KABCCLIENT(1) KDE User's Manual KABCCLIENT(1)
NAME
kabcclient - commandline client for the KDE addressbook
SYNOPSIS
kabcclient [-A | -R | -M | -S | -L] [--match-case] [--nosave] [-ic codec] [-if format] [-if-opts format-options] [-oc codec] [-of format]
[-of-opts format-options] [input-data]
DESCRIPTION
kabcclient allows commandline access to the KDE addressbook, for example in shell scripts. It supports input from stdin or through addi-
tional commandline arguments. Output is always written to stdout.
OPTIONS
Operation modes
-A, --add
Add a new contact entry to the addressbook
-R, --remove
Removes an existing contact entry from the addressbook
-M, --merge
Merges input data with an existing contact entry from the addressbook. This appends any new information to the already exist-
ing one
-S, --search
Searches the addressbook for matching contact entries
-L, --list
Lists all contact entries of the addressbook
Input options
-ic, --input-codec
Pass input text through a specified text encoding. See -ic help for additional information about input codecs. Default is lo-
cal which will use the codec for the current locale(5) settings
-if, --input-format
Parses the input text according to given formatting rules. See -if help for available formats. Default is search
Instead of reading input text kabcclient can show a dialog for selecting contacts using the input format
dialog
-if-opts, --input-format-options
Additional options for the chosen input format. Can be optional as well as mandatory depending on the format. See -if-opts
help for available format options
Output options
-oc, --output-codec
Pass output text through a specified text encoding. See -oc help for additional information about output codecs. Default is
local which will use the codec for the current locale(5) settings.
-of, --output-format
Formats the output text according to given formatting rules. See -of help for available formats. Default is vcard
-of-opts, --output-format-options
Additional options for the chosen output format. Can be optional as well as mandatory depending on the format. See -of-opts
help for available format options
Additional options
--match-case
Use case sensitive text matching when comparing input text with contact entries
--nosave
Perform information changing operations like -A, -R or -M only in memory but do not write the changes back to the addressbook
DIAGNOSTICS
As usual an exit status of zero indicates success. Depending on the chosen operation mode a non-zero exit status indicates a certain prob-
lem the application encountered
ADD
1 Reading the input text failed
2 Creating a suitable contact entry from the input text failed, e.g. not data or wrongly formatted input for the chosen input
format
3 Saving the addressbook changes failed. This can be caused for example by other applications currently locking the address-
book.
REMOVE
1 Reading the input text failed
2 The program could not remove any contact entry from the addressbook. This can be caused by failing to parse the input text,
failing to find a matching contact entry in the addressbook or finding more than one matching contact entry in the address-
book. In the latter case an error message is written to stderr
3 Saving the addressbook changes failed. This can be caused for example by other applications currently locking the address-
book.
MERGE
1 Reading the input text failed
2 The program could not merge the input with any contact entry from the addressbook. This can be caused by failing to parse the
input text, failing to find a matching contact entry in the addressbook or finding more than one matching contact entry in
the addressbook. In the latter case an error message is written to stderr
3 Saving the addressbook changes failed. This can be caused for example by other applications currently locking the address-
book.
SEARCH, 1
Reading the input text failed
2 The program could not find any matching contact entry in the addressbook. This can be caused by failing to parse the input
text or failing to find a matching contact entry in the addressbook
EXAMPLES
Look for contact entries with Joe in either name or email addresses
kabcclient -S Joe
Do the same but use case sensitive matching
kabcclient --match-case -S Joe
Do the same but read input text from stdin
echo "Joe" | kabcclient --match-case -S
Try to add a new contact entry using data from a formatted email address
kabcclient --nosave --add -if email "Marilyn Monroe <mmonroe@moviestars.com>"
Do the same but this time really save the changed addressbook
kabcclient --add -if email "Marilyn Monroe <mmonroe@moviestars.com>"
Listing the available input formats
kabcclient -if help
Listing the available output formats
kabcclient -of help
Listing the available options for the 'email' output format
kabcclient -of email -of-opts help
Listing all email addresses for all contacts containing 'Marilyn'
kabcclient -of email -of-opts allemails -S Marilyn
Remove all contacts the user selected in the contact selection dialog
kabcclient --remove -if dialog
Export selected contacts to a VCard (default output format) file
kabcclient -S -if dialog > contacts.vcf
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Kevin Krammer <kevin.krammer@gmx.at>. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.
K Desktop Environment 2005-09-08 KABCCLIENT(1)