yaml

yaml is a lightweight and flexible command-line YAML processor

The aim of the project is to be the jq or sed of yaml files.

Install

Download latest binary or alternatively:

go get github.com/mikefarah/yaml

Features

• Written in portable go, so you can download a lovely dependency free binary
• Deep read a yaml file with a given path
• Update a yaml file given a path
• Update a yaml file given a script file
• Update creates any missing entries in the path on the fly
• Create a yaml file given a deep path and value
• Create a yaml file given a script file
• Convert from json to yaml
• Convert from yaml to json
• Pipe data in by using '-'

Read examples

yaml r <yaml file> <path>

Basic

Given a sample.yaml file of:

b:
  c: 2

then

yaml r sample.yaml b.c

will output the value of '2'.

Reading from STDIN

Given a sample.yaml file of:

cat sample.yaml | yaml r - b.c

will output the value of '2'.

Splat

Given a sample.yaml file of:

---
bob:
  item1:
    cats: bananas
  item2:
    cats: apples

then

yaml r sample.yaml bob.*.cats

will output

- bananas
- apples

Handling '.' in the yaml key

Given a sample.yaml file of:

b.x:
  c: 2

then

yaml r sample.yaml \"b.x\".c

will output the value of '2'.

Arrays

You can give an index to access a specific element: e.g.: given a sample file of

b:
  e:
    - name: fred
      value: 3
    - name: sam
      value: 4

then

yaml r sample.yaml b.e[1].name

will output 'sam'

Array Splat

e.g.: given a sample file of

b:
  e:
    - name: fred
      value: 3
    - name: sam
      value: 4

then

yaml r sample.yaml b.e[*].name

will output:

- fred
- sam

Update examples

Existing yaml files can be updated via the write command

Update to stdout

Given a sample.yaml file of:

b:
  c: 2

then

yaml w sample.yaml b.c cat

will output:

b:
  c: cat

Update from STDIN

cat sample.yaml | yaml w - b.c blah

Adding new fields

Any missing fields in the path will be created on the fly.

Given a sample.yaml file of:

b:
  c: 2

then

yaml w sample.yaml b.d[0] "new thing"

will output:

b:
  c: cat
  d:
    - new thing

Updating yaml in-place

Given a sample.yaml file of:

b:
  c: 2

then

yaml w -i sample.yaml b.c cat

will update the sample.yaml file so that the value of 'c' is cat.

Updating multiple values with a script

Given a sample.yaml file of:

b:
  c: 2
  e:
    - name: Billy Bob

and a script update_instructions.yaml of:

b.c: 3
b.e[0].name: Howdy Partner

then

yaml w -s update_instructions.yaml sample.yaml

will output:

b:
  c: 3
  e:
    - name: Howdy Partner

And, of course, you can pipe the instructions in using '-':

cat update_instructions.yaml | yaml w -s - sample.yaml

New Examples

Yaml files can be created using the 'new' command. This works in the same way as the write command, but you don't pass in an existing Yaml file.

Creating a simple yaml file

yaml n b.c cat

will output:

b:
  c: cat

Creating using a create script

Create scripts follow the same format as the update scripts.

Given a script create_instructions.yaml of:

b.c: 3
b.e[0].name: Howdy Partner

then

yaml n -s create_instructions.yaml

will output:

b:
  c: 3
  e:
    - name: Howdy Partner

You can also pipe the instructions in:

cat create_instructions.yaml | yaml n -s -

Converting to and from json

Yaml2json

To convert output to json, use the --tojson (or -j) flag. This can be used with any command.

json2yaml

To read in json, use the --fromjson (or -J) flag. This can be used with any command.