Structured text tools

The following is a list of text-based file formats and command line tools for manipulating each.

Contents

• DSV
  • Awk
  • POSIX commands
  • SQL-based tools
  • Other tools
• XML, HTML
• JSON
• YAML, TOML
• Log files
• Configuration files
  • /etc/hosts
  • INI
  • Multiple formats
• Templating for structured text
• Bonus round: CLIs for single-file databases
• License
• Disclosure

DSV

Delimiter-separated values, including CSV, TSV, etc.

Awk

Awk is a POSIX-standard command line tool and programming language for processing DSV data. If you use Linux, macOS or a BSD, you almost certainly have it installed. See below for Windows.

• If you already know how to program, the nawk man page is a great way to learn Awk quickly. What you learn from it will apply to other implementations on different platforms. Read it first if you feel overwhelmed by the sheer size of the GNU Awk manual.
• Awk.info archive — an extensive resource on Awk.
• AWK Vs NAWK Vs GAWK — a comparison of implementations' features.
• busybox-w32 includes a full implementation of POSIX Awk and other tools like sed in a single Windows executable.
• GNU Awk 5 binaries for Windows by EZWinPorts.

POSIX commands, Name, Description, ------, -------------, comm, Select lines common to two sorted files or those contained in only one of them. (Manual: man 1 comm on your system, GNU, FreeBSD.), cut, Select portions of each line in one or several files. Can work with delimiter-separated fields. (Manual: man 1 cut, GNU, FreeBSD.), grep, Select lines from one or several files. (Manual: man 1 grep, GNU, FreeBSD.), join, Join the lines from two files on a common field. (Manual: man 1 join, GNU, FreeBSD.), paste, Combine several consecutive lines in a text file into one. (Manual: man 1 paste, GNU, FreeBSD.), sort, Sort lines by key fields. (Manual: man 1 sort, GNU, FreeBSD.), uniq, Find or remove repeated lines. (Manual: man 1 uniq, GNU, FreeBSD.), ### Other tools, Name and link, Description, ---------------, -------------, csv-nix-tools, List *nix system information such as environment variables, files, processes, network connections, users as CSV. Manipulate and pretty-print CSV. Execute CSV rows as commands., csv2md, Convert CSV to Markdown tables., csv2html, Convert CSV to HTML tables., csvfaker, Generate CSV files with fake data. Supports different types of fake data in different locales: names, cities, jobs, email addresses, and others., csvfix, A multitool. Compare, filter, normalize, split, and validate CSV files. Reorder, remove, split, and merge fields. Convert data between fixed-width, multi-line, XML, and DSV format. Generate SQL statements. Documentation., csvkit, csvkit is a suite of command-line tools for converting to and working with CSV: convert, clean, cut, grep, join, sort, stack, format, render, query, analyze, etc., csvquote, Transform CSV to and from a format processable with regular POSIX tools., csvtk, Search, sample, cut, join, transpose, and sort CSV/TSV files. Rename columns. Replace fields and generate new fiends from existing fields. Plot data as vector or raster histograms and box, line, and scatter plots. Convert CSV to Markdown. Convert XLSX to CSV. Split XLSX sheets., GNU datamash, Perform statistical operations on text input., jp (sgreben), Plot data. See the JSON section., Mario, See the JSON section., MCMD (M-Command), Select, sample, cut, join, sort, reformat, and generate CSV files. Contains a large set of commands., Miller, sed, awk, cut, join and sort for name-indexed data such as CSV and tabular JSON., pawk, Process text with Awk-like patterns, but Python code., rows, A Python library with a CLI. Convert between a number of file formats for tabular data: CSV, XLS, XLSX, ODS, and others. Query the data (via SQLite). Combine tables. Generate schemas., tab, A non-Turing-complete statically typed programming language for data processing. An alternative to Awk., eBay's TSV utilities, Filtering, statistics, sampling, joins and other operations on TSV files. High performance, especially good for large datasets. Written in D., tv, View delimited files in the terminal., VisiData, Explore interactively data in TSV, CSV, XLS, XLSX, HDF5, JSON, and other formats. Introduction., xsv, Index, slice, analyze, split, and join CSV files., ### SQL-based tools

See the Grand Comparison Table of SQL-based Tools. It covers

• AlaSQL CLI
• csvq
• csvsql
• fsql
• q
• RBQL
• rows
• Sqawk (dbohdan)
• sqawk (tjunier)
• Squawk
• termsql
• trdsql
• textql

