Provided by: dcmtk_3.6.0-15+deb8u1build0.14.04.1_amd64 bug

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.