Awesome
What is it?
ProperTree is a cross-platform GUI plist editor written using Python (compatible with both 2.x and 3.x) and Tkinter.
Features
- Cross-platform - should work anywhere python and tkinter do
- Document-based to support multiple windows
- Node drag and drop to reorder
- Copy and paste
- Find/Replace - allows searching keys or values
- Ordered - or unordered - dictionary support
- Full undo-redo stack
- Backported support for binary property lists and unicode in python 2
- Expanded integer casting to allow for hex integers (eg.
0xFFFF
) in xml<integer>
tags - Context-aware right-click menu that includes template info to OpenCore or Clover config.plist files
- OC (Clean) Snapshot to walk the contents of ACPI, Drivers, Kexts, and Tools for OpenCore config.plist files
- Value converter that supports Base64, Hex, Ascii, and Decimal
Getting ProperTree
Downloading The Repo As A ZIP File
On any system you can choose the green Code
button, followed by the Download ZIP
button (or click here) to download the entire repo as a zip file (note, this does not allow you to update via git pull
- any updates would require you to download the repo again in the same fashion).
Cloning The Repo Via Git
On *nix systems:
git clone https://github.com/corpnewt/ProperTree
python ./ProperTree/ProperTree.py
- or -
python3 ./ProperTree/ProperTree.py
* On macOS, you can simply double-click the ProperTree.command
after cloning to launch.
On Windows:
git clone https://github.com/corpnewt/ProperTree
./ProperTree/ProperTree.bat
FAQ
-
What does OC Snapshot do?
The OC Snapshot function will prompt you to select an OC folder, then walk the contents of the ACPI, Kexts, Tools, and Drivers directories within that folder - comparing all entries to the current document's
ACPI -> Add
,Kernel -> Add
,Misc -> Tools
, andUEFI -> Drivers
respectively. It will add or remove entries as needed, and also ensures kext load order by comparing each kext'sCFBundleIdentifier
to all other kexts'OSBundleLibraries
within their Info.plist - making sure that any kext that is relied on by others is loaded before them. It will also warn if it detects duplicateCFBundleIdentifiers
(with support forMinKernel
,MaxKernel
, andMatchKernel
overlap checks), and offer to disable all after the first found. It checks for disabled parent kexts with enabled child kexts as well. The schema used is (by default) determined by comparing the MD5 hash of theOpenCore.efi
file to a known list of Acidanthera debug/release versions. If the MD5 hash does not match any known version, it will fall back to the newest schema in the script'ssnapshot.plist
. This behavior can be customized in the Settings per theOC Snapshot Target Version
menu. -
What is the difference between OC Snapshot and OC Clean Snapshot?
Both snapshot variants accomplish the same tasks - they just leverage different starting points. An OC Clean Snapshot will first clear out
ACPI -> Add
,Kernel -> Add
,Misc -> Tools
, andUEFI -> Drivers
, then add everything from within the respective ACPI, Kexts, Tools, and Drivers directory anew. A regular OC Snapshot starts with the information within the current document for those four locations, and only pulls changes - adding and removing entries as needed. -
When should I use an OC Clean Snapshot vs an OC Snapshot?
Typically, an OC Clean Snapshot should only be used the first time you snapshot to ensure any sample entries in the config.plist are removed and added anew. Every subsequent snapshot should be a regular OC Snapshot to ensure any customizations you've made are preserved.
-
Can't click anything on Sonoma (14.x) and Newer
This appears to manifest when using python 3.11.x and older due to some isssue with tk and macOS. Updating to at least python 3.12.0 (found here) appears to fix it. If you are unable to update your python version, you can also move the window around before trying to click the elements in the treeview.
