stale-generation

All codes

• Type: warning
• Kind: input (the input is malformed beyond what tolerance repairs)

What happened

A reference’s generation number did not match its xref entry, so it resolved to null (ISO 32000-2 §7.3.10).

Why

An editor deleted and reused an object number (bumping its generation) but left a reference with the old generation behind.

How to fix

Nothing; the reference is treated as missing.

Example

/Contents 7 1 R      % but the xref entry for object 7 has generation 0

The reference resolves to null (ISO 32000-2 §7.3.10), as if object 7 were missing, and the warning carries generation 1.

Data fields

generation.