:mod:`plistlib` --- Generate and parse Mac OS X .plist files
.. module:: plistlib :synopsis: Generate and parse Mac OS X plist files.
.. moduleauthor:: Jack Jansen
.. sectionauthor:: Georg Brandl <georg@python.org>
Source code: :source:`Lib/plistlib.py`
.. index:: pair: plist; file single: property list
This module provides an interface for reading and writing the "property list" files used mainly by Mac OS X and supports both binary and XML plist files.
The property list (.plist) file format is a simple serialization supporting
basic object types, like dictionaries, lists, numbers and strings. Usually the
top level object is a dictionary.
To write out and to parse a plist file, use the :func:`dump` and :func:`load` functions.
To work with plist data in bytes objects, use :func:`dumps` and :func:`loads`.
Values can be strings, integers, floats, booleans, tuples, lists, dictionaries (but only with string keys), :class:`Data`, :class:`bytes`, :class:`bytesarray` or :class:`datetime.datetime` objects.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4 New API, old API deprecated. Support for binary format plists added.
.. versionchanged:: 3.8 Support added for reading and writing :class:`UID` tokens in binary plists as used by NSKeyedArchiver and NSKeyedUnarchiver.
.. seealso::
`PList manual page <https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/PropertyLists/>`_
Apple's documentation of the file format.
This module defines the following functions:
.. function:: load(fp, *, fmt=None, use_builtin_types=True, dict_type=dict) Read a plist file. *fp* should be a readable and binary file object. Return the unpacked root object (which usually is a dictionary). The *fmt* is the format of the file and the following values are valid: * :data:`None`: Autodetect the file format * :data:`FMT_XML`: XML file format * :data:`FMT_BINARY`: Binary plist format If *use_builtin_types* is true (the default) binary data will be returned as instances of :class:`bytes`, otherwise it is returned as instances of :class:`Data`. The *dict_type* is the type used for dictionaries that are read from the plist file. XML data for the :data:`FMT_XML` format is parsed using the Expat parser from :mod:`xml.parsers.expat` -- see its documentation for possible exceptions on ill-formed XML. Unknown elements will simply be ignored by the plist parser. The parser for the binary format raises :exc:`InvalidFileException` when the file cannot be parsed. .. versionadded:: 3.4
.. function:: loads(data, *, fmt=None, use_builtin_types=True, dict_type=dict) Load a plist from a bytes object. See :func:`load` for an explanation of the keyword arguments. .. versionadded:: 3.4
.. function:: dump(value, fp, *, fmt=FMT_XML, sort_keys=True, skipkeys=False) Write *value* to a plist file. *Fp* should be a writable, binary file object. The *fmt* argument specifies the format of the plist file and can be one of the following values: * :data:`FMT_XML`: XML formatted plist file * :data:`FMT_BINARY`: Binary formatted plist file When *sort_keys* is true (the default) the keys for dictionaries will be written to the plist in sorted order, otherwise they will be written in the iteration order of the dictionary. When *skipkeys* is false (the default) the function raises :exc:`TypeError` when a key of a dictionary is not a string, otherwise such keys are skipped. A :exc:`TypeError` will be raised if the object is of an unsupported type or a container that contains objects of unsupported types. An :exc:`OverflowError` will be raised for integer values that cannot be represented in (binary) plist files. .. versionadded:: 3.4
.. function:: dumps(value, *, fmt=FMT_XML, sort_keys=True, skipkeys=False) Return *value* as a plist-formatted bytes object. See the documentation for :func:`dump` for an explanation of the keyword arguments of this function. .. versionadded:: 3.4
The following functions are deprecated:
.. function:: readPlist(pathOrFile)
Read a plist file. *pathOrFile* may be either a file name or a (readable
and binary) file object. Returns the unpacked root object (which usually
is a dictionary).
This function calls :func:`load` to do the actual work, see the documentation
of :func:`that function <load>` for an explanation of the keyword arguments.
.. deprecated:: 3.4 Use :func:`load` instead.
.. versionchanged:: 3.7
Dict values in the result are now normal dicts. You no longer can use
attribute access to access items of these dictionaries.
.. function:: writePlist(rootObject, pathOrFile) Write *rootObject* to an XML plist file. *pathOrFile* may be either a file name or a (writable and binary) file object .. deprecated:: 3.4 Use :func:`dump` instead.
.. function:: readPlistFromBytes(data)
Read a plist data from a bytes object. Return the root object.
See :func:`load` for a description of the keyword arguments.
.. deprecated:: 3.4 Use :func:`loads` instead.
.. versionchanged:: 3.7
Dict values in the result are now normal dicts. You no longer can use
attribute access to access items of these dictionaries.
.. function:: writePlistToBytes(rootObject) Return *rootObject* as an XML plist-formatted bytes object. .. deprecated:: 3.4 Use :func:`dumps` instead.
The following classes are available:
Return a "data" wrapper object around the bytes object data. This is used
in functions converting from/to plists to represent the <data> type
available in plists.
It has one attribute, :attr:`data`, that can be used to retrieve the Python bytes object stored in it.
.. deprecated:: 3.4 Use a :class:`bytes` object instead.
Wraps an :class:`int`. This is used when reading or writing NSKeyedArchiver encoded data, which contains UID (see PList manual).
It has one attribute, :attr:`data`, which can be used to retrieve the int value of the UID. :attr:`data` must be in the range 0 <= data < 2**64.
.. versionadded:: 3.8
The following constants are available:
.. data:: FMT_XML The XML format for plist files. .. versionadded:: 3.4
.. data:: FMT_BINARY The binary format for plist files .. versionadded:: 3.4
Examples
Generating a plist:
pl = dict(
aString = "Doodah",
aList = ["A", "B", 12, 32.1, [1, 2, 3]],
aFloat = 0.1,
anInt = 728,
aDict = dict(
anotherString = "<hello & hi there!>",
aThirdString = "M\xe4ssig, Ma\xdf",
aTrueValue = True,
aFalseValue = False,
),
someData = b"<binary gunk>",
someMoreData = b"<lots of binary gunk>" * 10,
aDate = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(time.mktime(time.gmtime())),
)
with open(fileName, 'wb') as fp:
dump(pl, fp)
Parsing a plist:
with open(fileName, 'rb') as fp:
pl = load(fp)
print(pl["aKey"])