Writing the output PDF to stdout (ocrmypdf in.pdf -) previously relied on
an honor system: no in-process code -- third-party libraries, plugins, or
stray print() calls -- was supposed to write to stdout, enforced only
indirectly. A single accidental write to fd 1 would silently corrupt the
output PDF.
Enforce this at the OS level. At CLI startup, before plugins load or any
worker process/thread starts, save the real stdout via os.dup() and point
fd 1 at stderr, so stray writes are diverted to stderr while only the final
"produce the PDF" step writes to the preserved descriptor. Exposed as the
opt-in public API function configure_stdout_protection(), mirroring
configure_logging(); it is not enabled inside ocr() so in-process library
users keep their own stdout.
Also fix check_requested_output_file() to test the preserved real stdout
for tty-ness, since after the redirect sys.stdout reports stderr's status.
Fold unreleased v17.7.2 notes into v17.8.0.
Adds a processing mode that removes the invisible (render mode 3) OCR text
layer in place. Unlike `--ocr-engine none --force-ocr`, it does not
rasterize the page, so images and visible content are preserved unchanged
and the output is smaller rather than larger. Options that require
rasterization or OCR (--deskew, --clean, --sidecar, etc.) are rejected.
Only invisible text is removed; text drawn as visible glyphs under an
opaque image (some OCR engines, and OCRmyPDF v2.2 and earlier) cannot be
removed this way, as documented.
Closes#1435.
Fixes#1642. Adds an early check in check_requested_output_file() that
raises OutputFileAccessError (exit code 5) if the destination file
already exists and --no-overwrite is set. The option is wired through
CLI, OcrOptions, and the Python API.
Use a Pydantic field validator to convert string input to list[str]
during OcrOptions construction, simplifying the type from
`str | list[str] | None` to `list[str] | None`. Security validation
(path injection check) now happens at construction rather than in
check_options_preprocessing().
Introduce a new --mode (-m) argument that consolidates the three
mutually exclusive OCR processing options into a single enum:
- default: Error if text is found (standard behavior)
- force: Rasterize all content and run OCR (replaces --force-ocr)
- skip: Skip pages with existing text (replaces --skip-text)
- redo: Re-OCR pages, stripping old text layer (replaces --redo-ocr)
The legacy flags --force-ocr, --skip-text, and --redo-ocr remain as
silent aliases for backward compatibility. Both CLI and API usage
continue to work unchanged.
Introduce --ocr-engine option to select between OCR engines:
- 'auto' (default): Uses Tesseract
- 'tesseract': Explicit Tesseract selection
- 'none': Skip OCR entirely (for PDF processing only)
Key changes:
- Extend OcrEngine ABC with generate_ocr() and supports_generate_ocr()
for direct OcrElement tree output (bypasses hOCR)
- Add get_ocr_engine(options) hook parameter for engine selection
- Implement NullOcrEngine for --ocr-engine none
- Export OcrElement, OcrClass, BoundingBox from ocrmypdf package
- Add ocr_tree support to grafting pipeline
This prepares the foundation for pluggable OCR engines while maintaining
full backward compatibility with existing Tesseract-based workflows.
Replace inheritance from pluggy.PluginManager with composition pattern,
providing a type-safe interface for all 16 hooks defined in pluginspec.py.
The underlying pluggy manager is now accessible via the .pluggy property
for advanced use cases like set_blocked().
This change enables IDE autocomplete and type checking for all hook calls
while maintaining full backward compatibility with the plugin system.
This commit introduces a new `OCROptions` class in `_options.py` that provides:
- Proper typing for OCRmyPDF options
- Pydantic validation
- Backward compatibility with `argparse.Namespace`
- Gradual migration support for the options system
Key changes:
- Added comprehensive option fields with type hints
- Implemented custom attribute access methods
- Created conversion methods between Namespace and OCROptions
- Updated type hints in multiple files to support both types
- Maintained existing validation logic
The new model allows for a step-by-step refactoring of the options handling throughout the project.
Co-authored-by: aider (openrouter/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4) <aider@aider.chat>
The existing logic would call an OCR plugin's get_languages function before
allowing the plugin to check if its dependencies were available. This caused
an exception if Tesseract was installed, when we were supposed to issue
an error message advising the user to install Tesseract.
James R. Barlow
Abe
James Barlow