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Convert/Query/Transform

You can use the ys command line tool to convert, query and transform YAML (or JSON since JSON is YAML) files much like you would with jq External link or yq External link .

Install ys Now! 
curl -s https://getys.org/ys | bash

YS is an excellent tool for these types of CLI 1-liner tasks, because it:

  • Is a full programming language with 100s of builtin functions
  • Has a great compact "dot notation" syntax
  • Has many options for output formats and other niceties

For example, to get the first 5 keys of a subsection of a YAML file that start with a vowel and print the result as YAML to stdout:

$ ys '.some.0.part:keys.filter(/^[aeiou]/).take(5)' file.yaml
- id
- enabled
- owner
- interval
- environment
Should I use yq or ys?

Both!

While yq currently has features that ys does not (like updating files in place and preserving comments), ys has a much larger set of functions (it's an entire programming language) to make use of.

Both are fantastic tools and can be used together for great good!

YS Conversion Examples🔗

Click on the examples below to see more details.

  • Convert YAML/JSON to other formats

    ys -J file.yaml   # Convert to JSON

    Use one of these Load options: * -l/--load Load input and print as compact JSON * -J/--json Print as formatted JSON * -Y/--yaml Print as YAML * --csv Print as CSV * --tsv Print as TSV * --edn Print as EDN

    Prints the data in the specified format to stdout.

    Examples: 

    ys -l file.yaml  # --load for compact JSON output

    ys -J file.yaml  # Pretty JSON output

    ys -l file.yaml | jq .   # Pipe to jq for even prettier JSON output

    < file.yaml ys -l -  # Read from stdin (use - for file name)

    < file.yaml ys -l    # -l with no file argument reads from stdin

  • Show code evaluation in a format

    ys -Ye ENV   # Environment as YAML 

    ys -Ye ENV  # Environment as YAML

    ys -Ye 'ENV:sort:flat:O'  # Sorted

Many more examples soon...🔗