1plistutil(1) General Commands Manual plistutil(1)
2
3
4
6 plistutil - Convert a plist FILE between binary, XML, and JSON format
7
9 plistutil [OPTIONS] [-i FILE] [-o FILE]
10
12 plistutil allows converting a Property List file between binary, XML,
13 and JSON format.
14
16 -i, --infile FILE
17 Input FILE to convert from. If this argument is omitted or - is
18 passed as filename, plistutil will read from stdin.
19
20 -o, --outfile FILE
21 Output FILE to convert to. If this argument is omitted or - is
22 passed as filename, plistutil will write to stdout.
23
24 -f, --format [bin|xml|json|openstep]
25 Force output format, regardless of input type. This is useful if
26 the input format is not known, but the output format should al‐
27 ways be in a specific format (like xml or json).
28
29 If omitted, XML plist data will be converted to binary and vice-
30 versa. To convert to/from JSON or OpenStep the output format
31 needs to specified.
32
33 -p, --print FILE
34 Print PList in human-readable format.
35
36 -c, --compact
37 JSON and OpenStep only: Print output in compact form. By de‐
38 fault, the output will be pretty-printed.
39
40 -s, --sort
41 Sort all dictionary nodes lexicographically by key before con‐
42 verting to the output format.
43
44 -h, --help
45 Prints usage information.
46
47 -d, --debug
48 Enabled extended debug output.
49
50 -v, --version
51 Print version information
52
54 plistutil -i test.plist -o out.plist
55 Convert test.plist and write to out.plist. If test.plist is in
56 XML format, out.plist will be in binary format. If test.plist is
57 in binary format, out.plist will be in XML format.
58
59 plistutil -i test.plist -o out.plist -f bin
60 Same as before, but the output will always be in binary format.
61
62 plistutil -i test.plist -f xml
63 Print test.plist as XML plist, regardless of the input format.
64
65 plistutil -i test.plist -f xml -o -
66 Same as before.
67
68 plistutil -i test.plist -f json
69 Print test.plist as JSON plist, regardless of the input format.
70
71 cat test.plist |plistutil -f xml
72 Take plist data from stdin - piped via cat - and write the out‐
73 put as XML to stdout.
74
76 Zach C.
77
78 Martin Szulecki
79
80 Nikias Bassen
81
83 https://libimobiledevice.org
84
85 https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libplist
86
87
88
89 plistutil(1)