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PDFOPEN(1)							      PDFOPEN(1)

NAME
     pdfopen, pdfclose - open or close a PDF file viewer

SYNOPSIS
     pdfopen [ options ]  [ --file ]  file.pdf
     pdfclose [ --file ]  file.pdf

OPTIONS
     -h, --help, -?
	     output help and exit.

     -v, --version, -V
	     output the version number and exit.

     -p <n>, --page <n>
	     when  starting the viewer, display page <n> of the document (notes:
	     not all viewers support this feature, and even in those cases  this
	     option  only  has	effect	when  the document is initially loaded).
	     This option is over-ridden by -g.

     -g <named destination>, --goto <named destination>
	     when starting the viewer, display the page of the document contain-
	     ing the named destination (notes: not all viewers support this fea-
	     ture, and even in those cases this option only has effect when  the
	     document is initially loaded).

     -r, --reset_focus
	     after  sending commands to the PDF viewer, attempt to reset the in-
	     put focus to the window which had focus before  the  commands  were
	     sent.

     -viewer, --viewer <ar9|ar9-tab|ar8|ar7|ar5|xpdf|evince>
	     use (respectively) Adobe Reader 9 (in a new window), Adobe Reader 9
	     (in  a  new  tab  of  a running AR9, if any), Adobe Reader 8, Adobe
	     Reader 7, Adobe Reader 5, xpdf or evince as the PDF viewer program.
	     Adobe Reader 9 (in a new window) is the default.

RATIONALE
     At certain points of TeX document preparation, many people repeat a  "edit-
     compile-view"  cycle.   Since  PDF  viewers  such as Adobe's Acrobat Reader
     ("acroread") do not automatically refresh the display  when  the  PDF  file
     changes,  this cycle can be more cumbersome than desired.	The pdfopen pro-
     gram provides the ability to automate the reloading  of  the  PDF	document
     when it is changed.

     Note:  there  seems  to  be little need for pdfclose under GNU/Linux, since
     (unlike the situation for MS windows) acroread does not lock the PDF  file,
     which  would prevent pdftex (or a DVI to PDF converter) from creating a new
     version of the PDF output file.  However,	pdfclose  is  provided	in  case
     someone finds it useful.

DESCRIPTION
     pdfopen  searches	for an instance of the specified (or default) PDF viewer
     displaying the specified PDF file.  If there is already an instance of  the
     given  viewer displaying the given file, the viewer is instructed to reload
     the file.	If no such instance is found, pdfopen attempts to run the speci-
     fied viewer on the specified document.

     The default viewer is "acroread", which could start any one of a number  of
     versions  of Acrobat Reader, depending on what is installed on your system.
     However, the commands to reload the current document vary from one  version
     of  acroread  to  another;  consequently,	if  you  are  using a version of
     acroread other than AR9, you should explicitly specify the viewer program.

     This version of pdfopen accepts the following viewer options:
     ar9, ar9-tab, ar8, ar7, ar5, xpdf, and evince.
     The difference between ar9 and ar9-tab is significant when there is no  in-
     stance  of  AR9  already displaying the requested document.  In this situa-
     tion, while ar9 will request acroread to create a new instance of	acroread
     (and  thus  open  a  new  window) by using the -openInNewInstance argument,
     ar9-tab starts acroread without this argument; if there is already  an  in-
     stance of acroread running, a new tab will be opened in an existing window.

     pdfclose  searches  for  one  of the above PDF viewers displaying the given
     file and instructs the viewer to "close" the window.  In  most  cases,  the
     PDF  viewer  continues to run, possibly now displaying just a blank window.
     (This behaviour varies somewhat from one PDF viewer to another.)

PORTABILITY AND AVAILABILITY
     These programs have been tested on Slackware64 Version 14.1 and a few other
     versions / distributions of GNU/Linux.  The code is reasonably generic  and
     should work out of the box using most recent X11 implementations.	(Reports
     to the contrary are welcome, particularly if they come with robust fixes.)

     These  programs  are  designed  for X11-based systems.  If you somehow find
     compiled versions of these programs on a system using another  window  sys-
     tem, they are very unlikely to be of any use to you.

     Source  and  binaries  of	the  programs can be downloaded from CTAN://sup-
     port/xpdfopen/ (e.g., http://mirror.ctan.org/support/xpdfopen).

CAVEATS
     If you use ar9-tab to reload the PDF document and the instance of	acroread
     with  the	given  document is currently displaying some other document, the
     command causes your document to be displayed, but not reloaded.

     pdfopen works by looking for a window with a name (window	title)	matching
     that  expected  for the given viewer and document.  If for some reason your
     viewer's window name is not as expected, pdfopen may not work for you.

     With at least AR9 and some window managers, using	pdfopen  to  reload  the
     document  gives  focus to the acroread window, even though the mouse cursor
     is not necessarily in that window.  This can be annoying.	The -reset_focus
     option can be used to deal with this problem.

AUTHOR
     This manual page was written by Jim Diamond <Jim.Diamond@acadiau.ca>.  I am
     the current maintainer of the X11 versions of pdfopen and pdfclose.  Report
     any bugs you find to me.  Feature enhancement requests are  welcome,  coded
     enhancements even more so.

     Past authors: Fabrice Popineau wrote the MS-windows versions of pdfopen and
     pdfclose  upon  which these programs were originally based.  Taco Hoekwater
     created the GNU/Linux versions, up to Version 0.61 (including some documen-
     tation which inspired parts of this man  page).   Peter  Breitenlohner  has
     contributed both code and suggestions to versions later than 0.61.

pdfopen 0.86			   2014-05-24			      PDFOPEN(1)
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