dcm2xml [options] dcmfile-in [xmlfile-out]
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.
dcmfile-in DICOM input filename to be converted xmlfile-out XML output filename (default: stdout)
-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 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
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)
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)
<?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.
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).
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.
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 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).
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.