CLI Usage

Use the dicom-validator command to validate DICOM files from the terminal.

Basic syntax

dicom-validator [options] <files...>

File paths support glob patterns (*.dcm, scan?.dcm, etc.).

Options

Option	Alias	Type	Default	Description
--format	-f	text | json	text	Output format
--quiet	-q	boolean	false	Suppress output for files with no errors
--sop-class	-s	string	—	Override the SOP Class UID used for validation
--version	—	—	—	Print version number
--help	—	—	—	Print help message

--format

Specifies the output format. text (default) produces human-readable output; json produces machine-readable JSON output.

--quiet

When --quiet is specified, output is suppressed for files that pass validation. Only files with errors are shown.

--sop-class

Normally the validator reads the SOP Class UID tag from the DICOM file to determine which IOD to apply. With --sop-class, the file's value is ignored and validation is performed using the specified SOP Class UID.

--version

Prints the installed version of dicom-validator and exits.

--help

Prints usage information and the list of options, then exits.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	All files are valid DICOM (no validation errors)
1	Validation errors were detected
2	Runtime error (file not found, parse error, invalid arguments, etc.)

Exit codes can be used in CI/CD pipelines and shell scripts to determine validation results.

Examples

Single file validation

dicom-validator scan.dcm

Example output:

File: scan.dcm
  ERROR: (0008,0060) [General Series] Type 1 attribute is missing
  WARNING: (0010,0020) [Patient] Type 2 attribute is missing

JSON output

dicom-validator --format json scan.dcm

Example output:

{
  "file": "scan.dcm",
  "findings": [
    {
      "severity": "error",
      "rule": "type1-missing",
      "tag": "(0008,0060)",
      "module": "General Series",
      "message": "Type 1 attribute is missing"
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "errors": 1,
    "warnings": 0,
    "infos": 0
  },
  "passed": false
}

Multiple file validation

dicom-validator images/*.dcm

Specifying a SOP Class

dicom-validator --sop-class 1.2.840.10008.5.1.4.1.1.2 scan.dcm

CI/CD usage

dicom-validator --quiet output/*.dcm
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo "DICOM validation failed"
  exit 1
fi