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1# PDFium
2
3## Prerequisites
4
5PDFium uses the same build tooling as Chromium. See the platform-specific
6Chromium build instructions to get started, but replace Chromium's
7"Get the code" instructions with [PDFium's](#get-the-code).
8
9*   [Chromium Linux build instructions](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/linux/build_instructions.md)
10*   [Chromium Mac build instructions](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/mac_build_instructions.md)
11*   [Chromium Windows build instructions](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/windows_build_instructions.md)
12
13### CPU Architectures supported
14
15The default architecture for Windows, Linux, and Mac is "`x64`". On Windows,
16"`x86`" is also supported. GN parameter "`target_cpu = "x86"`" can be used to
17override the default value. If you specify Android build, the default CPU
18architecture will be "`arm`".
19
20It is expected that there are still some places lurking in the code which will
21not function properly on big-endian architectures. Bugs and/or patches are
22welcome, however providing this support is **not** a priority at this time.
23
24#### Google employees
25
26Run: `download_from_google_storage --config` and follow the
27authentication instructions. **Note that you must authenticate with your
28@google.com credentials**. Enter "0" if asked for a project-id.
29
30Once you've done this, the toolchain will be installed automatically for
31you in the [Generate the build files](#generate-the-build-files) step below.
32
33The toolchain will be in `depot_tools\win_toolchain\vs_files\<hash>`, and
34windbg can be found in
35`depot_tools\win_toolchain\vs_files\<hash>\win_sdk\Debuggers`.
36
37If you want the IDE for debugging and editing, you will need to install
38it separately, but this is optional and not needed for building PDFium.
39
40## Get the code
41
42The name of the top-level directory does not matter. In the following example,
43the directory name is "repo". This directory must not have been used before by
44`gclient config` as each directory can only house a single gclient
45configuration.
46
47```
48mkdir repo
49cd repo
50gclient config --unmanaged https://pdfium.googlesource.com/pdfium.git
51gclient sync
52cd pdfium
53```
54
55On Linux, additional build dependencies need to be installed by running the
56following from the `pdfium` directory.
57
58```
59./build/install-build-deps.sh
60```
61
62## Generate the build files
63
64PDFium uses GN to generate the build files and [Ninja](https://ninja-build.org/)
65to execute the build files.  Both of these are included with the
66depot\_tools checkout.
67
68### Selecting build configuration
69
70PDFium may be built either with or without JavaScript support, and with
71or without XFA forms support.  Both of these features are enabled by
72default. Also note that the XFA feature requires JavaScript.
73
74Configuration is done by executing `gn args <directory>` to configure the build.
75This will launch an editor in which you can set the following arguments.
76By convention, `<directory>` should be named `out/foo`, and some tools / test
77support code only works if one follows this convention.
78A typical `<directory>` name is `out/Debug`.
79
80```
81use_goma = true  # Googlers only. Make sure goma is installed and running first.
82is_debug = true  # Enable debugging features.
83
84# Set true to enable experimental Skia backend.
85pdf_use_skia = false
86
87pdf_enable_xfa = true  # Set false to remove XFA support (implies JS support).
88pdf_enable_v8 = true  # Set false to remove Javascript support.
89pdf_is_standalone = true  # Set for a non-embedded build.
90is_component_build = false # Disable component build (Though it should work)
91```
92
93For sample applications like `pdfium_test` to build, one must set
94`pdf_is_standalone = true`.
95
96By default, the entire project builds with C++17.
97
98When complete the arguments will be stored in `<directory>/args.gn`, and
99GN will automatically use the new arguments to generate build files.
100Should your files fail to generate, please double-check that you have set
101use\_sysroot as indicated above.
102
103## Building the code
104
105You can build the sample program by running: `ninja -C <directory> pdfium_test`
106You can build the entire product (which includes a few unit tests) by running:
107`ninja -C <directory> pdfium_all`.
108
109## Running the sample program
110
111The pdfium\_test program supports reading, parsing, and rasterizing the pages of
112a .pdf file to .ppm or .png output image files (Windows supports two other
113formats). For example: `<directory>/pdfium_test --ppm path/to/myfile.pdf`. Note
114that this will write output images to `path/to/myfile.pdf.<n>.ppm`.
