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)
