[NinoScript]

Jq is a great tool, I wish more people knew about it!

[smitty1e]

It's a bit arcane to use, but has proven itself over and over when doing little tasks with AWS CLI returns.

[GhettoMaestro]

Exactly right.

I use jq to mangle get/list requests from AWS (and others) and then recursively hit each element for whatever reason. Without jq none of my workflows in this area would be remotely easy.

TLDR: Learn JQ! It is like sed and grep, but for JSON.

[dastx]

If you're using AWS you're better using the built in option available for the cli. The --query option (and often combined with the --output option) does this, and uses JMESPath. Especially when you're scripting, it eliminates the need for having yet another tool.

[dragonwriter]

> If you're using AWS you're better using the built in option available for the cli. The --query option (and often combined with the --output option) does this, and uses JMESPath.

Jq is so much more capable than jmespath that I find myself using jq on the json output of AWS CLI commands more than using the built-in query option. Sure, it requires another tool, but it’a often the best tool for the job.

[smitty1e]

That's a great point. Leverage --query for good justice.

Unless you need some additional juice, where jq supports actually transforming the return.

Quite arguably a heavier tool, e.g. a boto3 script becomes appropriate where --query falls short.

But options are a great thing to have.

[wsgeek]

100%

[commandlinefan]

I’ve been using it as a pretty-printer for a while now, it never occurred to me that you could use it to filter items out. In fact, I’ve been piping jq to grep to find things!