[NTG-pdftex] Creating identical PDF files with different pdfTeX runs

[Hans Hagen]

� wrote:
> I don't think the log helps.
>
> The log files contain absolute paths, so they would need lots of
> replacements before you can even start comparing.  They contain version
> information for the packages - but checking whether a new version gives
> identical results is one of our goals.  And renamed files, or splitting
> a package into different input files loaded by the "master" file, would
> completely break when we would try to automatically parse the log file.
>   
i had the impression that you wanted to test if teh pdf files were ok and then you don;t need to compare with older files; just analyze the log for anomalities (like missing resources which point to a problem in the font setup - which is the most probable source of problems); 

regression tests at the macro package (output) level is something else; afaik latex already has regression tests; as said: analyzing the page stream or objects is non trivial, and even simple changes in pdftex or in annot/object/literal support will make a comparison nearly impossible 

Hans 

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