OSM file formats

Contents 1 Map-data 1.1 Conversion between different osm map data formats 1.2 Splitting one big file into different geographical regions 1.3 Filter for specific tags 2 File formats for diffs 2.1 Tools for applying diffs to map data files 2.2 Tools for creating diff files 3 Other variants of osm map data 4 See also

Map-data

The most important formats in are:

• OSM XML – xml-format provided by the API
• PBF – highly compressed, optimized binary format similar to the API
• o5m – for high-speed processing, uses PBF coding, has same structure as XML format

Conversion between different osm map data formats

• Osmosis
• osmconvert
• Osmium - see osmium_convert in examples folder

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

Filter for specific tags

• Osmosis
• osmfilter

File formats for diffs

• Planet.osm/diffs
• OsmChange
• Planetdiff
• o5c

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

• Planetdiff
• 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