For Ubuntu 18.04, just install the pdftk snap package:

sudo snap install pdftk

Installing pdftk on Ubuntu 18.04 amd64

I've written a small bash script which automatise the installation on Ubuntu 18.04. Note that I've downloaded only amd64 packages!

#!/bin/bash
#
# author: abu
# date: May 12 2018
# description: bash script to install pdftk on Ubuntu 18.04 for amd64 machines
##############################################################################
#
# change to /tmp directory
cd /tmp
# download packages
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gcc-6/libgcj17_6.4.0-8ubuntu1_amd64.deb 
 http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gcc-defaults/libgcj-common_6.4-3ubuntu1_all.deb 
 http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/pdftk/pdftk_2.02-4build1_amd64.deb 
 http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/pdftk/pdftk-dbg_2.02-4build1_amd64.deb 
echo -e "Packages for pdftk downloadednn"
# install packages 
echo -e "nn Installing pdftk: nn"
sudo apt-get install ./libgcj17_6.4.0-8ubuntu1_amd64.deb 
 ./libgcj-common_6.4-3ubuntu1_all.deb 
 ./pdftk_2.02-4build1_amd64.deb 
 ./pdftk-dbg_2.02-4build1_amd64.deb
echo -e "nn pdftk installedn"
echo -e " try it in shell with: > pdftk n"
# delete deb files in /tmp directory
rm ./libgcj17_6.4.0-8ubuntu1_amd64.deb
rm ./libgcj-common_6.4-3ubuntu1_all.deb
rm ./pdftk_2.02-4build1_amd64.deb
rm ./pdftk-dbg_2.02-4build1_amd64.deb

This script will download the packages to /tmp and install from there using an apt installcommand! Afterwards the packages in the /tmp directory will be removed.

To run this script, copy it in an editor and save it e.g. pdftk_installer. Then run it in a terminal with

chmod 755 pdftk_installer
./pdftk_installer

You can try use a docker image of Ubuntu 16.04 with pdftk installed to run pdftk:

1. 
   

   Install docker:

   
   
   
   
   

   sudo apt install docker.io
   

   
   


2. 
   

   Pull Ubuntu 16.04 and run a bash shell:

   
   
   

   sudo docker run -it ubuntu:16.04 bash
   

   
   


3. 
   

   Update and install pdftk from container prompt:

   
   
   

   apt update
   apt install pdftk
   

   
   


4. 
   

   On a new terminal run:

   
   
   

   sudo docker ps -a
   

   
   


5. 
   

   Commit the image using the CONTAINER ID of ubuntu:16.04 to a new image with pdftk installed:

   
   
   

   sudo docker commit CONTAINER_ID ubuntu_pdftk
   

   
   
   

   (Replace CONTAINER_ID with your container ID.)

   
   


6. 
   

   Create a file named pdftk in /usr/bin and then make it executable using chmod +x /usr/bin/pdftk:

   
   
   

   #!/bin/sh
   set -eu
   docker run --name pdftk -it -v "$PWD:/workdir$PWD" -w "/workdir$PWD" ubuntu_pdftk pdftk "$@"
   docker rm pdftk
   

   
   

I was able to install pdftk from artful (17.10) deb packages. Download and then install, in that order :

• libgcj-common


• libgcj17


• pdftk

It's best to install gcc-6-base first to avoid dependencies error if you do it from cli.

That should do the trick… for now.

I made a quick and dirty workaround to get PDFTK running under Bionic.

lsb_release -a && pdftk --version
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic

pdftk 2.02 a Handy Tool for Manipulating PDF Documents
Copyright (c) 2003-13 Steward and Lee, LLC - Please Visit: www.pdftk.com

I update my sources.list and include the following lines:

deb http://no.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ artful main restricted
deb http://no.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ artful-updates main restricted
deb http://no.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ artful universe
deb http://no.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ artful-updates universe
deb http://no.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ artful multiverse
deb http://no.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ artful-updates multiverse
deb http://no.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ artful-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-security multiverse

After that I run a simple

sudo apt update

to make the changes take effect.

Then install pdftk via

sudo apt install pdftk

Then remove the Artful sources from the source.list again and this is how I get PDFTK running under Bionic.

Source: https://christiandietze.de/pdftk-with-ubuntu-bionic-18-04/

What a great opportunity to use some docker magic!

What I did was to use a docker container running ubuntu 16.04, install pdftk
inside it and run it there.

Here are the exact steps if you want to do the same thing:

1. Install docker if you don't already have it (https://docs.docker.com/install/)


2. Create a directory somewhere called pdftk
   


3. Create a directory called docker inside the pdftk directory


4. Copy this Dockerfile into the pdftk/docker directory: https://github.com/gkotian/gautam_linux/blob/master/docker/pdftk/Dockerfile
   


5. Copy this script also into the pdftk/docker directory: https://github.com/gkotian/gautam_linux/blob/master/scripts/dockershell
   


6. Make sure the dockershell script is executable


7. Into the pdftk directory, copy all the pdf files you want to work with


8. cd /path/to/pdftk


9. Run the dockershell script with the path of the Dockerfile: docker/dockershell docker/Dockerfile (this will take some time the very first time you run it)

Now you should have a prompt inside the docker container, from where you can run
pdftk. When you're done, type exit to exit the container and return to the
host machine. Any newly generated files will be present in the pdftk directory
(but they'll be owned by root, so you may need to change ownership as necessary).