# 14.5. `plistlib` — Generate and parse Mac OS X `.plist` files

Source code: 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 `dump()` and `load()` functions.

To work with plist data in bytes objects, use `dumps()` and `loads()`.

Values can be strings, integers, floats, booleans, tuples, lists, dictionaries (but only with string keys), `Data`, `bytes`, `bytesarray` or `datetime.datetime` objects.

Changed in version 3.4: New API, old API deprecated. Support for binary format plists added.

See also

PList manual page
  Apple’s documentation of the file format.

This module defines the following functions:

`plistlib.``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:

  - `None`: Autodetect the file format
  - `FMT_XML`: XML file format
  - `FMT_BINARY`: Binary plist format

  If use_builtin_types is true (the default) binary data will be returned as instances of `bytes`, otherwise it is returned as instances of `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 `collections.OrderedDict` (although the order of keys shouldn’t be important in plist files).

  XML data for the `FMT_XML` format is parsed using the Expat parser from `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 `InvalidFileException` when the file cannot be parsed.

  New in version 3.4.

`plistlib.``loads`(data, *, fmt=None, use_builtin_types=True, dict_type=dict)

  Load a plist from a bytes object. See `load()` for an explanation of the keyword arguments.

  New in version 3.4.

`plistlib.``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:

  - `FMT_XML`: XML formatted plist file
  - `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 `TypeError` when a key of a dictionary is not a string, otherwise such keys are skipped.

  A `TypeError` will be raised if the object is of an unsupported type or a container that contains objects of unsupported types.

  An `OverflowError` will be raised for integer values that cannot be represented in (binary) plist files.

  New in version 3.4.

`plistlib.``dumps`(value, *, fmt=FMT_XML, sort_keys=True, skipkeys=False)

  Return value as a plist-formatted bytes object. See the documentation for `dump()` for an explanation of the keyword arguments of this function.

  New in version 3.4.

The following functions are deprecated:

`plistlib.``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 `load()` to do the actual work, see the documentation of `that function` 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 since version 3.4: Use `load()` instead.

`plistlib.``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 since version 3.4: Use `dump()` instead.

`plistlib.``readPlistFromBytes`(data)

  Read a plist data from a bytes object. Return the root object.

  See `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 since version 3.4: Use `loads()` instead.

`plistlib.``writePlistToBytes`(rootObject)

  Return rootObject as an XML plist-formatted bytes object.

  Deprecated since version 3.4: Use `dumps()` instead.

The following classes are available:

`Dict([dict]):`

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

  This class is a subclass of `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 since version 3.0.

class `plistlib.``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, `data`, that can be used to retrieve the Python bytes object stored in it.

  Deprecated since version 3.4: Use a `bytes` object instead.

The following constants are available:

`plistlib.``FMT_XML`

  The XML format for plist files.

  New in version 3.4.

`plistlib.``FMT_BINARY`

  The binary format for plist files

  New in version 3.4.

## 14.5.1. 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"])