed

** (inkscape.exe:4452): WARNING **: Specified document FilesInkscapeinkscape.com cannot be opened (does not exist or not a valid SVG file)

The same (lack of) behaviour happens with ObjectFlipHorizontally instead of ObjectRotate90. Also the same behaviour happens for these variations:

test1.svg --verb=EditSelectAll --verb=ObjectRotate90 --export-area-drawing --export-pdf=test1.pdf
--verb=EditSelectAll --verb=ObjectRotate90 --export-area-drawing --export-pdf=test1.pdf test1.svg

My system:
Inkscape 0.48.4 r9939
WinXP SP3

I'm aware of the inkscape .com/.exe issue on Windows; the above tests all use inkscape.com, as recommended. I did however notice that if the first command is changed to inkscape.exe to force the .exe to run, then the same .pdf file is generated -- but this happens almost instantaneously, instead of taking around 1s.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Verbs don't work wiithout GUI (bug #843260), pdf export however disables the GUI -> don't mix verbs with other command line options.

Use separate steps:
$ cp test1.svg test2.svg
$ inkscape -f test2.svg --verb=EditSelectAll --verb=ObjectRotate90 --verb=FileSave --verb=FileQuit
$ inkscape -f test2.svg --export-area-drawing --export-pdf=test2.pdf

[Tim White (inkscape-20-j-random-hacker)]

Thanks. In fact I don't want to perform any verbs at all -- I only want to export a PDF file that contains connectors in their correct positions (connectors are placed wrongly on load: bug #795627), and one way to do that interactively is to select all objects and perform some no-op edits on them (e.g. rotate CW, then rotate CCW, or Cut then Paste In Place). I was trying to replicate this from the command line.

So unfortunately your workaround won't work for me. Is there some other way to export-as-PDF a drawing with correctly-placed connectors from the command line?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Seems that the only other option with Inkscape itself (saving as 'Plain SVG', converting the plain SVG to PDF) fails because somehow the fix for bug #500440 got lost with 0.48.2 and later versions.

You could try running scour [1] as standalone python script to convert the SVG files to 'Optimized SVG' (can't be scripted via cli), and then convert that optimized SVG to PDF (via inkscape cli).

[1] Scour.py is used by Inkscape as output extension for 'Optimized SVG' and has lots of options to clean SVG files.
    <http://codedread.com/scour/>

[Tim White (inkscape-20-j-random-hacker)]

Many thanks ~suv, that scour did the trick! :) The resulting .svg file has "dumb" arrows instead of connectors, which Inkscape manages to load and export to PDF just fine.

I suppose you can close this bug, as it seems to be the logical consequence of a combination of other bugs that are already in the system.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Thx for the feedback - good to know that you found another workaround to deal with those stubborn connectors ;)

> I suppose you can close this bug, as it seems to be the logical
> consequence of a combination of other bugs that are already in the
> system.

I'll rather link it as duplicate to Bug #843260 “Allow suppressing the GUI (-z) when using --verb option(s)”: it matches the first issue of your detailed report most, and includes the reference to bug #626854 (--verb actions not possible in --shell mode).

Feel free to add a comment here (bug #1273352) and revert the duplicate status if you disagree.