135 lines
4.0 KiB
ReStructuredText
135 lines
4.0 KiB
ReStructuredText
:mod:`plistlib` --- Generate and parse Mac OS X ``.plist`` files
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================================================================
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.. module:: plistlib
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:synopsis: Generate and parse Mac OS X plist files.
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.. moduleauthor:: Jack Jansen
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.. sectionauthor:: Georg Brandl <georg@python.org>
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.. (harvested from docstrings in the original file)
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.. versionchanged:: 2.6
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This module was previously only available in the Mac-specific library, it is
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now available for all platforms.
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.. index::
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pair: plist; file
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single: property list
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This module provides an interface for reading and writing the "property list"
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XML files used mainly by Mac OS X.
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The property list (``.plist``) file format is a simple XML pickle supporting
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basic object types, like dictionaries, lists, numbers and strings. Usually the
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top level object is a dictionary.
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Values can be strings, integers, floats, booleans, tuples, lists, dictionaries
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(but only with string keys), :class:`Data` or :class:`datetime.datetime`
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objects. String values (including dictionary keys) may be unicode strings --
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they will be written out as UTF-8.
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The ``<data>`` plist type is supported through the :class:`Data` class. This is
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a thin wrapper around a Python string. Use :class:`Data` if your strings
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contain control characters.
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.. seealso::
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`PList manual page <http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man5/plist.5.html>`
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Apple's documentation of the file format.
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This module defines the following functions:
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.. function:: readPlist(pathOrFile)
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Read a plist file. *pathOrFile* may either be a file name or a (readable)
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file object. Return the unpacked root object (which usually is a
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dictionary).
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The XML data is parsed using the Expat parser from :mod:`xml.parsers.expat`
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-- see its documentation for possible exceptions on ill-formed XML.
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Unknown elements will simply be ignored by the plist parser.
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.. function:: writePlist(rootObject, pathOrFile)
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Write *rootObject* to a plist file. *pathOrFile* may either be a file name
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or a (writable) file object.
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A :exc:`TypeError` will be raised if the object is of an unsupported type or
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a container that contains objects of unsupported types.
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.. function:: readPlistFromString(data)
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Read a plist from a string. Return the root object.
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.. function:: writePlistToString(rootObject)
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Return *rootObject* as a plist-formatted string.
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.. function:: readPlistFromResource(path[, restype='plst'[, resid=0]])
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Read a plist from the resource with type *restype* from the resource fork of
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*path*. Availability: Mac OS X.
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.. warning::
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In 3.0, this function is removed.
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.. function:: writePlistToResource(rootObject, path[, restype='plst'[, resid=0]])
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Write *rootObject* as a resource with type *restype* to the resource fork of
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*path*. Availability: Mac OS X.
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.. warning::
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In 3.0, this function is removed.
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The following class is available:
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.. class:: Data(data)
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Return a "data" wrapper object around the string *data*. This is used in
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functions converting from/to plists to represent the ``<data>`` type
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available in plists.
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It has one attribute, :attr:`data`, that can be used to retrieve the Python
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string stored in it.
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Examples
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--------
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Generating a plist::
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pl = dict(
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aString="Doodah",
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aList=["A", "B", 12, 32.1, [1, 2, 3]],
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aFloat = 0.1,
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anInt = 728,
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aDict=dict(
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anotherString="<hello & hi there!>",
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aUnicodeValue=u'M\xe4ssig, Ma\xdf',
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aTrueValue=True,
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aFalseValue=False,
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),
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someData = Data("<binary gunk>"),
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someMoreData = Data("<lots of binary gunk>" * 10),
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aDate = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(time.mktime(time.gmtime())),
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)
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# unicode keys are possible, but a little awkward to use:
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pl[u'\xc5benraa'] = "That was a unicode key."
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writePlist(pl, fileName)
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Parsing a plist::
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pl = readPlist(pathOrFile)
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print pl["aKey"]
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