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dddparser is the primary command-line tool for decoding tachograph data. It reads raw DDD bytes from a file or stdin, performs full TLV/TV decoding including signature verification, and writes structured JSON to a file or stdout. It supports all tachograph generations: first generation, second generation, and second generation v2.

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Flags

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-vu
boolean
Treat the input as a vehicle unit (VU) file. Mutually exclusive with -card. One of -vu or -card must be set.
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-card
boolean
Treat the input as a driver card file. Mutually exclusive with -vu. One of -card or -vu must be set.
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-input
string
Path to the input DDD file. If not set, dddparser reads from stdin. Mutually exclusive with -input-list.
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-output
string
Path to the output JSON file. If not set (or set to -), output is written to stdout.
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-input-list
string
Path to a newline-separated list of input files to process in batch mode. Each file is decoded and written to a .json file in the same directory as the source file. Mutually exclusive with -input.
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-format
boolean
Pretty-print the JSON output with two-space indentation. Has no effect in batch mode (-input-list).
-card and -vu are mutually exclusive — exactly one must be provided. Passing both, or neither, causes the program to exit with an error. Similarly, -input and -input-list are mutually exclusive.

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Examples

Parse a vehicle unit file piped through stdin: 
cat tachodata.ddd | ./dddparser -vu
Parse a driver card file piped through stdin: 
cat drivercard.ddd | ./dddparser -card
Parse from a named input file and write to a named output file: 
./dddparser -vu -input tachodata.ddd -output result.json
Pretty-print JSON output for inspection: 
cat tachodata.ddd | ./dddparser -vu -format
Pipe output into jq for further filtering: 
cat tachodata.ddd | ./dddparser -vu | jq '.vu_overview_1.vehicle_identification_number'
Process multiple files in batch mode using a file list: 
./dddparser -vu -input-list files.txt
The file files.txt should contain one file path per line: 
/data/tacho/vehicle1.ddd
/data/tacho/vehicle2.ddd
/data/tacho/vehicle3.ddd
Each input file produces a corresponding .json file in the same directory (e.g. vehicle1.ddd.json).

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Output

JSON is written to stdout (or to the file specified with -output). Warnings and errors are written to stderr, so you can safely pipe stdout to other tools without mixing error messages into the data stream. For VU data the top-level JSON object contains fields such as vu_overview_1, vu_overview_2, vu_overview_2_v2, vu_activities_1, vu_events_and_faults_1, vu_detailed_speed_1, and vu_technical_data_1 (plus _2 and _2_v2 variants for second generation). For card data the structure includes card_identification_and_driver_card_holder_identification_1, card_driver_activity_1, card_vehicles_used_1, and similar fields. See Understanding JSON output for the full key reference.

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