Getting started with the CLI

pypdffiller provides a pdffiller command-line tool to interact with pdf files.

CLI

Output

The CLI also sends all the information, warning, and error messages to stderr, while keeping the final result in stdout, allowing multiple output formats like –format=json or –format=text and using redirects to create files –format=json > myfile.json.

The information provided by the CLI will be more structured and thorough so that it can be used more easily for automation, especially in Web-Server or CI/CD systems.

Actions

The pdffiller command expects at least one mandatory argument. This argument is the action that you want to perform. For example:

$ pdffiller dump_data_fields test.pdf
$ pdffiller fill_form input.pdf -d data.json -o output.pdf

Use the --help option to list the available action names:

$ pdffiller --help

Some actions require additional parameters. Use the --help option to list mandatory and optional arguments for an action:

$ pdffiller dump_data_fields --help
$ pdffiller fill_form --help