gpsman - a (graphical) manager of GPS data

gpsman [-dev DEVICE]

gpsman [OPTIONS] COMMAND [COMMAND_ARGS]

gpsman GPS Manager (GPSMan) is a graphical manager of GPS data that makes possible the preparation, inspection and edition of GPS data in a friendly environment. GPSMan supports communication and real-time logging with Garmin, Lowrance and Magellan receivers and accepts real-time logging information in NMEA 0183 from any GPS receiver.

GPSMan can also be used in command mode (with no graphical interface), in which case it must be invoked as in the second form above.

The use in graphical mode is not described here and a full description can be found in the User Manual available along with the GPSMan distribution. The sections below address the command line mode.

To comunicate with the GPS port the user must have been granted read/write permissions for the respective device.

In non-graphical mode GPSMan exits with either a 0 if COMMAND was successfully executed, or a 1 if not. Some commands will write information to the standard output channel. Error messages can possibly be written to the standard error channel, but most of the errors will not be explained. In case of doubt the graphical mode should be used to see if there are problems with files or the receiver.

Apart from the -dev option all other options are only for use in non-graphical mode.

-dev DEVICE gives the device path.

-log creates a log file of the serial communication

under the name logfile in the GPSMan user directory.

-rec Garmin | Lowrance | Magellan

changes the brand of the receiver (NOTE: at present will only work with Garmin); this option can be useful to override the options in the preferences file; cannot be used with the readput command, nor with the -prefs option, and cannot occur after the -prot option.

-prefs PREFSFILE

gives the path for an alternative preferences file (read after the user preferences file); cannot be used with the -rec option.

-prot PROTOCOL

selects the protocol to be used for capturing the real-time log; cannot occur before the -rec option; the show protocols command can be used to find out which protocols are available.

Options not related with COMMAND will be silently ignored.

Available commands are:

is available exits with 0.

is connected

exits with 0 if a connection check with the receiver succeeds.

show version writes the GPSMan version to the standard output.

show formats writes a table of file formats to the standard

output.

show protocols writes a list of protocols to the standard

output.

haslib LIBRARY checks availability of library

getwrite INTYPES FORMAT [OUTTYPES] PATH

transfers data from the receiver to a file.

readput FORMAT [INTYPES] PATH [OUTTYPES]

transfers data from a file to the receiver.

getrtimelog PATH [INTERVAL]

gets the real-time log from the receiver and saves it to a file.

translate FORMAT [INTYPES] PATH FORMAT [OUTTYPES] PATH

translates from a file format to another.

Each command is now described in detail.

is available

This commands exits with 0 and is intended for a quick check on the availability of GPSMan in command line mode.

is connected

The connection with the receiver is checked and the command exits with 0 if it succeeds. Only works with Garmin receivers.

show version

The GPSMan version is written to the standard output channel.

show formats

This commands writes to the standard output a table of the data file formats known to GPSMan and that can be used in other commands. An example is

GD2: Read, WP RT TR

gpsman: Read/Write, WP RT TR, Data

GPStrans: Read/Write, WP RT TR

MapGuide: Read, RT

Meridian: File type invalid

Shapefile_3D: Read/Write, WP RT TR

For each known format either there is an indication that the format is invalid (because, for instance, a library as missing or there is incompatibility with the receiver brand), or there is information on the possible read/write operations and item types which will be followed by Data if a file may contain items of different types.

show protocols

A list of known protocols that can be used with the -prot option is written to the standard output. A possible list is

Garmin (Garmin)

NMEA (Garmin)

simul (Garmin)

SText (Garmin)

showing at the end the receiver brand with which they must be used.

haslib LIBRARY

The haslib command checks whether a certain library is available exiting with 0 if it could be loaded.

LIBRARY can be gpsmanshp or Img.

getwrite INTYPES FORMAT [OUTTYPES] PATH

The getwrite command gets information from the receiver and writes it to a file.

INTYPES data types to get

the possible types are WP, RT and TR; all can be used as an abbreviation of WP RT TR.

FORMAT output file format

use show formats for a list of the currently accepted formats.

OUTTYPES data types to write

they may be absent in which case they are taken to be INTYPES; if RT occurs in INTYPES then WP can appear in OUTTYPES but no other type "conversions" are allowed; some file formats impose that there is a single data type per file; all can be used as an abbreviation of WP RT TR.

PATH path to the output file

in the case of the Shapefile formats it is the path to the Shapefiles basename (file extensions will be discarded). If the PATH is stdout output will be to the standard output unless the format is one of the Shapefile formats (in which case the command fails). Existing files will be silently overwritten.

This command only works with Garmin receivers.

readput FORMAT [INTYPES] PATH [OUTTYPES]

The readput command reads information from a file and sends it to the receiver.

FORMAT input file format

use show formats for a list of the currently accepted formats.

INTYPES data types to read

the possible types depend on the format and some formats impose that there is a single data type per file; they may be absent if the format requires a unique data type or if the files can have items of different types; all can be used as an abbreviation of WP RT TR.

PATH path to the input file

in the case of the Shapefile formats it is the path to the Shapefiles basename (file extensions will be discarded). If the PATH is stdin input will be from the standard input unless the format is one of the Shapefile formats (in which case the command fails).

OUTTYPES data types to put

the possible types are WP, RT and TR and may be absent in which case they are taken to be INTYPES; if RT occurs in INTYPES then WP can appear in OUTTYPES but no other type "conversions" are allowed; all can be used as an abbreviation of WP RT TR.

This command only works with Garmin receivers.

getrtimelog PATH [INTERVAL]

The getrtimelog command gets the real-time log from the receiver and saves it to a file, until the process is killed.

PATH path to the output file

if it is stdout output will be to the standard output. Existing files will be silently overwritten.

INTERVAL log interval

this is the number of seconds between two consecutive entries in the log and defaults to 2.

This command only works with Garmin receivers.

translate FORMAT [INTYPES] PATH FORMAT [OUTTYPES] PATH

The translate command reads information from a file in a given format and writes it to another file in another given format.

INFORMAT, OUTFORMAT input and ouput file formats

use show formats for a list of the currently accepted formats.

INTYPES data types to read

the possible types depend on the input format and some formats impose that there is a single data type per file; they may be absent if the format requires a unique data type or if the files can have items of different types; all can be used as an abbreviation of WP RT TR.

INPATH path to the input file

in the case of the Shapefile formats it is the path to the Shapefiles basename (file extensions will be discarded). If the INPATH is stdin input will be from the standard input unless the format is one of the Shapefile formats (in which case the command fails).

OUTTYPES data types to write

they may be absent in which case they are taken to be INTYPES; if RT occurs in INTYPES then WP can appear in OUTTYPES but no other type "conversions" are allowed; some file formats impose that there is a single data type per file; all can be used as an abbreviation of WP RT TR.

OUTPATH path to the output file

in the case of the Shapefile formats it is the path to the Shapefiles basename (file extensions will be discarded). If the OUTPATH is stdout output will be to the standard output unless the format is one of the Shapefile formats (in which case the command fails). Existing files will be silently overwritten.

This manual page was written by Miguel Filgueiras <mig@ncc.up.pt> using a previous version by Rogerio Reis <rvr@ncc.up.pt>.

Report bugs to <mig@ncc.up.pt>.

Copyright © 2003 Miguel Filgueiras and Rogerio Reis

DCC-FC & LIACC / University of Porto

This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Miguel Filgueiras, GPSMan User Manual, Version 6.0, March 2003

This manual, in both PDF and HTML, is part of the distribution of GPSMan.