/*!

\if MANPAGES
\page dcmsend Simple DICOM storage SCU (sender)
\else
\page dcmsend dcmsend: Simple DICOM storage SCU (sender)
\endif

\section dcmsend_dcmsend_synopsis SYNOPSIS

\verbatim
dcmsend [options] peer port dcmfile-in...
\endverbatim

\section dcmsend_description DESCRIPTION

The \b dcmsend application implements a Service Class User (SCU) for the
Storage Service Class.  In contrast to the well-known \b storescu utility,
\b dcmsend has less options and is, therefore, easier to use - this also
explains the term "simple" in the title.  The main purpose of this application
is to send a whole bunch of DICOM files to a Storage Service Class Provider
(SCP).  \b dcmsend supports both multiple associations (one after the other)
and decompression of DICOM SOP instances if needed to transfer them.

\section dcmsend_parameters PARAMETERS

\verbatim
peer        hostname of DICOM peer

port        tcp/ip port number of peer

dcmfile-in  DICOM file or directory to be transmitted
\endverbatim

\section dcmsend_options OPTIONS

\subsection dcmsend_general_options general options
\verbatim
  -h    --help
          print this help text and exit

        --version
          print version information and exit

        --list-decoders
          list transfer syntaxes of decoders 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

  +v    --verbose-pc
          show presentation contexts in verbose mode
\endverbatim

\subsection dcmsend_input_options input options
\verbatim
input file format:

  +f    --read-file
          read file format or data set

  +fo   --read-file-only
          read file format only (default)

  -f    --read-dataset
          read data set without file meta information

input files:

  +rd   --read-from-dicomdir
          read information on input files from DICOMDIR

  +sd   --scan-directories
          scan directories for input files (dcmfile-in)

  +sp   --scan-pattern  [p]attern: string (only with --scan-directories)
          pattern for filename matching (wildcards)

          # possibly not available on all systems

  -r    --no-recurse
          do not recurse within directories (default)

  +r    --recurse
          recurse within specified directories
\endverbatim

\subsection dcmsend_processing_options processing options
\verbatim
transfer syntax conversion:

  -dn   --decompress-never
          never decompress compressed data sets

  +dls  --decompress-lossless
          only decompress lossless compression (default)

  +dly  --decompress-lossy
          decompress both lossy and lossless compression

deflate compression level:

  +cl   --compression-level  [l]evel: integer (default: 6)
          0=uncompressed, 1=fastest, 9=best compression

other processing options:

  -nh   --no-halt
          do not halt on first invalid input file
          or if unsuccessful store encountered

  -nip  --no-illegal-proposal
          do not propose any presentation context that does
          not contain the default transfer syntax (if needed)

  -nuc  --no-uid-checks
          do not check UID values of input files
\endverbatim

\subsection dcmsend_network_options network options
\verbatim
IP protocol version:

  -i4   --ipv4
          use IPv4 only (default)

  -i6   --ipv6
          use IPv6 only

  -i0   --ip-auto
          use DNS lookup to determine IP protocol

application entity titles:

  -aet  --aetitle  [a]etitle: string
          set my calling AE title (default: DCMSEND)

  -aec  --call  [a]etitle: string
          set called AE title of peer (default: ANY-SCP)

association handling:

  +ma   --multi-associations
          use multiple associations (one after the other)
          if needed to transfer the instances (default)

  -ma   --single-association
          always use a single association

other network options:

  -to   --timeout  [s]econds: integer (default: unlimited)
          timeout for connection requests

  -ta   --acse-timeout  [s]econds: integer (default: 30)
          timeout for ACSE messages

  -td   --dimse-timeout  [s]econds: integer (default: unlimited)
          timeout for DIMSE messages

  -pdu  --max-pdu  [n]umber of bytes: integer (4096..131072)
          set max receive pdu to n bytes (default: 16384)

        --max-send-pdu  [n]umber of bytes: integer (4096..131072)
          restrict max send pdu to n bytes
\endverbatim

\subsection dcmsend_output_options output options
\verbatim
general:

  +crf  --create-report-file  [f]ilename: string
          create a detailed report on the transfer
          (if successful) and write it to text file f
\endverbatim

