Strip user metadata from PDF by linearizing the output of exiftool.

linearize_pdf.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

function usage() {
cat << 'EOF'
Usage:
	linearize_pdf.sh --file <input_file> --output <output_file>.

Arguments:
	-f, --file: Input .pdf file to be processed.
	-o, --output: Name of output .pdf file.

Notes:
- Assumes `exiftool` and `qpdf` are available and in the user's $PATH.
EOF
}

while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]
do
	key="$1"

	case ${key} in
		-f|--file)
			shift
			INFILE="$1"
			;;
		-o|--output)
			shift
			OUTFILE="$1"
			;;
		-h|--help)
			usage
			exit
			;;
		*)
			usage
			exit 1
	esac
	shift
done

exiftool -all= -overwrite_original ${INFILE}
qpdf --linearize ${INFILE} ${OUTFILE}