# &kde; User's Manual

2005-09-08
K Desktop Environment
kabcclient
1

# kabcclient

commandline client for the &kde; addressbook

      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 additional 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 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 problem 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 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.

  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.