gramps/doc/gramps.1.in

.TH gramps 1 "@VERSION@" "August 2005" "@VERSION@"
.SH NAME
gramps \- Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System.

.SH SYNOPSIS
.B gramps
.RB [ \-?|\-\^\-help ]
.RB [ \-\^\-usage ]
.RB [ \-\^\-version ]
.RB [ \-O|\-\^\-open=
.IR FILE 
.RB [ \-f|\-\^\-format= 
.IR FORMAT ]] 
.RB [ \-i|\-\^\-import=
.IR FILE 
.RB [ \-f|\-\^\-format= 
.IR FORMAT ]] 
.RB [ \-i|\-\^\-import= 
.IR ... ] 
.RB [ \-o|\-\^\-output= 
.IR FILE
.RB [ \-f|\-\^\-format= 
.IR FORMAT ]] 
.RB [ \-a|\-\^\-action= 
.IR ACTION ]
.RB [ \-p|\-\^\-options= 
.IR OPTIONSTRING ]] 
.RB [
.IR FILE
.RB ]

.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP 
\fIGramps\fP is a Free/OpenSource genealogy program. It is written in Python, 
using the GTK+/GNOME interface.
Gramps should seem familiar to anyone who has used other geneology programs 
before such as \fIFamily Tree Maker (TM)\fR,  \fIPersonal Ancestral
Files (TM)\fR, or the GNU Geneweb.
It supports importing of the ever popular GEDCOM format which is used world 
wide by almost all other genealogy software.

.SH OPTIONS
.TP 
.BI gramps " FILE" 
When \fIFILE\fR is given (without any flags) then it is
opened and an interactive session is started. The rest of the options
is ignored. This way of launching is suitable for using gramps
as a handler for genealogical data in e.g. web browsers. This invokation
can accept any data format native to gramps, see below.
.br

.TP 
.BI \-f,\-\^\-format= " FORMAT"
Explicitly specify format of \fIFILE\fR given by preceding \fB\-O\fR,
\fB\-i\fR, or 
\fB\-o\fR option. If the \fB\-f\fR option is not given for any \fIFILE\fR, 
the format of that file is guessed according to its extension. 
.br

Formats 
available for opening are \fBgrdb\fR (guessed if \fIFILE\fR ends with
\fB.grdb\fR), \fBgramps\-xml\fR (guessed if \fIFILE\fR ends with
\fB.gramps\fR), and \fBgedcom\fR (guessed if \fIFILE\fR ends with \fB.ged\fR).
.br

Formats 
available for import are \fBgrdb\fR, \fBgramps\-xml\fR, \fBgedcom\fR,  
\fBgramps\-pkg\fR (guessed if \fIFILE\fR ends with \fB.gpkg\fR), and
\fBgeneweb\fR (guessed if \fIFILE\fR ends with \fB.gw\fR). 
.br

Formats available for export are  \fBgrdb\fR, \fBgramps\-xml\fR, \fBgedcom\fR,
\fBgramps\-pkg\fR, \fBwft\fR (guessed if \fIFILE\fR ends with \fB.wft\fR),
\fBgeneweb\fR, and \fBiso\fR (never guessed, always specify with
\fB\-f\fR option).

.TP 
.BI \-O,\-\^\-open= " FILE"
Open \fIFILE\fR. 
Only \fBgrdb\fR, \fBgramps\-xml\fR, and \fBgedcom\fR formats can be
opened directly. For other formats, you will need to use the import option
which will set up the empty database and then import data into it.
.br

Only a single file can be opened. If you need to combine data from several
sources, you will need to use the import option. 

.TP 
.BI \-i,\-\^\-import= " FILE"
Import data from \fIFILE\fR.
.br

When more than one input file is given, each has to be preceded by \fB\-i\fR 
flag. The files are imported in the specified order, 
i.e. \fB\-i\fR \fIFILE1\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIFILE2\fR  
and \fB\-i\fR \fIFILE2\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIFILE1\fR might produce different 
gramps IDs in the resulting database. 

.TP 
.BI \-o,\-\^\-output= " FILE"
Export data into \fIFILE\fR. For \fBiso\fR format, the \fIFILE\fR is actually
the name of directory the gramps database will be written into. 
For \fBgrdb\fR, \fBgramps\-xml\fR, \fBgedcom\fR, \fBwft\fR, \fBgramps\-pkg\fR, 
and \fBgeneweb\fR, the \fIFILE\fR is the name of the resulting file. 
.br

When more than one output file is given, each has to be preceded 
by \fB\-o\fR flag. The files are written one by one, in the specified order.

.TP 
.BI \-a,\-\^\-action= " ACTION"
Perform \fIACTION\fR on the imported data. This is done after all imports
are succesfully completed. Currently available actions are \fBsummary\fR 
(same as Reports->View->Summary), \fBcheck\fR (same as Tools->Database 
Processing->Check and Repair), and \fBreport\fR (generates report, needs
the \fIOPTIONSTRING\fR supplied by the \fB\-p\fR flag). 
.br

The report option string should satisfy the following conditions:
.br
It must not contain any spaces. 
If some arguments need to include spaces, the string should
be enclosed with quotation marks.
Option string must list pairs of option names and values.
Withing a pair, option name and value must be separated by the equality sign.
Different pairs must be separated by commas.  
.br

Most of the report options are specific for every report. However, there some
common options.

