What is an OSC file?
An OSC file is a Change File Format that is contains modified street map data for an existing .osm street map. It contains information about the changes to be incurred to the OSM file. OSC file can have three possible types of modification operations on OSM data i.e. insert, modify, or delete. These change files are commonly used to export data out of OSM editor and import to another editor.
You can open OSC files with Merkaartar and osmchange software.
OSC File Format
OSC files are commonly saved in JOSM file format where the changes are represented by tags. It starts with osmChange tag that indicates the beginning of the file. The sub-tags specify if it is an insert, modify or delete operation that is to be performed on the corresponding node in OSM file. The contents of a node actually contain the contents of an osm tag.
OSC File Format Example
Following is an example of modify operation on a node. Each element must have a changeset ID and a version number.
<osmChange version="0.6" generator="acme osm editor">
<modify>
<node id="1234" changeset="42" version="2" lat="12.1234567" lon="-8.7654321">
<tag k="amenity" v="school"/>
</node>
</modify>
</osmChange>
