[tex-live] Segmentation fault: pdfpages?

[Denis Bitouzé]

Hi,

I know my problem should maybe be discussed on a forum but, because of
the imminent freeze for TL 2012, I prefer explain it here if it is TL
related.

I discovered a segmentation fault with a very long file, with pdfjam
(version 2.08) and an up-to-date TeX Live 2011 distribution on a
Mandriva Linux box. Hopefully, I could produce an MCE:

1. Compile with pdflatex the following test.tex file:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{PaloAlto}
\titlegraphic{\includegraphics[width=.5\linewidth]{graphic1}}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
  \titlepage
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}
  \includegraphics[width=.5\linewidth]{graphic2}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

where the graphic1(.pdf) and graphic2(.png) files may be downloaded
here:

http://gte.univ-littoral.fr/members/dbitouze/pub/latex/divers/pdfjam-trouble/graphic1/downloadFile/file/graphic1.pdf
http://gte.univ-littoral.fr/members/dbitouze/pub/latex/divers/pdfjam-trouble/graphic2/downloadFile/file/graphic2.png

2. Run the following pdfnup command:

pdfnup --outfile pdfjam-test.pdf test.pdf

3. You'll get an error similar to:

################################################################
$ pdfnup --outfile pdfjam-test.pdf test.pdf
/usr/local/bin/pdfjam : ligne 1180 : 11814 Erreur de segmentation
$pdflatex $texFile > $msgFile ----
  pdfjam: This is pdfjam version 2.08.
  pdfjam: Reading any site-wide or user-specific defaults...
              ## 
              ## From /home/bitouze/.pdfjam.conf: 
              ##
              tempfileDir='/var/tmp'
              tidy='false'
              keepinfo='false'
              checkfiles='false'
              paper='a4paper'
              outFile="$pwd"
              suffix='pdfjam'
              landscape='false'
              twoside='false'
              preamble=''
  pdfjam: Temporary directory for this job is
                    /var/tmp/pdfjam-AvAqdQ
  pdfjam: Effective call for this run of pdfjam:
          /usr/local/bin/pdfjam --suffix nup --nup '2x1' --landscape
--outfile pdfjam-test.pdf -- test.pdf - pdfjam: Calling pdflatex...
  pdfjam: FAILED.
          The call to 'pdflatex' resulted in an error.
          If '--no-tidy' was used, you can examine the
          log file at
                  /var/tmp/pdfjam-AvAqdQ/a.log
          to try to diagnose the problem.
  pdfjam ERROR: Output file not written
################################################################

In fact, this problem seems to be not related to pdfjam, but rather to
pdfpages as a segmentation fault arise directly with the following
pdfpages.tex file:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\begin{document}
\includepdfmerge[nup=2x1]{test.pdf,-}
\end{document}

where test.pdf file, generated from the above test.tex file, may be
found here:

http://gte.univ-littoral.fr/members/dbitouze/pub/latex/divers/pdfjam-trouble/test-pdf/downloadFile/file/test.pdf

What is very strange is that the segmentation fault is dropped if:

1. in test.tex file:

  * either no theme (or the default theme: \usetheme{default}) is
    loaded;

  * or some other graphic file is used instead of either graphic1 or
    graphic2 files (for instance the tiger.pdf file that comes with
    pstricks);

2. in pdfpages.tex file, the option nup=2x1 is removed.

Best regards.
-- 
Denis