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I am using LibreOffice 3.5.7.2 Build ID: 350m1(Build:2) and would like to run LibreOffice calc from the terminal to open an .xls document and output to .csv. I can do this via the GUI by just opening the xls file and saving as csv and specifying the delimeter, but I would like to be able to do it via the terminal.

Research I've done:

when I run 

> man libreoffice

I get:

SYNOPSIS
       libreoffice  [--accept=accept-string]  [--base]  [--calc] [--convert-to
       output_file_extension[:output_filter_name]

which has a command --convert-to output but I am not exactly sure how an example of that would look, I tried:

libreoffice --convert-to csv:writer_csv_Export --outdir /Data/ *.xls

as https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Starting_the_Software_With_Parameters/vi mentions but it is not working.

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    libreoffice --headless --convert-to csv --outdir somedir *.xls appears to work. :writer_csv_Export appears to be unnecessary, and it might also be a problem that /Data/ means a directory called Data at the filesystem root, not in your home directory. Just omit --outdir DIR and you'll get the output in the current directory.
    – chronitis
    Nov 19, 2013 at 16:18

1 Answer 1

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libreoffice --headless --convert-to csv --outdir somedir *.xls appears to work.

--headless stops Libreoffice from opening a window, so it just converts your files and then exits.

:writer_csv_Export after csv appears to be unnecessary.

It might also be a problem that /Data/ means a directory called Data at the filesystem root, not in your home directory. Just omit --outdir DIR and you'll get the output in the current directory.

Note:

Close your xls/xlsx file before you run this command. If file is opened this command does not work.

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    is there a way to specify delimeter in command line ? I.E. instead of comma, pipe ?
    – Eduardo Dennis
    Nov 19, 2013 at 17:29
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    There is an enhancement bug for this, so presumably not -> libreoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=68786
    – chronitis
    Nov 19, 2013 at 18:07
  • ok no problem, hopefully they fix it that soon :-D
    – Eduardo Dennis
    Nov 19, 2013 at 18:35
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    It exports only first sheet. Is there a way to export all sheets into separate files?
    – Grzegorz Wierzowiecki
    Apr 17, 2017 at 8:07
  • @GrzegorzWierzowiecki as explained in this Ask Libreoffice answer you'll have to first convert to XLSX and then to CSV via xlsx2csv. For everything else there are macros: link - link
    – Avio
    Nov 2, 2017 at 11:43

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