Manipulate text files in various formats, textutil first appeared in OS X 10.4
Syntax
textutil -info [options] file ...
textutil -convert fmt [options] file ...
textutil -cat fmt [options] file ...
textutil -help [options] file ...
Key
-help Show the usage information and exit.
-info Display information about the specified files.
-convert fmt Convert the files to format fmt and
write each one back to the file system.
-cat fmt Read the specified files, concatenate them, and write the
result out as a single file in the indicated format.
fmt One of: txt, html, rtf, rtfd, doc, wordml, or webarchive
-extension ext Specify an extension to be used for output files (by
default, the extension will be determined from the format).
-output path The file name to be used for the first output file.
-stdout Send the first output file to stdout.
-encoding IANA_name | NSStringEncoding
The encoding to be used for plain text or HTML output
(by default, the output encoding will be UTF-8).
-inputencoding IANA_name | NSStringEncoding
Force all plain text input files to be interpreted using
the specified encoding (by default, a file's encoding
will be determined from its BOM).
-format fmt Force all input files to be interpreted using the indicated
cated format (by default, a file's format will be determined
mined from its contents).
-font font The font to be used when converting to rich text.
-fontsize size Font size (in points) to be used for converting plain to rich text.
-- Specify that all further arguments are file names.
Additional options for HTML and WebArchive files:
-noload Do not load subsidiary resources.
-nostore Do not write out subsidiary resources.
-baseurl url Specify a base URL to be used for relative URLs.
-timeout t Specify the time in seconds to wait for resources to
load.
-textsizemultiplier x
Specify a numeric factor by which to multiply font
sizes.
-excludedelements (tag1, tag2, ...)
Specify which HTML elements should not be used in generated
ated HTML (the list should be a single argument, and so
will usually need to be quoted in a shell context).
-prefixspaces n Specify the number of spaces by which to indent nested
elements in generated HTML (default is 2).
Additional options for treating metadata:
-strip Do not copy metadata from input files to output files.
-title val Specify the title metadata attribute for output files.
-author val Specify the author metadata attribute for output files.
-subject val Specify the subject metadata attribute for output files.
-keywords (val1, val2, ...)
Specify the keywords metadata attribute for output files
(the list should be a single argument, and so will usually
need to be quoted in a shell context).
-comment val Specify the comment metadata attribute for output files.
-editor val Specify the editor metadata attribute for output files.
-company val Specify the company metadata attribute for output files.
-creationtime yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ
Specify the creation time metadata attribute for output
files.
-modificationtime yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ
Specify the modification time metadata attribute for output
files.
Examples:
Display information about foo.rtf.
$ textutil -info foo.rtf
Convert foo.rtf into foo.html.
$ textutil -convert html foo.rtf
Convert foo.txt into foo.rtf, using Times 10 for the font.
$ textutil -convert rtf -font Times -fontsize 10 foo.txt
Load all RTF files in the current directory, concatenate their contents,
and write the result out as index.html with the HTML title set to
Several Files".
$ textutil -cat html -title "Several Files" -output index.html *.rtf
Create a .txt file for each .doc file in the directory.
$ textutil -convert txt *.doc
Notes:
The textutil command exits 0 on success, and 1 on failure.
Some options may require a connection to the window server.
“A lot of people are afraid to say what they want, that's why a lot of people don't get what they want” - Madonna
Related:
textutil man page - Apple.com
GetFileInfo - Get attributes of HFS+ files
pr - Convert text files for printing
say - Convert text to audible speech
setfile - Set attributes of HFS+ files
sips - Scriptable image processing system
