KlfJoat: Add to .txt category

2022-12-08T23:37:10Z

Add to .txt category

Dan Tobias at 14:29, 20 September 2022

2022-09-20T14:29:35Z

KlfJoat: clarity on FF cookie file locking

2022-09-19T22:57:01Z

clarity on FF cookie file locking

KlfJoat: Create page with basic info

2022-09-19T22:55:22Z

Create page with basic info

New page

{{FormatInfo
|formattype=electronic
|subcat=Web
|subcat2=Web browser files
}}

In the past, the Netscape browser was so dominant that many tools emulated its cookie file format. The browser market moved on, but the <code>'''cookies.txt'''</code> file format remains in use by fundamental and popular tools such as [https://curl.se/ curl], [https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/ wget], and [https://youtube-dl.org/ youtube-dl], as well as many others.

== File format ==
Officially, the first line of the file must be one of the following:
* <code># HTTP Cookie File</code>
* <code># Netscape HTTP Cookie File</code>

Fields are [[Tab delimited|separated by tab characters]] (<code>\t</code> or <code>\009</code> or <code>0x09</code>).

Lines are separated by the newline format in use by the running operating system. That means <code>CRLF</code> (<code>\r\n</code>) for Windows and <code>LF</code> (<code>\n</code>) for Unix-like systems such as Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, etc.

The 7 fields are as follows.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;"
|+ Human-Friendly Schema
|-
! Field Name !! Type !! Example Value || Notes
|-
| host || string || <code>example.com</code> || Hostname that owns the cookie
|-
| subdomains || boolean string || <code>FALSE</code> || Include subdomains (old attempt at SameSite)
|-
| path || string || <code>/</code> || Pathname that owns the cookie at the host
|-
| isSecure || boolean string || <code>TRUE</code> || Send/receive cookie over HTTPS only.
|-
| expiry || number || <code>1663611142</code> || Cookie expiration in standard [[Unix time|Unix timestamp]] format
|-
| name || string || <code>cookiename</code> || Cookie name
|-
| value || string || <code>cookievalue</code> || Cookie value
|}

== Example file ==
# HTTP Cookie File
example.com FALSE / TRUE 1663611142 cookiename cookievalue
example.net FALSE / FALSE 1125326700 cookiename cookievalue
example.org TRUE / FALSE 1000210440 cookiename cookievalue
example.com FALSE /a/ FALSE 1596693600 cookiename cookievalue

== Extract cookies to Netscape cookies.txt format ==
This is a common need so extensions exist for Chrome and Firefox.
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/get-cookiestxt/bgaddhkoddajcdgocldbbfleckgcbcid/ Chrome - Get cookies.txt]
* [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookies-txt/ Firefox - cookies.txt]

=== Code snippet to extract cookies from Mozilla Firefox to Netscape cookies.txt format ===
It may be useful to extract your own cookies by running a script. This is a small excerpt of a larger script, so it will not run alone as-is. This portion will take a [[Firefox cookie database]], convert it to cookies.txt format, then echo it to <code>stdout</code>. The work before this snippet plus capturing the output are beyond the scope of this page.

Because of format changes, some data type conversions must be performed during the extract. This is done in the <code>case</code> statements.

'''This snippet of code is not compatible with the Multi-Account Container Extension or the Facebook Container Extension. Multiple cookies that match the same host/path/name tuple might be output. Depending on the website and the way the cookies.txt file is parsed by the tool you're using, you may find inconsistent, unexpected, or contradictory behavior.'''

Prerequisites:
* A Bourne-compatible shell with support for [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_document here documents], such as <code>sh</code>, <code>csh</code>, <code>tcsh</code>, <code>ksh</code>, <code>bash</code>, and <code>zsh</code> to name a few.
* The sqlite3 binary.

echo "# HTTP Cookie File"
sqlite3 -separator ' ' "cookies.sqlite" <<- EOF
.mode tabs
.header off
select host,
case substr(host,1,1)='.' when 0 then 'FALSE' else 'TRUE' end,
path,
case isSecure when 0 then 'FALSE' else 'TRUE' end,
expiry,
name,
value
from moz_cookies;
EOF

Firefox locks the <code>cookies.sqlite</code> file. If you want to run the above script you must either exit Firefox or copy the file to a temporary location.

== Notes ==
* The [https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp yt-dlp] project supports pulling cookies from the browser natively with <code>--cookies-from-browser</code> as well as the legacy cookies.txt format.

== Links ==
* [https://everything.curl.dev/http/cookies/fileformat cURL cookie file format]

[[Category:Text-based data]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:37, 8 December 2022
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	[[Category:Text-based data]]		[[Category:Text-based data]]
	[[Category:File formats with a distinctive filename]]		[[Category:File formats with a distinctive filename]]
		+	[[Category:File formats with extension .txt]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:29, 20 September 2022
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	[[Category:Text-based data]]		[[Category:Text-based data]]
		+	[[Category:File formats with a distinctive filename]]

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   EOF
-Firefox locks the <code>cookies.sqlite</code> file. If you want to run the above script you must either exit Firefox or copy the file to a temporary location.
+Firefox locks the <code>cookies.sqlite</code> file while running. If you want to run the above script you must either exit Firefox or copy the file to a temporary location.
 == Notes ==

Netscape cookies.txt - Revision history

KlfJoat: Add to .txt category

Dan Tobias at 14:29, 20 September 2022

KlfJoat: clarity on FF cookie file locking

KlfJoat: Create page with basic info