PLUTIL(1) General Commands Manual PLUTIL(1) NAME plutil – property list utility SYNOPSIS plutil [command_option] [other_options] file ... DESCRIPTION plutil can be used to check the syntax of property list files, or convert a plist file from one format to another. Specifying - as an input file reads from stdin. The first argument indicates the operation to perform, one of: -help Show the usage information for the command and exit. -p Print the property list in a human-readable fashion. The output format is not stable and not designed for machine parsing. The purpose of this command is to be able to easily read the contents of a plist file, no matter what format it is in. -lint Check the named property list files for syntax errors. This is the default command option if none is specified. -convert fmt Convert the named file to the indicated format and write back to the file system. If the file can't be loaded due to invalid syntax, the operation fails. This is the only option to support objc swift formats. -convert objc -header Converts the named file to Obj-C literal syntax and creates a .h file. Useful for first time conversions to literal syntax and only supported with the objc format. -insert keypath -type [value] [-append] Insert a value into the property list before writing it out. value is required unless type is dictionary or array. If -append is specified, keypath is expected to reference an array and the value will be appended to the end of the array. -replace keypath -type value Overwrite an existing value in the property list before writing it out. -remove keypath Removes the value at keypath from the property list before writing it out. -extract keypath fmt [-expect expect_type] Outputs the value at keypath in the property list as a new plist of type fmt. Optionally fails if -expect expect_type is used and the value at keypath does not match that type. -type keypath [-expect expect_type] Outputs the type of the value at keypath in the property list. Optionally fails if -expect expect_type is used and the value at keypath does not match that type. -create fmt Creates an empty plist of the specified fmt. There are a few additional options: -- Specifies that all further arguments are file names -n When used with -extract using the raw format, will not print a terminating newline character. This aids use in shell interpolation. -s Don't print anything on success. -r For JSON, add whitespace and indentation to make the output more human-readable and sort the keys like -p, does. -o path Specify an alternate path name for the result of the -convert operation; this option is only useful with a single file to be converted. Specifying - as the path outputs to stdout. -e extension Specify an alternate extension for converted files, and the output file names are otherwise the same. ARGUMENTS fmt is one of: xml1 for version 1 of the XML plist format binary1 for version 1 of the binary plist format json for the JSON format swift to convert from plist to swift literal syntax objc to convert from plist to Obj-C literal syntax raw when used with -extract, will print the unencapsulated value at the keypath. See RAW VALUES AND EXPECTED TYPES below. The result will be output to stdout unless -o is specified. keypath is a key-value coding key path, with one extension: a numerical path component applied to an array will act on the object at that index in the array or insert it into the array if the numerical path component is the last one in the key path. type is one of: -bool YES if passed "YES" or "true", otherwise NO -integer any valid 64 bit integer -float any valid 64 bit float -string UTF8 encoded string -date date in XML property list format, not supported if outputting JSON -data a base-64 encoded string -xml an XML property list, useful for inserting compound values -json JSON fragment, useful for inserting compound values -array An empty array, when used with -insert. Does not accept a value. -dictionary An empty dictionary, when used with -insert Does not accept a value. value will be assigned to the keypath specified with the -insert or -replace flags. RAW VALUES AND EXPECTED TYPES With -extract keypath raw the value printed depends on its type. Following are the possible expect_type values and how they will be printed when encountered with -extract keypath raw bool the string "true" or "false" integer the numeric value float the floating point value with no specific precision string the raw unescaped string, UTF8-encoded date the RFC3339-encoded string representation in UTC time zone data a base64-encoded string representation of the data array a number indicating the count of elements in the array dictionary each key in the dictionary will be printed on a new line in alpha-sorted order The above expect_type string is itself printed when -type keypath is used. DIAGNOSTICS The plutil command exits 0 on success, and 1 on failure. SEE ALSO plist(5) STANDARDS The plutil command obeys no one's rules but its own. HISTORY The plutil command first appeared in macOS 10.2. The raw format type, -type command, -expect option, and -append option first appeared in macOS 12. macOS March 29, 2021 macOS