File Conversion Utilities (FCONV)

High-performance HTTP server for document format conversions, specializing in .doc to .docx conversion via LibreOffice. Features REST API, pluggable converter architecture, and optional external service integration. source

Quick Start / Usage

• Run locally (Go):

  • Build and run: go run .
  • Or build binary: go build -o fconv . && ./fconv
  • Options: ./fconv -h (flags include -host, -port; envs include FCONV_PORT, FCONV_LISTEN_ADDR, FCONV_AUTH_KEY, FCONV_TIMEOUT etc,.)

• Run with Docker:

  • Pull/build image (example tag): docker pull tdio/fconv:latest
  • Start server: docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 --name fconv tdio/fconv:latest
  • For more help: docker run --rm tdio/fconv:latest -h

• Health check:

  • curl http://localhost:8080/healthz → ok

• Convert .doc → .docx:

  • Binary response (writes output.docx):

    curl -sS -X POST 'http://localhost:8080/api/v1/convert/doc2docx' \
      -F 'file=@/path/to/input.doc' \
      -o output.docx

  • JSON base64 response:

    curl -sS -H 'Accept: application/json' -X POST 'http://localhost:8080/api/v1/convert/doc2docx' \
      -F 'file=@/path/to/input.doc' | jq -r .base64 | base64 --decode > output.docx

• Optional auth:

  • Start server with FCONV_AUTH_KEY=secret and pass header Authorization: Bearer secret in requests.

.doc to docx Conversion

The .doc file reader converts Microsoft Word documents (.doc format) to docx using LibreOffice, then processes them through the existing docx workflow.

Prerequisites

To use .doc file support, you need to install LibreOffice on your system.

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libreoffice

CentOS/RHEL/Fedora

# CentOS/RHEL
sudo yum install libreoffice

# Fedora
sudo dnf install libreoffice

macOS

# Using Homebrew
brew install --cask libreoffice

# Or download from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/

Verification

After installation, verify LibreOffice is available:

libreoffice --version
# or
soffice --version

How It Works

1. When a .doc file is uploaded, the system detects the file extension
2. The file is temporarily saved to disk
3. LibreOffice converts the .doc file to docx using the command:

   libreoffice --headless --convert-to docx --outdir <output_dir> <input_file>

4. The converted docx is processed using the existing docx reader
5. Temporary files are cleaned up
6. The extracted text is returned to the user

Error Handling

If LibreOffice is not installed or fails to convert:

• The system will return an error message
• Users will be prompted to install LibreOffice or convert the file manually
• The original file upload will fail gracefully

Performance Notes

• Conversion time depends on file size and complexity
• Large .doc files may take longer to process
• The conversion process is synchronous and may block other operations
• Consider implementing async processing for production use with large files

Security Considerations

• Temporary files are created in a controlled directory
• Files are cleaned up after processing
• The conversion process runs in the same process context
• Consider sandboxing for production environments

Examples

• Use fconv as a external doc2docx service

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.