A Rust library and CLI for converting between SCID (.si4/.sn4/.sg4) and PGN formats. Fast, accurate, and functional on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Quick start (CLI)

Caution

This library is still in beta; you must build it from source. For now! Once some additional testing has been done, you'll be able to download it separately.

# build it
cargo build --release

# dump a SCID database to PGN
scidtopgn /path/to/database

# save it to a file
scidtopgn /path/to/database -o output.pgn

# go the other direction — PGN into a fresh SCID database
scidtopgn import games.pgn -o mydb

Note

Specify database paths without extensions — use mydb, not mydb.si4.

CLI usage

Export (SCID → PGN)

scidtopgn /path/to/database              # stdout
scidtopgn /path/to/database -o out.pgn   # to file
scidtopgn /path/to/database --count      # just tell me how many games
scidtopgn export /path/to/database       # explicit subcommand, same thing

Export arguments

Argument	Short	Required	Default	Description
database	-	Yes	-	Path to SCID database (without file extension)
--output	-o	No	stdout	Output file path
--count	-	No	-	Just print the number of games and exit
--overwrite	-	No	-	Overwrite the output file if it already exists
--verbose	-v	No	-	Verbose output

Import (PGN → SCID)

scidtopgn import games.pgn -o mydb               # create or append
scidtopgn import games.pgn -o mydb --overwrite    # start fresh
scidtopgn import - -o mydb                        # read from stdin
scidtopgn import games.pgn -o mydb --on-error=abort  # strict mode

By default, import appends to an existing database. Bad games get skipped with a warning unless you pass --on-error=abort.

Import arguments

Argument	Short	Required	Default	Description
pgn_file	-	Yes	-	PGN file to import (use - for stdin)
--output	-o	Yes	-	Output database path (without file extension)
--overwrite	-	No	-	Overwrite existing database instead of appending
--on-error	-	No	skip	Error handling strategy: skip or abort
--verbose	-v	No	-	Verbose output

Use it as a library

use scidtopgn::Database;

let mut db = Database::open("path/to/database")?;

for game in db.games() {
    let game = game?;
    println!("{}", game.to_pgn());
}

// or grab a specific game
let game = db.get_game(0)?;
println!("{} vs {}", game.white, game.black);

Building & testing

cargo build              # debug
cargo build --release    # optimized
cargo test --workspace   # run the full suite
cargo run -p scidtopgn-cli -- /path/to/database  # run without installing

SCID format docs

If you're the kind of person who wants to understand the binary format, see SCID_DATABASE_FORMAT.md.

License

Licensed under the MIT License.