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dcm2xml(1) OFFIS DCMTK dcm2xml(1)
NAME
dcm2xml - Convert DICOM file and data set to XML
SYNOPSIS
dcm2xml [options] dcmfile-in [xmlfile-out]
DESCRIPTION
The dcm2xml utility converts the contents of a DICOM file (file format
or raw data set) to XML (Extensible Markup Language). The DTD (Document
Type Definition) is described in the file dcm2xml.dtd.
If dcm2xml reads a raw data set (DICOM data without a file format meta-
header) it will attempt to guess the transfer syntax by examining the
first few bytes of the file. It is not always possible to correctly
guess the transfer syntax and it is better to convert a data set to a
file format whenever possible (using the dcmconv utility). It is also
possible to use the -f and -t[ieb] options to force dcm2xml to read a
data set with a particular transfer syntax.
PARAMETERS
dcmfile-in DICOM input filename to be converted
xmlfile-out XML output filename (default: stdout)
OPTIONS
general options
-h --help
print this help text and exit
--version
print version information and exit
--arguments
print expanded command line arguments
-q --quiet
quiet mode, print no warnings and errors
-v --verbose
verbose mode, print processing details
-d --debug
debug mode, print debug information
-ll --log-level [l]evel: string constant
(fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace)
use level l for the logger
-lc --log-config [f]ilename: string
use config file f for the logger
input options
input file format:
+f --read-file
read file format or data set (default)
+fo --read-file-only
read file format only
-f --read-dataset
read data set without file meta information
input transfer syntax:
-t= --read-xfer-auto
use TS recognition (default)
-td --read-xfer-detect
ignore TS specified in the file meta header
-te --read-xfer-little
read with explicit VR little endian TS
-tb --read-xfer-big
read with explicit VR big endian TS
-ti --read-xfer-implicit
read with implicit VR little endian TS
long tag values:
+M --load-all
load very long tag values (e.g. pixel data)
-M --load-short
do not load very long values (default)
+R --max-read-length [k]bytes: integer (4..4194302, default: 4)
set threshold for long values to k kbytes
processing options
character set:
+Cr --charset-require
require declaration of extended charset (default)
+Ca --charset-assume [c]harset: string constant
(latin-1 to -5, cyrillic, arabic, greek, hebrew)
assume charset c if no extended charset declared
+Cc --charset-check-all
check all data elements with string values
(default: only PN, LO, LT, SH, ST and UT)
output options
XML structure:
+Xd --add-dtd-reference
add reference to document type definition (DTD)
+Xe --embed-dtd-content
embed document type definition into XML document
+Xf --use-dtd-file [f]ilename: string
use specified DTD file (only with +Xe)
(default: /usr/local/share/dcmtk/dcm2xml.dtd)
+Xn --use-xml-namespace
add XML namespace declaration to root element
DICOM data elements:
+Wn --write-element-name
write name of the DICOM data elements (default)
-Wn --no-element-name
do not write name of the DICOM data elements
+Wb --write-binary-data
write binary data of OB and OW elements
(default: off, be careful with --load-all)
+Eh --encode-hex
encode binary data as hex numbers (default)
+Eb --encode-base64
encode binary data as Base64 (RFC 2045, MIME)
NOTES
The basic structure of the XML output created from a DICOM image file
looks like the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE file-format SYSTEM "dcm2xml.dtd">
<file-format xmlns="http://dicom.offis.de/dcmtk">
<meta-header xfer="1.2.840.10008.1.2.1" name="LittleEndianExplicit">
<element tag="0002,0000" vr="UL" vm="1" len="4"
name="MetaElementGroupLength">
166
</element>
...
<element tag="0002,0013" vr="SH" vm="1" len="16"
name="ImplementationVersionName">
OFFIS_DCMTK_353
</element>
</meta-header>
<data-set xfer="1.2.840.10008.1.2" name="LittleEndianImplicit">
<element tag="0008,0005" vr="CS" vm="1" len="10"
name="SpecificCharacterSet">
ISO_IR 100
</element>
...
<sequence tag="0028,3010" vr="SQ" card="2" name="VOILUTSequence">
<item card="3">
<element tag="0028,3002" vr="xs" vm="3" len="6"
name="LUTDescriptor">
256\0\8
</element>
...
</item>
...
</sequence>
...
<element tag="7fe0,0010" vr="OW" vm="1" len="262144"
name="PixelData" loaded="no" binary="hidden">
</element>
</data-set>
</file-format>
The 'file-format' and 'meta-header' tags are absent for DICOM data
sets.
