there is exactly one widely-available command-line program in linux which reads QR codes, zbar. it has a problem -- it sometimes fails, even on digitally generated QR codes. the failure rate for digital codes should be 0%, because they have exactly all the right data.
at least 1/3 of bugs in the zbar issue tracker are about this. almost all of the bugs in the tracker are about QR codes.
fixing this problem will make qr-backup measurably better. it will also make QR reading better on linux in general, for a lot of people.
i suspect it will fix another 1/3 of the bugs in the zbar tracker, even though they are not explicitly about digitally-generated QR codes.
why does it affect qr-backup?
qr-backup makes backups as a .pdf file. then, we try to test whether the backup worked, by using a command-line program (zbar) to read the QR codes, and see if we can decode the data.
there is a problem -- sometimes zbar fails to read the QR codes, even though we have a perfectly pristine digital QR
there is no command-line alternative to zbar.
zbar sometimes fails (>0.1% of the time) to scan a QR code. Fix this, changing the code of zbar to be correct, and get zbar to have a 0% error rate for digitally-generated images of QR codes.
Debugging tips:
- Set DEBUG_SVG and recompile
- Set QR_DEBUG, after merging the code in image.zip (source: Timothy Terriberry)
Reproduction case: https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/64830812/127732474-ff7fa13e-d913-4926-8361-ace8cf14d1f8.png
Code link: https://github.com/mchehab/zbar/tree/master/zbar/qrcode
Bounty: 10 hours of my time in trade
Cross-posted as mchehab/zbar#306 to the zbar repository.
there is exactly one widely-available command-line program in linux which reads QR codes, zbar. it has a problem -- it sometimes fails, even on digitally generated QR codes. the failure rate for digital codes should be 0%, because they have exactly all the right data.
at least 1/3 of bugs in the zbar issue tracker are about this. almost all of the bugs in the tracker are about QR codes.
fixing this problem will make qr-backup measurably better. it will also make QR reading better on linux in general, for a lot of people.
i suspect it will fix another 1/3 of the bugs in the zbar tracker, even though they are not explicitly about digitally-generated QR codes.
why does it affect qr-backup?
qr-backup makes backups as a .pdf file. then, we try to test whether the backup worked, by using a command-line program (zbar) to read the QR codes, and see if we can decode the data.
there is a problem -- sometimes zbar fails to read the QR codes, even though we have a perfectly pristine digital QR
there is no command-line alternative to zbar.
zbar sometimes fails (>0.1% of the time) to scan a QR code. Fix this, changing the code of zbar to be correct, and get zbar to have a 0% error rate for digitally-generated images of QR codes.
Debugging tips:
Reproduction case: https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/64830812/127732474-ff7fa13e-d913-4926-8361-ace8cf14d1f8.png
Code link: https://github.com/mchehab/zbar/tree/master/zbar/qrcode
Bounty: 10 hours of my time in tradeCross-posted as mchehab/zbar#306 to the zbar repository.