The @ syntax doesn't work in the middle of an argument. You can put --password=something
in a file and use @file in place of the whole argument, or you can use @- and type --password=something I'll admit that it's a bit confusingly worded. I will clarify the documentation about this and see if it's worth handling reading the password from a file as a special case (e.g. --password-file=- or --password-file=file), but no guarantees. On Tue, Jan 12, 2021, at 5:50 AM, Jakub Wilk wrote: > Package: qpdf > Version: 10.1.0-1 > > The QPDF Manual reads: > > >--password=password > > > > Specifies a password for accessing encrypted files. Note that you > >can use @filename or @- as described above to put the password in a > >file or pass it via standard input so you can avoid specifying it on > >the command line. > > So I tried: > > $ qpdf --decrypt --password=@- foo.pdf bar.pdf > > But qpdf didn't read anything from stdin. > > I also tried: > > $ qpdf --decrypt --password @- foo.pdf bar.pdf > > This time qpdf read stuff from stdin, but then it died with: > > qpdf: --password must be given as --password=password > > > -- System Information: > Architecture: i386 > > Versions of packages qpdf depends on: > ii libc6 2.31-9 > ii libgcc-s1 10.2.1-6 > ii libqpdf28 10.1.0-1 > ii libstdc++6 10.2.1-6 > > -- > Jakub Wilk >
