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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
	   UNO connection string to be used by the client to connect to an LibreOffice instance, or used by the listener to make LibreOffice
	   listen.

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

       -d, --doctype
	   Specify the LibreOffice document type of the backend format. Possible document types are: document, graphics, presentation,
	   spreadsheet.

	       Default document type is 'document'.

       -e, --export
	   Set specific export filter options (related to the used LibreOffice filter).

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

	       See the *EXPORT FILTERS* section.

       -f, --format
	   Specify the output format for the document. You can get a list of possible output formats per document type by using the --show option.

	       Default document type is 'pdf'.

       -i, --import
	   Set specific import filters options (related to the used LibreOffice import filter based on the input filename).

	       See the *IMPORT FILTERS* section.

       -l, --listener
	   Start unoconv as listener for unoconv clients to connect to.

       -n, --no-launch
	   By default if no listener is running, unoconv will launch its own (temporary) listener to make sure the conversion works. This option
	   will abort the conversion if no listener is found, rather than starting our own listener.

       -o, --output
	   If the argument is a directory, put the converted documents in this directory. If multiple input files are provided, use it as a
	   basename (and add output extension). Otherwise use it as the output filename.

       --pipe
	   Use a pipe as an alternative connection mechanism to talk to LibreOffice.

       -p, --port
	   Port to listen on (as listener) or to connect to (as client).

	       Default port is '2002'.

       -s, --server
	   Server (address) to listen on (as listener) or to connect to (as client).

	       Default server is 'localhost'.

       --show
	   List the possible output formats to be used with -f.

       --stdout
	   Print converted output file to stdout.

       -t, --template
	   Specify the template to use for importing styles from. This can be very useful if you have a corporate identity you have to apply to
	   every document you distribute.

       -T, --timeout
	   When unoconv starts its own listener, try to connect to it for an amount of seconds before giving up. Increasing this may help when you
	   receive random errors caused by the listener not being ready to accept conversion jobs.

       -v, --verbose
	   Be more and more and more 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 you can do:

	   -i utf-8

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

CSV IMPORT FILTER OPTIONS

       The CSV import filter accepts various arguments, 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 44,34,utf-8,2,1/5/2/1/3/1/4/1

       which will use a comma (44) as the field separator, a double quote (34) as the text delimiter, UTF-8 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, but with no text-delimiter, you can do:

	   -i 9/32,,system,2

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.

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

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
	   specifies what LibreOffice pyuno installation unoconv needs to use eg.  /opt/libreoffice3.4/basis-link/program

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.

	   Note
	   Please see the TODO file for known bugs and future plans.

REFERENCES

       unoconv is very useful together with the following tools:

       Asciidoc

	   http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/

       asciidoc-odf

	   http://github.com/dagwieers/asciidoc-odf

       docbook2odf

	   http://open.comsultia.com/docbook2odf/

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

       OpenOffice 2.1

	   http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Framework/Article/Filter/FilterList_OOo_2_1

       OpenOffice 3.0

	   http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Framework/Article/Filter/FilterList_OOo_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>
	   Author.

NOTES

	1. dag@wieers.com
	   mailto:dag@wieers.com

  0.4								  20 october 2010							UNOCONV(1)