DCMTK Version 3.7.0 OFFIS DICOM Toolkit

asconfig.txt file

    ASSOCIATION NEGOTIATION PROFILES AND CONFIGURATION FILES

      Beginning with release 3.5.3, DCMTK provides a flexible mechanism for
      specifying the DICOM network association negotiation behaviour of an
      application, based on so-called "association negotiation profiles"
      which may be read from a configuration file.

      Originally, this mechanism was only enabled in the storescu and storescp
      applications.  In the meantime, it is also used by other tools such as
      dcmrecv and dcmqrscp.

    1. CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT

      The configuration file is a simple text file resembling well-known
      "INI" files on the Windows platform.  Lines consisting only of
      whitespace characters and comment lines starting with a '#' character
      in the first column are ignored.  Configuration file entries use the
      following syntax:
      Key = Value

      The key must start in the first column of the line.  The case is not
      significant for the key, however, it is for the value.  Whitespace
      characters before and after the '=' separating key and value are
      ignored.

      Entries are grouped into sections using section headings, which are
      also insensitive to case and whitespace characters:
      [Section]

      The well-known "INI" syntax is extended by the definition of
      supersections which define a grouping for sections, using the
      following syntax:

      [[Supersection]]

      The content of the configuration file needs to establish a true tree
      structure, i. e. each setting must be part of a section and each
      section must be part of one supersection.

    2. CONFIGURATION FILE STRUCTURE

      A configuration file for association negotiation profiles may contain
      the following supersections:

      [[TransferSyntaxes]]
      [[PresentationContexts]]
      [[Profiles]]
      [[SCPSCURoleSelection]]
      [[ExtendedNegotiation]]

      The first three supersections are mandatory, the others are optional.

    2.1 TRANSFER SYNTAXES

    This supersection contains one or more sections with arbitrary
    user-defined but unique section names that are used as symbolic labels.
    Within each section, one or more key/value pairs are contained.  The key
    names are "TransferSyntax1", "TransferSyntax2" etc. (without leading
    zeroes before the number!), in increasing order.

    The values may either be DICOM Unique Identifiers (UIDs) in the form
    defined by the DICOM standard, or symbolic UID names as used throughout
    DCMTK and defined in the "UID Name Map" in file dcmdata/libsrc/dcuid.cc.
    Each value must denote a standard or private DICOM transfer syntax.
    Within each section (transfer syntax list), no transfer syntax should be
    repeated.

    The following example shows two sections (transfer syntax lists), one
    using symbolic transfer syntax names, another using a numeric UID.

    [Uncompressed]
    TransferSyntax1 = LittleEndianExplicit
    TransferSyntax2 = BigEndianExplicit
    TransferSyntax3 = LittleEndianImplicit

    [JPEGBaseline]
    TransferSyntax1 = 1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.50

    There are two special symbolic transfer syntax names that are recognized
    by the parser: "LocalEndianExplicit" and "OppositeEndianExplicit".  These
    are interpreted at runtime depending on the byte order of the machine
    on which the application is executed:

    On a little endian machine (e.g. x86)
      - "LocalEndianExplicit" is interpreted as "LittleEndianExplicit"
      - "OppositeEndianExplicit" is interpreted as "BigEndianExplicit"

    On a big endian machine (Sparc, M68K, MIPS)
      - "LocalEndianExplicit" is interpreted as "BigEndianExplicit"
      - "OppositeEndianExplicit" is interpreted as "LittleEndianExplicit"

    Please note that the order of transfer syntaxes within a section might be
    significant.  For example, an implementation of a DICOM Storage SCP, such as
    storescp or dcmrecv, will use this order to determine which transfer syntax
    to prefer when multiple transfer syntaxes are offered by the SCU and are
    acceptable for the SCP.  The transfer syntax selection policy is to prefer
    the first transfer syntax that is acceptable, i.e. the one with the lowest
    number.

    2.2 PRESENTATION CONTEXTS

    This supersection contains one or more sections with arbitrary
    user-defined but unique section names that are used as symbolic labels.
    Within each section, one or more key/value pairs are contained.  The key
    names are "PresentationContext1", "PresentationContext2" etc., in
    increasing order.  For an association requestor, each list must not
    contain more than 128 entries, due to the limitation of the DICOM network
    protocol to 128 presentation contexts per association.

    Each value consists of two parts, separated by a single backslash
    character ('\').  The first value denotes a DICOM SOP Class UID or
    Meta SOP Class UID, standard or private.  Again either a numeric UID
    or a symbolic value as defined in DCMTK can be used.

    The second part denotes a list of transfer syntaxes defined in the
    [[TransferSyntaxes]] supersection.  The list is referenced by its
    section header, which is used as a symbolic label here.

    The following example shows one presentation context list that could
    be used by an association requestor (Store SCU) to negotiate both
    lossy-compressed and uncompressed transmission of DICOM ultrasound
    images.

