DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages
dcmdump(1) OFFIS DCMTK dcmdump(1)
NAME
dcmdump - Dump DICOM file and data set
SYNOPSIS
dcmdump [options] dcmfile-in...
DESCRIPTION
The dcmdump utility dumps the contents of a DICOM file (file format or
raw data set) to stdout in textual form. Attributes with very large
value fields (e.g. pixel data) can be described as '(not loaded)'.
String value fields will be delimited with square brackets ([]). Known
UIDs will be displayed by their names prefixed by an equals sign (e.g.
'=MRImageStorage') unless this mapping would be explicitly switched
off. Empty value fields are described as '(no value available)'.
If dcmdump 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 dcmdump to read a
dataset with a particular transfer syntax.
PARAMETERS
dcmfile-in DICOM input file or directory to be dumped
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
input files:
+sd --scan-directories
scan directories for input files (dcmfile-in)
+sp --scan-pattern [p]attern: string (only with --scan-directories)
pattern for filename matching (wildcards)
# possibly not available on all systems
-r --no-recurse
do not recurse within directories (default)
+r --recurse
recurse within specified directories
parsing of file meta information:
+ml --use-meta-length
use file meta information group length (default)
-ml --ignore-meta-length
ignore file meta information group length
parsing of odd-length attributes:
+ao --accept-odd-length
accept odd length attributes (default)
+ae --assume-even-length
assume real length is one byte larger
handling of non-standard VR:
+vr --treat-as-unknown
treat non-standard VR as unknown (default)
-vr --assume-implicit
try to read with implicit VR little endian TS
handling of undefined length UN elements:
+ui --enable-cp246
read undefined len UN as implicit VR (default)
-ui --disable-cp246
read undefined len UN as explicit VR
handling of defined length UN elements:
-uc --retain-un
retain elements as UN (default)
+uc --convert-un
convert to real VR if known
handling of private max-length elements (implicit VR):
-sq --maxlength-dict
read as defined in dictionary (default)
+sq --maxlength-seq
read as sequence with undefined length
automatic data correction:
+dc --enable-correction
enable automatic data correction (default)
-dc --disable-correction
disable automatic data correction
general handling of parser errors:
+Ep --ignore-parse-errors
try to recover from parse errors
-Ep --handle-parse-errors
handle parse errors and stop parsing (default)
other parsing options:
+st --stop-after-elem [t]ag: "gggg,eeee" or dictionary name
stop parsing after element specified by t
bitstream format of deflated input:
+bd --bitstream-deflated
expect deflated bitstream (default)
+bz --bitstream-zlib
expect deflated zlib bitstream
output options
loading:
+M --load-all
load very long tag values (default)
-M --load-short
do not load very long values (e.g. pixel data)
+R --max-read-length [k]bytes: integer (4..4194302, default: 4)
set threshold for long values to k kbytes
printing:
+L --print-all
print long tag values completely
-L --print-short
print long tag values shortened (default)
+T --print-tree
print hierarchical structure as a simple tree
-T --print-indented
print hierarchical structure indented (default)
+F --print-filename
print header with filename for each input file
+Fs --print-file-search
print header with filename only for those input files
that contain one of the searched tags
+Un --map-uid-names
map well-known UID numbers to names (default)
-Un --no-uid-names
do not map well-known UID numbers to names
+Qn --quote-nonascii
quote non-ASCII and control chars as XML markup
-Qn --print-nonascii
print non-ASCII and control chars (default)
+C --print-color
use ANSI escape codes for colored output
# not available on Windows systems
error handling:
-E --stop-on-error
do not print if file is damaged (default)
+E --ignore-errors
attempt to print even if file is damaged
searching:
+P --search [t]ag: "gggg,eeee" or dictionary name
print the value of tag t this option can be specified
multiple times (default: the complete file is printed)
+s --search-all
print all instances of searched tags (default)
-s --search-first
only print first instance of searched tags
+p --prepend
prepend sequence hierarchy to printed tag,
denoted by: (gggg,eeee).(gggg,eeee).*
(only with --search-all or --search-first)
-p --no-prepend
do not prepend hierarchy to tag (default)
writing:
+W --write-pixel [d]irectory: string
write pixel data to a .raw file stored in d
(little endian, filename created automatically)
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 dcmdump 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.
SEE ALSO
dump2dcm(1), dcmconv(1)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 1994-2010 by OFFIS e.V., Escherweg 2, 26121 Oldenburg,
Germany.
Version 3.6.0 6 Jan 2011 dcmdump(1)