{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "pdfopen", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pdfopen/1/json", "generated": "2026-06-02T20:22:23Z", "synopsis": "pdfopen [ options ] [ --file ] file.pdf\npdfclose [ --file ] file.pdf", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "pdfopen, pdfclose - open or close a PDF file viewer\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "pdfopen [ options ] [ --file ] file.pdf\npdfclose [ --file ] file.pdf\n", "subsections": [] }, "OPTIONS": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "-h, --help, -?", "content": "output help and exit.\n", "flag": "-?", "long": "--help" }, { "name": "-v, --version, -V", "content": "output the version number and exit.\n", "flag": "-V", "long": "--version" }, { "name": "-p , --page ", "content": "when starting the viewer, display page of the document (notes: not all viewers\nsupport this feature, and even in those cases this option only has effect when the\ndocument is initially loaded). This option is over-ridden by -g.\n", "flag": "-p", "long": "--page", "arg": "" }, { "name": "-g , --goto ", "content": "when starting the viewer, display the page of the document containing the named des‐\ntination (notes: not all viewers support this feature, and even in those cases this\noption only has effect when the document is initially loaded).\n", "flag": "-g", "long": "--goto" }, { "name": "-r, --reset", "content": "after sending commands to the PDF viewer, attempt to reset the input focus to the\nwindow which had focus before the commands were sent.\n", "flag": "-r", "long": "--reset" }, { "name": "-viewer, --viewer", "content": "use (respectively) Adobe Reader 9 (in a new window), Adobe Reader 9 (in a new tab of\na running AR9, if any), Adobe Reader 8, Adobe Reader 7, Adobe Reader 5, xpdf or\nevince as the PDF viewer program. Adobe Reader 9 (in a new window) is the default.\n", "long": "--viewer" } ] }, "RATIONALE": { "content": "At certain points of TeX document preparation, many people repeat a \"edit-compile-view\" cy‐\ncle. Since PDF viewers such as Adobe's Acrobat Reader (\"acroread\") do not automatically re‐\nfresh the display when the PDF file changes, this cycle can be more cumbersome than desired.\nThe pdfopen program provides the ability to automate the reloading of the PDF document when\nit is changed.\n\nNote: there seems to be little need for pdfclose under GNU/Linux, since (unlike the situation\nfor MS windows) acroread does not lock the PDF file, which would prevent pdftex (or a DVI to\nPDF converter) from creating a new version of the PDF output file. However, pdfclose is pro‐\nvided in case someone finds it useful.\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "pdfopen searches for an instance of the specified (or default) PDF viewer displaying the\nspecified PDF file. If there is already an instance of the given viewer displaying the given\nfile, the viewer is instructed to reload the file. If no such instance is found, pdfopen at‐\ntempts to run the specified viewer on the specified document.\n\nThe default viewer is \"acroread\", which could start any one of a number of versions of Acro‐\nbat Reader, depending on what is installed on your system. However, the commands to reload\nthe current document vary from one version of acroread to another; consequently, if you are\nusing a version of acroread other than AR9, you should explicitly specify the viewer program.\n\nThis version of pdfopen accepts the following viewer options:\nar9, ar9-tab, ar8, ar7, ar5, xpdf, and evince.\nThe difference between ar9 and ar9-tab is significant when there is no instance of AR9 al‐\nready displaying the requested document. In this situation, while ar9 will request acroread\nto create a new instance of acroread (and thus open a new window) by using the -openInNewIn‐‐\nstance argument, ar9-tab starts acroread without this argument; if there is already an in‐\nstance of acroread running, a new tab will be opened in an existing window.\n\npdfclose searches for one of the above PDF viewers displaying the given file and instructs\nthe viewer to \"close\" the window. In most cases, the PDF viewer continues to run, possibly\nnow displaying just a blank window. (This behaviour varies somewhat from one PDF viewer to\nanother.)\n", "subsections": [] }, "PORTABILITY AND AVAILABILITY": { "content": "These programs have been tested on Slackware64 Version 14.1 and a few other versions / dis‐\ntributions of GNU/Linux. The code is reasonably generic and should work out of the box using\nmost recent X11 implementations. (Reports to the contrary are welcome, particularly if they\ncome with robust fixes.)\n\nThese programs are designed for X11-based systems. If you somehow find compiled versions of\nthese programs on a system using another window system, they are very unlikely to be of any\nuse to you.\n\nSource and binaries of the programs can be downloaded from CTAN://support/xpdfopen/ (e.g.,\nhttp://mirror.ctan.org/support/xpdfopen).\n", "subsections": [] }, "CAVEATS": { "content": "If you use ar9-tab to reload the PDF document and the instance of acroread with the given\ndocument is currently displaying some other document, the command causes your document to be\ndisplayed, but not reloaded.\n\npdfopen works by looking for a window with a name (window title) matching that expected for\nthe given viewer and document. If for some reason your viewer's window name is not as ex‐\npected, pdfopen may not work for you.\n\nWith at least AR9 and some window managers, using pdfopen to reload the document gives focus\nto the acroread window, even though the mouse cursor is not necessarily in that window. This\ncan be annoying. The -resetfocus option can be used to deal with this problem.\n", "subsections": [] }, "AUTHOR": { "content": "This manual page was written by Jim Diamond . I am the current main‐\ntainer of the X11 versions of pdfopen and pdfclose. Report any bugs you find to me. Feature\nenhancement requests are welcome, coded enhancements even more so.\n\nPast authors: Fabrice Popineau wrote the MS-windows versions of pdfopen and pdfclose upon\nwhich these programs were originally based. Taco Hoekwater created the GNU/Linux versions,\nup to Version 0.61 (including some documentation which inspired parts of this man page). Pe‐\nter Breitenlohner has contributed both code and suggestions to versions later than 0.61.\n\n\n\npdfopen 0.86 2014-05-24 PDFOPEN(1)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "pdfopen, pdfclose - open or close a PDF file viewer", "flags": [ { "flag": "-?", "long": "--help", "arg": null, "description": "output help and exit." }, { "flag": "-V", "long": "--version", "arg": null, "description": "output the version number and exit." }, { "flag": "-p", "long": "--page", "arg": "", "description": "when starting the viewer, display page 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." }, { "flag": "-g", "long": "--goto", "arg": null, "description": "when starting the viewer, display the page of the document containing the named des‐ tination (notes: not all viewers support this feature, and even in those cases this option only has effect when the document is initially loaded)." }, { "flag": "-r", "long": "--reset", "arg": null, "description": "after sending commands to the PDF viewer, attempt to reset the input focus to the window which had focus before the commands were sent." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--viewer", "arg": null, "description": "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." } ], "examples": [], "see_also": [] }