NAME

       osmium-file-formats - OSM file formats known to Osmium

FILE TYPES

       OSM uses three types of files for its main data:

       Data files
              These  are  the  most  common  files containing the OSM data at a specific point in
              time.  This can either be a planet file containing all OSM data  or  some  kind  of
              extract.  At most one version of every object (node, way, or relation) is contained
              in this file.  Deleted objects are not in this file.   The  usual  suffix  used  is
              .osm.

       History files
              These  files  contain not only the current version of an object, but their history,
              too.  So for any object (node, way, or relation) there can be zero or more versions
              in  this file.  Deleted objects can also be in this file.  The usual suffix used is
              .osm or .osh.  Because sometimes the same suffix is used as for normal  data  files
              (.osm)  and  because  there  is  no clear indicator in the header, it is not always
              clear what type of file you have in front of you.

       Change files
              Sometimes called diff files or replication diffs these files  contain  the  changes
              between one state of the OSM database and another state.  Change files can contains
              several versions of an object.  The usual suffix used is .osc.

       All these files have in common that they contain OSM objects (nodes, ways, and relations).
       History  files  and  change files can contain several versions of the same object and also
       deleted objects, data files can't.

       Where possible, Osmium commands can handle all file types.  For some  commands  only  some
       file types make sense.

FORMATS

       The  osmium  command  line tool supports all major OSM file formats plus some more.  These
       are:

       • The classical XML format in the variants .osm (for data files),  .osh  (for  data  files
         with history) and .osc (for change files).

       • The PBF binary format (usually with suffix .osm.pbf or just .pbf).

       • The OPL format (usually with suffix .osm.opl or just .opl).

       • The O5M/O5C format (usually with suffix .o5m or .o5c) (reading only).

       • The "debug" format (usually with suffix .osm.debug) (writing only).

       In  addition  files in all formats except PBF can be compressed using gzip or bzip2.  (Add
       .gz or .bz2 suffixes, respectively.)

AUTODETECTION

       Which format a file has is usually autodetected from the file name suffix.

       If this doesn't work, either because you are reading from STDIN or writing to  STDOUT,  or
       because  you have an unusual file name, you have to set the format manually.  You can also
       set the format manually if you want to specify special format options.

       Most osmium commands support the --input-format (--F) and --output-format (-f) options  to
       set  the  format.  They take a comma-separated list of arguments, the first is the format,
       further arguments set additional options.

SPECIAL FORMAT OPTIONS

       The following options can be added when writing OSM files:

       xml_change_format=true/false
              Enable/disable XML change format.  Same as .osc.

       force_visible_flag=true/false (default: false)
              Force writing of visible flag, even for normal OSM XML files.

       pbf_dense_nodes=true/false (default: true)
              Enable/disable DenseNodes format for PBF files.

       pbf_compression=true/false (default: true)
              Enable/disable compression in PBF files.  Disabling this will make writing files  a
              bit faster, but the resulting files are 2 to 3 times bigger.

       add_metadata=true/false (default: true)
              Enable/disable  writing  of  object  metadata  such as changeset id, username, etc.
              Disabling this will make files a bit smaller.

EXAMPLES

       Here are some examples:

       pbf    PBF format.

       pbf,add_metadata=false
              PBF format, dont' write metadata

       osm.bz2
              XML format, compressed with bzip2.

       osc.gz OSM change file, compressed with gzip.

       osm.gz,xml_change_format=true
              OSM change file, compressed with gzip.

       osh.opl
              OSM history file in OPL format.

SEE ALSO

       • osmium(1)

       • Osmium website (http://osmcode.org/osmium-tool/)

       • OSM File Formats Manual (http://osmcode.org/file-formats-manual/)

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2013-2017 Jochen Topf <jochen@topf.org>.

       License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.   This  is
       free  software:  you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the
       extent permitted by law.

CONTACT

       If   you   have   any   questions   or   want   to   report   a   bug,   please   go    to
       http://osmcode.org/contact.html

AUTHORS

       Jochen Topf <jochen@topf.org>.

                                              1.7.1                        OSMIUM-FILE-FORMATS(5)