Display curl output in readable JSON format in Unix shell script

Question

In my Unix shell script, when I execute a curl command, the result will be displayed as below which I am redirecting to file:

{"type":"Show","id":"123","title":"name","description":"Funny","channelTitle":"ifood.tv","lastUpdateTimestamp":"2014-04-20T20:34:59","numOfVideos":"15"}

But, I want this output to put in the readable JSON format like below in the file:

{"type":"Show", "id":"123", "title":"name", "description":"Funny", "channelTitle":"ifood.tv", "lastUpdateTimestamp":"2014-04-20T20:34:59", "numOfVideos":"15"}

How do I format the output this way?

Pay attention to the answer below about ijq. This is the only solution that allows you to display json along with headers (key -i). Very useful. — mikeziminio
– mikeziminio, Commented May 15, 2024 at 19:18

Gilles Quénot · Accepted Answer · 2023-09-05 17:52:17Z

A few solutions to choose from:

json json is a fast CLI tool for working with JSON. It is a single-file node.js script with no external deps (other than node.js itself).

$ echo '{"type":"Bar","id":"1","title":"Foo"}' | json { "type": "Bar", "id": "1", "title": "Foo" }

Require:

# npm install -g json

json_pp: command utility available in Linux systems for JSON decoding/encoding

echo '{"type":"Bar","id":"1","title":"Foo"}' | json_pp -json_opt pretty,canonical { "id" : "1", "title" : "Foo", "type" : "Bar" }

You may want to keep the -json_opt pretty,canonical argument for predictable ordering.

jq: lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor. It is written in portable C, and it has zero runtime dependencies.

echo '{"type":"Bar","id":"1","title":"Foo"}' | jq '.' { "type": "Bar", "id": "1", "title": "Foo" }

The simplest jq program is the expression ., which takes the input and produces it unchanged as output.

For additional jq options check the manual

python yq yq: Command-line YAML/XML/TOML processor - jq wrapper for YAML, XML, TOML documents

$ echo '{"type":"Bar","id":"1","title":"Foo"}' | yq { "type": "Bar", "id": "1", "title": "Foo" }

The go version go yq doesn't work here

With xidel Command line tool to download and extract data from HTML/XML pages or JSON-APIs, using CSS, XPath 3.0, XQuery 3.0, JSONiq or pattern matching. It can also create new or transformed XML/HTML/JSON documents.

$ echo '{"type":"Bar","id":"1","title":"Foo"}' | xidel -e '$json' { "type": "Bar", "id": "1", "title": "Foo" }

with python:

echo '{"type":"Bar","id":"1","title":"Foo"}' | python -m json.tool { "id": "1", "title": "Foo", "type": "Bar" }

with nodejs and bash:

echo '{"type":"Bar","id":"1","title":"Foo"}' | node -p "JSON.stringify( JSON.parse(require('fs').readFileSync(0) ), 0, 1 )" { "type": "Bar", "id": "1", "title": "Foo" }

is this the way ?curl -i -vs -X POST -H "$SESSION_TOKEN" -H "$AUTH_TOKEN" -H "Accept:$ACCEPT_HEADER" -H "Content-Type:text/plain" "http://$BASE_URI/api" | json_pp >> jsonoutput.json
json_pp seems to format data in reverse order than it's expected. Is there a way to un-reverse data?
json_pp is a Perl command utility which converts between some input and output formats (one of them JSON). The default input format is json and the default output format is json with pretty option.

Uchenna Adubasim · Accepted Answer · 2025-06-30 12:42:37Z

104

I am guessing that you want to prettify the JSON output. That could be achieved using python:

curl http://localhost:8880/test.json | python -m json.tool > out.json

edited Jun 30 at 12:42

Uchenna Adubasim

5,4587 gold badges16 silver badges36 bronze badges

answered Dec 1, 2014 at 22:24

0xbb

1,1761 gold badge6 silver badges4 bronze badges

6 Comments

Jams Over a year ago

Thanks for answering. But i am not using Python, im using shell. can u guide me on shell

agconti Over a year ago

@Jams that executes python from the shell giving your a pretty printed output.

Gayan Weerakutti Over a year ago

Great solution as python comes preinstalled.

Crouching Kitten Over a year ago

That python script gives a "broken pipe" error when I add a " | head" to it.

code_dredd Over a year ago

@CrouchingKitten I don't see that problem myself (maybe different versions), but that may be due to the head command cutting off the output being piped to it before reaching the end, thus "breaking" the pipe. If you allow head to consume the entire data stream from the pipe, I'd expect the error to not show up.

|

Zack · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-12 05:23:51Z

This is to add to of Gilles' Answer. There are many ways to get this done but personally I prefer something lightweight, easy to remember and universally available (e.g. come with standard LTS installations of your preferred Linux flavor or easy to install) on common *nix systems.

