JC

JSON CLI output utility

jc is used to JSONify the output of many standard linux cli tools for easier parsing in scripts. See the Parsers section for supported commands.

This allows further command line processing of output with tools like jq simply by piping commands:

$ ls -l /usr/bin | jc --ls | jq '.[] | select(.bytes > 50000000)'
{
  "filename": "emacs",
  "flags": "-r-xr-xr-x",
  "links": 1,
  "owner": "root",
  "group": "wheel",
  "bytes": 117164432,
  "date": "May 3 22:26"
}

The jc parsers can also be used as python modules:

>>> import jc.parsers.ls
>>>
>>> data='''-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    23648 May  3 22:26 cat
... -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    30016 May  3 22:26 chmod
... -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    29024 May  3 22:26 cp
... -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   375824 May  3 22:26 csh
... -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    28608 May  3 22:26 date
... -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    32000 May  3 22:26 dd
... -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    23392 May  3 22:26 df
... -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    18128 May  3 22:26 echo'''
>>>
>>> jc.parsers.ls.parse(data)
[{'filename': 'cat', 'flags': '-rwxr-xr-x', 'links': 1, 'owner': 'root', 'group': 'wheel', 
'bytes': 23648, 'date': 'May 3 22:26'}, {'filename': 'chmod', 'flags': '-rwxr-xr-x', 'links': 1, 
'owner': 'root', 'group': 'wheel', 'bytes': 30016, 'date': 'May 3 22:26'}, {'filename': 'cp', 
'flags': '-rwxr-xr-x', 'links': 1, 'owner': 'root', 'group': 'wheel', 'bytes': 29024, 
'date': 'May 3 22:26'}, {'filename': 'csh', 'flags': '-rwxr-xr-x', 'links': 1, 'owner': 'root', 
'group': 'wheel', 'bytes': 375824, 'date': 'May 3 22:26'}, {'filename': 'date', 
'flags': '-rwxr-xr-x', 'links': 1, 'owner': 'root', 'group': 'wheel', 'bytes': 28608, 
'date': 'May 3 22:26'}, {'filename': 'dd', 'flags': '-rwxr-xr-x', 'links': 1, 'owner': 'root', 
'group': 'wheel', 'bytes': 32000, 'date': 'May 3 22:26'}, {'filename': 'df', 'flags': '-rwxr-xr-x', 
'links': 1, 'owner': 'root', 'group': 'wheel', 'bytes': 23392, 'date': 'May 3 22:26'}, 
{'filename': 'echo', 'flags': '-rwxr-xr-x', 'links': 1, 'owner': 'root', 'group': 'wheel', 
'bytes': 18128, 'date': 'May 3 22:26'}]

In this case the output will be a python dictionary instead of JSON.

Installation

$ pip3 install jc

Usage

jc [parser] [options]

jc accepts piped input from STDIN and outputs a JSON representation of the previous command's output to STDOUT. The JSON output can be compact or pretty formatted.

Parsers

• --df enables the df parser
• --env enables the env parser
• --free enables the free parser
• --ifconfig enables the ifconfig parser
• --ls enables the ls parser
• --lsblk enables the lsblk parser
• --mount enables the mount parser
• --netstat enables the netstat parser
• --ps enables the ps parser
• --route enables the route parser

Options

• -p specifies whether to pretty format the JSON output

Examples

df

$ df | jc --df -p
[
  {
    "Filesystem": "/dev/disk1s1",
    "512-blocks": "976490576",
    "Used": "268326664",
    "Available": "702568152",
    "Capacity": "28%",
    "iused": "1395740",
    "ifree": "9223372036853380067",
    "%iused": "0%",
    "Mounted": "/"
  },
  {
    "Filesystem": "devfs",
    "512-blocks": "680",
    "Used": "680",
    "Available": "0",
    "Capacity": "100%",
    "iused": "1178",
    "ifree": "0",
    "%iused": "100%",
    "Mounted": "/dev"
  },
  {
    "Filesystem": "map",
    "512-blocks": "auto_home",
    "Used": "0",
    "Available": "0",
    "Capacity": "0",
    "iused": "100%",
    "ifree": "0",
    "%iused": "0",
    "Mounted": "100%",
    "on": "/home"
  }
]

env

$ env | jc --env -p
[
  {
    "TERM": "xterm-256color"
  },
  {
    "SHELL": "/bin/bash"
  },
  {
    "USER": "root"
  },
  {
    "PATH": "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
  },
  {
    "PWD": "/bin"
  },
  {
    "LANG": "en_US.UTF-8"
  },
  {
    "HOME": "/root"
  },
  {
    "_": "/usr/bin/env"
  }
]

