jf

jf is a jo alternative, A small utility to safely format and print JSON objects in the commandline.

However, unlike jo, where you build the JSON object by nesting jo outputs, jf works similar to printf, i.e. it expects the template in YAML format as the first argument, and then the values for the placeholders as subsequent arguments.

INSTALL

Cargo

As a CLI tool

bash cargo install jf

Or as a library:

bash cargo add jf

Nixpkgs

bash nix-env -f https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/tarball/nixos-unstable -iA jf

Binaries

USAGE

bash jf TEMPLATE [VALUE]... [NAME=VALUE]...

Where TEMPLATE may contain the following placeholders:

• %q quoted and safely escaped JSON string
• %s JSON values other than string
• %v the jf version number
• %% a literal % character

And [VALUE]... [NAME=VALUE]... are the values for the placeholders.

SYNTAX

• %s %q posiitonal placeholder
• %(NAME)s %(NAME)q named placeholder
• %(NAME=DEFAULT)s %(NAME=DEFAULT)q placeholder with default value
• %(NAME?)s %(NAME?)q nullable placeholder that defaults to null
• %(NAME)?s %(NAME)?q optional placeholder that defaults to blank
• %*s %*q expand positional values as array items
• %**s %**q expand positional values as key value pairs
• %(NAME)*s %(NAME)*q expand named values as array items
• %(NAME)**s %(NAME)**q expand named values as key value pairs

RULES

• Pass values for positional placeholders in the same order as in the template.
• Pass values for named placeholders using NAME=VALUE syntax.
• Pass values for named array items using NAME=ITEM_N syntax.
• Pass values for named key value pairs using NAME=KEY_N NAME=VALUE_N syntax.
• Do not declare or pass positional placeholders or values after named ones.
• Expandable positional placeholder should be the last placeholder in a template.

EXAMPLES

```bash jf %s 1

1

jf %q 1

"1"

jf [%*s] 1 2 3

[1,2,3]

jf {%**q} one 1 two 2 three 3

{"one":"1","two":"2","three":"3"}

jf "{%q: %(value=default)q, %(bar)**q}" foo value=bar bar=biz bar=baz

{"foo":"bar","biz":"baz"}

jf "{str or bool: %(str)?q %(bool)?s, nullable: %(nullable?)q}" str=true

{"str or bool":"true","nullable":null}

jf '{1: %s, two: %q, 3: %(3)s, four: %(four=4)q, "%%": %(pct?)q}' 1 2 3=3

{"1":1,"two":"2","3":3,"four":"4","%":null}

```

SHELL ALIASES

You can set the following aliases in your shell:

bash alias str='jf %q' alias arr='jf "[%*s]"' alias obj='jf "{%**s}"'

Then you can use them like this:

```bash str 1

"1"

arr 1 2 3

[1,2,3]

obj one 1 two 2 three 3

{"one":1,"two":2,"three":3}

obj 1 2 3 $(arr 4 $(str 5))

{"1":2,"3":[4,"5"]}

```

RUST LIBRARY

rust let json = match jf::format(["%q", "JSON Formatted"].map(Into::into)) { Ok(value) => value, Err(jf::Error::Usage) => { bail!("usage: mytool: TEMPLATE [VALUE]... [NAME=VALUE]...") } Err(jf::Error::Jf(e)) => bail!("mytool: {e}"), Err(jf::Error::Json(e)) => bail!("mytool: json: {e}"), Err(jf::Error::Yaml(e)) => bail!("mytool: yaml: {e}"), };