"cat" command: page range only applies to the last file of wildcard expression

[lkintact]

• Operating System: Windows 10 Home 22H2
• Python version: 3.13.8
• pdfly version used: 0.5.1

Hi,

Suppose there are 3 PDF files in the current folder: 1.pdf, 2.pdf and 3.pdf, and this command is executed:
pdfly.exe cat -o output.pdf *.pdf 0:1.

Actual result: the resulting file, output.pdf, contains full file 1.pdf, full file 2.pdf and the first page of file 3.pdf, i.e. the 0:1 page range is only applied to 3.pdf.

Expected result: output.pdf should contain the first pages of 1.pdf, 2.pdf and 3.pdf, i.e. the range should be applied to all the files of the wildcard expression *.pdf.

[Lucas-C]

Hi @lkintact

This is the expected behaviour.

In order to contain only the first pages of 1.pdf, 2.pdf and 3.pdf,
pdfly should be invoked this way:

pdfly cat -o output.pdf 1.pdf 0:1 2.pdf 0:1 3.pdf 0:1

This syntax makes it possible to specify different page ranges for different PDF documents.

I may be missing some potential solution there,
but I do not see how pdfly could support this cat *.pdf 0:1 usage you wanted to use
without breaking this useful feature of allowing to specify distinct page ranges for multiple PDFs.

[lkintact]

In order to contain only the first pages of 1.pdf, 2.pdf and 3.pdf, pdfly should be invoked this way: pdfly cat -o output.pdf 1.pdf 0:1 2.pdf 0:1 3.pdf 0:1

Thank you, but I should notice that that command would be rather tedious to type if we had not 3, but many more (e.g., hundreds) of PDF files.