ifconfig

$ ifconfig | jc --ifconfig -p
[
  {
    "name": "docker0",
    "flags": "4099",
    "state": "UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST",
    "mtu": "1500",
    "ipv4_addr": "172.17.0.1",
    "ipv4_mask": "255.255.0.0",
    "ipv4_bcast": "0.0.0.0",
    "mac_addr": "02:42:53:18:31:cc",
    "type": "Ethernet",
    "rx_packets": "0",
    "rx_errors": "0",
    "rx_dropped": "0",
    "rx_overruns": "0",
    "rx_frame": "0",
    "tx_packets": "0",
    "tx_errors": "0",
    "tx_dropped": "0",
    "tx_overruns": "0",
    "tx_carrier": "0",
    "tx_collisions": "0",
    "ipv6_addr": null,
    "ipv6_mask": null,
    "ipv6_scope": null,
    "metric": null
  },
  {
    "name": "ens33",
    "flags": "4163",
    "state": "UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST",
    "mtu": "1500",
    "ipv4_addr": "192.168.71.135",
    "ipv4_mask": "255.255.255.0",
    "ipv4_bcast": "192.168.71.255",
    "ipv6_addr": "fe80::c1cb:715d:bc3e:b8a0",
    "ipv6_mask": "64",
    "ipv6_scope": "link",
    "mac_addr": "00:0c:29:3b:58:0e",
    "type": "Ethernet",
    "rx_packets": "26348",
    "rx_errors": "0",
    "rx_dropped": "0",
    "rx_overruns": "0",
    "rx_frame": "0",
    "tx_packets": "5308",
    "tx_errors": "0",
    "tx_dropped": "0",
    "tx_overruns": "0",
    "tx_carrier": "0",
    "tx_collisions": "0",
    "metric": null
  },
  {
    "name": "lo",
    "flags": "73",
    "state": "UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING",
    "mtu": "65536",
    "ipv4_addr": "127.0.0.1",
    "ipv4_mask": "255.0.0.0",
    "ipv4_bcast": null,
    "ipv6_addr": "::1",
    "ipv6_mask": "128",
    "ipv6_scope": "host",
    "mac_addr": null,
    "type": "Local Loopback",
    "rx_packets": "64",
    "rx_errors": "0",
    "rx_dropped": "0",
    "rx_overruns": "0",
    "rx_frame": "0",
    "tx_packets": "64",
    "tx_errors": "0",
    "tx_dropped": "0",
    "tx_overruns": "0",
    "tx_carrier": "0",
    "tx_collisions": "0",
    "metric": null
  }
]

ls

$ ls -l /bin | jc --ls -p
[
  {
    "filename": "bash",
    "flags": "-r-xr-xr-x",
    "links": 1,
    "owner": "root",
    "group": "wheel",
    "bytes": 618416,
    "date": "May 3 22:26"
  },
  {
    "filename": "cat",
    "flags": "-rwxr-xr-x",
    "links": 1,
    "owner": "root",
    "group": "wheel",
    "bytes": 23648,
    "date": "May 3 22:26"
  },
  {
    "filename": "chmod",
    "flags": "-rwxr-xr-x",
    "links": 1,
    "owner": "root",
    "group": "wheel",
    "bytes": 30016,
    "date": "May 3 22:26"
  },
  ...
]

lsblk

$ lsblk | jc --lsblk -p
[
  {
    "NAME": "loop0",
    "MAJ:MIN": "7:0",
    "RM": "0",
    "SIZE": "54.5M",
    "RO": "1",
    "TYPE": "loop",
    "MOUNTPOINT": "/snap/core18/1223"
  },
  {
    "NAME": "sda",
    "MAJ:MIN": "8:0",
    "RM": "0",
    "SIZE": "20G",
    "RO": "0",
    "TYPE": "disk"
  },
  {
    "NAME": "sda1",
    "MAJ:MIN": "8:1",
    "RM": "0",
    "SIZE": "1M",
    "RO": "0",
    "TYPE": "part"
  },
  {
    "NAME": "sda2",
    "MAJ:MIN": "8:2",
    "RM": "0",
    "SIZE": "20G",
    "RO": "0",
    "TYPE": "part",
    "MOUNTPOINT": "/"
  },
  {
    "NAME": "sr0",
    "MAJ:MIN": "11:0",
    "RM": "1",
    "SIZE": "64.8M",
    "RO": "0",
    "TYPE": "rom"
  }
]

mount

$ mount | jc --mount -p
[
  {
    "filesystem": "sysfs",
    "mount_point": "/sys",
    "type": "sysfs",
    "access": [
      "rw",
      "nosuid",
      "nodev",
      "noexec",
      "relatime"
    ]
  },
  {
    "filesystem": "proc",
    "mount_point": "/proc",
    "type": "proc",
    "access": [
      "rw",
      "nosuid",
      "nodev",
      "noexec",
      "relatime"
    ]
  },
  {
    "filesystem": "udev",
    "mount_point": "/dev",
    "type": "devtmpfs",
    "access": [
      "rw",
      "nosuid",
      "relatime",
      "size=977500k",
      "nr_inodes=244375",
      "mode=755"
    ]
  },
  ...
]

netstat

$ netstat -p | jc --netstat -p
[
  {
    "transport_protocol": "tcp",
    "network_protocol": "ipv4",
    "local_address": "localhost.localdo",
    "local_port": "34480",
    "foreign_address": "lb-192-30-255-113",
    "foreign_port": "https",
    "state": "ESTABLISHED",
    "pid": 53550,
    "program_name": "git-remote-ht",
    "receive_q": 0,
    "send_q": 0
  },
  {
    "transport_protocol": "tcp",
    "network_protocol": "ipv4",
    "local_address": "localhost.localdo",
    "local_port": "34478",
    "foreign_address": "lb-192-30-255-113",
    "foreign_port": "https",
    "state": "ESTABLISHED",
    "pid": 53550,
    "program_name": "git-remote-ht",
    "receive_q": 0,
    "send_q": 0
  }
]

