command-serialized-file.md

serialized-file Command

The serialized-file command (alias: sf) provides utilities for quickly inspecting SerializedFile metadata without performing a full analysis.

Sub-Commands

Sub-Command	Description
externalrefs	List external file references
objectlist	List all objects in the file

---

externalrefs

Lists the external file references (dependencies) in a SerializedFile. This shows which other files the SerializedFile depends on.

Quick Reference

UnityDataTool serialized-file externalrefs <filename> [options]
UnityDataTool sf externalrefs <filename> [options]

Option	Description	Default
<filename>	Path to the SerializedFile	(required)
-f, --format <format>	Output format: Text or Json	Text

Example - Text Output

UnityDataTool serialized-file externalrefs level0

Output:

Index: 1, Path: globalgamemanagers.assets
Index: 2, Path: sharedassets0.assets
Index: 3, Path: Library/unity default resources

Example - JSON Output

UnityDataTool sf externalrefs sharedassets0.assets --format json

Output:

[
  {
    "index": 1,
    "path": "globalgamemanagers.assets",
    "guid": "00000000000000000000000000000000",
    "type": "NonAssetType"
  },
  {
    "index": 2,
    "path": "Library/unity default resources",
    "guid": "0000000000000000e000000000000000",
    "type": "NonAssetType"
  }
]

---

objectlist

Lists all objects contained in a SerializedFile, showing their IDs, types, offsets, and sizes.

Quick Reference

UnityDataTool serialized-file objectlist <filename> [options]
UnityDataTool sf objectlist <filename> [options]

Option	Description	Default
<filename>	Path to the SerializedFile	(required)
-f, --format <format>	Output format: Text or Json	Text

Example - Text Output

UnityDataTool sf objectlist sharedassets0.assets

Output:

Id                   Type                                     Offset          Size           
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1                    PreloadData                              83872           49             
2                    Material                                 83936           268            
3                    Shader                                   84208           6964           
4                    Cubemap                                  91184           240            
5                    MonoBehaviour                            91424           60             
6                    MonoBehaviour                            91488           72             

Example - JSON Output

UnityDataTool serialized-file objectlist level0 --format json

Output:

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "typeId": 1,
    "typeName": "GameObject",
    "offset": 4864,
    "size": 132
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "typeId": 4,
    "typeName": "Transform",
    "offset": 5008,
    "size": 104
  }
]

---

Use Cases

Quick File Inspection

Use serialized-file when you need quick information about a SerializedFile without generating a full SQLite database:

# Check what objects are in a file
UnityDataTool sf objectlist sharedassets0.assets

# Check file dependencies
UnityDataTool sf externalrefs level0

Scripting and Automation

The JSON output format is ideal for scripts and automated processing:

# Extract object count
UnityDataTool sf objectlist level0 -f json | jq 'length'

# Find specific object types
UnityDataTool sf objectlist sharedassets0.assets -f json | jq '.[] | select(.typeName == "Material")'

---

SerializedFile vs Archive

When working with AssetBundles (or a compressed Player build) you need to extract the contents first (with archive extract), then run the serialized-file command on individual files in the extracted output.

Example workflow:

# 1. List contents of an archive
UnityDataTool archive list scenes.bundle

# 2. Extract the archive
UnityDataTool archive extract scenes.bundle -o extracted/

# 3. Inspect individual SerializedFiles
UnityDataTool sf objectlist extracted/CAB-5d40f7cad7c871cf2ad2af19ac542994

---

Notes

• This command only supports extracting information from the SerializedFile header of individual files. It does not extract detailed type-specific properties. Use analyze for full analysis of one or more SerializedFiles.
• The command uses the same native library (UnityFileSystemApi) as other UnityDataTool commands, ensuring consistent file reading across all Unity versions.