commandline.rst

The jsonpointer commandline utility

The JSON pointer package also installs a jsonpointer commandline utility that can be used to resolve a JSON pointers on JSON files.

The program has the following usage

usage: jsonpointer [-h] (-e EXPRESSION | -f POINTER_FILE) [--indent INDENT]
                   [-v]
                   FILE [FILE ...]

Resolve a JSON pointer on JSON files

positional arguments:
  FILE                  Files for which the pointer should be resolved

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -e EXPRESSION, --expression EXPRESSION
                        A JSON pointer expression (e.g. "/foo/bar")
  -f POINTER_FILE, --pointer-file POINTER_FILE
                        File containing a JSON pointer expression
  --indent INDENT       Indent output by n spaces
  -v, --version         show program's version number and exit

For backward compatibility, if the first argument is a file path, it is treated as if -f was specified, allowing the command to be used as in previous versions.

Example

# inspect JSON files
$ cat a.json
{ "a": [1, 2, 3] }

$ cat b.json
{ "a": {"b": [1, 3, 4]}, "b": 1 }

# inspect JSON pointer
$ cat ptr.json
"/a"

# resolve JSON pointer (version 1 compatible syntax)
$ jsonpointer ptr.json a.json b.json
[1, 2, 3]
{"b": [1, 3, 4]}

# resolve with -f option
$ jsonpointer -f ptr.json a.json b.json
[1, 2, 3]
{"b": [1, 3, 4]}

# resolve with -e option for direct expression
$ jsonpointer -e "/a" a.json b.json
[1, 2, 3]
{"b": [1, 3, 4]}