DBFDUMP(1)

📦
version 1.08 · 2 versions
, in fedora 43

💾 DBFDUMP(1) — the dbfdump.pl page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, so this is dbfdump.pl from the User Contributed Perl Documentation section of the manual (that's the (1) situation, iykyk). It's giving "tiny Perl script that will absolutely spill the entire contents of your dbf file to your terminal" and honestly? iconic. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

dbfdump.pl — dump the record of the dbf file. that's it. that's the whole job. and it does it flawlessly. 💅

🎀 FORMAT 🎀

dbfdump.pl [options] files

where the options are, and yes we're listing every single one because we don't gatekeep:

  • --rs — output record separator (default: newline)
  • --fs — output field separator (default: colon)
  • --fields — comma separated list of fields to print (default: all of them, no crumbs left)
  • --undef — string to print for NULL values (default: empty, so literally nothing)
  • --memofile — specifies unstandard name of attached memo file
  • --memosep — separator for dBase III dbt's (default: \x1a\x1a)
  • --nomemo — do not try to read the memo (dbt/fpt) file
  • --info — print info about the file and fields. with an additional --SQL parameter, outputs the SQL create table 👑
  • --version — print version of the XBase library
  • --table — output in nice table format (only available when Data::ShowTable is installed, overrides rs and fs)
lowkey important: that --table one is only there if Data::ShowTable is installed, and when it shows up it overrides rs and fs. no negotiating. 😌

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

dbfdump.pl -fields id,msg table.dbf
dbfdump.pl -fs=' : ' table
dbfdump.pl --nomemo file.dbf

ssh user@host 'cat file.dbf.gz' | gunzip - | dbfdump.pl -

look at that last one. piping over ssh through gunzip straight into dbfdump.pl -. main character energy fr fr. 🌈

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Dbfdump prints to standard output the content of the dbf files you listed. By default it prints all the fields, separated by colons, one record per line. classic. simple. slay.

The output record and column separators can be changed by switches on the command line — that's your --rs and --fs moment. You can also ask only for some fields to be printed, because sometimes you don't need the whole fit, just the pieces you're obsessed with. ✨

The content of associated memo files (dbf, fpt) is printed for memo fields, unless you use the --nomemo option. so if you don't want the memo drama, you can just opt out. 🙈

You can specify reading the standard input by putting dash (-) instead of file name. yes bestie, - is the vibe. 💜

🌟 AVAILABLE FROM 🌟

http://www.adelton.com/perl/DBD-XBase/

👑 AUTHOR 👑

(c) 1998--2011 Jan Pazdziora.

💖 SEE ALSO 💖

perl(1); XBase(3)

and that's the whole page, no cap. this was perl v5.42.0, dated 2025-07-25 — thanks for reading my little manpage era, bestie, go dump some records 💅🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from