Inspecting files of type “NeXT/Apple typedstream” version 4 (NSArchiver)

Question

For a data recovery program I need to be able to extract the values+types from files written by NSArchiver, without having access to Apple\'s CF / NS frameworks.

The OS

Answer 1

First, please see Is there a way to read in files in TypedStream format for some interesting info.

Very probably, the format can be converted to something more readable using the plutil tool. This tool is also available for windows (it comes with iTunes for windows). Not sure about its license though.

The problematic part is the fact that the files contain object instances converted to binary. It's not enough to understand the file format, it's necessary to understand how every type is stored.