osmfilter ☆

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Description:
Command-line tool to filter OpenStreetMap files for specific tags

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Developer tools

Tags: openstreetmap gis data-processing mapping command-line

Install: brew install osmfilter

About:
Osmfilter is a powerful command-line utility designed to extract specific subsets of data from large OpenStreetMap (OSM) XML files. It operates by applying user-defined filters based on tags, allowing for the precise selection of nodes, ways, and relations. This tool is essential for reducing OSM dataset sizes to only the relevant geographic features needed for analysis or mapping.

Key Features:

Filters OSM data by tags, keys, and values
Supports complex boolean expressions for precise control
Can drop unwanted nodes, ways, or relations to reduce file size
Operates on standard XML or PBF format OSM files

Use Cases:

Extracting all highways or buildings from a regional map dataset
Creating a smaller map file containing only points of interest (POIs)
Cleaning OSM data by removing specific unwanted tags or features

Alternatives:

Osmosis – Osmosis is a more comprehensive Java-based tool for OSM data processing, whereas osmfilter is a lightweight, single-purpose C utility focused specifically on filtering.
osmium-tool – Osmium is a modern, fast C++ library and tool for working with OSM files, offering similar filtering capabilities with a focus on performance and PBF format support.

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 14, 2025 8:30pm		0	VERSION_BUMP	5e416e9c