Here are the options in their preferred order:

Python Json.tool module

echo '{"foo": "lorem", "bar": "ipsum"}' | python -mjson.tool

pros: almost available everywhere; cons: no color coding

jq (may require one time installation)

echo '{"foo": "lorem", "bar": "ipsum"}' | jq

cons: needs to install jq; pros: color coding and versatile

json_pp (available in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS)

echo '{"foo": "lorem", "bar": "ipsum"}' | json_pp

For Ruby users

gem install jsonpretty echo '{"foo": "lorem", "bar": "ipsum"}' | jsonpretty

Thanks @zhenhua! I used cat myFile.json | python -mjson.tool >> myFilePretty.json then opened in my editor (vim, don't hate) and got colors.

Michael Johansen · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-01 07:12:22Z

48

You can use the json node module:

npm i -g json

then simply append | json after curl. curl http://localhost:8880/test.json | json

edited Dec 1, 2020 at 7:12

Michael Johansen

1,50514 silver badges24 bronze badges

answered Jul 2, 2019 at 9:35

NanoNova

97310 silver badges21 bronze badges

3 Comments

eazy_g Over a year ago

I would remove the comment and part about sudo if you don't recommend it haha. I agree it's not necessary. Thanks for the answer

Michael Johansen Over a year ago

If you don't want to install the json module, you could use it directly with npx: curl http://localhost:8880/test.json | npx json

nico Over a year ago

this should be the accepted response IMO, this is the easiest way to go. no options required, outputs exactly what you'd expect

Arefe · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-17 10:16:40Z

48

You can install jq and make the query like below:

curl http://localhost:8080/observations/station/221 | jq

answered Dec 17, 2021 at 10:16

Arefe

12.6k25 gold badges135 silver badges198 bronze badges

6 Comments

Ahmed Hasn. Over a year ago

why do I get command not found when I use it like this but not when I just run jq without anything else?

Arefe Over a year ago

@AhmedHasn. What OS do you use? Anyways, irrespective of that, you will need to install the jq and it should work.

Ahmed Hasn. Over a year ago

RHEL7 but as I said jq is installed and it works if I don't use it in a pipe

vimal krishna Over a year ago

This is the simplest, to-the-point answer. Install jq tool in Linux and jq is used in many cases.

BozoJoe Over a year ago

works on windows too

|

Vega · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-16 04:42:08Z

29

python -m json.tool Curl http://127.0.0.1:5000/people/api.json | python -m json.tool

can also help.

edited Mar 16, 2019 at 4:42

Vega

28.8k28 gold badges121 silver badges151 bronze badges

answered Mar 16, 2019 at 4:25

Vishnu

3033 silver badges10 bronze badges

Comments

Ahsan · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-20 10:17:20Z

20

I found json_reformat to be very handy. So I just did the following:

curl http://127.0.0.1:5000/people/api.json | json_reformat

that's it!

answered Jul 20, 2016 at 10:17

Ahsan

4,1622 gold badges40 silver badges37 bronze badges

2 Comments

Kevin Over a year ago

If using Ubuntu you can find json_reformat in the yajl-tools package.

Lemmy_Caution Over a year ago

In fedora 25 it works fine. Thanks.

Zack · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-11 19:48:15Z

Motivation: You want to print prettify JSON response after curl command request.

Solution: json_pp - commandline tool that converts between some input and output formats (one of them is JSON). This program was copied from json_xs and modified. The default input format is json and the default output format is json with pretty option.

Synposis: json_pp [-v] [-f from_format] [-t to_format] [-json_opt options_to_json1[,options_to_json2[,...]]]

Formula: <someCommand> | json_pp

Example:

Request

curl -X https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1 | json_pp

Response

{ "completed" : false, "id" : 1, "title" : "delectus aut autem", "userId" : 1 }

mitnk · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-29 10:02:39Z

7

Check out curljson

$ pip install curljson $ curljson -i <the-json-api-url>

answered Aug 29, 2018 at 10:02

mitnk

3,3473 gold badges24 silver badges31 bronze badges

Comments

Gene · Accepted Answer · 2023-12-28 04:38:24Z

If you use mac's terminal, jq is built-in and you don't need to install anything. Just append | jq to your CURL command and you will get the formatted json. An example: When you execute this:

curl http://time.jsontest.com/ | jq

you will get this:

 % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 100 100 100 0 0 388 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 389 { "date": "12-28-2023", "milliseconds_since_epoch": 1703738250474, "time": "04:37:30 AM" }

Tasawar Hussain · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-21 10:55:04Z

A lot more features (slice, filter and map and transform structured ) apart from formatting.

https://stedolan.github.io/jq/

curl 'https://api.github.com/repos/stedolan/jq/commits?per_page=5' | jq '.[0]'