XML, HTML, Name and link, Description, ---------------, -------------, xml-to-json-fast, Convert XML to JSON. Can handle very large XML files., html-xml-utils, A number of simple utilities (like hxcopy, hxpipe, hxunent, hxselect) for manipulating HTML and XML files from W3C. Written in C, quite old-fashioned, but still relevant and maintained., Mario, See the JSON section., pup, Query HTML pages with CSS selectors. Static binaries available for releases. Inspired by jq., Saxon, Query XML and HTML data with XPath. Documentation., Temme, Query HTML with CSS-like selectors to extract JSON. Temme extends CSS selectors with value capture patterns., tidy-html5, Validate, fix, and reformat HTML(5), XHTML, and XML documents. Convert HTML to XHTML., tq, Query HTML with CSS selectors., Xidel, Query or modify XML and HTML pages with XPath, XQuery 3, and CSS selectors., xml2, Convert XML and HTML to and from flat, greppable lists of "path=value" statements. Source code mirror., XMLLint, Query (including XSLT), validate and reformat XML documents., XMLStarlet, Query, modify, and validate XML documents., xq, jq wrapper for XML documents., xsltproc, Transform XML documents using XSLT and EXSLT., See also: Grep and Sed Equivalent for XML Command Line Processing on StackOverflow.

JSON, Name and link, Description, ---------------, -------------, fx, Run arbitrary JavaScript on JSON input. Standalone binaries available., gron, Convert JSON to and from flat, greppable lists of "path=value" statements., jet, Convert between and query JSON, Clojure's edn, and Transit., jfq, Query and transform JSON with the JSONata language., jid, Explore JSON interactively with filtering queries like jq., jj, Query and modify values in JSON or JSON lines with a key path., jl, Query and manipulate JSON using a tiny functional language., jo, Create JSON objects from the shell., jp (jmespath), Query JSON with JMESPath., jp (sgreben), Plot JSON and CSV data in the terminal. Supports different kinds of plots: bar charts, line charts, scatter plots, histograms, and heatmaps., jplot, Plot real-time JSON data in the terminal (works with terminals supporting graphic rendering)., jq, Create and manipulate JSON with a functional (as in "functional programming") DSL. Can convert JSON to other formats., emuto, CLI tool similar to jq. Create and manipulate JSON and other files. Can be compiled to JavaScript., jshon, Create and manipulate JSON using getopt-style command-line options., json2, Convert JSON to and from flat, greppable lists of "path=value" statements. Modeled after xml2., jsonaxe, Create and manipulate JSON with a Python-based DSL. Inspired by jq., json, Run arbitrary JavaScript on JSON input., json-table, Convert nested JSON into CSV or TSV for processing in the shell., json.tool (Python 3 docs), Validate and pretty-print JSON. This module is part of the standard library of Python 2/3 and is likely to be available wherever Python is installed., jsonwatch, Track changes in JSON data from the command line. Works like watch -d., lobar, Explore JSON interactively or process it in batch with a wrapper for lodash.chain(). An alternative to jq with a JavaScript syntax., Mario, Manipulate and convert between CSV, JSON, YAML, TOML, and XML with Python code., quicktype, Infer the underlying model of the JSON and output as types for various programming languages or JSON Schema. CLI and Web UI., ramda-cli, Manipulate JSON with the Ramda functional library, and either LiveScript or JavaScript syntax., RecordStream, Create, manipulate, and output a stream of records, or JSON objects. Can retrieve records from an SQL database, MongoDB, Atom feeds, XML, and other sources., rq, Create and manipulate JSON with a DSL inspired by Rust, C and JavaScript. Similar to jq. Supports JSON, YAML and TOML as well as binary formats like Apache Avro and MessagePack., validjson, Validate or pretty-print JSON., VisiData, Explore data interactively data. See the DSV/Other tools section., ## YAML, TOML

With a format converter like Remarshal (below) you can use JSON tools to process YAML and TOML, but make sure you do not lose data in the conversion., Name and link, Description, ---------------, -------------, Mario, See the JSON section., Remarshal, Convert between JSON, MessagePack, TOML, and YAML. Validate each of the formats. Pretty-print JSON, TOML, and YAML., rq, See the JSON section., shyaml, Query YAML. Can output null-terminated strings for use in shell scripts., validtoml, Validate TOML., validyaml, Validate or pretty-print YAML., yaml-tools, A set of CLI tools to manipulate YAML files (merge, delete, etc...) with comment preservation, based on ruamel.yaml., yq (kislyuk), jq wrapper for YAML., yq (mikefarah), Query, modify, and merge YAML. Convert to and from JSON., ## Log files, Name and link, Description, ---------------, -------------, Squawk, Query Apache and Nginx log files. See the SQL-based tool comparison., lnav, Query and watch log files. Has batch and interactive mode. Supported formats include the Common Log Format, CUPS page_log, syslog, strace, and generic timestamped messages. Can perform SQL queries., ## Configuration files