115Run `pdfium_test --help` to see all the options.
116
117## Testing
118
119There are currently several test suites that can be run:
120
121 * pdfium\_unittests
122 * pdfium\_embeddertests
123 * testing/tools/run\_corpus\_tests.py
124 * testing/tools/run\_javascript\_tests.py
125 * testing/tools/run\_pixel\_tests.py
126
127It is possible the tests in the `testing` directory can fail due to font
128differences on the various platforms. These tests are reliable on the bots. If
129you see failures, it can be a good idea to run the tests on the tip-of-tree
130checkout to see if the same failures appear.
131
132### Pixel Tests
133
134If your change affects rendering, a pixel test should be added. Simply add a
135`.in` or `.pdf` file in `testing/resources/pixel` and the pixel runner will
136pick it up at the next run.
137
138Make sure that your test case doesn't have any copyright issues. It should also
139be a minimal test case focusing on the bug that renders the same way in many
140PDF viewers. Try to avoid binary data in streams by using the `ASCIIHexDecode`
141simply because it makes the PDF more readable in a text editor.
142
143To try out your new test, you can call the `run_pixel_tests.py` script:
144
145```bash
146$ ./testing/tools/run_pixel_tests.py your_new_file.in
147```
148
149To generate the expected image, you can use the `make_expected.sh` script:
150
151```bash
152$ ./testing/tools/make_expected.sh your_new_file.pdf
153```
154
155Please make sure to have `optipng` installed which optimized the file size of
156the resulting png.
157
158### `.in` files
159
160`.in` files are PDF template files. PDF files contain many byte offsets that
161have to be kept correct or the file won't be valid. The template makes this
162easier by replacing the byte offsets with certain keywords.
163
164This saves space and also allows an easy way to reduce the test case to the
165essentials as you can simply remove everything that is not necessary.
166
167A simple example can be found [here](https://pdfium.googlesource.com/pdfium/+/refs/heads/main/testing/resources/rectangles.in).
168
169To transform this into a PDF, you can use the `fixup_pdf_template.py` tool:
170
171```bash
172$ ./testing/tools/fixup_pdf_template.py your_file.in
173```
174
175This will create a `your_file.pdf` in the same directory as `your_file.in`.
176
177There is no official style guide for the .in file, but a consistent style is
178preferred simply to help with readability. If possible, object numbers should
179be consecutive and `/Type` and `/SubType` should be on top of a dictionary to
180make object identification easier.
181
182## Embedding PDFium in your own projects
183
184The public/ directory contains header files for the APIs available for use by
185embedders of PDFium. The PDFium project endeavors to keep these as stable as
186possible.
187
188Outside of the public/ directory, code may change at any time, and embedders
189should not directly call these routines.
190
191## Code Coverage
192
193Code coverage reports for PDFium can be generated in Linux development
194environments. Details can be found [here](/docs/code-coverage.md).
195
196Chromium provides code coverage reports for PDFium
197[here](https://chromium-coverage.appspot.com/). PDFium is located in
198`third_party/pdfium` in Chromium's source code.
199This includes code coverage from PDFium's fuzzers.
200
201## Waterfall
202
203The current health of the source tree can be found
204[here](https://ci.chromium.org/p/pdfium/g/main/console).
205
206## Community
207
208There are several mailing lists that are setup:
209
210 * [PDFium](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/pdfium)
211 * [PDFium Reviews](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/pdfium-reviews)
212 * [PDFium Bugs](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/pdfium-bugs)
213
214Note, the Reviews and Bugs lists are typically read-only.
215
216## Bugs
217
218PDFium uses this [bug tracker](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/pdfium/issues/list),
219but for security bugs, please use
220[Chromium's security bug template](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/entry?template=Security%20Bug)
221and add the "Cr-Internals-Plugins-PDF" label.
222
223## Contributing code
224
225See the [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md) document for more information on
226contributing to the PDFium project.
227