dcmodify [options] [dcmfile-in...]
In case multiple modifications are to be performed, dcmodify does the modifications in the same order as they appear on the command line. Please note that dcmodify does not check whether given values are of the right value representation (VR). Usually, an error message is printed but generally the user should take care of the right VR usage.
dcmodify is able to work with so-called tag paths to describe tags in sequences. The syntax is
{sequence[item-no].}*element
where 'sequence' is a sequence tag like (0008,1111) or a dictionary name for a tag. 'item-no' describes the item number to be accessed (counting from zero). 'element' defines the target tag to work on. You can either specify the tag directly as (0010,0010) or through the dictionary name PatientsName. The '*' denotes that you can repeat sequence statements to access deeper levels in DICOM files (see EXAMPLES section).
dcmfile-in DICOM input filename(s) to be modified
-h --help
print this help text and exit
--version
print version information and exit
-d --debug
debug mode, print debug information
-v --verbose
verbose mode, print verbose output
-ie --ignore-errors
continue with file, if modify error occurs
-i --insert-tag "tag-path=value"
insert (or overwrite) tag
-m --modify-tag "tag-path=value"
modify tag
-ma --modify-all-tags "tag=value"
modify ALL matching tags in file
-e --erase-tag "tag-path"
erase tag
-ea --erase-all-tags "tag"
erase ALL matching tags in file
-i --insert-tag:
dcmodify -i "(0010,0010)=A Name" file.dcm
Inserts the PatientsName tag into 'file.dcm' at 1st level.
If tag already exists, -i will overwrite it! If you want to
insert an element with value multiplicity > 1 (e.g. 4) you
can do this with: dcmodify -i "(0018,1310)=1\\2\\3\\4"
dcmodify -i "(0008,1111)[0].PatientsName=Another Name" *.dcm
Inserts PatientsName tag into the first item of sequence
(0008,1111). Note that the use of wildcards for files is
possible. You can specify longer tag paths, too (e.g.
"(0008,1111)[0].(0008,1111)[1].(0010,0010)=A Third One").
-m --modify-tag:
dcmodify -m "(0010,0010)=A Name" file.dcm
Changes tag (0010,0010) on 1st level to "A Name".
This option also allows longer tag paths as demonstrated
above for -i.
-ma --modify-all-tags:
dcmodify -ma "(0010,0010)=New Name" file.dcm
Does the same as -m but works on all matching tags found in
'file.dcm'. Therefore, it searches the whole dataset including
sequences for tag (0010,0010) and changes them to "New Name"
-e --erase-tag:
dcmodify -e "(0010,0010)" *.dcm
Erases tag (0010,0010) in all *.dcm files at 1st level.
Note: You can also erase whole sequences by using this
option with a sequence tag, but in this version it's not
possible to delete a single item in a sequence.
This option also allows longer tag paths as demonstrated
above for -i.
-ea --erase-all-tags:
dcmodify -ea "(0010,0010)" *.dcm
Same as -e, but also searches in sequences and items.
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) 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 share/data/dumppat.txt).
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. 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.