NAME¶

plistutil - Convert a plist FILE between binary, XML, JSON, and OpenStep formats

SYNOPSIS¶

plistutil [OPTIONS] [-i FILE] [-o FILE]

DESCRIPTION¶

plistutil allows converting a Property List file between binary, XML, JSON, and OpenStep formats.

OPTIONS¶

-i, --infile FILE

Input FILE to convert from. If this argument is omitted or - is passed as filename, plistutil will read from stdin.

-o, --outfile FILE

Output FILE to convert to. If this argument is omitted or - is passed as filename, plistutil will write to stdout.

-f, --format [bin|xml|json|openstep]

Force output format, regardless of input type. This is useful if the input format is not known, but the output format should always be in a specific format (like xml or json).

If omitted, XML plist data will be converted to binary and vice-versa. To convert to/from JSON or OpenStep the output format needs to specified.

-p, --print FILE

Print PList in human-readable format.

-n, --nodepath PATH

Restrict output to nodepath defined by PATH which selects a specific node within the plist document. A node path describes traversal through dictionaries and arrays using / to separate the components. Traversal begins at the root node and proceeds from left to right. Each component selects a child of the current node. If the current node is a dictionary, the component is interpreted as a dictionary key name. If the current node is an array, the component must be a non-negative decimal integer specifying the array index (0-based).

Given the following structure:

<plist version="1.0">
<dict>


  <key>Users</key>


  <array>


    <dict>


      <key>Name</key>


      <string>Alice</string>


    </dict>


    <dict>


      <key>Name</key>


      <string>Bob</string>


    </dict>


  </array>
</dict>
</plist>

-c, --compact

JSON and OpenStep only: Print output in compact form. By default, the output will be pretty-printed.

-C, --coerce

JSON and OpenStep only: Coerce non-compatible plist types to JSON/OpenStep compatible representations. Date values become ISO 8601 strings, data values become Base64-encoded strings (JSON), UID values become integers, boolean becomes 1 or 0 (OpenStep), and NULL becomes a string 'NULL' (OpenStep)

This options is implied when invoked as plist2json.

-s, --sort

Sort all dictionary nodes lexicographically by key before converting to the output format.

-h, --help

Prints usage information.

-d, --debug

Enabled extended debug output.

-v, --version

Print version information

EXAMPLES¶

plistutil -i test.plist -o out.plist

Convert test.plist and write to out.plist. If test.plist is in XML format, out.plist will be in binary format. If test.plist is in binary format, out.plist will be in XML format.

plistutil -i test.plist -o out.plist -f bin

Same as before, but the output will always be in binary format.

plistutil -i test.plist -f xml

Print test.plist as XML plist, regardless of the input format.

plistutil -i test.plist -f xml -o -

Same as before.

plistutil -i test.plist -f json

Print test.plist as JSON plist, regardless of the input format.

cat test.plist |plistutil -f xml

Take plist data from stdin - piped via cat - and write the output as XML to stdout.

AUTHORS¶

Zach C.

Martin Szulecki

Nikias Bassen

ON THE WEB¶

https://libimobiledevice.org

https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libplist