.BI "name=reportname"
.br
This mandatory option determines which report
will be generated. If the supplied report_name does not correspond to any
available report, the error message will be printed followed by the list of
available reports.

.BI "show=all"
.br
This will produce the list of names for all options
available for a given report.

.BI "show=optionname"
.br
This will print the description of
the functionality supplied by the optionname, as well as what are the
acceptable types and values for this option.

.br
Use the above options to find out
everything about a given report.  

.LP
When more than one output action is given, each has to be preceded 
by \fB\-a\fR flag. The actions are performed one by one, in the specified order.

.BI "Operation"
.br
If the first argument on the command line does not start with dash (i.e. no
flag), gramps will attempt to open the file with the name given by the first
argument and start interactive session, ignoring the rest of the command line
arguments.

.LP
If the \fB\-O\fR flag is given, then gramps will try opening
the supplied file name and then work with that data, as instructed by the
further command line parameters.

.LP
With or without the \fB\-O\fR flag, there could be multiple imports,
exports, and actions specified further on the command line by using \fB\-i\fR,
\fB\-o\fR, and \fB\-a\fR flags.  

.LP
The order of \fB\-i\fR, \fB\-o\fR, or \fB\-a\fR options does not matter. The
actual order always is: all imports (if any) -> all exports (if any) -> 
all actions (if any). But opening must always be first!

.LP
If no \fB\-O\fR or \fB\-i\fR option is given, gramps will launch its main 
window and start the usual interactive session with the empty database,
since there is no data to process, anyway.

.LP
If no \fB\-o\fR or \fB\-a\fR options are given, gramps will launch its main 
window and start the usual interactive session with the database resulted 
from all imports. This database resides in the \fBimport_db.grdb\fR
under \fB~/.gramps/import\fR directory.

.LP
The error encountered during import, export, or action, will be either 
dumped to \fIstdout\fR (if these are exceptions handled by gramps) or or 
to \fIstderr\fR (if these are not handled). Use usual shell redirections 
of \fIstdout\fR and \fIstderr\fR to save messages and errors in files. 

.SH EXAMPLES
.TP 
To import four databases (whose formats can be determined from their names) and then check the resulting database for errors, one may type: 
\fBgramps\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIfile1.ged\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIfile2.tgz\fR \fB\-i\fR \fI~/db3.gramps\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIfile4.wft\fR \fB\-a\fR \fIcheck\fR 
.TP 
To explicitly specify the formats in the above example, append filenames with appropriate \fB\-f\fR options: 
\fBgramps\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIfile1.ged\fR \fB\-f\fR \fIgedcom\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIfile2.tgz\fR \fB\-f\fR \fIgramps-pkg\fR \fB\-i\fR \fI~/db3.gramps\fR \fB\-f\fR \fIgramps-xml\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIfile4.wft\fR \fB\-f\fR \fIwft\fR  \fB\-a\fR \fIcheck\fR 
.TP 
To record the database resulting from all imports, supply \fB\-o\fR flag (use \fB\-f\fR if the filename does not allow gramps to guess the format):
\fBgramps\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIfile1.ged\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIfile2.tgz\fR \fB\-o\fR \fI~/new-package\fR \fB\-f\fR \fIgramps-pkg\fR 
.TP 
To import three databases and start interactive gramps session with the result: 
\fBgramps\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIfile1.ged\fR \fB\-i\fR \fIfile2.tgz\fR \fB\-i\fR \fI~/db3.gramps\fR 
.TP 
Finally, to start normal interactive session type: 
\fBgramps\fR 

.SH CONCEPTS
Supports a python\-based plugin system, allowing import and export writers, 
report generators, tools, and display filters to be added without modification 
of the main program.
.LP 
In addition to generating direct printer output, report generators also 
target other systems, such as \fIOpenOffice.org\fR, \fIAbiWord\fR, HTML, 
or LaTeX to allow the users to modify the format to suit their needs. 

.SH KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

.SH FILES
.LP 
\fI${PREFIX}/bin/gramps\fP 
.br 
\fI${PREFIX}/share/gramps\fP
.br 
\fI${HOME}/.gramps\fP 

.SH AUTHORS
Donald Allingham \fI<don@gramps-project.org>\fR
.br 
\fIhttp://gramps.sourceforge.net\fR
.LP 
This manpage was originally written by:
.br 
Brandon L. Griffith \fI<brandon@debian.org>\fR
.br
for inclusion in the Debian GNU/Linux system.
.LP 
This manpage is currently maintained by:
.br 
Alex Roitman \fI<shura@gramps-project.org>\fR
.br 

.SH DOCUMENTATION
The user documentation is available through standard GNOME Help browser 
in the form of Gramps Manual. The manual is also available in XML format
as \fBgramps-manual.xml\fR under \fIdoc/gramps-manual/$LANG\fR in the official
source distribution.
.LP 
The developer documentation can be found on the
\fIhttp://developers.gramps-project.org\fR site.