Formatting JSON Output using Bash

This article explains how to format and output JSON using Bash, the Linux command-line language. It explains how to use it as what’s commonly referred to as a “beautifier”.

Command to Format JSON

The easiest way to format JSON in Bash is to use Python’s standard library. Use the following command:

python -m json.tool

Usage Example

Next, here’s a specific usage example. Running the following command will output formatted JSON data.

ruby ~/pg/ruby/dev.rb | restrictstdout | python -m json.tool | ascii2uni -a U -q

In the above command, the JSON data generated by ruby ~/pg/ruby/dev.rb is limited by restrictstdout, formatted by python -m json.tool, and finally converted to Unicode by ascii2uni -a U -q.

Here’s an example output:

[
    {
        "title": "logical jekyll"
    },
    {
        "categories": "note",
        "content": "`sudo apt update && sudo apt install nodejs npm -y`",
        "date": "2019-01-17 07:41:09 +0900",
        "post": "---\nlayout: post\ntitle:  \"node.js npm をubuntu 18.04にインストール\"\ndate: 2019-01-17 07:41:09 +0900\ncategories: note\n---\n\n`sudo apt update && sudo apt install nodejs npm -y`\n",
        "title": "node.js npm をubuntu 18.04にインストール"
    }
]

This way, the formatted JSON data is output in an easy-to-read format.

Summary

When formatting and outputting JSON in Bash, using Python’s json.tool module is convenient. With this method, you can easily format and check even complex JSON data.

Formatting JSON Output using Bash