NAME

       gdbdump - dump HP 100LX database into ASCII format

SYNOPSIS

       gdbdump [-noqswm] file

DESCRIPTION

       gdbdump  exports  the contents of an HP 100LX database into an ASCII form.  file is the name of the 100LX
       database to read; the results are written to the terminal and can be redirected or piped as needed.   The
       output format is suitable for input to many database packages as well as to gdbload(1).

   Options
       gdbdump recognizes the following options:

              -n     Suppress  the  first  line  of  the output, which normally contains the names of all of the
                     database fields.  Note that if this option is specified, the output is not compatible  with
                     gdbload(1).   However,  this  option  may  be  needed for compatibility with other database
                     programs trying to read the output.

              -o     Omit note fields from the output.  Note fields are included by default.

              -q     Suppress warning messages.

              -s     Write special characters (character codes 128-254, inclusive) directly to the output.   The
                     default is to represent such characters in \nnn notation.

              -w     Wrap  long  lines.   For  some  databases,  the  output line length can be larger than some
                     programs (notably vi(1)) can handle, especially if records contain long notes.  This option
                     wraps  each  output  line  at about 75 characters, marking the end of lines to be continued
                     with a backslash (\).  gdbload(1) understands this format.

              -m     Write multi-line string (i.e. note) fields on multiple lines. Thus the quoted  string  will
                     span  newlines.  Without this option, newlines in strings will be output as \r\n sequences,
                     and the complete string will be subject to line wrapping if specified by the -w option.

   Output Format Description
       The output of this program is an ASCII text file which starts with a line containing field names  (unless
       -n  was  specified)  and is followed by one line for each record of the database.  Note that any of these
       lines may be split into multiple lines if -w is specified, and that newlines in strings may cause further
       splitting if specified by the -m option.  Each "logical" line contains all of the fields of the database,
       in the same order in which their field names appeared on the first line of the output.   The  fields  are
       separated by commas.

       Exactly how each field appears in the output depends on its type.  Text fields, category fields, and note
       fields appear with the contents inside quote marks (").  Quote marks and backslashes within the  text  of
       the  field  are  escaped by preceding them with a backslash (\).  Newlines are printed as \n and carriage
       returns as \r, unless the -m option is used. Non-printing or non-ASCII characters as \nnn, where  nnn  is
       an octal character code.  (See the description of the -s flag, above.)

       Number fields appear as they do in the database.  Date fields appear in the format YYYYMMDD; for example,
       August 15, 1993 would appear as 19930815.  Time fields appear in the format HHMM,  where  HH  is  in  the
       range 00-23.

       Radio buttons and check boxes appear as 1 if selected, 0 otherwise.

       All other field types, including application-defined types, are omitted from the output.

       This output format can be used as input to gdbload(1).

WARNINGS

       gdbdump  cannot  handle the application-defined records and fields in HP 100LX Appointment Book and World
       Time databases.  Running this program on such databases will give useful, but incomplete, output.

       Records are printed in the order stored in the file, i.e., randomly.

       This program cannot handle password-protected databases.  Attempts to dump  password-protected  databases
       will have unpredictable results.

AUTHOR

       gdbdump  was  written  by  Steven  Roth,  stever@cup.hp.com, and is being maintained by Arne Christensen,
       arc@pine.dk.  Contact the latter for bug reports, enhancement requests, or to get a copy  of  the  source
       code.

DISCLAIMER

       This  program  is  released  into  the  public domain and neither the author nor the maintainer place any
       restrictions on its use.  We make no warranties or guarantees for this program and you use it at your own
       risk.   This  program  is  supplied by us personally and not by Hewlett-Packard Co. or Pine Tree Systems,
       which incur no obligations pertaining to it.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       Many thanks to Andy Gryc for publishing the details of the database file formats!

SEE ALSO

       gdbload(1).