pltool

pltool - Command line interface to property list files, useful for scripting.

Syntax

   pltool [--version | --credits | --help]
   pltool <path> [get | exists | type | delete | count | keys] <keypath>
   pltool <path> set <keypath> <value> {<type>}

<path>	is a full or relative path to a plist file (eg. "foo.plist").
<keypath>	is a string that specifies a path to a property list member, using C-like syntax for arrays and dictionaries. Keypaths can be null or omitted if the root plist item is not a dictionary or array. This is admittedly rare. See examples.
<value>	is a string value to be written to the specified property list key.
<type>	is an optional tag that indicates what type the value string should be interpreted as. Values are -string (the default), -integer, -float, -boolean, -data, and -date.
<options>	is additional flags depending on specific command. The only option currently defined is: -zone <timezone> Where <timezone> is a Time Zone name or abbreviation or the value 'system' which uses the system time zone.

Return Codes

pltool returns 0 on success and other values on failure.

Commands

get	Retrieves the value at the keypath and writes it to standard output.
exists	Tests if a value exists at the keypath. Returns 0 if so.
type	If the keypath exists, writes one of the following strings to standard output: Array, Boolean, Data, Date, Dictionary, Number, String.
delete	Removes the value at the keypath.
count	If the value at the keypath is an array or dictionary, writes the number of elements contained within the structure.
keys	When the value at the keypath is a dictionary, writes a space-separated list of the dictionary's keys to standard output.
set	Sets the value of the item at keypath to the specified value (and type, if specified. Intermediate values are created if necessary, including array elements.

Notes

Date values are formatted as follows: 2005-08-22T23:04:41<TZD> where <TZD> is a time zone descriptor. By default, times are displayed in UTC and the descriptor is 'Z'. If the -zone option is specified in a 'get' command then the string returned to the shell will contain a ±hh:mm format time zone descriptor appropriate to the given time zone.
The string 'now' in the value argument to a date-type set command does what you'd expect.
The version number returned by --version will always be a simple integer to make comparisons easy.

Examples

pltool foo.plist set MyDictionary.MyArray[3] 3.14159 -float

Creates foo.plist if necessary, and a nested dictionary and array and stores the value 3.14 as a floating point value in the fourth array element (the first three elements are null strings.

pltool foo.plist count MyDictionary.MyArray

Writes the number of elements of MyArray to stdout. (Will be 4 after earlier command.)

Version History

Version 1. Initial release.
Version 2. Fixed a bug in date handling. Added time zone support.

Download

pltool.zip version 2 (28 KB).

© 2005-2006 by Brent Marykuca. You are free to use and redistribute this program in any way you wish. This work is distributed on an "as is" basis without warranty of any kind. Please report bugs to the address given in pltool --credits.