GEDCOM Patcher
This perl script is used to tidy up GEDCOM files as exported from various genealogy programs. The intention is to prepare a GEDCOM file for use with phpGedView.
The problem the program addresses stems from embedding of filenames of external resources such as images. Many genealogy programs insert the full path of such files, and leave whole thing in the GEDCOM file when whey save or export GEDCOM data.
This means that phpGedView gets the wrong file location (since the path to the image on the web server is seldom the same as on the originial machine). This necessitates annoying editing of the GEDCOM file each time it is imported.
The program removes the path of image files, leaving just the filename - the way phpGedView wants it. It will also "sanitize" filenames. phpGedView usually runs on unix like serves (most likely Linux or FreeBSD). While it's possible to have spaces and other "special" characters in file names, it is very ugly, and con confuse phpGedView. When filenames are sanitized, a message is printed to tell the user to rename the file.