[Webkit-unassigned] [Bug 240457] New: PDF.js is not shipped in preferred modifiable form

[bugzilla-daemon at webkit.org]

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=240457

            Bug ID: 240457
           Summary: PDF.js is not shipped in preferred modifiable form
           Product: WebKit
           Version: WebKit Nightly Build
          Hardware: PC
                OS: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: Normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: PDF
          Assignee: webkit-unassigned at lists.webkit.org
          Reporter: mcatanzaro at gnome.org
                CC: bugs-noreply at webkitgtk.org, ntim at apple.com,
                    thorton at apple.com
            Blocks: 235969

I was going to prepare an update to PDF.js 2.14.305 today, but noticed we are shipping "prebuilt" PDF.js under Source/ThirdParty/pdfjs. Major Linux distros do not allow prebuilt sources. It does not matter that it's not minified/obfuscated: what matters is that it's not the "preferred modifiable form" of the software. We should only ship the preferred modifiable form, and "build" that as part of the CMake/XCode build process if needed/desired.

According to https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/wiki/Setup-PDF.js-in-a-website#build-pdfjs-from-source, the build process is just one command: 'gulp generic', using gulp from https://gulpjs.com/. I've never heard of it, and it's not packaged in Fedora at all, so if we were to do this, I imagine most or all distros would just disable PDF.js entirely rather than bother with it.

We still have PDF.js in Epiphany because there have not been any WebKitGTK releases with PDF.js included yet. Epiphany ships the sources as-is, with no attempt made to build it. That works fine. I didn't even realize that it was possible to "build" it until today. I bet this would be fine for WebKit too, since it looks like the build process seems to be primarily designed to reduce the number of HTTP requests involved, which isn't relevant to WebKit as these are local resources? I'm not at all familiar with the advantages/disadvantages of shipping the original sources vs. the prebuilt sources, other than that prebuilt is not an option for Linux. I wonder what the disadvantages of not building them would really be.

My proposal is to just switch to the non-prebuilt sources, and move on. I can prepare a patch for this if it would be welcome. Tim, does that sound OK? Alternatively, we could ship prebuilt for macOS and non-prebuilt for Linux, but that seems annoying.

(I would also add a README.webkit with instructions for updating PDF.js.)


Referenced Bugs:

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=235969
[Bug 235969] Integrate PDF.js in Captive Portal mode
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