osx plist file format

osx plist file format

Plist is short for property list. It is just a filetype used by Apple to store data.
it has three format
format enum:

enum {
   NSPropertyListOpenStepFormat = kCFPropertyListOpenStepFormat,
   NSPropertyListXMLFormat_v1_0 = kCFPropertyListXMLFormat_v1_0,
   NSPropertyListBinaryFormat_v1_0 = kCFPropertyListBinaryFormat_v1_0
}; NSPropertyListFormat;

how to convert format

Converting a plist File to XML from Binary

plutil -convert xml1 ExampleBinary.plist

Converting a plist Binary File to XML Format

plutil -convert binary1 Example.plist

what is OpenStepFormat?
it is like this

{
Filter ={
    Bundles =     (
         test,
         verb
    );
};
}

Converting a plist openstep File to XML Format

no tool found
but you can use this code

NSError *error;
    NSData *data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile: path
                           options: 0
                           error: &error;];
    if (data == nil) {
        NSLog (@"error reading %@: %@", path, error);
        return nil;
    }

    NSPropertyListFormat format;
    id plist = [NSPropertyListSerialization        propertyListWithData: data
               options: NSPropertyListImmutable
                     format: &format
             error: &error];
 if (plist == nil) {
        NSLog (@"could not deserialize %@: %@", path, error);

    }
        if (![NSPropertyListSerialization
             propertyList: plist
             isValidForFormat: kCFPropertyListXMLFormat_v1_0]) {
        NSLog (@"can't save as XML");
        return;
    }
     BOOL writeStatus = [data writeToFile: @"plist.txt"
                             options: NSDataWritingAtomic
                             error: &error;];
    if (!writeStatus) {
        NSLog (@"error writing to file: %@", error);
        return;
    }