DCMTK Version 3.7.0 OFFIS DICOM Toolkit

drtdump: Dump DICOM RT file and data set

# SYNOPSIS

    drtdump [options] drtfile-in...

# DESCRIPTION

The drtdump utility dumps the contents of a DICOM Radiation Therapy (RT) object (file format or raw data set) to stdout in textual form. The output consists of essential information on the RT object in a format that is probably easier to read than the more generic one from dcmdump.

If drtdump 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 drtdump to read a dataset with a particular transfer syntax.

# PARAMETERS

    drtfile-in  DICOM RT input filename to be dumped ("-" for stdin)

# 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

## output options

    printing:

      +Pf  --print-filename
             print header with filename for each input file

# NOTES

## DICOM Conformance

The drtdump utility supports the following SOP Classes:

    RTImageStorage                   1.2.840.10008.5.1.4.1.1.481.1
    RTDoseStorage                    1.2.840.10008.5.1.4.1.1.481.2
    RTStructureSetStorage            1.2.840.10008.5.1.4.1.1.481.3
    RTPlanStorage                    1.2.840.10008.5.1.4.1.1.481.5
    RTTreatmentSummaryRecordStorage  1.2.840.10008.5.1.4.1.1.481.7
    RTIonPlanStorage                 1.2.840.10008.5.1.4.1.1.481.8
    RTIonBeamsTreatmentRecordStorage 1.2.840.10008.5.1.4.1.1.481.9

# 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 behavior 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 one 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 drtdump 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 behavior 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.

# SEE ALSO

dcmconv(1), dcmdump(1)

# COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2010-2025 by OFFIS e.V. and ICSMED AG, Escherweg 2, 26121 Oldenburg, Germany.

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