\section dcmsend_notes NOTES

\subsection dcmsend_typical_usage Typical Usage

A typical use case of \b dcmsend is to send arbitrary SOP instances that are
stored as DICOM files to a storage SCP.  The following command does exactly
this:

\verbatim
dcmsend --verbose <peer> <port> *.dcm
\endverbatim

If the DICOM files are stored in a hierarchy of directories below the directory
"IMAGES", the following command can be used:

\verbatim
dcmsend -v <peer> <port> --scan-directories --recurse IMAGES
\endverbatim

It is also possible to specify multiple directories and to combine the
aforementioned approaches (using both file and directory names):

\verbatim
dcmsend -v +sd +r <peer> <port> IMAGES_1 IMAGES_2 test.img *.dcm
\endverbatim

If the SOP instances are referenced from a DICOMDIR file, option
\e --read-from-dicomdir (or \e +rd) can be used to send all referenced DICOM
files without loading them already for the association negotiation:

\verbatim
dcmsend -v <peer> <port> --read-from-dicomdir DICOMDIR
\endverbatim

And again, all of the above approaches can be combined like this:

\verbatim
dcmsend -v +sd +r +rd <peer> <port> IMAGES_1 IMAGES_2 test.img DICOMDIR *.dcm
\endverbatim

The default option \e --read-file-only makes sure that only DICOM files (i.e.
the ones with meta-header and magic word "DICM" after the preamble) are
processed.  Usually, if processing a whole bunch of files, it is also a good
idea not to halt on the first invalid input file or if an unsuccessful store
was encountered.  This can be accomplished by using option \e --no-halt.
Please note, however, that "unsuccessful store" does not mean that the DIMSE
status of the C-STORE response indicates an error.  It means that the C-STORE
request could not be sent to the storage SCP.

If more than 128 Presentation Contexts are needed, which is the maximum number
allowed according to the DICOM standard, a new association is started after the
previous one has been completed.  In cases where this behavior is unwanted, it
can be disabled using option \e --single-association.  In addition, whether
only lossless compressed data sets are decompressed (if needed), which is the
default, or also lossy compressed data sets can be specified using the
\e --decompress-xxx options.

In order to get both an overview and detailed information on the transfer of
the DICOM SOP instances, option \e --create-report-file can be used to create
a corresponding text file.  However, this file is only created as a final step
if the application did not terminate before (with an error).

\subsection dcmsend_scanning_directories Scanning Directories

Adding directories as a parameter to the command line only makes sense if
option \e --scan-directories is also given.  If the files in the provided
directories should be selected according to a specific name pattern (e.g.
using wildcard matching), option \e --scan-pattern has to be used.  Please
note that this file pattern only applies to the files within the scanned
directories, and, if any other patterns are specified on the command line
outside the \e --scan-pattern option (e.g. in order to select further
files), these do not apply to the specified directories.

Thus, the third of the above examples will recurse over directories IMAGES_1
and IMAGES_2 and transmit files that are contained in these two folders and all
their subfolders (due to option \e +r).  Additionally, \b dcmsend will transfer
"test.img" and all files with extension "dcm" from the current working folder.
Note that providing directory names without enabling option \e +sd does
not make sense.

\subsection dcmsend_dicom_conformance DICOM Conformance

Basically, the \b dcmsend application supports all Storage SOP Classes as an
SCU, including private ones.  By default, the application checks the SOP Class
UID of the DICOM file in order to make sure that only valid SOP instances are
sent.  With option \e --no-uid-checks this check can be disabled.

The \b dcmsend application also supports all Transfer Syntaxes that are defined
in the DICOM standard.  Private Transfer Syntaxes can only be used if the UID
check is disabled with option \e --no-uid-checks.  Please note, however, that
only a limited number of Transfer Syntaxes are supported for converting them to
the DICOM Default Transfer Syntax (Implicit VR Little Endian).  With option
\e --list-decoders the Transfer Syntaxes supported natively or by decoders are
listed.  The output typically looks like the following:

\verbatim
Transfer Syntaxes supported natively:
- Little Endian Implicit
- Little Endian Explicit
- Big Endian Explicit

