pdfTeX/pdfLaTeX and changebar.sty

Important news:

The latest release of the changebar package (release 2005/09/18 v3.5c) can now be used directly with pdfLaTeX and does not require any modifications of pdfTeX or changebar.sty. Therefore I recommend updating to the latest changebar release instead of using the patches described below!

Introduction

The LaTeX package changebar.sty allows to mark parts of a text with vertical bars in the margin and is typically used to indicate modified passages of text (an example is shown below). Unfortunately, changebar.sty does not work in combination with pdfLaTeX (at least, with pdfLaTeX in pdf-mode).

The file pdftex_changebar_patches.tgz contains patches that can be applied to the pdfTeX source tree and to changebar.sty in order to use the changebar package together with pdfLaTeX. These patches are based on an earlier version provided by Richard Curnow <rc0@despammed.com>, see <URL:http://www.rpcurnow.force9.co.uk/pdftex/> or <URL:http://www.rc0.org.uk/>. He permitted kindly that I offer this updated version for download.

[Changebar example page 1] [Changebar example page 2]

Requirements

To apply the current version (version 0.8) of the pdfTeX/changebar patches you need

the gzipped tarball of the patch pdftex_changebar_patches.tgz
pdfTeX source tree, version 3.141592-1.30.1 or version 3.141592-1.30.0,
e.g. from your CTAN mirror <CTAN:systems/pdftex/> or from Sarovar.org <URL:http://sarovar.org/projects/pdftex/> or included in a new version of your distribution (TeXLive, teTeX, ...)
changebar 2004/02/20 v3.4g,
see <CTAN:macros/latex/contrib/changebar/>

Patches for older versions are listed in the History section below.

To use these patches you have to compile your own pdftex binary. Before downloading the patches you might like to verify that you are able to build your own pdftex binaries from the source tree. A short description of the installation is given below.

Installation

This description is for Unix-like systems. Everything you do, might break your system (software or hardware) and you do it at your own risk! Don't stop thinking while following these instructions!

Apply the pdfTeX patch to the pdfTeX tree:
- extract the pdftex source tree into some appropriate place (typically not your TeX directory, but some temporary directory for building the binaries):
```
      $ cd "approriate place"
      $ unzip pdftex-1.30.1.zip
```
  or similar for pdfTeX from other source archives.
- apply patches in the pdftex-1.30.1/src/texk/web2c/ directory (probably you have to add a path to the patch)
```
      $ cd pdftex-1.30.1/src/texk/web2c/
      $ patch -p0 < pdftex_130_1.patch
```
- use the pdfTeX Build script to make pdftex binaries
```
      $ cd ../../..
      $ ./Build
```
- finally, install the binaries and the pool files (pdftex, pdfetex, pdftex.pool, and pdfetex.pool found in pdftex-1.30.1/build/texk/web2c/) at the usual places of your TeX distribution (following the INSTALL documentation of pdfTeX). More recent TeX distributions might not work with pdftex any longer, in this case install only pdfetex and pdfetex.pool. Then rebuild your format files either using the appropriate tool of your TeX distribution (this is the recommended way to do so), e.g. for teTeX
```
      $ fmtutil --refresh
```
  or
```
      $ fmtutil-sys --refresh
```
  or manually, e.g.
```
      $ ./pdftex  -ini -fmt=pdflatex     latex.ltx
      $ ./pdfetex -ini -efmt=pdfelatex \*latex.ltx
      $ ./pdftex  -ini -fmt=pdftex     plain \\dump
      $ ./pdfetex -ini -efmt=pdfetex \*plain \\dump
```
  After manual building of the format files, they must be installed at the usual places (like texmf/web2c/).
Apply the changebar patch to changebar.sty:
- make sure that you have installed version 2004/02/20 v3.4g of the changebar package
- change to the directory in your texmf tree with the file changebar.sty and apply the appropriate patch
```
      $ cd "directory with changebar.sty"
      $ patch < changebar_20040220v34g.patch
```
Rebuild the ls-R database (e. g., run texhash).

History

Earlier versions of this patch can be applied to older source trees of pdftex (and older versions of changebar.sty):