    [StorageSCUJPEGBaselineAndUncompressed]
    PresentationContext1 = UltrasoundImageStorage\JPEGBaseline
    PresentationContext2 = UltrasoundImageStorage\Uncompressed
    PresentationContext3 = UltrasoundMultiframeImageStorage\JPEGBaseline
    PresentationContext4 = UltrasoundMultiframeImageStorage\Uncompressed

    In the case of an association acceptor (SCP), each SOP class must appear
    only once in the list.  The following example would be a valid transfer
    syntax list for an SCP, accepting only uncompressed ultrasound images:

    [StorageSCPUncompressed]
    PresentationContext1 = UltrasoundImageStorage\Uncompressed
    PresentationContext2 = UltrasoundMultiframeImageStorage\Uncompressed

    It should be noted that it is the user's responsibility to enforce the
    rules defined in the DICOM standard on default transfer syntaxes, i. e.
    LittleEndianImplicit has to be offered/accepted for each SOP class in at
    least one presentation context unless the image is only available in
    lossy compressed form.

    2.3 SCP/SCU ROLE SELECTION

    This optional supersection contains one or more sections with arbitrary
    user-defined but unique section names that are used as symbolic labels.
    Within each section, one or more key/value pairs are contained.  The key
    names are "Role1", "Role2" etc., in increasing order.

    Each value consists of two parts, separated by a single backslash
    character ('\').  The first value denotes a DICOM SOP Class UID or
    Meta SOP Class UID, standard or private.  Again either a numeric UID
    or a symbolic value as defined in DCMTK can be used.  Each SOP class
    should only appear once in the list.

    The second part denotes the roles the application is going to negotiate
    for this SOP class.  Possible keywords are "SCU", "SCP", or "BOTH",
    indicating that the application supports the SCU role, the SCP role or
    both roles.  Any SOP class that is negotiated but not contained in the
    SCP/SCU role selection list will be negotiated with default roles,
    i. e. association requestor is SCU and association acceptor is SCP.

    The following example shows a list for SCP/SCU role selection where
    an application supports both SCU and SCP roles for transmission
    of ultrasound images.

    [USStorageBothRoles]
    Role1 = UltrasoundImageStorage\BOTH
    Role2 = UltrasoundMultiframeImageStorage\BOTH

    It should be noted that neither storescu nor storescp currently support
    SCP/SCU role negotiation, so this functionality should not be used with
    these two tools.

    2.4 EXTENDED NEGOTIATION

    This optional supersection contains one or more sections with arbitrary
    user-defined but unique section names that are used as symbolic labels.
    Within each section, one or more key/value pairs are contained.  The key
    names are "ExtendedNegotiation1", "ExtendedNegotiation2" etc., in
    increasing order.

    Each value consists of two parts, separated by a single backslash
    character ('\').  The first value denotes a DICOM SOP Class UID or
    Meta SOP Class UID, standard or private.  Again either a numeric UID
    or a symbolic value as defined in DCMTK can be used.  Each SOP class
    should only appear once in the list.

    The second part denotes the SOP class extended negotiation to be
    performed for this SOP class.  This part contains raw data in hexadecimal
    encoding.  Any SOP class that is negotiated but not contained in the
    extended negotiation list will be negotiated without extended
    negotiation.  See DICOM standard for a list of SOP classes that support
    extended negotiation.

    The following example shows an extended negotiation list for a
    storage SCP that accepts Structured Reporting documents as a
    "Level 2 SCP", with "Signature Level 3" and no element coercion
    (see DICOM part 4, section B.3.1 for details).

    [USSignaturePreservingSCP]
    ExtendedNegotiation1 = UltrasoundImageStorage\020003000000
    ExtendedNegotiation2 = UltrasoundMultiframeImageStorage\020003000000

    2.5 PROFILES

    This supersection contains one or more sections with arbitrary
    user-defined but unique section names that are used as symbolic labels
    identifying complete "profiles" for association negotiation that
    can be selected by a user or application.

    Each profile consists at least of a reference to one list of
    presentation contexts.  It may also reference one list of SCP/SCU role
    selection items and one list of extended negotiation items, but both of
    these are optional.  The references use the symbolic section names
    defined in the supersections for presentation contexts, role selection
    and extended negotiation.

    The following example shows a profile of a hypothetical Storage SCP that
    supports the DICOM ultrasound image storage SOP classes both in lossy
    JPEG and uncompressed form, supports both SCP and SCU roles for these
    SOP classes and also guarantees signature preserving behaviour using
    extended negotiation.

    [UltrasoundProfile]
    PresentationContexts = StorageSCPJPEGBaselineAndUncompressed
    SCPSCURoleSelection  = USStorageBothRoles
    ExtendedNegotiation  = USSignaturePreservingSCP

    A configuration file may contain one or more association negotiation
    profiles, but each association request or association negotiation
    procedure can use exactly one of these profiles.

    3. EXAMPLES

    Examples for association negotiation profiles that can be used
    with the storescu and storescp tools are provided with DCMTK, as
    "storescu.cfg" and "storescp.cfg" in the <etcdir> directory.

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