How to validate the YAML file from command line

yaml

I am having issues pulling from a YAML config file:

Fatal error: while parsing a block mapping; expected <block end>, but found block entry

While there are plenty of online YAML validators, which I have tried and have helped, I'd like to validate my YAML files from the command line and integrate this into my continuous integration pipeline.

How can I validate the syntax of a YAML file on the command line?

Best Answer

With basic Ruby installation this should work:

ruby -ryaml -e "p YAML.load(STDIN.read)" < data.yaml

Python version (thx @Murphy):

pip install pyyaml
python -c 'import yaml, sys; print(yaml.safe_load(sys.stdin))' < data.yaml

Related Solutions

How to include a YAML file inside another

No, YAML does not include any kind of "import" or "include" statement.

Python – How to parse a YAML file in Python

The easiest and purest method without relying on C headers is PyYaml (documentation), which can be installed via pip install pyyaml:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import yaml

with open("example.yaml", "r") as stream:
    try:
        print(yaml.safe_load(stream))
    except yaml.YAMLError as exc:
        print(exc)

And that's it. A plain yaml.load() function also exists, but yaml.safe_load() should always be preferred unless you explicitly need the arbitrary object serialization/deserialization provided in order to avoid introducing the possibility for arbitrary code execution.

Note the PyYaml project supports versions up through the YAML 1.1 specification. If YAML 1.2 specification support is needed, see ruamel.yaml as noted in this answer.

Also, you could also use a drop in replacement for pyyaml, that keeps your yaml file ordered the same way you had it, called oyaml. View synk of oyaml here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to include a YAML file inside another

Python – How to parse a YAML file in Python

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