Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF · error · RuntimeError

Command {' '.join(cmd)} failed: {result.stderr}

Error message

Command {' '.join(cmd)} failed: {result.stderr}

What it means

RuntimeError raised by index_type3_catalogue.run when a subprocess command (pdffonts) exits non-zero. The error message includes the command and its stderr. This wraps any failed external tool invocation used to build the Type3 font catalogue.

Source

Thrown at scripts/index_type3_catalogue.py:13

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Build a Type3 font catalogue from sample PDFs."""

import argparse
import json
import subprocess
from pathlib import Path


def run(cmd, cwd=None):
    result = subprocess.run(cmd, cwd=cwd, capture_output=True, text=True)
    if result.returncode != 0:
        raise RuntimeError(f"Command {' '.join(cmd)} failed: {result.stderr}")
    return result.stdout


def parse_pdffonts(output):
    lines = output.splitlines()
    entries = []
    for line in lines[2:]:
        if not line.strip():
            continue
        parts = line.split()
        if "Type" not in parts:
            continue
        idx = parts.index("Type")
        type_value = parts[idx + 1] if idx + 1 < len(parts) else ""
        if not type_value.startswith("3"):
            continue
        font_name = parts[0]
        encoding = parts[-2] if len(parts) >= 2 else ""

View on GitHub (pinned to 9ef20dcab8)

Solutions

1. Install the required external tool (poppler-utils provides pdffonts).
2. Verify the tool is on PATH: which pdffonts.
3. Read the included stderr for the tool-specific failure reason.
4. Validate input PDFs are readable before passing them to the tool.

# Ensure the external tool is available before running
import shutil
if not shutil.which("pdffonts"):
    raise SystemExit("pdffonts not found. Install poppler-utils.")

try:
    out = run(cmd, cwd=cwd)
except RuntimeError as exc:
    print(f"[WARN] {exc}", file=sys.stderr)
    continue

When it happens

Trigger: The run() helper invokes an external binary (e.g. pdffonts from poppler-utils) with capture_output; a non-zero exit code triggers this. The tool is missing (not on PATH), the input PDF is unreadable, or the tool crashed.

Common situations: pdffonts/poppler not installed. PATH does not include the tool in the current environment. Corrupt PDF that pdffonts cannot read.

Related errors

• The 'tomlkit' library is not installed. Please install it us
• Gradle Type3SignatureTool failed for {pdf}:\n{completed.stde
• File not found: {json_path}
• Unexpected JSON structure (expected an object at root).
• Failed to parse {path}: {exc}

AI-assisted analysis of Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF@9ef20dcab8 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ec144f337cefbeb1. Report an issue: GitHub.