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-meta-info
         read meta information if present (default)
  -f   --ignore-meta-info
         ignore file meta information
file contents byte ordering:
  +rl  --read-file-little
         read OW data with little endian (default)
  +rb  --read-file-big
         read OW data from file with big endian
other input options:
  +l   --line  [m]ax-length: integer
         maximum line length m (default: 4096)

processing options

unique identifiers:
  +Ug  --generate-new-uids
         generate new Study/Series/SOP Instance UID
  -Uo  --dont-overwrite-uids
         do not overwrite existing UIDs (default)
  +Uo  --overwrite-uids
         overwrite existing UIDs

output options

output file format:
  +F   --write-file
         write file format (default)
  -F   --write-dataset
         write data set without file meta information
  +Fu  --update-meta-info
         update particular file meta information
output transfer syntax:
  +t=  --write-xfer-same
         write with same TS as input (default)
  +te  --write-xfer-little
         write with explicit VR little endian
  +tb  --write-xfer-big
         write with explicit VR big endian TS
  +ti  --write-xfer-implicit
         write with implicit VR little endian TS
  +td  --write-xfer-deflated
         write with deflated explicit VR little endian TS
error handling:
  -E   --stop-on-error
         do not write if dump is damaged (default)
  +E   --ignore-errors
         attempt to write even if dump is damaged
post-1993 value representations:
  +u   --enable-new-vr
         enable support for new VRs (UN/UT) (default)
  -u   --disable-new-vr
         disable support for new VRs, convert to OB
group length encoding:
  +g=  --group-length-recalc
         recalculate group lengths if present (default)
  +g   --group-length-create
         always write with group length elements
  -g   --group-length-remove
         always write without group length elements
length encoding in sequences and items:
  +e   --length-explicit
         write with explicit lengths (default)
  -e   --length-undefined
         write with undefined lengths
data set trailing padding (not with --write-dataset):
  -p=  --padding-retain
         do not change padding (default if not --write-dataset)
  -p   --padding-off
         no padding (implicit if --write-dataset)
  +p   --padding-create  [f]ile-pad [i]tem-pad: integer
         align file on multiple of f bytes
         and items on multiple of i bytes
deflate compression level (only with --write-xfer-deflated):
  +cl  --compression-level  [l]evel: integer (default: 6)
         0=uncompressed, 1=fastest, 9=best compression

Dump File Description

The individual parts of a line have the following syntax:

Tag:   (gggg,eeee)
       with gggg and eeee are 4 character hexadecimal values
       representing group and element tag.  Spaces and tabs can be
       anywhere in a tag specification.
VR:    Value Representation must be written as 2 characters as in
       Part 6 of the DICOM standard.  No spaces or tabs are allowed
       between the two characters.  If the VR can be determined from
       the tag, this part of a line is optional.
Value: There are several rules for writing values:
       1. US, SS, UL, SL, UV, SV, FD, FL, OD, OF, OL and OV are written
          as decimal strings that can be read by scanf().
       2. AT is written as '(gggg,eeee)' with additional spaces
          stripped off automatically and gggg and eeee being decimal
          strings that can be read by scanf().
       3. OB and OW values are written as byte or word hexadecimal
          values separated by '´ character.  Alternatively, OB or OW
          values can be read from a separate file by writing the
          filename prefixed by a '=' character (e.g. '=largepix.dat').
          The contents of the file will be read as is.  By default, OW
          data is expected to be little endian ordered and will be
          swapped if necessary.  No checks will be made to ensure that
          the amount of data is reasonable in terms of other attributes
          such as Rows or Columns.
          In case of compressed pixel data, the line should start with
          '(7fe0,0010) OB (PixelSequence' in order to distinguish from
          uncompressed pixel data.
       4. UI is written as '=Name' in data dictionary or as unique
          identifier string (see 6.), e.g. '[1.2.840.....]'.
       5. Strings without () <> [] spaces, tabs and # can be written
          directly.
       6. Other strings must be surrounded by '[' and ']'.  No bracket
          structure is passed.  The value ends at the last ']' in the
          line.  Anything after the ']' is interpreted as comment.
       7. '(' and '<' are interpreted special and may not be used when
          writing an input file by hand as beginning characters of a
          string.  Multiple Value are separated by '´.  The lines
          need not be sorted into ascending tag order.  References in
          DICOM Directories are not supported.  Semantic errors are
          not detected.

Examples

 (0008,0020) DA [19921012]            #  8, 1 StudyDate
 (0008,0016) UI =MRImageStorage       # 26, 1 SOPClassUID
 (0002,0012) UI [1.2.276.0.7230010.100.1.1]
 (0020,0032) DS [0.0 .0]             #  8, 2 ImagePositionPatient
 (0028,0009) AT (3004,000c)           #  4, 1 FrameIncrementPointer
 (0028,0010) US 256                   #  4, 1 Rows
 (0002,0001) OB 01 0

Limitations