Several times now I have inadvertently lost the .tex file that generated a PDF file with pdflatex. Given what I know of the internal structure of PDF files, it should be possible to embed a text file containing the original LaTeX file into the PDF file so that it can be extracted later.
I am aware of no technology for doing this, but perhaps you are. Does anybody have something like this?
The package embedall has been made exactly for that:
Just include
\usepackage{embedall}
just before \begin{document} and it will embed all graphics, listings, and the tex source.
side note: The CTAN tag archival has more related tools listed. For instance, mkjobtexmf saves all .sty files. They could be embedded in the PDF, but I am unsure whether that's overkill. The package skb proposes a new kind of workflow, which does not really seem to tackle your issue.
archival, because one could find the related tooling mkjobtexmf interesting, too. Hlpe, you like it, too.
embedall relies on the embedfile package, and so it only works with pdfTeX and LuaTeX (added in embedfile v2.7). There is no XeTeX support at the moment.
Commented
Nov 19, 2019 at 10:56
I would recommend the embedfile or the navigator package (the latter has the additional advantage of working together with dvipdfmx, see this question of mine). Both are quite similar in usage:
With the embedfile package:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{embedfile}
\embedfile{\jobname.tex}
\begin{document}
The document
\end{document}
With the navigator package:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{navigator}
\embeddedfile{sourcecode}{./\jobname.tex}
\begin{document}
The document
\end{document}
attachfile since it doesn't insert any objects on the page. Note, however, that you need ./\jobname.tex for xdvipdfmx, as explained in the question I linked to earlier.
Commented
Mar 11, 2011 at 11:29
xdvipdfmx version 0.7.8, TeX Live 2010, though. My TeX Live comes from Gentoo, so it might have different configuration than the one used by the official TeX Live installer.
Commented
Mar 11, 2011 at 11:48
./ to my answer to be sure that it works :-)
pdftk file.pdf unpack_files output ~/folder/
You can attach arbitrary files to a PDF document using the attachfile2 package.
The above package works only with pdfTeX and dvips. For a XeTeX/xdvipdfmx solution, see this question.
attachfile package for details of the basic options (basically use \attachfile!).
You can do this in ConTeXt as well. Example:
\setupinteraction [state=start]
\starttext
Foo \attachment[file=attachfile.tex, title=Some file, author=Me]
\stoptext
The file key contains the file name, the title key is used (probably depending on the reader) e.g. for a tool tip (see screenshot). Interaction needs to be activated, otherwise the attachment mechanism don't work.
The question has already been answered, but I would like to add a warning:
Strategies for embedding the source code may run afoul of PDF/X, and possibly also PDF/A. So, if your file must be PDF/X or PDF/A, be careful.
Rationale: PDF/X is intended for reliable print. Any non-printing content, or scripted content, violates the spec. PDF/A is intended for archiving and also (depending on level) accessibility. Non-visible content may violate the accessibility spec.
If I had a "one size fits all" answer, I would provide it.
.iccfile is even one of the key features of a PDF/X, isn't it?