1dcmdump(1) OFFIS DCMTK dcmdump(1)
2
6 dcmdump - Dump DICOM file and data set
7
10 dcmdump [options] dcmfile-in...
11
13 The dcmdump utility dumps the contents of a DICOM file (file format or
14 raw data set) to stdout in textual form. Attributes with very large
15 value fields (e.g. pixel data) can be described as '(not loaded)'.
16 String value fields will be delimited with square brackets ([]). Known
17 UIDs will be displayed by their names prefixed by an equals sign (e.g.
18 '=MRImageStorage') unless this mapping would be explicitly switched
19 off. Empty value fields are described as '(no value available)'.
20 If dcmdump reads a raw data set (DICOM data without a file format meta-
22 header) it will attempt to guess the transfer syntax by examining the
23 first few bytes of the file. It is not always possible to correctly
24 guess the transfer syntax and it is better to convert a data set to a
25 file format whenever possible (using the dcmconv utility). It is also
26 possible to use the -f and -t[ieb] options to force dcmdump to read a
27 dataset with a particular transfer syntax.
28
30 dcmfile-in DICOM input file or directory to be dumped
31
33 general options
34 -h --help
35 print this help text and exit
36 --version
38 print version information and exit
39 --arguments
41 print expanded command line arguments
42 -q --quiet
44 quiet mode, print no warnings and errors
45 -v --verbose
47 verbose mode, print processing details
48 -d --debug
50 debug mode, print debug information
51 -ll --log-level [l]evel: string constant
53 (fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace)
54 use level l for the logger
55 -lc --log-config [f]ilename: string
57 use config file f for the logger
58 input options
60 input file format:
61 +f --read-file
63 read file format or data set (default)
64 +fo --read-file-only
66 read file format only
67 -f --read-dataset
69 read data set without file meta information
70 input transfer syntax:
72 -t= --read-xfer-auto
74 use TS recognition (default)
75 -td --read-xfer-detect
77 ignore TS specified in the file meta header
78 -te --read-xfer-little
80 read with explicit VR little endian TS
81 -tb --read-xfer-big
83 read with explicit VR big endian TS
84 -ti --read-xfer-implicit
86 read with implicit VR little endian TS
87 input files:
89 +sd --scan-directories
91 scan directories for input files (dcmfile-in)
92 +sp --scan-pattern [p]attern: string (only with --scan-directories)
94 pattern for filename matching (wildcards)
95 # possibly not available on all systems
97 -r --no-recurse
99 do not recurse within directories (default)
100 +r --recurse
102 recurse within specified directories
103 long tag values:
105 +M --load-all
107 load very long tag values (default)
108 -M --load-short
110 do not load very long values (e.g. pixel data)
111 +R --max-read-length [k]bytes: integer (4..4194302, default: 4)
113 set threshold for long values to k kbytes
114 parsing of file meta information:
116 +ml --use-meta-length
118 use file meta information group length (default)
119 -ml --ignore-meta-length
121 ignore file meta information group length
122 parsing of odd-length attributes:
124 +ao --accept-odd-length
126 accept odd length attributes (default)
127 +ae --assume-even-length
129 assume real length is one byte larger
130 handling of explicit VR:
132 +ev --use-explicit-vr
134 use explicit VR from dataset (default)
135 -ev --ignore-explicit-vr
137 ignore explicit VR (prefer data dictionary)
138 handling of non-standard VR:
140 +vr --treat-as-unknown
142 treat non-standard VR as unknown (default)
143 -vr --assume-implicit
145 try to read with implicit VR little endian TS
146 handling of undefined length UN elements:
148 +ui --enable-cp246
150 read undefined len UN as implicit VR (default)
151 -ui --disable-cp246
153 read undefined len UN as explicit VR
154 handling of defined length UN elements:
156 -uc --retain-un
158 retain elements as UN (default)
159 +uc --convert-un
161 convert to real VR if known
162 handling of private max-length elements (implicit VR):
164 -sq --maxlength-dict
166 read as defined in dictionary (default)
167 +sq --maxlength-seq
169 read as sequence with undefined length
170 handling of wrong delimitation items:
172 -rd --use-delim-items
174 use delimitation items from dataset (default)
175 +rd --replace-wrong-delim
177 replace wrong sequence/item delimitation items
178 handling of illegal undefined length OB/OW elements:
180 -oi --illegal-obow-rej
182 reject dataset with illegal element (default)
183 +oi --illegal-obow-conv
185 convert undefined length OB/OW element to SQ
186 handling of VOI LUT Sequence with OW VR and explicit length:
188 -vi --illegal-voi-rej
190 reject dataset with illegal VOI LUT (default)
191 +vi --illegal-voi-conv
193 convert illegal VOI LUT to SQ
194 handling of explicit length pixel data for encaps. transfer syntaxes:
196 -pe --abort-expl-pixdata
198 abort on explicit length pixel data (default)
199 +pe --use-expl-pixdata
201 use explicit length pixel data
202 general handling of parser errors:
204 +Ep --ignore-parse-errors
206 try to recover from parse errors
207 -Ep --handle-parse-errors
209 handle parse errors and stop parsing (default)
210 other parsing options:
212 +st --stop-after-elem [t]ag: "gggg,eeee" or dictionary name
214 stop parsing after element specified by t
215 +sb --stop-before-elem [t]ag: "gggg,eeee" or dictionary name
217 stop parsing before element specified by t
218 # only considers elements on main dataset level and also
220 # works if the given tag is not present in the file
221 automatic data correction:
223 +dc --enable-correction
225 enable automatic data correction (default)
226 -dc --disable-correction
228 disable automatic data correction
229 bitstream format of deflated input:
231 +bd --bitstream-deflated
233 expect deflated bitstream (default)
234 +bz --bitstream-zlib
236 expect deflated zlib bitstream
237 processing options
239 specific character set:
240 +U8 --convert-to-utf8
242 convert all element values that are affected
243 by Specific Character Set (0008,0005) to UTF-8
