If you work with JSON data on a regular basis, you may be familiar with jq, a lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor. However, if you’re looking for an alternative to jq, you may want to consider jaq, a jq clone designed to offer similar functionality with some additional features. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through the process of installing and using jaq on Linux.

Step 1: Download jaq

To begin, you’ll need to download the jaq binary for your Linux distribution. You can find the latest release of jaq on the project’s GitHub page at https://github.com/alexander-danilov/jaq. Look for the release that matches your operating system, download the binary, and save it to a directory of your choice.

Step 2: Make jaq executable

Once you have downloaded the jaq binary, you’ll need to make it executable. Open a terminal window, navigate to the directory where you saved the jaq binary, and run the following command:

chmod +x jaq

This will give you the necessary permissions to run the jaq binary.

Step 3: Add jaq to your PATH

To make it easier to run jaq from any directory on your system, you can add the directory where you saved the jaq binary to your PATH. To do this, open your shell configuration file (such as .bashrc or .zshrc) in a text editor and add the following line:

export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/jaq/directory

Be sure to replace "/path/to/jaq/directory" with the actual path to the directory where you saved the jaq binary. Save the file and reload your shell configuration by running the following command:

source ~/.bashrc

Step 4: Test jaq

To verify that jaq is installed correctly and accessible from any directory, run the following command in your terminal:

jaq --version

If you see the version number of jaq displayed in the output, you have successfully installed jaq on your system.

Step 5: Using jaq

Now that jaq is installed, you can start using it to process JSON data. Jaq works similarly to jq, with a syntax that allows you to filter, transform, and manipulate JSON data from the command line.

For example, you can use jaq to filter a JSON file and extract specific data. To do this, run the following command:

jaq '.key' data.json

This command will extract the value of the "key" attribute from the JSON file "data.json".

You can also use jaq to format JSON data for better readability. To pretty-print a JSON file, run the following command:

jaq . data.json

This will format the JSON data in the file "data.json" with proper indentation.

Overall, jaq is a powerful and versatile tool for working with JSON data on Linux. By following this step-by-step guide, you can easily install and start using jaq to streamline your JSON processing workflow.