Join / Merge pdf files in Linux

Linux does a lot of things out-of-the-box, just like a Mac. Essentially, unlike a Mac, Linux isn't boxed, and viceversa does a lot of things more than a Mac. It just lacks the sheer semplicity of Mac.

To join pdf use GhostScript. I tried successfully on my Ubuntu 8.10 machine.

(citation from linux.com)

gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=finished.pdf file1.pdf file2.pdf

Unless you're very familiar with Ghostscript, that string of commands won't mean much to you. Here's a quick breakdown:

• gs -- starts the Ghostscript program
• -dBATCH -- once Ghostscript processes the PDF files, it should exit. If you don't include this option, Ghostscript will just keep running
• -dNOPAUSE -- forces Ghostscript to process each page without pausing for user interaction
• -q -- stops Ghostscript from displaying messages while it works
• -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -- tells Ghostscript to use its built-in PDF writer to process the files
• -sOutputFile=finished.pdf -- tells Ghostscript to save the combined PDF file with the name that you specified

Obviously the operation is not limited to two files. I merged 12 files in a matter of seconds with a single command line. Yes, it supports wildcards.

gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=finished.pdf *.pdf