1 @c PSPP - a program for statistical analysis.
2 @c Copyright (C) 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 @c Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
4 @c under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
5 @c or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
6 @c with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
7 @c A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
8 @c Free Documentation License".
10 @node Invoking pspp-convert
11 @chapter Invoking @command{pspp-convert}
13 @cindex @command{pspp-convert}
15 @command{pspp-convert} is a command-line utility accompanying
16 @pspp{}. It reads an SPSS or SPSS/PC+ system file or SPSS portable
17 file or encrypted SPSS syntax file @var{input} and
18 writes a copy of it to another @var{output} in a different format.
22 @t{pspp-convert} [@var{options}] @var{input} @var{output}
24 @t{pspp-convert -@w{-}help}
26 @t{pspp-convert -@w{-}version}
29 The format of @var{input} is automatically detected, when possible.
30 The character encoding of old SPSS system files cannot always be
31 guessed correctly, and SPSS/PC+ system files do not include any
32 indication of their encoding. Use @code{-e @var{encoding}} to specify
33 the encoding in this case.
35 By default, the intended format for @var{output} is inferred based on its
41 Comma-separated value. Each value is formatted according to its
42 variable's print format. The first line in the file contains variable
53 SPSS syntax file. (Only encrypted syntax files may be converted to
57 @command{pspp-convert} can convert most input formats to most output
58 formats. Encrypted system file and syntax files are exceptions: if
59 the input file is in an encrypted format, then the output file must be
60 the same format (decrypted). To decrypt such a file, specify the
61 encrypted file as @var{input}. The output will be the equivalent
64 The password for encrypted files can be specified a few different
65 ways. If the password is known, use the @option{-p} option
66 (documented below) or allow @command{pspp-convert} to prompt for it.
67 If the password is unknown, use the @option{-a} and @option{-l}
68 options to specify how to search for it, or @option{--password-list}
69 to specify a file of passwords to try.
71 Use @code{-O @var{extension}} to override the inferred format or to
72 specify the format for unrecognized extensions.
74 The following options are accepted:
78 @itemx --output-format=@var{format}
79 Specifies the desired output format. @var{format} must be one of the
80 extensions listed above, e.g. @code{-O csv} requests comma-separated
83 @item -c @var{maxcases}
84 @itemx --cases=@var{maxcases}
85 By default, all cases are copied from @var{input} to @var{output}.
86 Specifying this option to limit the number of cases written to
87 @var{output} to @var{maxcases}.
89 @item -e @var{charset}
90 @itemx --encoding=@var{charset}
91 Overrides the encoding in which character strings in @var{input} are
92 interpreted. This option is necessary because old SPSS system files,
93 and SPSS/PC+ system files, do not self-identify their encoding.
95 @item -p @var{password}
96 @item --password=@var{password}
97 Specifies the password to use to decrypt an encrypted SPSS system file
98 or syntax file. If this option is not specified,
99 @command{pspp-convert} will prompt interactively for the password as
102 Be aware that command-line options, including passwords, may be
103 visible to other users on multiuser systems.
105 When used with @option{-a} (or @option{--password-alphabet}) and
106 @option{-l} (or @option{--password-length}), this option specifies the
107 starting point for the search. This can be used to restart a search
108 that was interrupted.
110 @item -a @var{alphabet}
111 @item --password-alphabet=@var{alphabet}
112 Specifies the alphabet of symbols over which to search for an
113 encrypted file's password. @var{alphabet} may include individual
114 characters and ranges delimited by @samp{-}. For example, @option{-a
115 a-z} searches lowercase letters, @option{-a A-Z0-9} searches uppercase
116 letters and digits, and @option{-a ' -~'} searches all printable ASCII
119 @item -l @var{max-length}
120 @item --password-length=@var{max-length}
121 Specifies the maximum length of the passwords to try.
123 @item --password-list=@var{file}
124 Specifies a file to read containing a list of passwords to try, one
125 per line. If @var{file} is @file{-}, reads from stdin.
129 Prints a usage message on stdout and exits.
133 Prints version information on stdout and exits.