NAME¶

unoconv - convert any document from and to any LibreOffice supported format

SYNOPSIS¶

unoconv [options] file [file2 ..]

unoconv --listener [--server SRV] [--port PRT] [--connection CON]

DESCRIPTION¶

unoconv is a command line utility that can convert any file format that LibreOffice can import, to any file format that LibreOffice is capable of exporting.

unoconv uses the LibreOffice’s UNO bindings for non-interactive conversion of documents and therefore needs an LibreOffice instance to communicate with. Therefore if it cannot find one, it will start its own instance for temporary usage. If desired, one can start a “listener” instance to use for subsequent connections or even for remote connections.

OPTIONS¶

-c, --connection

Default connection string is "socket,host=localhost,port=2002;urp;StarOffice.ComponentContext"

-d, --doctype

Default document type is ´document´.

-e, --export

eg. for the PDF output filter one can specify: -e PageRange=1-2

See the *EXPORT FILTERS* section.

-f, --format

Default document type is ´pdf´.

-i, --import

See the *IMPORT FILTERS* section.

-l, --listener

-n, --no-launch

-o, --output

--pipe

-p, --port

Default port is ´2002´.

-s, --server

Default server is ´localhost´.

--show

--stdout

-t, --template

-T, --timeout

-v, --verbose

ARGUMENTS¶

You can provide one or more files as arguments to convert each of them to the specified output format.

IMPORT FILTERS¶

Depending on the used input file, a different LibreOffice import filter is automatically used by unoconv. This import filter can be influenced by the -i option that, depending on the filter used, accepts different arguments.

It is not always clear what import filter options you can provide, the import dialog in LibreOffice for the filter you ar using might give a good indication as to what you can expect as import filter options.

The reference is LibreOffice’s documentation, for spreadsheets it is described at: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/DevGuide/Spreadsheets/Filter_Options but we will look into some examples.

DEFAULT IMPORT FILTER OPTIONS¶

The default import filter for many imports (eg. Lotus, dBase or DIF) accepts as the only argument the input encoding-type, so if you require utf-8 (76) you can do:

-i FilterOptions=76

For a list of posible encoding types, you can use the above link to find the possible options.

TEXT IMPORT FILTER OPTIONS¶

The Text import filter accepts a FilterOptions setting holding the input encoding.

CSV IMPORT FILTER OPTIONS¶

The CSV import filter accepts a FilterOptions setting, the order is: separator(s),text-delimiter,encoding,first-row,column-format

For example you might want to use this for a real comma-separated document:

-i FilterOptions=44,34,76,2,1/5/2/1/3/1/4/1

which will use a comma (44) as the field separator, a double quote (34) as the text delimiter, UTF-8 (76) for the input encoding, start from the second row and use the specified formats for each column (1 means standard, 5 means YY/MM/DD date)

If you like to use more than one separator (say a space or a tab) and use the system’s encoding (9), but with no text-delimiter, you can do:

-i FilterOptions=9/32,,9,2

For a list of posible encoding types, you can use the above link to find the possible options.

EXPORT FILTERS¶

In contrast to import filters, export filters can have multiple named options, although it is not always clear what options are available. It all depends on the version of LibreOffice. The export dialog you get in LibreOffice might give you a clue about what is possible, each of those widgets represents an option.

TEXT EXPORT FILTER OPTIONS¶

The Text export filter accepts a FilterOptions setting holding the output encoding.

The order of the arguments is: encoding,field-seperator,text-delimiter,quote-all-text-cells,save-cell-content-as-shown

CSV EXPORT FILTER OPTIONS¶

The CSV export filter accepts various arguments, the order is: field-seperator(s),text-delimiter,encoding

For example you might want to use this for a real comma-separated document:

-e FilterOptions=44,34,76

which will use a comma (44) as the field separator, a double quote (34) as the text delimiter, UTF-8 (76) for the export encoding, start from the second row and use the specified formats for each column (1 means standard, 5 means YY/MM/DD date)

If you like to use more than one separator (say a space or a tab) and use the system’s encoding (9), but with no text-delimiter, you can do:

-e FilterOptions=9/32,,9

For a list of posible encoding types, you can use the above link to find the possible options.

PDF EXPORT FILTER OPTIONS¶

The PDF export filter is likely the most advanced export filter in its kind with a myriad of options one can use. The export filter options are described in a separate document, or on LibreOffice’s wiki at:

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/API/Tutorials/PDF_export

For example one can specify: -e PageRange=1-2

Here is a list of all options, however for more details please look in filters.txt:

EXAMPLES¶

You can use unoconv in standalone mode, this means that in absence of an LibreOffice listener, it will starts its own:

unoconv -f pdf some-document.odt

One can use unoconv as a listener (by default localhost:2002) to let other unoconv instances connect to it:

unoconv --listener &
unoconv -f pdf some-document.odt
unoconv -f doc other-document.odt
unoconv -f jpg some-image.png
unoconv -f xsl some-spreadsheet.csv
kill -15 %-

This also works on a remote host:

unoconv --listener --server 1.2.3.4 --port 4567

and then connect another system to convert documents:

unoconv --server 1.2.3.4 --port 4567

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES¶

UNO_PATH

EXIT STATUS¶

Normally, the exit status is 0 if the conversion ran successful. If an error has occured, the return code is most likely an error returned by LibreOffice (or its interface, called UNO) however, the error never translates to something meaningful. In case you like to decipher the LibreOffice errCode, look at:

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/tree/tools/inc/tools/errcode.hxx
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/tree/svtools/inc/svtools/sfxecode.hxx
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/tree/svtools/inc/svtools/soerr.hxx

Using the above lists, the error code 2074 means:

Class: 1 (ERRCODE_CLASS_ABORT)
Code: 26 (ERRCODE_IO_INVALIDPARAMETER or SVSTREAM_INVALID_PARAMETER)

And the error code 3088 means:

Class: 3 (ERRCODE_CLASS_NOTEXISTS)
Code: 16 (ERRCODE_IO_CANTWRITE)

SEE ALSO¶

convert(1), file(1), odt2txt

BUGS¶

unoconv uses the UNO bindings to connect to LibreOffice, in absence of a usable socket, it will start its own LibreOffice instance with the correct parameters.

REFERENCES¶

unoconv is very useful together with the following tools:

Asciidoc

asciidoc-odf

docbook2odf

A list of possible import and export formats is available from:

OpenOffice 2.1

OpenOffice 3.0

AUTHOR¶

Written by Dag Wieers, <dag@wieers.com[1]>

RESOURCES¶

Main web site: http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/unoconv/

COPYING¶

Copyright (C) 2007 Dag Wieers. Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

AUTHOR¶

Dag Wieers <dag@wieers.com>

NOTES¶

1.

dag@wieers.com