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)
