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Bastien974
Asked: 2015-02-10 11:51:21 +0800 CST

Manipulate JSON in bash

  • 772

I have a JSON file I need to update a particular value.

{
  "Comment": "comment",
  "test": {
    "enabled": true
  },
  "enabled": true,
  "otherStuff": blah,
  "otherStuff2": blah,
  "otherStuff3": blah,
}

I would like to change the value of the second "enabled" to false. With JQ Parser, I can easily retrieve it with jq '.enabled', but I'm not sure what's the best way to manipulate the JSON.

The JSON is a respond i get from an API and may change in the future, I cannot rely on the line or value before/after.

bash

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    a quick experiment:

    $ echo '{
  "Comment": "comment",
  "test": {
    "enabled": true
   },
  "enabled": true,
  "otherStuff": "blah",
  "otherStuff2": "blah",
  "otherStuff3": "blah"
}' |
jq '.enabled=false'

    {
  "otherStuff3": "blah",
  "otherStuff2": "blah",
  "otherStuff": "blah",
  "enabled": false,
  "test": {
    "enabled": true
  },
  "Comment": "comment"
}
    • 14

  2. I read the question as "in the shell" and not necessarily as "using only bash builtins".

    Try jsawk, which allows for manipulation and is scriptable, thought it relies on js as a dependency.

    If all you want to do is read a (unique) key from the JSON response, you could (adapted from Brendan OConnor):

    curl <destination> | grep -Po '"keyname":.*?[^\\]",'`
    • 1