Character Encoding
The XML encoding is determined automatically from the DICOM attribute
(0008,0005) 'Specific Character Set' (if present) using the following
mapping:
ASCII "ISO_IR 6" => "UTF-8"
UTF-8 "ISO_IR 192" => "UTF-8"
ISO Latin 1 "ISO_IR 100" => "ISO-8859-1"
ISO Latin 2 "ISO_IR 101" => "ISO-8859-2"
ISO Latin 3 "ISO_IR 109" => "ISO-8859-3"
ISO Latin 4 "ISO_IR 110" => "ISO-8859-4"
ISO Latin 5 "ISO_IR 148" => "ISO-8859-9"
Cyrillic "ISO_IR 144" => "ISO-8859-5"
Arabic "ISO_IR 127" => "ISO-8859-6"
Greek "ISO_IR 126" => "ISO-8859-7"
Hebrew "ISO_IR 138" => "ISO-8859-8"
Multiple character sets are not supported (only the first attribute
value is mapped in case of value multiplicity).
XML Encoding
Attributes with very large value fields (e.g. pixel data) are not
loaded by default. They can be identified by the additional attribute
'loaded' with a value of 'no' (see example above). The command line
option --load-all forces to load all value fields including the very
long ones.
Furthermore, binary information of OB and OW attributes are not written
to the XML output file by default. These elements can be identified by
the additional attribute 'binary' with a value of 'hidden' (default is
'no'). The command line option --write-binary-data causes also binary
value fields to be printed (attribute value is 'yes' or 'base64'). But,
be careful when using this option together with --load-all because of
the large amounts of pixel data that might be printed to the output.
Multiple values (i.e. where the DICOM value multiplicity is greater
than 1) are separated by a backslash '\' (except for Base64 encoded
data). The 'len' attribute indicates the number of bytes for the
particular value field as stored in the DICOM data set, i.e. it might
deviate from the XML encoded value length e.g. because of non-
significant padding that has been removed. If this attribute is missing
in 'sequence' or 'item' start tags, the corresponding DICOM element has
been stored with undefined length.
LOGGING
The level of logging output of the various command line tools and
underlying libraries can be specified by the user. By default, only
errors and warnings are written to the standard error stream. Using
option --verbose also informational messages like processing details
are reported. Option --debug can be used to get more details on the
internal activity, e.g. for debugging purposes. Other logging levels
can be selected using option --log-level. In --quiet mode only fatal
errors are reported. In such very severe error events, the application
will usually terminate. For more details on the different logging
levels, see documentation of module 'oflog'.
In case the logging output should be written to file (optionally with
logfile rotation), to syslog (Unix) or the event log (Windows) option
--log-config can be used. This configuration file also allows for
directing only certain messages to a particular output stream and for
filtering certain messages based on the module or application where
they are generated. An example configuration file is provided in
<etcdir>/logger.cfg).
COMMAND LINE
All command line tools use the following notation for parameters:
square brackets enclose optional values (0-1), three trailing dots
indicate that multiple values are allowed (1-n), a combination of both
means 0 to n values.
Command line options are distinguished from parameters by a leading '+'
or '-' sign, respectively. Usually, order and position of command line
options are arbitrary (i.e. they can appear anywhere). However, if
options are mutually exclusive the rightmost appearance is used. This
behaviour conforms to the standard evaluation rules of common Unix
shells.
In addition, one or more command files can be specified using an '@'
sign as a prefix to the filename (e.g. @command.txt). Such a command
argument is replaced by the content of the corresponding text file
(multiple whitespaces are treated as a single separator unless they
appear between two quotation marks) prior to any further evaluation.
Please note that a command file cannot contain another command file.
This simple but effective approach allows to summarize common
combinations of options/parameters and avoids longish and confusing
command lines (an example is provided in file <datadir>/dumppat.txt).
ENVIRONMENT
The dcm2xml utility will attempt to load DICOM data dictionaries
specified in the DCMDICTPATH environment variable. By default, i.e. if
the DCMDICTPATH environment variable is not set, the file
<datadir>/dicom.dic will be loaded unless the dictionary is built into
the application (default for Windows).
The default behaviour should be preferred and the DCMDICTPATH
environment variable only used when alternative data dictionaries are
required. The DCMDICTPATH environment variable has the same format as
the Unix shell PATH variable in that a colon (':') separates entries.
On Windows systems, a semicolon (';') is used as a separator. The data
dictionary code will attempt to load each file specified in the
DCMDICTPATH environment variable. It is an error if no data dictionary
can be loaded.
FILES
<datadir>/dcm2xml.dtd - Document Type Definition (DTD) file
SEE ALSO
xml2dcm(1), dcmconv(1)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2002-2010 by OFFIS e.V., Escherweg 2, 26121 Oldenburg,
Germany.
Version 3.6.0 6 Jan 2011 dcm2xml(1)