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# Apache Daffodil

## Introduction

Apache Daffodil is an open-source implementation of the DFDL specification
that uses DFDL data descriptions to parse fixed format data into an infoset.
This infoset is commonly converted into XML or JSON to enable the use of
well-established XML or JSON technologies and libraries to consume, inspect,
and manipulate fixed format data in existing solutions. Daffodil is also
capable of serializing or "unparsing" data back to the original data format.
The DFDL infoset can also be converted directly to/from the data structures
carried by data processing frameworks so as to bypass any XML/JSON overheads.

For more information about Daffodil, see <https://daffodil.apache.org/>.

## Requirements

* JRE 8 or higher

## Getting Started

To execute Daffodil on Linux:

```bash
./bin/daffodil [options]
```

To execute Daffodil on Windows:

```bash
.\bin\daffodil.bat [options]
```

Use the `--help` option or see the [Command Line Interface](https://daffodil.apache.org/cli/)
documentation for details on its usage.

### Debugging

Daffodil comes with a built-in interactive debugger, allowing the user to pause
parse/unparse and inspect various aspects of the state. To enable the
interactive debugger, supply the global -d option when parsing or unparsing,
for example:

```bash
./bin/daffodil -d parse --schema <path/to/schema.dfdl.xsd> input-file
```

When running the debugger, the user is provided with a command prompt, at which
point the user can execute debugger commands to control the debugger and
inspect state. Type `help` at the command prompt to get information on the
debugger commands, or `help <command>` to get information about a specific
command.

See the [Interactive Debugger](https://daffodil.apache.org/debugger/)
page for its detailed usage.

## Getting Help

For questions, we can be reached at the dev@daffodil.apache.org or
users@daffodil.apache.org mailing lists. Bugs can be reported via the
[Daffodil JIRA](https://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/DAFFODIL).

## License

Daffodil is licensed under the [Apache License, v2.0](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)

This product includes The Saxon XSLT and XQuery Processor from
Saxonica Limited (<http://www.saxonica.com/>), which is licensed under
the Mozilla Public License version 2.0.
