OSDInspector

OSDInspector

A command-line utility for working with OSD (OpenMetaverse Structured Data) files.

OSD is LibreMetaverse's flexible serialization format supporting multiple encodings (JSON, XML, Binary, Notation). This tool helps you inspect, validate, and convert OSD data.

Features

• ?? Inspect - View OSD structure and contents
• ?? Convert - Convert between JSON, XML, Binary, and Notation formats
• ? Validate - Check if files are valid OSD
• ?? Generate - Create sample Primitive OSD data
• ?? Parse - Convert OSD back to Primitive objects

Commands

Inspect

Display the structure and contents of an OSD file:

OSDInspector inspect data.json
OSDInspector i prim.xml

Convert

Convert between OSD formats:

OSDInspector convert input.json xml output.xml
OSDInspector convert data.xml json data.json
OSDInspector convert config.json binary config.bin
OSDInspector convert data.xml notation data.txt

Supported formats:

• json - JSON format (human-readable)
• xml - LLSD XML format
• binary - LLSD Binary format (compact)
• notation - LLSD Notation format

Validate

Check if a file is valid OSD:

OSDInspector validate data.json
OSDInspector v config.xml

Primitive Serialization

Create a sample Primitive and output as OSD:

OSDInspector prim-to-osd > cube.json

Parse an OSD file as a Primitive:

OSDInspector osd-to-prim cube.json

Example Workflows

Debug Primitive Data

# Generate sample primitive
OSDInspector prim-to-osd > sample_prim.json

# Inspect it
OSDInspector inspect sample_prim.json

# Convert to XML for easy reading
OSDInspector convert sample_prim.json xml sample_prim.xml

Work with Configuration Files

# Validate configuration
OSDInspector validate config.json

# Convert to binary for efficiency
OSDInspector convert config.json binary config.bin

# Inspect binary file
OSDInspector inspect config.bin

Data Exchange

# Convert between formats for interop
OSDInspector convert export.xml json export.json
OSDInspector convert data.json notation data.txt

What You'll Learn

This tool demonstrates:

• OSD serialization and deserialization
• Multiple OSD format encodings
• Primitive.GetOSD() and Primitive.FromOSD() methods
• Type detection and conversion
• Binary vs text encoding tradeoffs
• Tree structure traversal and display

OSD Format Details

JSON

• Human-readable
• Standard JSON syntax
• Easy to edit manually
• Widely supported

XML (LLSD XML)

• Structured format used by Second Life protocol
• Type-safe serialization
• More verbose than JSON

Binary (LLSD Binary)

• Compact binary encoding
• Smallest file size
• Fast to parse
• Not human-readable

Notation (LLSD Notation)

• Compact text format
• Less common
• Good for debugging

Use Cases

• Debug serialized objects
• Convert data between systems
• Validate protocol messages
• Test OSD parsing
• Learn OSD structure
• Primitive data interchange
• Configuration file management

Integration

The OSD system is used throughout LibreMetaverse for:

• Network protocol messages
• Object serialization
• Configuration data
• Asset metadata
• Capability responses