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https://github.com/mikefarah/yq

yq is a portable command-line YAML, JSON, XML, CSV, TOML and properties processor
https://github.com/mikefarah/yq

bash cli csv devops-tools golang json portable properties splat toml xml yaml yaml-processor

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yq is a portable command-line YAML, JSON, XML, CSV, TOML and properties processor

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README 

        
# yq



![Build](https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/workflows/Build/badge.svg)  ![Docker Pulls](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/mikefarah/yq.svg) ![Github Releases (by Release)](https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/mikefarah/yq/total.svg) ![Go Report](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/mikefarah/yq) ![CodeQL](https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/workflows/CodeQL/badge.svg)



a lightweight and portable command-line YAML, JSON and XML processor. `yq` uses [jq](https://github.com/stedolan/jq) like syntax but works with yaml files as well as json, xml, properties, csv and tsv. It doesn't yet support everything `jq` does - but it does support the most common operations and functions, and more is being added continuously.



yq is written in go - so you can download a dependency free binary for your platform and you are good to go! If you prefer there are a variety of package managers that can be used as well as Docker and Podman, all listed below.



## Quick Usage Guide



Read a value:

```bash

yq '.a.b[0].c' file.yaml

```



Pipe from STDIN:

```bash

yq '.a.b[0].c' < file.yaml

```



Update a yaml file, in place

```bash

yq -i '.a.b[0].c = "cool"' file.yaml

```



Update using environment variables

```bash

NAME=mike yq -i '.a.b[0].c = strenv(NAME)' file.yaml

```



Merge multiple files

```bash

# merge two files

yq -n 'load("file1.yaml") * load("file2.yaml")'



# merge using globs:

# note the use of `ea` to evaluate all the files at once

# instead of in sequence

yq ea '. as $item ireduce ({}; . * $item )' path/to/*.yml

```



Multiple updates to a yaml file

```bash

yq -i '

  .a.b[0].c = "cool" |

  .x.y.z = "foobar" |

  .person.name = strenv(NAME)

' file.yaml

```



Find and update an item in an array:

```bash

yq '(.[] | select(.name == "foo") | .address) = "12 cat st"'

```



Convert JSON to YAML

```bash

yq -Poy sample.json

```



See [recipes](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/recipes) for more examples and the [documentation](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/) for more information.



Take a look at the discussions for [common questions](https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/discussions/categories/q-a), and [cool ideas](https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/discussions/categories/show-and-tell)



## Install



### [Download the latest binary](https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/releases/latest)



### wget

Use wget to download, gzipped pre-compiled binaries:



For instance, VERSION=v4.2.0 and BINARY=yq_linux_amd64



#### Compressed via tar.gz

```bash

wget https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/releases/download/${VERSION}/${BINARY}.tar.gz -O - |\

  tar xz && mv ${BINARY} /usr/bin/yq

```



#### Plain binary



```bash

wget https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/releases/download/${VERSION}/${BINARY} -O /usr/bin/yq &&\

    chmod +x /usr/bin/yq

```



#### Latest version



```bash

wget https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/releases/latest/download/yq_linux_amd64 -O /usr/bin/yq &&\

    chmod +x /usr/bin/yq

```



### MacOS / Linux via Homebrew:

Using [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/)

```

brew install yq

```



### Linux via snap:

```

snap install yq

```



#### Snap notes

`yq` installs with [_strict confinement_](https://docs.snapcraft.io/snap-confinement/6233) in snap, this means it doesn't have direct access to root files. To read root files you can:



```

sudo cat /etc/myfile | yq '.a.path'

```



And to write to a root file you can either use [sponge](https://linux.die.net/man/1/sponge):

```

sudo cat /etc/myfile | yq '.a.path = "value"' | sudo sponge /etc/myfile

```

or write to a temporary file:

```

sudo cat /etc/myfile | yq '.a.path = "value"' | sudo tee /etc/myfile.tmp

sudo mv /etc/myfile.tmp /etc/myfile

rm /etc/myfile.tmp

```



### Run with Docker or Podman

#### Oneshot use:



```bash

docker run --rm -v "${PWD}":/workdir mikefarah/yq [command] [flags] [expression ]FILE...

```



Note that you can run `yq` in docker without network access and other privileges if you desire,

namely `--security-opt=no-new-privileges --cap-drop all --network none`.



```bash

podman run --rm -v "${PWD}":/workdir mikefarah/yq [command] [flags] [expression ]FILE...

