#468 New release of libpaper (paperconf) does not work with rst2odt

[fouinix]

Hello,
It seems a new release of libpaper has broken rst2odt. paperconf -s no longer exists:

paperconf -s 
(null): unknown option ‘-s’

[fouinix]

https://github.com/rrthomas/libpaper/issues/42

[fouinix]

The author reported we can use this command instead:

$ paper --unit pt
A4: 595.276x841.89 pt

[fouinix]

I replaced setup_paper in docutils/writers/odf_odt/__init__.py by:

def setup_paper(self, root_el):
    try:
        dimensions = subprocess.check_output(('paper','--unit pt'),
                                             stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
        """
        Example output of paper --unit pt:
        A4: 595.276x841.89 pt
        Letter: 612x792 pt
        """
        x = re.split("\w.*: (\d*(\.\d*)*)x(\d*(\.\d*)*) .*", txt)
        w = float(x[1])
        h = float(x[3])
    except (subprocess.CalledProcessError, FileNotFoundError, ValueError):
        self.document.reporter.info(
            'Cannot use `paper`, defaulting to Letter.')
        w, h = 612, 792     # default to Letter

[Günter Milde]

Thank you for the report and suggestion.
One problem is, that the "old" paperconf command does not recognize the --unit option.
Maybe we can try the old syntax and processing if the new command fails before falling back to
"letter" or "A4".

[fouinix]

Indeed, I forgot to handle the case when we have an "old" paperconf ^^

[Günter Milde]

The attached patch combines the "old" code with your change suggestion.
"flake8" shows a number of complaints (e.g. variable "txt" never used).
Also, the regexp looks overly complicated and I'd rather use re.search() than re.split().
Did you test the proposed change?

[Günter Milde]

And a test stub. (A proper test would need an independent method to find out if the user has a configured page size and check it is properly retrieved.)
It works for me (i.e. with the "old" libpaper).

[Günter Milde]

Mind, that the behaviour of rst2odt with the new "libpaper" version is similar to the current behaviour on systems without "libpaper/paperconf": the page size defaults to US-Letter and an "info" level message is printed. So it is no complete breakdown.

Also mind, that you must use a custom stylesheet without page size settings to get the page size determined by "paperconf". https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/user/odt.html#page-size
The default style sheet (docutils/writers/odf_odt/styles.odt) sets the page size to US Letter. Hence, by default, documents are generated with "US Letter" page size also on systems with a properly working "paperconf" set to A4.

[Günter Milde]

Before the proposed patch can be applied to the repo, it needs to be tested on a system with the new paperconf. Waiting for volunteers.