How to parse the Info.plist file from an ipa

Question

I want to write a program to get app details, e.g. app name, version, bundle identifier, from an ipa file. However this file is not a plain text file, it's encoded in some way and my program cannot parse it.

Is there any way to decode this file?

UPDATE

To clarify the question, I'm writing a python program to get app details from ipa files that I exported from Xcode.

Answer 1

For those without Apple Developer logins, here's the two answers from the accepted answer's link (you have to login to see it):

• use PlistBuddy
  • /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :CFBundleIdentifier" yourBinaryOrXmlPlist.plist
• There are also many other ways to parse binary plist files. For example, I'm using Python and there is a library called biplist, which is exactly used to read and write binary plist files and support both Python 2 and 3. Also, the 'plistlib' in Python 3.4 supports binary plist manipulation with new APIs.