244 # requires support from an underlying character encoding library
246 # (see output of --version on which one is available)
247 output options
249 printing:
250 +L --print-all
252 print long tag values completely
253 -L --print-short
255 print long tag values shortened (default)
256 +T --print-tree
258 print hierarchical structure as a simple tree
259 -T --print-indented
261 print hierarchical structure indented (default)
262 +F --print-filename
264 print header with filename for each input file
265 +Fs --print-file-search
267 print header with filename only for those input files
268 that contain one of the searched tags
269 mapping:
271 +Un --map-uid-names
273 map well-known UID numbers to names (default)
274 -Un --no-uid-names
276 do not map well-known UID numbers to names
277 quoting:
279 +Qn --quote-nonascii
281 quote non-ASCII and control chars as XML markup
282 +Qo --quote-as-octal
284 quote non-ASCII and control chars as octal numbers
285 -Qn --print-nonascii
287 print non-ASCII and control chars (default)
288 color:
290 +C --print-color
292 use ANSI escape codes for colored output
293 # not available on Windows systems
295 -C --no-color
297 do not use any ANSI escape codes (default)
298 # not available on Windows systems
300 error handling:
302 -E --stop-on-error
304 do not print if file is damaged (default)
305 +E --ignore-errors
307 attempt to print even if file is damaged
308 searching:
310 +P --search [t]ag: "gggg,eeee" or dictionary name
312 print the textual dump of tag t
313 this option can be specified multiple times
314 (default: the complete file is printed)
315 +s --search-all
317 print all instances of searched tags (default)
318 -s --search-first
320 only print first instance of searched tags
321 +p --prepend
323 prepend sequence hierarchy to printed tag,
324 denoted by: (gggg,eeee).(gggg,eeee).*
325 (only when used with --search)
326 -p --no-prepend
328 do not prepend hierarchy to tag (default)
329 writing:
331 +W --write-pixel [d]irectory: string
333 write pixel data to a .raw file stored in d
334 (little endian, filename created automatically)
335
337 Adding directories as a parameter to the command line only makes sense
338 if option --scan-directories is also given. If the files in the
339 provided directories should be selected according to a specific name
340 pattern (e.g. using wildcard matching), option --scan-pattern has to be
341 used. Please note that this file pattern only applies to the files
342 within the scanned directories, and, if any other patterns are
343 specified on the command line outside the --scan-pattern option (e.g.
344 in order to select further files), these do not apply to the specified
345 directories.
346
348 The level of logging output of the various command line tools and
349 underlying libraries can be specified by the user. By default, only
350 errors and warnings are written to the standard error stream. Using
351 option --verbose also informational messages like processing details
352 are reported. Option --debug can be used to get more details on the
353 internal activity, e.g. for debugging purposes. Other logging levels
354 can be selected using option --log-level. In --quiet mode only fatal
355 errors are reported. In such very severe error events, the application
356 will usually terminate. For more details on the different logging
357 levels, see documentation of module 'oflog'.
358 In case the logging output should be written to file (optionally with
360 logfile rotation), to syslog (Unix) or the event log (Windows) option
361 --log-config can be used. This configuration file also allows for
362 directing only certain messages to a particular output stream and for
363 filtering certain messages based on the module or application where
364 they are generated. An example configuration file is provided in
365 <etcdir>/logger.cfg.
366
368 All command line tools use the following notation for parameters:
369 square brackets enclose optional values (0-1), three trailing dots
370 indicate that multiple values are allowed (1-n), a combination of both
371 means 0 to n values.
372 Command line options are distinguished from parameters by a leading '+'
374 or '-' sign, respectively. Usually, order and position of command line
375 options are arbitrary (i.e. they can appear anywhere). However, if
376 options are mutually exclusive the rightmost appearance is used. This
377 behavior conforms to the standard evaluation rules of common Unix
378 shells.
379 In addition, one or more command files can be specified using an '@'
381 sign as a prefix to the filename (e.g. @command.txt). Such a command
382 argument is replaced by the content of the corresponding text file
383 (multiple whitespaces are treated as a single separator unless they
384 appear between two quotation marks) prior to any further evaluation.
385 Please note that a command file cannot contain another command file.
386 This simple but effective approach allows one to summarize common
387 combinations of options/parameters and avoids longish and confusing
388 command lines (an example is provided in file <datadir>/dumppat.txt).
389
391 The dcmdump utility will attempt to load DICOM data dictionaries
392 specified in the DCMDICTPATH environment variable. By default, i.e. if
393 the DCMDICTPATH environment variable is not set, the file
394 <datadir>/dicom.dic will be loaded unless the dictionary is built into
395 the application (default for Windows).
396 The default behavior should be preferred and the DCMDICTPATH
398 environment variable only used when alternative data dictionaries are
399 required. The DCMDICTPATH environment variable has the same format as
400 the Unix shell PATH variable in that a colon (':') separates entries.
401 On Windows systems, a semicolon (';') is used as a separator. The data
402 dictionary code will attempt to load each file specified in the
403 DCMDICTPATH environment variable. It is an error if no data dictionary
404 can be loaded.
405
407 dump2dcm(1), dcmconv(1)
408
410 Copyright (C) 1994-2022 by OFFIS e.V., Escherweg 2, 26121 Oldenburg,
411 Germany.
412Version 3.6.7 Fri Apr 22 2022 dcmdump(1)