Fix pdf text extraction multipage

CHANGELOG.rst

@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ Next release
   ``licensedcode-data``.
   https://github.com/aboutcode-org/scancode-toolkit/pull/5056
 
+- Fix a regression in PDF text extraction that silently stopped after the
+  first page, so copyright/license detection missed text on later pages.
+  https://github.com/aboutcode-org/scancode-toolkit/pull/5260
+
 v33.0.0rc1 - 2026-05-14
 ------------------------
 

src/textcode/pdf.py

@@ -43,5 +43,5 @@ def get_text_lines(location, max_pages=5):
                 interpreter.process_page(page)
                 if max_pages and page_num == max_pages:
                     break
-                extracted_text.seek(0)
-                return extracted_text.readlines()
+            extracted_text.seek(0)
+            return extracted_text.readlines()

tests/textcode/test_pdf.py

@@ -51,6 +51,33 @@ def get_text(location):
 
         assert result == expected
 
+    def test_get_text_lines_extracts_all_pages_up_to_max_pages(self):
+        # regression test: text extraction must not stop after the first page
+        test_file = self.get_test_loc('pdf/multi_page.pdf')
+        result = pdf.get_text_lines(test_file)
+        text = b''.join(result)
+        assert b'This is page 1 of a multi-page test document.' in text
+        assert b'This notice is on page 2.' in text
+        assert b'The last page 5 of this test document.' in text
+        # the default max_pages=5 must still be honored
+        assert b'Page 6' not in text
+
+    def test_get_text_lines_returns_lines_when_max_pages_is_one(self):
+        # regression test: reaching max_pages must not return None
+        test_file = self.get_test_loc('pdf/multi_page.pdf')
+        result = pdf.get_text_lines(test_file, max_pages=1)
+        assert result
+        text = b''.join(result)
+        assert b'This is page 1 of a multi-page test document.' in text
+        assert b'page 2' not in text
+
+    def test_get_text_lines_extracts_all_pages_when_max_pages_is_zero(self):
+        test_file = self.get_test_loc('pdf/multi_page.pdf')
+        result = pdf.get_text_lines(test_file, max_pages=0)
+        text = b''.join(result)
+        assert b'Page 6 is beyond the default max_pages limit.' in text
+        assert b'Page 7 is also beyond the default max_pages limit.' in text
+
     def test_pdfminer_can_parse_faulty_broadcom_doc(self):
         # test for https://github.com/euske/pdfminer/issues/118
         test_file = self.get_test_loc('pdf/pdfminer_bug_118/faulty.pdf')