Inspecting files of type “NeXT/Apple typedstream” version 4 (NSArchiver)

Question

For a data recovery program I need to be able to extract the values+types from files written by NSArchiver, without having access to Apple\'s CF / NS frameworks.

The OS

Answer 1

While I don't know any documentation of the format, you may find the information you are looking for by checking the public source code from older Darwin (or maybe OpenStep) versions.

For example, have a look at the implementation of typedstream in the file typedstream.m in objc-1.tar.gz available at this mirror of an old darwin distribution.

This source code should be able to read/write typedstream. Just be sure to confirm to Apple's license when using it.