JSON Command Line Formatter Tool for Linux

python -m json.tool < 'file_name'

python -c 'import json, sys;json.dump(json.load(sys.stdin), sys.stdout)' < my.json

jj -u < my.json

#!/usr/bin/env bash

tmp=$(mktemp json.XXX)
tmp_md=$(mktemp md.XXX)

trap "rm $tmp $tmp_md" EXIT

cat <<JSON > $tmp
{
    "foo": "lorem",
    "bar": "ipsum"
}
JSON
hyperfine \
    --export-markdown $tmp_md \
    --warmup 100 \
    "jj -u < $tmp" \
    "yq eval -j -I=0 < $tmp" \
    "xidel -s - -e '\$json' --printed-json-format=compact < $tmp" \
    "jq --compact-output < $tmp" \
    "python3 -c 'import json, sys;json.dump(json.load(sys.stdin), sys.stdout)' < $tmp" \
    "ruby -r json -e 'j JSON.parse \$stdin.read' < $tmp"

pbcopy < $tmp_md

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
jj -u < json.p72	1.3 ± 0.2	0.9	2.7	1.00
yq eval -j -I=0 < json.p72	4.4 ± 0.4	3.8	7.8	3.37 ± 0.65
xidel -s - -e '$json' --printed-json-format=compact < json.p72	5.5 ± 0.3	5.0	6.5	4.19 ± 0.77
python3 -c 'import json, sys;json.dump(json.load(sys.stdin), sys.stdout)' < json.p72	14.0 ± 0.4	13.4	15.0	10.71 ± 1.89
jq --compact-output < json.p72	14.4 ± 2.0	13.2	33.6	11.02 ± 2.45
ruby -r json -e 'j JSON.parse $stdin.read' < json.p72	47.3 ± 0.6	46.1	48.5	36.10 ± 6.32

Converting JSON pretty print to one line

jq or any other json aware tool is best suited for json file manipulation.However here is awk based solution.

awk -v RS= '{$1=$1}1' input.json
{ "endpointApplications": { "App_Name": { "connectionState": "Disconnected", "connectionTime": "No connection was established", "linkAttributes": { "ackSettings": { "dataAckEnabled": "true", "dataAckTimeout": "5000", "dataNakRetryLimit": "0", "retransmitDelay": "500" }, "keepAliveSettings": { "keepAliveAckTimeout": "5000", "keepAliveInterval": "30000" }, "logTraffic": "false", "port": "9999", "role": "server" }, "protocol": "snmp" } }, "queueStats": {} }

Note: This solution is mainly for the legacy systems not having tools like jq and have no chance to get them installed due to some reasons.

What are good CLI tools for JSON?

I just found this:

http://stedolan.github.io/jq/

"jq is a lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor."

2014 update:

@user456584 mentioned:

There's also the 'json' command (e.g. 'jsontool'). I tend to prefer it over jq. Very UNIX-y. Here's a link to the project: github.com/trentm/json –

in the json README at http://github.com/trentm/json there is a long list of similar things

• jq: http://stedolan.github.io/jq/
• json:select: http://jsonselect.org/
• jsonpipe: https://github.com/dvxhouse/jsonpipe
• json-command: https://github.com/zpoley/json-command
• JSONPath: http://goessner.net/articles/JsonPath/, http://code.google.com/p/jsonpath/wiki/Javascript
• jsawk: https://github.com/micha/jsawk
• jshon: http://kmkeen.com/jshon/
• json2: https://github.com/vi/json2
• fx: https://github.com/antonmedv/fx

How to format JSON objects to be on individual lines in bash

As always when it comes to working with JSON in scripts and from the command line, jq to the rescue:

$ jq -c . input.json
{"filename":"./readme.md","line":5,"rule":"MD009","aliases":["no-trailing-spaces"],"description":"Trailing spaces"}
{"filename":"./readme.md","line":6,"rule":"MD009","aliases":["no-trailing-spaces"],"description":"Trailing spaces"}

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