What is PlistBuddy?

4 min readMar 19, 2019

PlistBuddy is mac build-in program which help the user to edit .plist file.

When you are working with CFBundleXXXX file, it is useful for editing. Different with other program, PlistBuddy is not set as default path. If you need to run PlistBuddy, you need to run usr/libexec/PlistBuddy.

Check Help Menu

Type /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy --help to display the PlistBuddy help menu. The menu is not very long, you can have a look for that. (check the below image)

2 Different Edit Modes

There are 2 different edit modes when you use PlistBuddy to edit the plist file. I use Edit Mode and Direct Mode to name them. And, we will use Edit Mode to explain the command first. After then, I will list the Direct Mode command.

Edit Mode: enter to edit mode like vi edit, you have to save at the end if you want to apply the change. (more easy and least cmd to type)
Direct Mode: type cmd in Terminal and it will apply the change to the file immediately.

Let’s open your Terminal and start type the command.

Edit Mode

1. Create .plist

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy <your_file_location>/info.plist

2. Add key value pair

add :version string 1.0

3. Print plist content

print

4. Add array

add :student arr
add :student: string tom
add :student: string may
add :student: string john

5. Add dictionary

add :activity dict
add :activity:swim string 10-6
add :activity:running string 9-6

6. Save

save     // save the file

7. Delete element, array or dictionary

delete :version
delete :student
delete :activity:swim
delete :activity

8. Revert

revert    // revert back to last saved file

9. Exit

exit     // exit Edit Mode

Direct Mode

Different with Edit Mode, Direct Mode will apply the change immediately, save and exit is useless in here.

The basic format of cmd is

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c '<command> :<key> <type> <value>' <file_name>

1. Create .plist and add key-value pair

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :Version string 1.0' info.plist

This cmd will create a file called info.plist in your current directory with the following content.

Open the info.plist, you can see the following content.

2. Print plist content

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'print' info.plist

The display content don’t show <xml> and related tag, it only shows the tag inside <plist>.

3. Add array

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :student array' info.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :student: string tom' info.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :student: string may' info.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :student: string john' info.plist

4. Add Dictionary

Type the following cmd

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :activity dict' info.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :activity:swim string 10-6' info.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :activity:running: string 9-6' info.plist

5. Delete element

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Delete :version' info.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Delete :student' info.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Delete :activity:swim' info.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Delete :activity' info.plist

Summary

PlistBuddy is a useful tool to work with Mac and iOS development, and it is easy to learn and apply.

Please like or share this article if you enjoy 😄