Bug 163471 - [Enhancement] Include OS in PDF info
Summary: [Enhancement] Include OS in PDF info
Status: REOPENED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
24.8.0.3 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: PDF-Export
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Reported: 2024-10-16 14:51 UTC by Gabriele Ponzo
Modified: 2025-01-06 19:09 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Gabriele Ponzo 2024-10-16 14:51:55 UTC
Description:
Asking info on the PDF file to any PDF reader will tell you which software produced it.


It would be useful for people using LO on more Operating Systems (like me) to see which is the system on which LO was running when produced the PDF.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open any LO component
2. Write a dummy content
3. Export in PDF
4. Open the PDF with any reader
5. Ask it for File Infos

Actual Results:
Currently it says "LibreOffice 24.8.0.3 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community" but it omits the OS on which it was running.

Expected Results:
Would be nice something like
"LibreOffice 24.8.0.3 (X86_64 Linux Mint 20.3) / LibreOffice Community"
or
"LibreOffice 24.8.0.3 (X86_64 Windows 11.xxx) / LibreOffice Community"
or
"LibreOffice 24.8.0.3 (X86_64 MacOS 13.xxx) / LibreOffice Community"


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Version: 24.8.0.3 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 0bdf1299c94fe897b119f97f3c613e9dca6be583
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 5.4; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: it-IT (it_IT.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 1 Mike Kaganski 2024-10-16 15:22:26 UTC
The question is - why. Exposing a bit more data is easy; the code writing PDF is here:

https://opengrok.libreoffice.org/xref/core/vcl/source/gdi/pdfwriter_impl.cxx?r=1e905680

and the code to get the OS data, as in Help->About, is in

https://opengrok.libreoffice.org/xref/core/vcl/source/app/svapp.cxx?r=50cd19de&mo=37609&fi=1190#1190

but wouldn't exposing that info be considered revealing too much info?
Comment 2 Gabriele Ponzo 2024-10-17 07:26:47 UTC
Well, I get your point :)

I think that consideration is rather subjective.
The ideal, at this point, would be an option on the PDF export dialog...

Anyway in my opinion the platform used to produce the PDF is not such a sensible data, while can be useful in some cases like mine.

Thanks for replying so quickly my dear.

Could be something on which the ESC may want to vote on?
Comment 3 Mike Kaganski 2024-10-17 07:48:11 UTC
(In reply to Gabriele Ponzo from comment #2)
> Could be something on which the ESC may want to vote on?

I don't think so. It's not that important.
The code pointers are there. It's rather "doers decide" case, with additional "let's solve problems when they appear" :-)

I'd ask Heiko's input additionally.
Note that beyond the code pointers, and stating my (non-binding!) doubts, I don't have plans to implement this ;-)
Comment 4 BogdanB 2024-12-26 18:28:42 UTC
Heiko, any opinion here?
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2025-01-06 10:25:59 UTC
(In reply to Mike Kaganski from comment #1)
> The question is - why. 
My question too, and still not answered with...

(In reply to Gabriele Ponzo from comment #2)
> Well, I get your point :)

Wikipedia: "Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format... in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems."

Shoe size of the author could be interesting too ;-).

(Resolving WF, feel free to reopen)
Comment 6 Gabriele Ponzo 2025-01-06 17:35:39 UTC
My reason is that LO doesn't behave EXACTLY in the same way among the various OSes.

In particular things like image handling in Writer, especially when cropped (there should be an open bug, AFAICR), and some other minor issue are shown differently.

Given that I use LO Writer for professional Technical Manuals from years now, my problem is that after a so long time I can't remember anymore on which OS I did edit it. And if I'm asked to modify those manuals, I'd like to do it in the very same environment to avoid any layout issue.

Is it just me having this need?
Thank you all anyway for reading and spending some of your time for me ;)