Transfer Syntaxes supported by decoders:
- Deflated Explicit VR Little Endian
- JPEG Baseline
- JPEG Extended, Process 2+4
- JPEG Spectral Selection, Non-hierarchical, Process 6+8
- JPEG Full Progression, Non-hierarchical, Process 10+12
- JPEG Lossless, Non-hierarchical, Process 14
- JPEG Lossless, Non-hierarchical, 1st Order Prediction
- JPEG-LS Lossless
- JPEG-LS Lossy (Near-lossless)
- RLE Lossless
\endverbatim

Since \b dcmsend tries to be as simple as possible for the user, by default
Presentation Contexts might be proposed to the SCP that are strictly speaking
"illegal".  This is because, according to the DICOM standard, the SCU always
has to propose the DICOM Default Transfer Syntax in at least one Presentation
Context associated with each abstract syntax (i.e. SOP class).  This requirement
is waived if the SCU only has access to the SOP instance in lossy compressed
form or if the decompressed pixel data would be too large to be encoded.  With
option \e --no-illegal-proposal the strict DICOM-conformant behavior can be
enforced, i.e. no possibly illegal Presentation Context will be proposed but
the corresponding SOP instance will be rejected (if needed).  Please note,
however, that the size of the decompressed pixel data is not checked.

The default Transfer Syntax for "Lossless JPEG Compression", "Lossy JPEG
Compression" and so on are not always proposed as also required by the DICOM
standard.  The same limitation applies to other compression schemes.  See DICOM
PS 3.5 section 10 for details.

\section dcmsend_logging 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 \e --verbose also
informational messages like processing details are reported.  Option
\e --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
\e --log-level.  In \e --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 \e --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 <em>\<etcdir\>/logger.cfg</em>.

\section dcmsend_command_line 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. <em>\@command.txt</em>).  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
<em>\<datadir\>/dumppat.txt</em>).

\section dcmsend_exit_codes EXIT CODES

The \b dcmsend utility uses the following exit codes when terminating.  This
enables the user to check for the reason why the application terminated.

\subsection dcmsend_exit_codes_general general
\verbatim
EXITCODE_NO_ERROR                         0
EXITCODE_COMMANDLINE_SYNTAX_ERROR         1
\endverbatim

\subsection dcmsend_exit_codes_input_file_errors input file errors
\verbatim
EXITCODE_CANNOT_READ_INPUT_FILE          20 (*)
EXITCODE_NO_INPUT_FILES                  21
EXITCODE_INVALID_INPUT_FILE              22
EXITCODE_NO_VALID_INPUT_FILES            23
\endverbatim

\subsection dcmsend_exit_codes_output_file_errors output file errors
\verbatim
EXITCODE_CANNOT_WRITE_OUTPUT_FILE        40 (*)
EXITCODE_CANNOT_WRITE_REPORT_FILE        43
\endverbatim

\subsection dcmsend_exit_codes_network_errors network errors
\verbatim
EXITCODE_CANNOT_INITIALIZE_NETWORK       60
EXITCODE_CANNOT_NEGOTIATE_ASSOCIATION    61
EXITCODE_CANNOT_SEND_REQUEST             62
EXITCODE_CANNOT_ADD_PRESENTATION_CONTEXT 65
\endverbatim

(*) Actually, these codes are currently not used by \b dcmsend but serve as a
placeholder for the corresponding group of exit codes.

\section dcmsend_environment ENVIRONMENT

The \b dcmsend utility will attempt to load DICOM data dictionaries specified
in the \e DCMDICTPATH environment variable.  By default, i.e. if the
\e DCMDICTPATH environment variable is not set, the file
<em>\<datadir\>/dicom.dic</em> will be loaded unless the dictionary is built
into the application (default for Windows).

The default behavior should be preferred and the \e DCMDICTPATH environment
variable only used when alternative data dictionaries are required.  The
\e DCMDICTPATH environment variable has the same format as the Unix shell
\e 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 \e DCMDICTPATH environment variable.
It is an error if no data dictionary can be loaded.

\section dcmsend_see_also SEE ALSO

<b>dcmrecv</b>(1), <b>storescu</b>(1), <b>storescp</b>(1)

\section dcmsend_copyright COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2011-2024 by OFFIS e.V., Escherweg 2, 26121 Oldenburg, Germany.

*/
