Bug#703508: texttopdf should be also available as a standalone application

[Ivan Shmakov <oneingray@gmail.com>]

>>>>> Brian Potkin <claremont102@gmail.com> writes:
>>>>> On Wed 03 Apr 2013 at 17:17:23 +0200, Didier 'OdyX' Raboud wrote:
>>>>> Le mercredi, 20 mars 2013 13.34:09, Ivan Shmakov a écrit :

[…]

 >>> Therefore, my suggestion would be to perform whatever minor
 >>> modifications necessary to make ‘texttopdf’ also available as a
 >>> stand-alone (as in: /usr/bin) program, and provide some
 >>> documentation (such as a manual page.)

 >> This looks like a worthwhile suggestion, but is more of upstream
 >> realm.

 > The requested functionality appears to be already provided by CUPS.
 > From cupsfilter(8):

 > cupsfilter is a front-end to the CUPS filter subsystem which allows
 > you to convert a file to a specific format, just as if you had
 > printed the file through CUPS.  By default, cupsfilter generates a
 > PDF file.

	Indeed, it may solve the issue.  Thanks.

 > So, at its most basic:

 >    /usr/sbin/cupsfilter input.txt > output.pdf

 > Being in /usr/sbin the program's existence is not immediately obvious
 > to a user.

	What's worse, it currently belongs to the ‘cups’ package (and
	not, say, ‘cups-filters’), thus bringing all the dependencies of
	CUPS for the simple task in question.

	Yet another issue is the documentation.  An example (like the
	one above) would certainly be apt for cupsfilter(8), and the
	list of ‘texttopdf’ options (and likewise for the other useful
	filters), either in the manual page, or in another one
	referenced from there, would be handy.

 > I have never understood why it has to live there.  Is there a good
 > reason?

	Unless it really requires some non-user privileges to run, I
	guess there isn't.

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