Xst Reader

Xst Reader is an open source reader for Microsoft Outlook .ost and .pst files, written in C# and modernized to .NET 10.

This repository is a maintained fork of the original Dijji/XstReader. It keeps the original parser and application model while updating the codebase, packaging, and build workflow for current .NET.

Projects

• src/XstReader Windows desktop viewer for browsing messages, attachments, recipients, and properties
• src/XstExport Command-line exporter for messages, attachments, and CSV property dumps
• src/XstReader.Base Shared PST/OST parsing library used by both applications

Runtime Support

• XstReader targets net10.0-windows and is Windows-only
• XstExport targets net10.0
• XstReader.Base multi-targets net10.0 and net10.0-windows
• XstExport can be published for win-x64, win-arm64, linux-x64, linux-arm64, osx-x64, and osx-arm64
• non-Windows XstExport builds are publish-verified but not yet runtime-tested on native Linux/macOS systems

Features

XstReader provides:

• three-pane Outlook-style browsing
• viewing of plain text, HTML, and RTF message bodies
• recipient and attachment inspection
• message property inspection
• export of messages and attachments from the UI

XstExport provides:

• export of email bodies in native format
• export of attachments only
• export of message properties to CSV
• export from the whole mailbox or from a selected subtree
• optional preservation of Outlook subfolder structure

Quick Start

dotnet build XstReader.sln
dotnet test tests\XstReader.Base.Tests\XstReader.Base.Tests.csproj
dotnet run --project src\XstReader\XstReader.csproj
dotnet run --project src\XstExport\XstExport.csproj -- --help

Downloads

Current release assets for 2.1.2:

• XstReader-win-x64.zip
• XstReader-win-arm64.zip
• XstExport-win-x64.zip
• XstExport-win-arm64.zip
• XstExport-linux-x64.tar.gz
• XstExport-linux-arm64.tar.gz
• XstExport-osx-x64.tar.gz
• XstExport-osx-arm64.tar.gz

Documentation

• Docs index
• Build guide
• Architecture
• Testing
• Release notes
• MS-PST specification

Background

The original motivation for the project was simple: open .ost files without Outlook. That remains one of the main reasons the tool is useful.

The parser is based on Microsoft’s published Outlook file format documentation in MS-PST.

Project Metadata

• Contributing guide
• Security policy
• License