sozi-to-pdf failing with "file" argument must be of type string

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sozi-to-pdf failing with "file" argument must be of type string

edmcdonagh

I am trying to export a presentation to PDF for course notes - updated from the same export this time last year!

However, this time I am having a problem with file argument. At first, the child_process.js was throwing the error, but after uninstalling node and sozi-export and starting again, this time using NodeSource distributions, I now get the following error:

internal/validators.js:125
    throw new ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE(name, 'string', value);
    ^

TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE]: The "file" argument must be of type string. Received type object
    at validateString (internal/validators.js:125:11)
    at normalizeSpawnArguments (child_process.js:402:3)
    at spawn (child_process.js:541:16)
    at Object.exports.exec (/home/mcdonaghe/sozi-export/node_modules/phantomjs-prebuilt/lib/phantomjs.js:72:10)
    at Object.exports.convertToPDF (/home/mcdonaghe/sozi-export/lib/index.js:40:21)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/mcdonaghe/sozi-export/cli/sozi-to-pdf.js:38:12)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:721:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:732:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:620:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:560:12)

I have tried with different presentations (the error above is with one I downloaded from the examples here).

I don't know what to do next, and not being able to export to pdf for the course notes has left me in a bit of a pickle!

Grateful for any help available!

Kind regards

edmcdonagh

I should add - Ubuntu 16.04

senshu

Can you please give me the following information:

Which version of node.js have you installed (node --version)?
Which version of sozi-export produces the error (npm list -g sozi-export)?
An example of a command line that produces the error.

Since the error is related to the file name, I need to see what kind of file name you used.

senshu

Actually, it would help if you could also paste the complete output of sozi-to-pdf.

senshu

It seems that this is the same issue: https://github.com/shakiba/svgexport/issues/64
Can you show me the output of: npm ls phantomjs-prebuilt -g

edmcdonagh

$ node --version
v11.7.0

$ npm list -g sozi-export
/usr/lib
└── sozi-export@18.12.2  -> /home/mcdonaghe/sozi-export

$ npm ls phantomjs-prebuilt -g
/usr/lib
└─┬ sozi-export@18.12.2 -> /home/mcdonaghe/sozi-export
  └── phantomjs-prebuilt@2.1.16

The paths do not contain spaces, and the only line I missed from the original report was:

$ sozi-to-pdf Documents/Presentations/doutorado-marcelo.html 
Converting Documents/Presentations/doutorado-marcelo.html to Documents/Presentations/doutorado-marcelo.pdf

Thanks Senshu

senshu

edmcdonagh But I was surprised the path was to my home directory...

It's not. /usr/bin/sozi-to-pdf is linked to ../lib/node_modules/sozi-export/cli/sozi-to-pdf.js, which means /usr/lib/node_modules/sozi-export/cli/sozi-to-pdf.js.

edmcdonagh I installed svgexport as suggested in the post you linked to

The link is about a similar issue that happened with svgexport.
Since the reporter claims to have solved the issue, I thought that his solution could work for sozi-export as well.
But you are not supposed to install svgexport.

In your case, the solution would have been to remove any other installation of phantomjs and reinstall sozi-export. But it seems that you have no other version of phantomjs installed.

edmcdonagh node --version
v11.7.0

The highest version I have tried is node.js 10.
I will try node.js 11 to see if I have the same error.

In the meantime, you can try to downgrade nodejs. It will require to remove the current version:

sudo apt-get purge nodejs
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

edmcdonagh

I don't really understand node, so maybe this isn't relevant. But I was surprised the path was to my home directory...

$ which sozi-to-pdf
/usr/bin/sozi-to-pdf

$ ls -l /usr/bin/sozi-to-*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Jan 19 22:47 /usr/bin/sozi-to-pdf -> ../lib/node_modules/sozi-export/cli/sozi-to-pdf.js
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 Jan 19 22:47 /usr/bin/sozi-to-pptx -> ../lib/node_modules/sozi-export/cli/sozi-to-pptx.js
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 52 Jan 19 22:47 /usr/bin/sozi-to-video -> ../lib/node_modules/sozi-export/cli/sozi-to-video.js

edmcdonagh

I assumed it wouldn't be so simple but just in case I installed svgexport as suggested in the post you linked to, an it hasn't made any difference:

$ sudo npm install -g svgexport --unsafe-perm
/usr/bin/svgexport -> /usr/lib/node_modules/svgexport/bin/index.js

> phantomjs-prebuilt@2.1.16 install /usr/lib/node_modules/svgexport/node_modules/phantomjs-prebuilt
> node install.js

PhantomJS not found on PATH
Downloading https://github.com/Medium/phantomjs/releases/download/v2.1.1/phantomjs-2.1.1-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
Saving to /tmp/phantomjs/phantomjs-2.1.1-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
Receiving...
  [=====================================---] 93%
Received 22866K total.
Extracting tar contents (via spawned process)
Removing /usr/lib/node_modules/svgexport/node_modules/phantomjs-prebuilt/lib/phantom
Copying extracted folder /tmp/phantomjs/phantomjs-2.1.1-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2-extract-1547993379971/phantomjs-2.1.1-linux-x86_64 -> /usr/lib/node_modules/svgexport/node_modules/phantomjs-prebuilt/lib/phantom
Writing location.js file
Done. Phantomjs binary available at /usr/lib/node_modules/svgexport/node_modules/phantomjs-prebuilt/lib/phantom/bin/phantomjs
+ svgexport@0.3.2
added 83 packages from 78 contributors in 20.211s

$ sozi-to-pdf "Documents/Presentations/doutorado-marcelo.html" 
Converting Documents/Presentations/doutorado-marcelo.html to Documents/Presentations/doutorado-marcelo.pdf
internal/validators.js:125
    throw new ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE(name, 'string', value);
    ^

TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE]: The "file" argument must be of type string. Received type object
    at validateString (internal/validators.js:125:11)
    at normalizeSpawnArguments (child_process.js:402:3)
    at spawn (child_process.js:541:16)
    at Object.exports.exec (/home/mcdonaghe/sozi-export/node_modules/phantomjs-prebuilt/lib/phantomjs.js:72:10)
    at Object.exports.convertToPDF (/home/mcdonaghe/sozi-export/lib/index.js:40:21)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/mcdonaghe/sozi-export/cli/sozi-to-pdf.js:38:12)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:721:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:732:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:620:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:560:12)

edmcdonagh

Hi @senshu - any ideas how to proceed?

Thanks, Ed

edmcdonagh

Hi @senshu I have downgraded to v10.15.0, and there is no change to the error.

senshu

I have no idea what causes this issue and I cannot reproduce it

In the future, I will modify sozi-export to replace PhantomJS with something else. This work has not begun and I cannot give you a date.

In the meantime, a possible solution would be to use sozi-to-pdf from this docker image. It will also install Sozi and Inkscape but there is no obligation to use these through docker if you already have them.

edmcdonagh

Ok, thanks. I'll have to find something I can run docker on - the laptop I am using has Ubuntu running in VirtualBox on Windows - and VirtualBox conflicts with Docker.

My machine at work has Windows running in VirtualBox on Ubuntu - maybe that will work! We'll see.

Thanks anyway. Maybe it will just work when I try it on a different machine. Fingers crossed.