Ubuntu Manpage: osmium-file-formats - OSM file formats known to Osmium

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. They contain the OSM data from 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 and also deleted objects. 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=none/zlib/lz4 (default: zlib)
              Set  compression  type  in PBF files.  zlib (or true) is the default and almost all
              files use this.  none (or false) disables compression which will make writing files
              a bit faster, but the resulting files are 2 to 3 times bigger.  The lz4 compression
              is not quite as good as zlib but much faster to  compress  and  decompress,  it  is
              currently not supported by most OSM file readers.

       pbf_compression_level=...
              Set  compression  level  for  PBF.   Available  values  and  default  depend on the
              compression type used, see the OSM File Formats Manual for details.

       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.  This can also be set to other
              values, see the OSM File Formats Manual for details.

       locations_on_ways=true/false (default: false)
              Add node locations to way nodes.  (PBF, XML, OPL only.)

       use_color=true/false (default: false)
              Output with ANSI colors.  (DEBUG format only.)

       add_crc32=true/false (default: false)
              Add CRC32 checksum to all objects.  (DEBUG format only.)

EXAMPLES

       Here are some examples:

       pbf    PBF format.

       pbf,add_metadata=false
              PBF format, don’t 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.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2013-2023 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
       https://osmcode.org/contact.html

AUTHORS

       Jochen Topf <jochen@topf.org>.

                                              1.15.0                       OSMIUM-FILE-FORMATS(5)