Anchor and Alias Operators

Use the alias and anchor operators to read and write yaml aliases and anchors. The explode operator normalises a yaml file (dereference (or expands) aliases and remove anchor names).
yq supports merge aliases (like <<: *blah) however this is no longer in the standard yaml spec (1.2) and so yq will automatically add the !!merge tag to these nodes as it is effectively a custom tag.
Merge one map
see https://yaml.org/type/merge.html
Given a sample.yml file of:
- &CENTER
  x: 1
  y: 2
- &LEFT
  x: 0
  y: 2
- &BIG
  r: 10
- &SMALL
  r: 1
- !!merge <<: *CENTER
  r: 10
then
yq '.[4] | explode(.)' sample.yml
will output
x: 1
y: 2
r: 10
Merge multiple maps
see https://yaml.org/type/merge.html
Given a sample.yml file of:
- &CENTER
  x: 1
  y: 2
- &LEFT
  x: 0
  y: 2
- &BIG
  r: 10
- &SMALL
  r: 1
- !!merge <<:
    - *CENTER
    - *BIG
then
yq '.[4] | explode(.)' sample.yml
will output
r: 10
x: 1
y: 2
Override
see https://yaml.org/type/merge.html
Given a sample.yml file of:
- &CENTER
  x: 1
  y: 2
- &LEFT
  x: 0
  y: 2
- &BIG
  r: 10
- &SMALL
  r: 1
- !!merge <<:
    - *BIG
    - *LEFT
    - *SMALL
  x: 1
then
yq '.[4] | explode(.)' sample.yml
will output
r: 10
x: 1
y: 2
Get anchor
Given a sample.yml file of:
a: &billyBob cat
then
yq '.a | anchor' sample.yml
will output
billyBob
Set anchor
Given a sample.yml file of:
a: cat
then
yq '.a anchor = "foobar"' sample.yml
will output
a: &foobar cat
Set anchor relatively using assign-update
Given a sample.yml file of:
a:
  b: cat
then
yq '.a anchor |= .b' sample.yml
will output
a: &cat
  b: cat
Get alias
Given a sample.yml file of:
b: &billyBob meow
a: *billyBob
then
yq '.a | alias' sample.yml
will output
billyBob
Set alias
Given a sample.yml file of:
b: &meow purr
a: cat
then
yq '.a alias = "meow"' sample.yml
will output
b: &meow purr
a: *meow
Set alias to blank does nothing
Given a sample.yml file of:
b: &meow purr
a: cat
then
yq '.a alias = ""' sample.yml
will output
b: &meow purr
a: cat
Set alias relatively using assign-update
Given a sample.yml file of:
b: &meow purr
a:
  f: meow
then
yq '.a alias |= .f' sample.yml
will output
b: &meow purr
a: *meow
Explode alias and anchor
Given a sample.yml file of:
f:
  a: &a cat
  b: *a
then
yq 'explode(.f)' sample.yml
will output
f:
  a: cat
  b: cat
Explode with no aliases or anchors
Given a sample.yml file of:
a: mike
then
yq 'explode(.a)' sample.yml
will output
a: mike
Explode with alias keys
Given a sample.yml file of:
f:
  a: &a cat
  *a: b
then
yq 'explode(.f)' sample.yml
will output
f:
  a: cat
  cat: b
Explode with merge anchors
Given a sample.yml file of:
foo: &foo
  a: foo_a
  thing: foo_thing
  c: foo_c
bar: &bar
  b: bar_b
  thing: bar_thing
  c: bar_c
foobarList:
  b: foobarList_b
  !!merge <<:
    - *foo
    - *bar
  c: foobarList_c
foobar:
  c: foobar_c
  !!merge <<: *foo
  thing: foobar_thing
then
yq 'explode(.)' sample.yml
will output
foo:
  a: foo_a
  thing: foo_thing
  c: foo_c
bar:
  b: bar_b
  thing: bar_thing
  c: bar_c
foobarList:
  b: bar_b
  thing: foo_thing
  c: foobarList_c
  a: foo_a
foobar:
  c: foo_c
  a: foo_a
  thing: foobar_thing
Dereference and update a field
Use explode with multiply to dereference an object
Given a sample.yml file of:
item_value: &item_value
  value: true
thingOne:
  name: item_1
  !!merge <<: *item_value
thingTwo:
  name: item_2
  !!merge <<: *item_value
then
yq '.thingOne |= explode(.) * {"value": false}' sample.yml
will output
item_value: &item_value
  value: true
thingOne:
  name: item_1
  value: false
thingTwo:
  name: item_2
  !!merge <<: *item_value

Alternative (Default value)

Array to Map

Last modified 6mo ago