CLI Reference

The biopac binary is the command-line interface for biodream. It provides four subcommands for inspecting and converting .acq files.

Usage

biopac <COMMAND> [OPTIONS] <FILE>

Global flags

Flag	Description
`--help`	Print help
`--version`	Print version
`-v, --verbose`	Verbose output (repeat for more: `-vv`)

`biopac info`

Print a summary of the file: revision, channel count, sample rate, duration, marker count, and journal presence.

biopac info recording.acq

Output:

File:       recording.acq
Revision:   v84
Channels:   4
Base rate:  1000.00 Hz
Duration:   60.000 s
Markers:    12
Journal:    yes
Byte order: LittleEndian

Channels:
  [0] ECG    1000.00 Hz  mV   (divider 1)
  [1] EDA    250.00 Hz   µS   (divider 4)
  [2] RESP   125.00 Hz   %    (divider 8)
  [3] TEMP   10.00 Hz    °C   (divider 100)

`biopac convert`

Convert a .acq file to CSV, Arrow IPC, or Parquet.

biopac convert recording.acq --format csv --output output.csv
biopac convert recording.acq --format arrow --output output.arrow
biopac convert recording.acq --format parquet --output output.parquet

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`--format <FORMAT>`	`csv`	Output format: `csv`, `arrow`, `parquet`
`--output <PATH>`	(derived)	Output file path. Defaults to input stem + new extension.
`--time-format <FMT>`	`seconds`	Time column format: `seconds`, `ms`, `samples`
`--no-markers`	—	Omit markers column from CSV output
`--channels <LIST>`	(all)	Comma-separated channel names or indices to export

`biopac markers`

Print the event marker list as tab-separated text.

biopac markers recording.acq

Output:

TIME_S  LABEL       TEXT
0.000   event       Baseline start
30.450  stim        Stimulus onset
31.200  resp        Response
60.000  event       End

Flags

Flag	Description
`--json`	Output markers as JSON array
`--csv`	Output as CSV with header row

`biopac inspect`

Low-level binary dump: print each section header, its type code, byte offset, and length. Useful for debugging corrupt or unusual files.

biopac inspect recording.acq

Output:

offset=0x0000  type=GraphHeader   len=506
offset=0x01FA  type=ChannelHeader len=182  ch=0 ECG
offset=0x02B0  type=ChannelHeader len=182  ch=1 EDA
offset=0x0366  type=ChannelHeader len=182  ch=2 RESP
offset=0x041C  type=ChannelHeader len=182  ch=3 TEMP
offset=0x04D2  type=DataSection   len=12000000
offset=0xB75D2 type=MarkerSection len=412

Flags

Flag	Description
`--hex`	Print a hex dump of each section header
`--unknown`	Print unknown section types encountered (useful for format research)