How to read plist information (bundle id) from a shell script

Question

I\'d like to write a script that can read info like Bundle Identifier or maybe version number from the Info.plist of the app. Xcode doesn\'t seem to give that information in

Answer 1

The defaults command can read/write to any plist file, just give it a path minus the .plist extension:

$ defaults read /Applications/Preview.app/Contents/Info CFBundleIdentifier

com.apple.Preview

This pulls the CFBundleIdentifier value directly from the application bundle's Info.plist file.

Defaults also works with binary plists without any extra steps.