OSM file formats

 · Help

Available languages — OSM file formats

· Afrikaans · Alemannisch · aragonés · asturianu · azərbaycanca · Bahasa Indonesia · Bahasa Melayu · Bân-lâm-gú · Basa Jawa · Baso Minangkabau · bosanski · brezhoneg · català · čeština · dansk · Deutsch · eesti · English · español · Esperanto · estremeñu · euskara · français · Frysk · Gaeilge · Gàidhlig · galego · Hausa · hrvatski · Igbo · interlingua · Interlingue · isiXhosa · isiZulu · íslenska · italiano · Kiswahili · Kreyòl ayisyen · kréyòl gwadloupéyen · Kurdî · latviešu · Lëtzebuergesch · lietuvių · magyar · Malagasy · Malti · Nederlands · Nedersaksies · norsk bokmål · norsk nynorsk · occitan · Oromoo · oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча · Plattdüütsch · polski · português · română · shqip · slovenčina · slovenščina · Soomaaliga · suomi · svenska · Tiếng Việt · Türkçe · Vahcuengh · vèneto · Wolof · Yorùbá · Zazaki · српски / srpski · беларуская · български · қазақша · македонски · монгол · русский · тоҷикӣ · українська · Ελληνικά · Հայերեն · ქართული · नेपाली · मराठी · हिन्दी · অসমীয়া · বাংলা · ਪੰਜਾਬੀ · ગુજરાતી · ଓଡ଼ିଆ · தமிழ் · తెలుగు · ಕನ್ನಡ · മലയാളം · සිංහල · ไทย · မြန်မာဘာသာ · ລາວ · ភាសាខ្មែរ · ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ · አማርኛ · 한국어 · 日本語 · 中文（简体）‎ · 吴语 · 粵語 · 中文（繁體）‎ · ייִדיש · עברית · اردو · العربية · پښتو · سنڌي · فارسی · ދިވެހިބަސް

Other languages — Help us translate this wiki

Map-data

The most important formats are:

• OSM XML – xml-format provided by the API
• PBF Format – highly compressed, optimized binary format similar to the API
• o5m – for high-speed processing, uses PBF coding, has same structure as XML format
• OSM JSON – json variant of OSM XML
• Level0L - more human readable OSM XML without <> and lowered redundancy

Conversion between different osm map data formats

Software	OSM XML	PBF	o5m	Discussion/Comments
Osmosis	Yes	Yes	No
osmconvert	Yes	Yes	Yes	own PBF implementation (doesn't use PBF library)
Osmium	Yes	Yes	?	see osmium_convert in examples folder
osm4j	Yes	Yes	No

ToDO: Add matrix which tool converts with format to which target format...

Splitting one big file into different geographical regions

• Osmosis
• osmconvert
• osmsplit
• splitter
• Osmcut
• OSM History Splitter

Filter for specific tags

• Osmosis
• osmfilter
• Osmium with JavaScript filter functions

File formats for diffs

Format	Pros	Cons	Supported by
OsmChange	Streamable When sorted properly this file is a continuous stream of changes that can be played in order. In osmosis the option --sort-change will put the change into streamable order.	Doesn't indicate source of data	Osmosis Bulk_upload.py (read-only) [library] osmconvert osmupdate (as output format) osmchange (read-only) osmfilter
o5c	streamable can be processed very fast (uses PBF like encoding, similar to .o5m format) small file sizes even when not compressed	not human-readable cannot be modified directly with texteditors	osmconvert osmupdate (as output format)
Augmented Diffs id-sorted version	streamable real diff as before and after values are included		Overpass API osmconvert (read-only)
JOSM_file_format	Supports placeholders Indicates the source of the data	Not streamable	JOSM Vespucci

TODO: Insert content from XML#Flavours (pros + cons, etc)

Tools for applying diffs to map data files

• osmosis
• osmconvert
• osmupdate

Tools for creating diff files

• osmosis
• osmconvert

Other variants of osm map data

• JOSM file format – non-indexed xml-format similar to the API
• OSM Binary Format

Application specific formats which are not intended to carry complete OSM data

• OSMbin (file format) – indexed, mutable binary format
• OSM Mobile Binary Format – read-only binary-format without nodes

See also

• Converting map data between external formats