Synopsis

norbert [options] [tag] [tag2] [tag3] …

Description

Norbert edits or displays an NBT file. With no arguments, it opens level.dat in the working directory and prints its contents to stdout in a human-readable format.

tag is given in norbert(5) format, with the tag type and value optionally omitted. With the default arguments, it has the form name or name=[[(type)]value]. In the first form, the tag corresponding to name is printed. In the second form, (type) is ignored and the tag is set to the given value. No changes are made on disk, however, unless -o is used. See norbert(5), sections Names and Values, for more detailed descriptions of the format of name and value.

Norbert is written in Python using Thomas Woolford’s NBT library.

Options

--version

Display version number and exit.

-h, --help

Display syntax and exit.

-f, --input-file <file>

The file to read. Default is level.dat.

Reading from stdin is currently not supported.

-o, --output-file <file>

The file to write to. If not provided, any changes made with tag arguments won’t be written to disk.

Warning This option will overwrite the data in file. If file is being used by minecraft, or if norbert encounters an error, file can become corrupt. Use this option with caution and make backups if necessary.
-p, --print-format <format>

Format to print output in. Valid values are human, nbt-txt and norbert, and are described below.

  • human: An indented, human-readable format. This is the default.

  • nbt-txt: A text format similar to the one used in the original NBT spec.

  • norbert: A text format designed to be easily parsed by command-line tools. See norbert(5) for details.

-i, --input-format <format>

Format of the input file. Valid values are nbt and norbert, and are described below.

  • nbt: The NBT format. This is the default.

  • norbert: A text format designed to be easily parsed by command-line tools. See norbert(5) for details.

-d, --depth <depth>

Set the maximum recursion depth when printing. Use 0 for no limit. Default is 8.

-s, --separator <separator>

Set the tag separators for norbert-formatted arguments, input, and output. The argument to this option must be a string between 1 and 3 characters long. The first character is used to delimit tag names, the second character is used to delimit list indices, and the third character is used to separate names and values. Default is /#=.

Examples

norbert --help

Get usage info.

norbert

View level.dat.

norbert -f /path/to/level.dat

Same, but use level.dat from another directory.

norbert -f player.dat

View player.dat.

norbert Data/GameType

View GameType tag in level.dat.

norbert -o level.dat Data/GameType=1

Set game mode to Creative. Warning: Back up level.dat first!

norbert -d 0 -f player.dat -p norbert >player.dat.norbert

Save player.dat in norbert(5) format.

norbert -d 0 -f player.dat.norbert -i norbert -o player.dat

Convert player.dat.norbert from norbert to NBT and save it as player.dat.

Limitations

When parsing a norbert-formatted file, tags have the following limitations.

  • Tags can not have any of the separators (/, # and = by default) in their name

  • The name of the root tag can not start with whitespace

  • The name of the leaf tag can not end with whitespace

  • The value of TAG_Strings can not start or end with whitespace

Any attempt to parse tags in norbert files with these properties will yield unexpected results. For more info on the norbert file format, see norbert(5).

Bugs

Known bugs. Fixes coming Soon™:

  • Doesn’t support non-gzipped NBT files

  • Doesn’t support Region files

  • Doesn’t always play nice with stdin/stdout

Report any and all bugs to the norbert issue tracker with as much detail as possible.

See Also

norbert(5), vinbt(1)

The norbert project page is located at http://dmbuce.github.com/norbert/.

Authors

To see a full list of contributors, use git shortlog -s in the norbert git repository.