KABCCLIENT(1) KDE User's Manual KABCCLIENT(1)NAMEkabcclient - commandline client for the KDE addressbook
SYNOPSISkabcclient [-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]
DESCRIPTIONkabcclient allows commandline access to the KDE addressbook, for exam‐
ple in shell scripts. It supports input from stdin or through addition‐
al 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 al‐
ready existing 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 local 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
addressbook.
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 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
addressbook.
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 con‐
tact 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
addressbook.
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 en‐
try 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 ad‐
dress
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)
