summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Doc/library/plistlib.rst
blob: 92de8600ea82647b47b7f20426ce75702c12c63c (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
: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>
.. (harvested from docstrings in the original file)

.. index::
   pair: plist; file
   single: property list

**Source code:** :source:`Lib/plistlib.py`

--------------

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.

.. seealso::

   `PList manual page <http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man5/plist.5.html>`_
      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. The exact structure of the plist can be recovered by using
   :class:`collections.OrderedDict` (although the order of keys shouldn't be
   important in plist files).

   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.


.. 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.

   .. versionchanged:: 3.4
      Added the *fmt*, *sort_keys* and *skipkeys* arguments.


.. 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.


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, the the documentation
   of :func:`that function <load>` for an explanation of the keyword arguments.

   .. note::

      Dict values in the result have a ``__getattr__`` method that defers
      to ``__getitem_``. This means that you can use attribute access to
      access items of these dictionaries.

   .. deprecated: 3.4 Use :func:`load` instead.


.. 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.

   .. note::

      Dict values in the result have a ``__getattr__`` method that defers
      to ``__getitem_``. This means that you can use attribute access to
      access items of these dictionaries.

   .. deprecated:: 3.4 Use :func:`loads` instead.


.. function:: writePlistToBytes(rootObject)

   Return *rootObject* as an XML plist-formatted bytes object.

   .. deprecated:: 3.4 Use :func:`dumps` instead.

   .. versionchanged:: 3.4
      Added the *fmt*, *sort_keys* and *skipkeys* arguments.


The following classes are available:

.. class:: Dict([dict]):

   Return an extended mapping object with the same value as dictionary
   *dict*.

   This class is a subclass of :class:`dict` where attribute access can
   be used to access items. That is, ``aDict.key`` is the same as
   ``aDict['key']`` for getting, setting and deleting items in the mapping.

   .. deprecated:: 3.0


.. class:: Data(data)

   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


The following constants are avaiable:

.. 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"])