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How to Inspect an obf Binary File

This article needs to be reviewed

If you want inspect the content of an obf file, you need to download OsmAndMapCreator. There you can find a console application Inspector (.sh, .bat). This console application has optional parameters [-vmap, -vaddress, -vtransport] and one required parameter (input obf file). By specifying optional parameters you can trace all information from the obf file (be aware: it could be huge!).

Example and step-by-step for Windows users:

  • have Java Runtime Environment installed
  • download or copy any Osmand offline map from your device to your PC, place that obf file ideally in the folder with all the unzipped Mapcreator files
  • Open Windows commandline (e.g. by pressing Windows-key and "r", then enter cmd and press return
  • go to the folder where you have unzipped the Osmand-Mapcreator by command cd and folder name
  • type dir to see whether you are in the right folder with file inspector.bat
  • type inspector -h to see some help text
  • type inspector -vaddress name_of_your_map.obf \>output.csv
  • if you get a Java console error about not enough memory or similar, edit the file inspector.bat by increasing the number at parameter -Xmx512M (or similar) step-by step to a higher value
  • try to load that (eventually very big) CSV text file into any editor or program that can load very big files, like Notepad++ ... or try an import into any spreadsheet programm like Excel or LibreOffice calc (choose TAB as field separator)
  • use any search feature to find place names or street names