This patch makes the UUIDs in the XMP header optional, depending on the setting of the environment variable GS_GENERATE_UUIDS. If the environment variable GS_GENERATE_UUIDS is set to "0" or "no", it will not write out the Document UUID field and also will write the Instance ID field value as "". Upstream does not want to do this. See: https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=698208 diff -ur orig/gnu-ghostscript-9.14.0/devices/vector/gdevpdfe.c aa/gnu-ghostscript-9.14.0/devices/vector/gdevpdfe.c --- orig/gnu-ghostscript-9.14.0/devices/vector/gdevpdfe.c 2017-07-09 23:30:28.960479189 +0200 +++ gnu-ghostscript-9.14.0/devices/vector/gdevpdfe.c 2017-07-10 01:04:12.252478276 +0200 @@ -620,7 +620,7 @@ return code; /* PDF/A XMP reference recommends setting UUID to empty. If not empty must be a URI */ - if (pdev->PDFA != 0) + if (pdev->PDFA != 0 || (getenv("GS_GENERATE_UUIDS") && (strcasecmp(getenv("GS_GENERATE_UUIDS"), "0") == 0 || strcasecmp(getenv("GS_GENERATE_UUIDS"), "no") == 0))) instance_uuid[0] = 0x00; cre_date_time_len = pdf_get_docinfo_item(pdev, "/CreationDate", cre_date_time, sizeof(cre_date_time)); @@ -720,14 +720,17 @@ pdf_xml_tag_close(s, "rdf:Description"); pdf_xml_newline(s); - pdf_xml_tag_open_beg(s, "rdf:Description"); - pdf_xml_copy(s, " rdf:about=\"\""); - pdf_xml_attribute_name(s, "xmlns:xapMM"); - pdf_xml_attribute_value(s, "http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/"); - pdf_xml_attribute_name(s, "xapMM:DocumentID"); - pdf_xml_attribute_value(s, document_uuid); - pdf_xml_tag_end_empty(s); - pdf_xml_newline(s); + if (!getenv("GS_GENERATE_UUIDS") || (strcasecmp(getenv("GS_GENERATE_UUIDS"), "0") != 0 && strcasecmp(getenv("GS_GENERATE_UUIDS"), "no") != 0)) + { + pdf_xml_tag_open_beg(s, "rdf:Description"); + pdf_xml_copy(s, " rdf:about=\"\""); + pdf_xml_attribute_name(s, "xmlns:xapMM"); + pdf_xml_attribute_value(s, "http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/"); + pdf_xml_attribute_name(s, "xapMM:DocumentID"); + pdf_xml_attribute_value(s, document_uuid); + pdf_xml_tag_end_empty(s); + pdf_xml_newline(s); + } pdf_xml_tag_open_beg(s, "rdf:Description"); pdf_xml_copy(s, " rdf:about=\"\"");