These flags are available for all yq commands.

Colorize Output

Use the --colors/-Cflag to print out yaml with colors. This does not work when outputing in JSON format.

Pretty Print

Use the --prettyPrint/-P flag to enforce a formatting style for yaml documents. This is particularly useful when reading a json file (which is a subset of yaml) and wanting to format it in a more conventional yaml format.

Given:

{
  "apples": [
    {
      "are": "great"
    }
  ]
}

Then:

yq r --prettyPrint sample.json

Will print out:

apples:
- are: great

This works in the same manner for yaml files:

"apples": [are: great]

will format to:

apples:
- are: great

Indent

Use the indent flag --indent/-I to control the number of spaces used for indentation. This also works for JSON output. The default value is 2.

Note that lists are indented at the same level as the map key at indent level 2, but are more deeply indented at indent level 4 and greater. This is (currently) a quirk of the underlying yaml parser.

Given:

apples:
  collection:
  - name: Green
  - name: Blue
  favourite: Pink Lady

Then:

yq r -I4 sample.yaml

Will print out:

apples:
    collection:
      - name: Green
      - name: Blue
    favourite: Pink Lady

With json, you must also specify the --prettyPrint/-P flag

yq r -j -P -I4 sample.yaml

yields

{
    "apples": {
        "collection": [
            {
                "name": "Green"
            },
            {
                "name": "Blue"
            }
        ],
        "favourite": "Pink Lady"
    }
}

Unwrap scalars

By default scalar values are 'unwrapped', that is only their value is printed (except when outputting as JSON). To print out the node as-is, with the original formatting an any comments pass in --unwrapScalar=false

Given data.yml:

a: "Things" # cool stuff

Then:

yq r --unwrapScalar=false data.yml a

Will yield:

"Things" # cool stuff

where as without setting the flag to false you would get:

Things

Strip comments

Use the --stripComments flag to print out the yaml file without any of the original comments.

Given data.yml of:

a:
  b: # there is where the good stuff is
    c: hi

Then

yq r data.yml a --stripComments

Will yield:

b:
  c: hi