$ netstat -lpn | jc --netstat -p
[
  {
    "transport_protocol": "tcp",
    "network_protocol": "ipv4",
    "local_address": "127.0.0.1",
    "local_port": "42351",
    "foreign_address": "0.0.0.0",
    "foreign_port": "*",
    "state": "LISTEN",
    "pid": 1112,
    "program_name": "containerd",
    "receive_q": 0,
    "send_q": 0
  },
  {
    "transport_protocol": "tcp",
    "network_protocol": "ipv4",
    "local_address": "127.0.0.53",
    "local_port": "53",
    "foreign_address": "0.0.0.0",
    "foreign_port": "*",
    "state": "LISTEN",
    "pid": 885,
    "program_name": "systemd-resolve",
    "receive_q": 0,
    "send_q": 0
  },
  {
    "transport_protocol": "tcp",
    "network_protocol": "ipv4",
    "local_address": "0.0.0.0",
    "local_port": "22",
    "foreign_address": "0.0.0.0",
    "foreign_port": "*",
    "state": "LISTEN",
    "pid": 1127,
    "program_name": "sshd",
    "receive_q": 0,
    "send_q": 0
  },
  {
    "transport_protocol": "tcp",
    "network_protocol": "ipv6",
    "local_address": "::",
    "local_port": "22",
    "foreign_address": "::",
    "foreign_port": "*",
    "state": "LISTEN",
    "pid": 1127,
    "program_name": "sshd",
    "receive_q": 0,
    "send_q": 0
  },
  {
    "transport_protocol": "udp",
    "network_protocol": "ipv4",
    "local_address": "127.0.0.53",
    "local_port": "53",
    "foreign_address": "0.0.0.0",
    "foreign_port": "*",
    "pid": 885,
    "program_name": "systemd-resolve",
    "receive_q": 0,
    "send_q": 0
  },
  {
    "transport_protocol": "udp",
    "network_protocol": "ipv4",
    "local_address": "192.168.71.131",
    "local_port": "68",
    "foreign_address": "0.0.0.0",
    "foreign_port": "*",
    "pid": 867,
    "program_name": "systemd-network",
    "receive_q": 0,
    "send_q": 0
  }
]

ps

$ ps -ef | jc --ps -p
[
  {
    "UID": "root",
    "PID": "1",
    "PPID": "0",
    "C": "0",
    "STIME": "13:58",
    "TTY": "?",
    "TIME": "00:00:05",
    "CMD": "/lib/systemd/systemd --system --deserialize 35"
  },
  {
    "UID": "root",
    "PID": "2",
    "PPID": "0",
    "C": "0",
    "STIME": "13:58",
    "TTY": "?",
    "TIME": "00:00:00",
    "CMD": "[kthreadd]"
  },
  {
    "UID": "root",
    "PID": "4",
    "PPID": "2",
    "C": "0",
    "STIME": "13:58",
    "TTY": "?",
    "TIME": "00:00:00",
    "CMD": "[kworker/0:0H]"
  },
  {
    "UID": "root",
    "PID": "6",
    "PPID": "2",
    "C": "0",
    "STIME": "13:58",
    "TTY": "?",
    "TIME": "00:00:00",
    "CMD": "[mm_percpu_wq]"
  },
  ...
]

route

$ route -n | jc --route -p
[
  {
    "Destination": "0.0.0.0",
    "Gateway": "192.168.71.2",
    "Genmask": "0.0.0.0",
    "Flags": "UG",
    "Metric": "100",
    "Ref": "0",
    "Use": "0",
    "Iface": "ens33"
  },
  {
    "Destination": "172.17.0.0",
    "Gateway": "0.0.0.0",
    "Genmask": "255.255.0.0",
    "Flags": "U",
    "Metric": "0",
    "Ref": "0",
    "Use": "0",
    "Iface": "docker0"
  },
  {
    "Destination": "192.168.71.0",
    "Gateway": "0.0.0.0",
    "Genmask": "255.255.255.0",
    "Flags": "U",
    "Metric": "0",
    "Ref": "0",
    "Use": "0",
    "Iface": "ens33"
  },
  {
    "Destination": "192.168.71.2",
    "Gateway": "0.0.0.0",
    "Genmask": "255.255.255.255",
    "Flags": "UH",
    "Metric": "100",
    "Ref": "0",
    "Use": "0",
    "Iface": "ens33"
  }
]

Contributions

Feel free to add/improve code or parsers!

Acknowledgments

• ifconfig-parser module from https://github.com/KnightWhoSayNi/ifconfig-parser
• Parsing code from Conor Heine at https://gist.github.com/cahna/43a1a3ff4d075bcd71f9d7120037a501