/etc/hosts, Name and link, Description, ---------------, -------------, hosts, Add and remove entires in /etc/hosts. Change a hostname's IP address. Idempotent. Preserves arbitrary comments. Can be used as a Tcl library., hostess, Add and remove entires in /etc/hosts. Disable (comment out) and enable (uncomment) entires. Check if a hostname exists. Reformat the hosts file. Convert the entries to JSON. Idempotent. Removes arbitrary comments., ## INI, Name and link, Platform, License, Description, ---------------, ----------, ---------, -------------, cfget, Any with Python 2.x?, GNU GPLv2+, Retrieve properties as shell script commands to set the corresponding variables (with --dump exports). Retrieve properties' values as plain text. Substitute values from an INI file in an Autoconf-style template. Supports plug-ins. Chokes on section names and keys with spaces., confget, Linux, FreeBSD, Two-clause BSD, Retrieve properties and sections as shell script commands to set the corresponding variables. Retrieve properties' values as plain text. Check for existence of properties. List sections. Find values that match a pattern. Read-only., crudini, Any with Python 2.x, GNU GPLv2, Retrieve properties and sections as INI fragments or shell script commands to set the corresponding variables. Retrieve properties' values as plain text. Set properties. Remove properties and sections. Create empty sections. Merge INI files. Changes files in place., IniFile (DOS version), Windows (x86, x86-64), MS-DOS, Closed-source freeware, Retrieve properties and sections as batch file commands to set the corresponding variables. Set properties. Remove properties and sections. Changes files in place., initool, Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, MIT, Retrieve properties and sections as INI fragments. Retrieve properties' values as plain text. Set properties. Check for existence of properties and sections. Remove properties and sections. Outputs the updated INI file., ### Multiple formats, Name and link, Description, ---------------, -------------, Augeas, Query and modify a number of file formats. Not all of the formats are equally well supported by Augeas and for some only a limited subset of all valid files can be parsed., Elektra, Query and modify configuration files. Shares Augeas' limitations when it comes to application-specific configuration files (it uses the same lenses), but has better support for generic formats such as JSON and INI., ## Templating for structured text

Listed below are restricted programming language interpreters and templating tools that produce structured text output. They are generally intended to remove repetition in configuration files. They are distinct from unstructed templating tools like the jinja2 CLI program, which should not be added to this table., Name and link, Output format, Turing-complete?, Syntax, I/O, Description, ---------------, ---------------, ------------------, --------, -----, -------------, CUE, JSON, Yes?, Extended JSON, ?, A constraint language for JSON configuration data. Can generate and validates JSON., Dhall, JSON, YAML, No, Haskell-inspired, Limited to importing libraries from files and HTTP(S) URLs (with protection against leaking your data to the server), A statically-typed functional configuration language. Has a standard formatting tool., jk, JSON, YAML, plain text, Yes, JavaScript, Disk I/O, Generate configuration files using JavaScript (V8 VM)., Jsonnet, JSON, INI, XML, YAML, plain text, Yes, Extended JSON, None, A functional configuration language. Has a standard formatting tool., rjsone, JSON, YAML, No?, Extended JSON, None, A CLI tool for the JSON-e templating language., ytt, YAML, No, YAML/Python hybrid, None?, A templating tool for YAML built upon the Starlark configuration language., ## Bonus round: CLIs for single-file databases, Name and link, Description, File format, ---------------, -------------, -------------, Firebird, Firebird is a FOSS database that can be used from a single file, like SQLite. "isql is a program that allows the user to issue arbitrary SQL commands"., Binary, GNU Recutils, "[A] set of tools and libraries to access human-editable, plain text databases called recfiles.", Text-based, roughly "key: value", SDB, "[A] simple string key/value database based on djb's cdb disk storage and supports JSON and arrays introspection.", Binary, sqlite3(1), "[A] simple command-line utility [...] that allows the user to manually enter and execute SQL statements against an SQLite database.", Binary, ## License

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Disclosure

csv2html, hosts, Sqawk, jsonwatch, Remarshal and initool are developed by the curator of this document.