gron

# gron
[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/tomnomnom/gron.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/tomnomnom/gron)

Make JSON greppable!

gron transforms JSON into discrete assignments to make it easier to `grep` for what you want and see the absolute 'path' to it.
It eases the exploration of APIs that return large blobs of JSON but have terrible documentation.

<pre>
▶ <b>gron</b> "https://api.github.com/repos/tomnomnom/gron/commits?per_page=1" | fgrep "commit.author"
json[0].commit.author = {};
json[0].commit.author.date = "2016-07-02T10:51:21Z";
json[0].commit.author.email = "mail@tomnomnom.com";
json[0].commit.author.name = "Tom Hudson";
</pre>

gron can work backwards too, enabling you to turn your filtered data back into JSON:
<pre>
▶ gron "https://api.github.com/repos/tomnomnom/gron/commits?per_page=1" | fgrep "commit.author" | <b>gron --ungron</b>
[
  {
    "commit": {
      "author": {
        "date": "2016-07-02T10:51:21Z",
        "email": "mail@tomnomnom.com",
        "name": "Tom Hudson"
      }
    }
  }
]
</pre>

> Disclaimer: the GitHub API has fantastic documentation, but it makes for a good example.

## Installation

gron has no runtime dependencies. You can just [download a binary for Linux, Mac, Windows or FreeBSD and run it](https://github.com/tomnomnom/gron/releases).
Put the binary in your `$PATH` (e.g. in `/usr/local/bin`) to make it easy to use:
```
▶ tar xzf gron-linux-amd64-0.1.5.tgz
▶ sudo mv gron /usr/local/bin/
```

If you're a Mac user you can also [install gron via brew](http://braumeister.org/formula/gron):
```
▶ brew install gron
```

Or if you're a Go user you can use `go install`:

```
▶ go install github.com/tomnomnom/gron@latest
```

It's recommended that you alias `ungron` or `norg` (or both!) to `gron --ungron`. Put something like this in your shell profile (e.g. in `~/.bashrc`):
```
alias norg="gron --ungron"
alias ungron="gron --ungron"
```
Or you could create a shell script in your $PATH named `ungron` or `norg` to affect all users:
```
gron --ungron "$@"
```

## Usage

Get JSON from a file:

```
▶ gron testdata/two.json 
json = {};
json.contact = {};
json.contact.email = "mail@tomnomnom.com";
json.contact.twitter = "@TomNomNom";
json.github = "https://github.com/tomnomnom/";
json.likes = [];
json.likes[0] = "code";
json.likes[1] = "cheese";
json.likes[2] = "meat";
json.name = "Tom";
```

From a URL:

```
▶ gron http://headers.jsontest.com/
json = {};
json.Host = "headers.jsontest.com";
json["User-Agent"] = "gron/0.1";
json["X-Cloud-Trace-Context"] = "6917a823919477919dbc1523584ba25d/11970839830843610056";
```

Or from `stdin`:

```
▶ curl -s http://headers.jsontest.com/ | gron
json = {};
json.Accept = "*/*";
json.Host = "headers.jsontest.com";
json["User-Agent"] = "curl/7.43.0";
json["X-Cloud-Trace-Context"] = "c70f7bf26661c67d0b9f2cde6f295319/13941186890243645147";
```

Grep for something and easily see the path to it:

```
▶ gron testdata/two.json | grep twitter
json.contact.twitter = "@TomNomNom"