Posted by weezair on
URL: https://discuss.asciidoctor.org/SVG-Error-Undefined-method-clear-for-nil-NilClass-tp7615.html

I have an issue where asciidoctor-pdf fails to compile an .adoc with a custom theme.  The compile seems to fail due to the theme's reference if an .svg for page-background-image:

page:
  background-image: image:background.svg[]

It fails with the following error:

undefined method `clear' for nil:NilClass

I'm running this on a mac asciidoctor 2.0.10 with asciidoctor-pdf 1.5.0.rc.3.  When I run a trace I get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
        16: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/bin/ruby_executable_hooks:24:in `<main>'
        15: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/bin/ruby_executable_hooks:24:in `eval'
        14: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/bin/asciidoctor-pdf:23:in `<main>'
        13: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/bin/asciidoctor-pdf:23:in `load'
        12: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-pdf-1.5.0.rc.3/bin/asciidoctor-pdf:27:in `<top (required)>'
        11: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-2.0.10/lib/asciidoctor/cli/invoker.rb:111:in `invoke!'
        10: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-2.0.10/lib/asciidoctor/cli/invoker.rb:111:in `each'
         9: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-2.0.10/lib/asciidoctor/cli/invoker.rb:128:in `block in invoke!'
         8: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-2.0.10/lib/asciidoctor/convert.rb:183:in `convert_file'
         7: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-2.0.10/lib/asciidoctor/convert.rb:183:in `open'
         6: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-2.0.10/lib/asciidoctor/convert.rb:183:in `block in convert_file'
         5: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-2.0.10/lib/asciidoctor/convert.rb:118:in `convert'
         4: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-2.0.10/lib/asciidoctor/document.rb:951:in `convert'
         3: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-pdf-1.5.0.rc.3/lib/asciidoctor/pdf/converter.rb:129:in `convert'
         2: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-pdf-1.5.0.rc.3/lib/asciidoctor/pdf/converter.rb:186:in `convert_document'
         1: from /Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-pdf-1.5.0.rc.3/lib/asciidoctor/pdf/converter.rb:2573:in `layout_title_page'
/Users/chuck/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3/gems/asciidoctor-pdf-1.5.0.rc.3/lib/asciidoctor/pdf/ext/pdf-core/page.rb:46:in `reset_content': undefined method `clear' for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)

When I replace the background.svg with a background.png file, no issues.

Interesting part is that the theme is already referencing a foreground.svg under page-foreground-image and it works fine.

I went and checked the background.svg multiple times, compared it to and even replaced it with the foreground.svg, and no luck.  I tried different export .svg setting from the graphics app (Affinity Designer), even made sure the settings were the same for foreground and background files, again no luck.  

Any ideas?

_*Thanks*_.