very unusal pdf problem?

[Tim Chase]

> What I think might be the problem though is that the password has a * in 
> it.

My guess is that your shell (bash?) is trying to expand the 
asterisk as a wildcard.  Try wrapping the password in quotes:

   -opw "pass*word"

I have similar problems with the venerable "find" command where 
I'm looking for a wild-card.  I have to wrap the parameter in 
quotes, such as

   find ~ -name '*mp3'

In your case, you can use either single-quotes or double-quotes. 
  However, if you ever have a password containing a dollar-sign 
in it, you'll want the single-quote version.  Additionally, 
beware if the password ever contains a backslash, as that may 
need to be escaped.

Just as a side-note of caution, you may want to investigate if 
your extracting-tool supports prompting for passwords instead of 
entering them on the command-line.  If you put the password on 
the command-line, it shows up in places that might be visible to 
other users on your system (namely, in the "ps" listing and in 
your bash history).  If you're the only user on the system, it's 
not criminal, but it's good practice not to leave passwords 
littering your system.

just my $0.02

-tim