```



#### Pipe in via STDIN:



You'll need to pass the `-i\--interactive` flag to docker:



```bash

docker run -i --rm mikefarah/yq '.this.thing' < myfile.yml

```



```bash

podman run -i --rm mikefarah/yq '.this.thing' < myfile.yml

```



#### Run commands interactively:



```bash

docker run --rm -it -v "${PWD}":/workdir --entrypoint sh mikefarah/yq

```



```bash

podman run --rm -it -v "${PWD}":/workdir --entrypoint sh mikefarah/yq

```



It can be useful to have a bash function to avoid typing the whole docker command:



```bash

yq() {

  docker run --rm -i -v "${PWD}":/workdir mikefarah/yq "$@"

}

```



```bash

yq() {

  podman run --rm -i -v "${PWD}":/workdir mikefarah/yq "$@"

}

```

#### Running as root:



`yq`'s container image no longer runs under root (https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/pull/860). If you'd like to install more things in the container image, or you're having permissions issues when attempting to read/write files you'll need to either:



```

docker run --user="root" -it --entrypoint sh mikefarah/yq

```



```

podman run --user="root" -it --entrypoint sh mikefarah/yq

```



Or, in your Dockerfile:



```

FROM mikefarah/yq



USER root

RUN apk add --no-cache bash

USER yq

```



#### Missing timezone data

By default, the alpine image yq uses does not include timezone data. If you'd like to use the `tz` operator, you'll need to include this data:



```

FROM mikefarah/yq



USER root

RUN apk add --no-cache tzdata

USER yq

```



#### Podman with SELinux



If you are using podman with SELinux, you will need to set the shared volume flag `:z` on the volume mount:



```

-v "${PWD}":/workdir:z

```



### GitHub Action

```

  - name: Set foobar to cool

    uses: mikefarah/yq@master

    with:

      cmd: yq -i '.foo.bar = "cool"' 'config.yml'

  - name: Get an entry with a variable that might contain dots or spaces

    id: get_username

    uses: mikefarah/yq@master

    with:

      cmd: yq '.all.children.["${{ matrix.ip_address }}"].username' ops/inventories/production.yml

  - name: Reuse a variable obtained in another step

    run: echo ${{ steps.get_username.outputs.result }}

```



See https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/usage/github-action for more.



### Go Install:

```

go install github.com/mikefarah/yq/v4@latest

```



## Community Supported Installation methods

As these are supported by the community :heart: - however, they may be out of date with the officially supported releases.



_Please note that the Debian package (previously supported by @rmescandon) is no longer maintained. Please use an alternative installation method._



### X-CMD

Checkout `yq` on x-cmd: https://x-cmd.com/mod/yq



- Instant Results: See the output of your yq filter in real-time.

- Error Handling: Encounter a syntax error? It will display the error message and the results of the closest valid filter



Thanks @edwinjhlee!



### Nix



```

nix profile install nixpkgs#yq-go

```



See [here](https://search.nixos.org/packages?channel=unstable&show=yq-go&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=yq-go)



### Webi



```

webi yq

```



See [webi](https://webinstall.dev/)

Supported by @adithyasunil26 (https://github.com/webinstall/webi-installers/tree/master/yq)



### Arch Linux



```

pacman -S go-yq

```



### Windows:



Using [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org)



[![Chocolatey](https://img.shields.io/chocolatey/v/yq.svg)](https://chocolatey.org/packages/yq)

[![Chocolatey](https://img.shields.io/chocolatey/dt/yq.svg)](https://chocolatey.org/packages/yq)

```

choco install yq

```

Supported by @chillum (https://chocolatey.org/packages/yq)



Using [scoop](https://scoop.sh/)

```

scoop install main/yq

```



Using [winget](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/)

```

winget install --id MikeFarah.yq

```



### Mac:

Using [MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/)

```

sudo port selfupdate

sudo port install yq

```

Supported by @herbygillot (https://ports.macports.org/maintainer/github/herbygillot)



### Alpine Linux



Alpine Linux v3.20+ (and Edge):

```

apk add yq-go

```



Alpine Linux up to v3.19:

```

apk add yq

```



Supported by Tuan Hoang (https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=yq-go)



### Flox:



Flox can be used to install yq on Linux, MacOS, and Windows through WSL.



```

flox install yq

