# Strip PDF Metadata

> Source: <https://gist.github.com/sneakers-the-rat/172e8679b824a3871decd262ed3f59c6>
> Published: 2022-01-26 02:33:17+00:00

clean_pdf.sh

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# --------------------------------------------------------------------

# Recursively find pdfs from the directory given as the first argument, 

# otherwise search the current directory.

# Use exiftool and qpdf (both must be installed and locatable on $PATH) 

# to strip all top-level metadata from PDFs.

#

# Note - This only removes file-level metadata, not any metadata

# in embedded images, etc. 

#

# Code is provided as-is, I take no responsibility for its use,

# and I make no guarantee that this code works

# or makes your PDFs "safe," whatever that means to you.

#

# You may need to enable execution of this script before using,

# eg. chmod +x clean_pdf.sh

#

# example:

# clean current directory:

# >>> ./clean_pdf.sh

#

# clean specific directory:

# >>> ./clean_pdf.sh some/other/directory

# --------------------------------------------------------------------

# Color Codes so that warnings/errors stick out

GREEN="\e[32m"

RED="\e[31m"

CLEAR="\e[0m"

# loop through all PDFs in first argument ($1),

# or use '.' (this directory) if not given

DIR="${1:-.}"

echo "Cleaning PDFs in directory $DIR"

# use find to locate files, pip to while read to get the

# whole line instead of space delimited

# Note -- this will find pdfs recursively!!

find $DIR -type f -name "*.pdf" | while read -r i

do

 

  # output file as original filename with suffix _clean.pdf

  TMP=${i%.*}_clean.pdf

  # remove the temporary file if it already exists

  if [ -f "$TMP" ]; then

      rm "$TMP";

  fi

  exiftool -q -q -all:all= "$i" -o "$TMP"

  qpdf --linearize --deterministic-id --replace-input "$TMP"

  echo -e $(printf "${GREEN}Processed ${RED}${i} ${CLEAR}as ${GREEN}${TMP}${CLEAR}")

done