yq/operators/load.md

Load

The load operators allows you to load in content from another file.

Note that you can use string operators like + and sub to modify the value in the yaml file to a path that exists in your system.

You can load files of the following supported types:

Format	Load Operator
Yaml	load
XML	load_xml
Properties	load_props
Plain String	load_str
Base64	load_base64

Samples files for tests:

yaml

../../examples/thing.yml:

a: apple is included
b: cool

xml

small.xml:

<this>is some xml</this>

properties

small.properties:

this.is = a properties file

base64

base64.txt:

bXkgc2VjcmV0IGNoaWxsaSByZWNpcGUgaXMuLi4u

Simple example

Given a sample.yml file of:

myFile: ../../examples/thing.yml

then

yq 'load(.myFile)' sample.yml

will output

a: apple is included
b: cool.

Replace node with referenced file

Note that you can modify the filename in the load operator if needed.

Given a sample.yml file of:

something:
  file: thing.yml

then

yq '.something |= load("../../examples/" + .file)' sample.yml

will output

something:
  a: apple is included
  b: cool.

Replace all nodes with referenced file

Recursively match all the nodes (..) and then filter the ones that have a 'file' attribute.

Given a sample.yml file of:

something:
  file: thing.yml
over:
  here:
    - file: thing.yml

then

yq '(.. | select(has("file"))) |= load("../../examples/" + .file)' sample.yml

will output

something:
  a: apple is included
  b: cool.
over:
  here:
    - a: apple is included
      b: cool.

Replace node with referenced file as string

This will work for any text based file

Given a sample.yml file of:

something:
  file: thing.yml

then

yq '.something |= load_str("../../examples/" + .file)' sample.yml

will output

something: |-
  a: apple is included
  b: cool.  

Load from XML

Given a sample.yml file of:

cool: things

then

yq '.more_stuff = load_xml("../../examples/small.xml")' sample.yml

will output

cool: things
more_stuff:
  this: is some xml

Load from Properties

Given a sample.yml file of:

cool: things

then

yq '.more_stuff = load_props("../../examples/small.properties")' sample.yml

will output

cool: things
more_stuff:
  this:
    is: a properties file

Merge from properties

This can be used as a convenient way to update a yaml document

Given a sample.yml file of:

this:
  is: from yaml
  cool: ay

then

yq '. *= load_props("../../examples/small.properties")' sample.yml

will output

this:
  is: a properties file
  cool: ay

Load from base64 encoded file

Given a sample.yml file of:

cool: things

then

yq '.more_stuff = load_base64("../../examples/base64.txt")' sample.yml

will output

cool: things
more_stuff: my secret chilli recipe is....