How do I delete a key in a plist if I have the key value?

Question

I have a plist like so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Delete Me</key>
    <string>1</string>
    <key>Keep Me</key>
    <string>1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

How do I delete the key-pair "Delete Me"?

Answer 1

defaults delete /path/to/file Delete\ Me

FWIW, I'd avoid having spaces in the keynames. You could try single quotes instead of escaping it.

Also: you don't need the file extension .plist in the filepath.

Alternatively, you can open it in BBEdit or Xcode (both of which will handle conversion to and from binary plists on the fly) and delete the relevant portion (key and string) directly. Other text editors may also do the same.