Re: misc/50116: MKREPRO: PostScript files include time stamp

[John Nemeth <jnemeth%cue.bc.ca@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR misc/50116; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: John Nemeth <jnemeth%cue.bc.ca@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost, misc-bug-people%netbsd.org@localhost, gnats-admin%netbsd.org@localhost,
        netbsd-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost, Thomas Klausner <wiz%NetBSD.org@localhost>
Cc: 
Subject: Re: misc/50116: MKREPRO: PostScript files include time stamp
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2015 05:54:12 -0700

 On Aug 5,  7:05am, David Holland wrote:
 } Subject: Re: misc/50116: MKREPRO: PostScript files include time stamp
 } The following reply was made to PR misc/50116; it has been noted by GNATS.
 } 
 } From: David Holland <dholland-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost>
 } To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
 } Subject: Re: misc/50116: MKREPRO: PostScript files include time stamp
 } Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2015 06:49:35 +0000
 } 
 }  On Tue, Aug 04, 2015 at 09:25:01AM +0000, John Nemeth wrote:
 }   >  }   >  How about a postprocessing step that just does 'grep -v ^%%CreationDate:'?
 }   >  }  
 }   >  }  Will that break the file? I suppose probably not.
 }   >  
 }   >       "%" is the PostScript comment indicator.  From "PostScript Language
 }   >  Reference Manual  Second Edition":
 }   >  
 }   >  %%CreationDate:	<textline>
 }   >  
 }   >  		The comment indicates the date and time the document was
 }   >  		created.  Neither the date nor time need be in any standard
 }   >  		format.  This comment is meant to be used purely for
 }   >  		informational purposes, such as printing on banner pages.
 }   >  
 }   >  In other words, leaving it out won't break the file.  Hopefully there
 }   >  aren't any tools that demand it.  If there is, the tool is probably
 }   >  broken anyways.
 }  
 }  Yes, except that at least some programs examine or check the comment
 }  at the beginning of a postscript file to determine if it is, in fact,
 }  a postscript file.
 }  
 }  One possible way for this change to go wrong is that lpr and/or
 }  printers stop recognizing the files as postscript and print the
 }  postscript as text... probably this is not going to be an issue with
 }  just removing CreationDate. I hope.
 
       Many PostScript documents will start with this line:
 
 %!PS-Adobe-3.0
 
 However, they are only allowed to do so if they conform to the
 Docuement Structuring Convention.  A shortcut in recognizing
 PostScript documents would be to look for "%!" as the first two
 characters.  Blowing up because "%%CreationDate: " is missing is
 just plain broken.  BTW, a line starting with "%%" indicates a
 special Document Structuring Convention comment.
 
 }-- End of excerpt from David Holland