Conversion tool

The conversion process between YAML, JSON, TOML, XML, and INI using rickle involves a few straightforward steps that can be executed via its command-line interface.

To see all the available options:

rickle conv -h

Which will show the list of available options:

optional arguments:
     -h, --help          show this help message and exit
     --input  [ ...]     input file(s) to convert
     --input-directory   directory of input files
     --output  [ ...]    output file names, only if --input given
     --input-type        optional input type (type inferred if none)
     --verbose, -v       verbose output

Convert file

To convert an input file config.json, use the following:

cat config.json | rickle conv

This will print the converted file config.json as YAML (which is the default), or if specified --output-type type.

Note

Because the input is piped, the input type is inferred but can explicitly be defined using the --input-type option.

If input is given as --input flag (or --input-directory), the output will be a file with the same filename (with new extension).

rickle conv --input config.json

This will create a file config.yaml instead of printing.

Note

The default output format is YAML. Use --output-type option for other formats.

To specify the output type:

cat config.yaml | rickle --output-type JSON conv

This will output the converted file (in this example as JSON).

Glob whole directory

If the --input-directory option is used with a directory name, all files with an extension are converted to the same directory. The --output-type option is needed to specify the format or else YAML will be the default output format.

rickle --output-type TOML conv --input-directory ./configs --verbose

This will glob all files in the directory ./configs, including TOML files, and output them as TOML files with the same names.

The --verbose prints a line of the input/output filenames for each conversion.

Note

The file extensions yaml, yml, json, toml, ini, xml, and env will be globbed.

Define output filenames

Input files can have output filenames explicitly defined:

rickle conv --input config.yaml --output ./configs/config_dev.toml

This will convert config.yaml to type TOML (because the type is inferred from the file extension) with a new name config_dev.toml in the directory ./configs.

Output types inferred from file extensions

Thanks to file types ommiting --output-type is possible.

Multiple files can be converted at once:

rickle --output-type JSON conv --input config_dev.yaml config_tst.yaml config_prd.yaml

When specifying the output names, the order of output filenames must match the order of input files:

rickle conv --input config_dev.yaml config_prod.yaml --output conf-dev.json conf-prd.json

Troubleshooting

Most likely any occurring error would be a failure to read the file in the given format. File types are inferred from file extensions. If no file extensions are present, files are inferred by trying to read them in the different formats. If all fails, no operation is performed and an error message printed.