pdf_oxide — Clojure bindings

Idiomatic Clojure bindings — a thin wrapper over the mature fyi.oxide:pdf-oxide Java binding, which owns the single JNI native bridge (the pdf_oxide_jni crate). This namespace adds zero native code: it calls the Java classes directly via interop and returns Clojure-friendly values (java.util.List → vector, java.util.Optional → value-or-nil). The handle types (Pdf, PdfDocument, DocumentEditor) are AutoCloseable, so use with-open.

Why a wrapper, not a separate FFI? Java and Clojure both run on the JVM, so the native bridge is written and tested once (in the Java binding); Clojure-Java interop is trivial.

Install

Published to Clojars as fyi.oxide/pdf-oxide-clojure:

;; deps.edn
{:deps {fyi.oxide/pdf-oxide-clojure {:mvn/version "0.3.69"}}}

;; Leiningen
[fyi.oxide/pdf-oxide-clojure "0.3.69"]

The JNI native library (libpdf_oxide_jni) is not bundled — make it loadable via System.loadLibrary("pdf_oxide_jni") on your java.library.path, or point the Java NativeLoader at it with -Dfyi.oxide.pdf.lib.path=<path>.

Build & test

# 1. build the JNI native library (full feature set)
cargo build --release -p pdf_oxide_jni --features full

# 2. install the Java binding to ~/.m2 (skip the dev profile's Rust rebuild)
( cd java && mvn -P'!dev' -DskipTests install )

# 3. test the Clojure wrapper (JNI lib located via fyi.oxide.pdf.lib.path)
cd clojure
clojure -J-Dfyi.oxide.pdf.lib.path="$PWD/../target/release/libpdf_oxide_jni.so" -M:test
clojure -J-Dfyi.oxide.pdf.lib.path="$PWD/../target/release/libpdf_oxide_jni.so" -M:example

The :test/:example aliases also set -Djava.library.path=../target/release, so System.loadLibrary("pdf_oxide_jni") resolves the lib when run from this directory; pass an absolute -Dfyi.oxide.pdf.lib.path to override.

Use

(require '[pdf-oxide.core :as pdf])

(with-open [p (pdf/from-markdown "# Hello\n\nbody\n")
            d (pdf/open (pdf/save p))]
  (println (pdf/page-count d))
  (println (pdf/extract-text d 0))
  (println (pdf/to-markdown d))
  (println (map #(.text %) (pdf/words (pdf/page d 0))))  ; List -> vector
  (println (or (pdf/producer d) "(none)")))              ; Optional -> nil

Layout

clojure/
  src/pdf_oxide/core.clj      idiomatic fns over the Java classes (List -> vec, Optional -> nil)
  src/pdf_oxide/example.clj   runnable example (asserted in CI)
  test/pdf_oxide/core_test.clj  coverage over the Java-backed API
  deps.edn

Verification (CI)

.github/workflows/clojure.yml on Linux + macOS: build the JNI cdylib → install the Java binding to local Maven → JDK 17 + Clojure CLI → clj-kondo → -M:test (api-coverage) → run example with an output assertion.