112 lines
3.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
112 lines
3.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
: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
|
|
|
|
This module provides an interface for reading and writing the "property list"
|
|
XML files used mainly by Mac OS X.
|
|
|
|
The property list (``.plist``) file format is a simple XML pickle 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:`writePlist` and
|
|
:func:`readPlist` functions.
|
|
|
|
To work with plist data in bytes objects, use :func:`writePlistToBytes`
|
|
and :func:`readPlistFromBytes`.
|
|
|
|
Values can be strings, integers, floats, booleans, tuples, lists, dictionaries
|
|
(but only with string keys), :class:`Data` or :class:`datetime.datetime`
|
|
objects. String values (including dictionary keys) have to be unicode strings --
|
|
they will be written out as UTF-8.
|
|
|
|
The ``<data>`` plist type is supported through the :class:`Data` class. This is
|
|
a thin wrapper around a Python bytes object. Use :class:`Data` if your strings
|
|
contain control characters.
|
|
|
|
.. 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:: readPlist(pathOrFile)
|
|
|
|
Read a plist file. *pathOrFile* may either be a file name or a (readable)
|
|
file object. Return the unpacked root object (which usually is a
|
|
dictionary).
|
|
|
|
The XML data 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. function:: writePlist(rootObject, pathOrFile)
|
|
|
|
Write *rootObject* to a plist file. *pathOrFile* may either be a file name
|
|
or a (writable) file object.
|
|
|
|
A :exc:`TypeError` will be raised if the object is of an unsupported type or
|
|
a container that contains objects of unsupported types.
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. function:: readPlistFromBytes(data)
|
|
|
|
Read a plist data from a bytes object. Return the root object.
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. function:: writePlistToBytes(rootObject)
|
|
|
|
Return *rootObject* as a plist-formatted bytes object.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following class is available:
|
|
|
|
.. 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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 = Data(b"<binary gunk>"),
|
|
someMoreData = Data(b"<lots of binary gunk>" * 10),
|
|
aDate = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(time.mktime(time.gmtime())),
|
|
)
|
|
writePlist(pl, fileName)
|
|
|
|
Parsing a plist::
|
|
|
|
pl = readPlist(pathOrFile)
|
|
print(pl["aKey"])
|