```



## Features

- [Detailed documentation with many examples](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/)

- Written in portable go, so you can download a lovely dependency free binary

- Uses similar syntax as `jq` but works with YAML, [JSON](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/usage/convert) and [XML](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/usage/xml) files

- Fully supports multi document yaml files

- Supports yaml [front matter](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/usage/front-matter) blocks (e.g. jekyll/assemble)

- Colorized yaml output

- [Date/Time manipulation and formatting with TZ](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/datetime)

- [Deeply data structures](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/traverse-read)

- [Sort keys](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/sort-keys)

- Manipulate yaml [comments](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/comment-operators), [styling](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/style), [tags](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/tag) and [anchors and aliases](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/anchor-and-alias-operators).

- [Update in place](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v/v4.x/commands/evaluate#flags)

- [Complex expressions to select and update](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/select#select-and-update-matching-values-in-map)

- Keeps yaml formatting and comments when updating (though there are issues with whitespace)

- [Decode/Encode base64 data](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/encode-decode)

- [Load content from other files](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/load)

- [Convert to/from json/ndjson](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v/v4.x/usage/convert)

- [Convert to/from xml](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v/v4.x/usage/xml)

- [Convert to/from properties](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v/v4.x/usage/properties)

- [Convert to/from csv/tsv](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/usage/csv-tsv)

- [General shell completion scripts (bash/zsh/fish/powershell)](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/v/v4.x/commands/shell-completion)

- [Reduce](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/reduce) to merge multiple files or sum an array or other fancy things.

- [Github Action](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/usage/github-action) to use in your automated pipeline (thanks @devorbitus)



## [Usage](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/)



Check out the [documentation](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/) for more detailed and advanced usage.



```

Usage:

  yq [flags]

  yq [command]



Examples:



# yq defaults to 'eval' command if no command is specified. See "yq eval --help" for more examples.

yq '.stuff' < myfile.yml # outputs the data at the "stuff" node from "myfile.yml"



yq -i '.stuff = "foo"' myfile.yml # update myfile.yml in place



Available Commands:

  completion       Generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell

  eval             (default) Apply the expression to each document in each yaml file in sequence

  eval-all         Loads _all_ yaml documents of _all_ yaml files and runs expression once

  help             Help about any command



Flags:

  -C, --colors                        force print with colors

  -e, --exit-status                   set exit status if there are no matches or null or false is returned

  -f, --front-matter string           (extract|process) first input as yaml front-matter. Extract will pull out the yaml content, process will run the expression against the yaml content, leaving the remaining data intact

      --header-preprocess             Slurp any header comments and separators before processing expression. (default true)

  -h, --help                          help for yq

  -I, --indent int                    sets indent level for output (default 2)

  -i, --inplace                       update the file in place of first file given.

  -p, --input-format string           [yaml|y|xml|x] parse format for input. Note that json is a subset of yaml. (default "yaml")

  -M, --no-colors                     force print with no colors

  -N, --no-doc                        Don't print document separators (---)

  -n, --null-input                    Don't read input, simply evaluate the expression given. Useful for creating docs from scratch.

  -o, --output-format string          [yaml|y|json|j|props|p|xml|x] output format type. (default "yaml")

  -P, --prettyPrint                   pretty print, shorthand for '... style = ""'

  -s, --split-exp string              print each result (or doc) into a file named (exp). [exp] argument must return a string. You can use $index in the expression as the result counter.

      --unwrapScalar                  unwrap scalar, print the value with no quotes, colors or comments (default true)

  -v, --verbose                       verbose mode

  -V, --version                       Print version information and quit

      --xml-attribute-prefix string   prefix for xml attributes (default "+")

      --xml-content-name string       name for xml content (if no attribute name is present). (default "+content")



Use "yq [command] --help" for more information about a command.

```

## Known Issues / Missing Features

- `yq` attempts to preserve comment positions and whitespace as much as possible, but it does not handle all scenarios (see https://github.com/go-yaml/yaml/tree/v3 for details)

- Powershell has its own...[opinions on quoting yq](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/usage/tips-and-tricks#quotes-in-windows-powershell)

- "yes", "no" were dropped as boolean values in the yaml 1.2 standard - which is the standard yq assumes.



See [tips and tricks](https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/usage/tips-and-tricks) for more common problems and solutions.