{ "sha": "d25341478381063d1c76e81b3a52e0592a7c997f", "commit": { "author": { "name": "Stephen Dolan", "email": "[email protected]", "date": "2013-06-22T16:30:59Z" }, "committer": { "name": "Stephen Dolan", "email": "[email protected]", "date": "2013-06-22T16:30:59Z" }, "message": "Merge pull request #162 from stedolan/utf8-fixes\n\nUtf8 fixes. Closes #161", "tree": { "sha": "6ab697a8dfb5a96e124666bf6d6213822599fb40", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/stedolan/jq/git/trees/6ab697a8dfb5a96e124666bf6d6213822599fb40" }, "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/stedolan/jq/git/commits/d25341478381063d1c76e81b3a52e0592a7c997f", "comment_count": 0 }, "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/stedolan/jq/commits/d25341478381063d1c76e81b3a52e0592a7c997f", "html_url": "https://github.com/stedolan/jq/commit/d25341478381063d1c76e81b3a52e0592a7c997f", "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/stedolan/jq/commits/d25341478381063d1c76e81b3a52e0592a7c997f/comments", "author": { "login": "stedolan", "id": 79765, "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/79765?v=3", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan", "html_url": "https://github.com/stedolan", "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/followers", "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/orgs", "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/repos", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/received_events", "type": "User", "site_admin": false }, "committer": { "login": "stedolan", "id": 79765, "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/79765?v=3", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan", "html_url": "https://github.com/stedolan", "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/followers", "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/orgs", "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/repos", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/stedolan/received_events", "type": "User", "site_admin": false }, "parents": [ { "sha": "54b9c9bdb225af5d886466d72f47eafc51acb4f7", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/stedolan/jq/commits/54b9c9bdb225af5d886466d72f47eafc51acb4f7", "html_url": "https://github.com/stedolan/jq/commit/54b9c9bdb225af5d886466d72f47eafc51acb4f7" }, { "sha": "8b1b503609c161fea4b003a7179b3fbb2dd4345a", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/stedolan/jq/commits/8b1b503609c161fea4b003a7179b3fbb2dd4345a", "html_url": "https://github.com/stedolan/jq/commit/8b1b503609c161fea4b003a7179b3fbb2dd4345a" } ] }

ifrag · Accepted Answer · 2023-07-26 16:53:50Z

In real cases sometimes you need use -i option in curl to get headers

$ curl https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet/1 -i HTTP/2 200 date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 16:46:39 GMT content-type: application/json access-control-allow-origin: * access-control-allow-methods: GET, POST, DELETE, PUT access-control-allow-headers: Content-Type, api_key, Authorization server: Jetty(9.2.9.v20150224) {"id":1,"category":{"id":0,"name":"zbyszek"},"name":"pies","photoUrls":["string"],"tags":[{"id":0,"name":"pies"}],"status":"available"}

in that case, pure jq/json_pp/json_reformat will fail:

curl https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet/1 -i | jq % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 138 0 138 0 0 108 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01 --:--:-- 109 parse error: Invalid numeric literal at line 1, column 7

I offer to use ijq https://github.com/1frag/ijq that ignores non-json lines

curl https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet/1 -i | ijq % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 51 0 51 0 0 41 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01 --:--:-- 41 HTTP/2 404 date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 16:51:58 GMT content-type: application/json access-control-allow-origin: * access-control-allow-methods: GET, POST, DELETE, PUT access-control-allow-headers: Content-Type, api_key, Authorization server: Jetty(9.2.9.v20150224) { "code": 1, "message": "Pet not found", "type": "error" }

Realy the best answer among other. Thanks! I use your tool in this way: curl -i ... | ijq --no-color | nvim Very useful.

Reino · Accepted Answer · 2025-04-12 22:53:17Z

With the JSON-parser xidel:

$ curl [...] | xidel -se '$json'

Or directly with Xidel:

$ xidel -s "<url>" -e '$json'

Iurii Perevertailo · Accepted Answer · 2024-07-03 09:31:04Z

Nothing needs to be installed if you have node.js installed. With node.js you can use JSON.stringify function, just add:

| node <<< "console.log(JSON.stringify($(cat), null, 4));"

For example:

curl http://localhost:8080/test.json | node <<< "console.log(JSON.stringify($(cat), null, 4));"

OR

echo '{"foo": "lorem", "bar": "ipsum"}'| node <<< "console.log(JSON.stringify($(cat), null, 4));"

4 = count of spaces for indentation.

Vy Do · Accepted Answer · 2023-09-15 10:31:11Z

Install

$ sudo apt install python3-pip $ sudo pip install curljson

then using, example:

$ curljson -i localhost:9080/actuator/health ; echo HTTP/1.1 200 Content-Type: application/vnd.spring-boot.actuator.v3+json Transfer-Encoding: chunked Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:28:55 GMT { "status": "UP" }

Tested with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS .

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Display curl output in readable JSON format in Unix shell script

15 Answers 15

11 Comments

6 Comments

1 Comment

3 Comments

6 Comments

Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Comments

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

15 Answers 15

11 Comments

6 Comments

1 Comment

3 Comments

6 Comments

Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Comments

Linked

Related