-
ProperTree opens a black window on macOS Monterey (12.x) and Newer
It appears the default tk implementation that ships with macOS Monterey (and the version installed with the Command Line Tools) doesn't display correctly. A workaround is to download and install the latest build of python from python.org (found here) which has a compatible tk bundled, then use the
buildapp-select.command
located in ProperTree'sScripts
directory to build an application bundle targeting the installed python's path. You can then leverage theProperTree.app
bundle it creates. -
ProperTree cannot open or save plist files on macOS Monterey (12.x)
This appears to be an issue with the built-in tk, and the earlier "universal" installers from python.org. With at least python 3.10.2, this issue has been resolved in the universal builds. You can get the latest python 3 installer here. After installing, use the
buildapp-select.command
located in ProperTree'sScripts
directory to build an application bundle targeting the installed python's path. You can then leverage theProperTree.app
bundle it creates. -
How can I have ProperTree open when I double-click a .plist file?
On macOS you can run
buildapp-select.command
located in ProperTree'sScripts
directory to build an application bundle which can be associated with .plist files.On Windows, you can run
AssociatePlistFiles.bat
located in ProperTree'sScripts
directory to associate .plist files withProperTree.bat
, and also to add anOpen with ProperTree
option to the contextual menu when right-clicking .plist files. This approach is location-dependent, and moving your copy of ProperTree will require you re-runAssociatePlistFiles.bat
. -
When I try to run ProperTree, I get
[ModuleNotFoundError: No module name 'tkinter']
That is because the graphical interface library that ProperTree depends on isn't present or cannot be detected, you need to install
tkinter
from your package manager.To install it on Ubuntu (and Ubuntu-based distros), you can run
sudo apt-get install python3-tk -y
-
ProperTree doesn't run because it doesn't have permissions, what gives?
This shouldn't happen and it is recommended that you download only from the official ProperTree repository, but if you are confident about your source, then running
chmod +x ProperTree.command
should sort it out -
I use an international keyboard layout on macOS and some keys crash ProperTree with
NSRangeException', reason: '-[__NSCFConstantString characterAtIndex:]: Range or index out of bounds
This is a bug in the Cocoa implementation of Tcl/Tk on macOS (discussed here). The latest python 2 installer from python.org ships with, and uses Tcl/Tk 8.6.8 which has this issue fixed. Given that the shebang in
ProperTree.command
leverages#!/usr/bin/env python
- the first python 2 binary found should be used.buildapp-select.command
from ProperTree'sScripts
directory can be used to hardcode a specific python install's path into the .app bundle's executable shebang. -
ProperTree crashes on Big Sur (macOS 11)
As of macOS 11.2 (20D5029f), the system's
tk
installation appears to be fixed, and works correctly. As such, it should not require an external python version to function.This is due to the default python installs on macOS leveraging an older
tk
version - which lacks support for macOS 11. To solve this, you can download and install the latest python 3 version from https://www.python.org/downloads/mac-osx/ (note: Currently the "universal" 3.9.1 installer causes theme issues and should not be used) then leverage thebuildapp-select.command
from ProperTree'sScripts
directory to build a .app bundle that will leverage that python version.If you already have python 3 installed via
brew
or another package manager - it is likely still linking to the systemtk
version, which will still have issues unless linked against a newer version. -
buildapp-select.command
UsageAn example of the output of
buildapp-select.command
is shown below. It will walk the output ofwhich python
andwhich python3
, then attempt to load thetk
interface while keeping track of which work and which fail. The example below is from macOS 11.2 (20D4029f) with the system versions of python 2 and 3, as well as python 3.9.1 installed from python.org. If there's an existingProperTree.app
in the directory above theScripts
folder, the shebang of that app will be located and served up as theC. Current
option. At the following menu, I would select option3
orC
to use the non-system python install.
- Currently Available Python Versions -
1. /usr/bin/python 2.7.16 - tk 8.5 (8.6+ recommended)
2. /usr/bin/python3 3.8.2 - tk 8.5 (8.6+ recommended)
3. /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/bin/python3 3.9.1 - tk 8.6
4. /usr/bin/env python
5. /usr/bin/env python3
C. Current (/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/bin/python3)
Q. Quit
Please select the python version to use: