Using jc With Different Shells

Bash

You will typically use JSON filter utilities like jq, jello, jp, etc. to work with JSON output in Bash.

$ myvar=$(dig www.google.com | jc --dig | jq -r '.[0].answer[0].data')
$ echo $myvar
64.233.185.104

$ myvar=$(jc dig www.google.com | jello -r '_[0].answer[0].data')
$ echo $myvar
64.233.185.104

• jq documentation: https://devdocs.io/jq/
• jello documentation: https://github.com/kellyjonbrazil/jello
• jp documentation: https://jmespath.org/tutorial.html

cmd.exe (Windows)

You can use jq, jello, jp, and other JSON filter utilities on the legacy command line and in batch files

C:> dig www.google.com | jc --dig | jq -r ".[0].answer[0].data"
64.233.185.104

C:> jc dig www.google.com | jello -r "_[0].answer[0].data"
64.233.185.104

• jq documentation: https://devdocs.io/jq/
• jello documentation: https://github.com/kellyjonbrazil/jello
• jp documentation: https://jmespath.org/tutorial.html

Elvish

You can use the from-json builtin to read JSON data into a variable

$ myvar = dig www.google.com | jc --dig | from-json
$ put $myvar[0]['answer'][0]['data']
▶ 64.233.185.104

See https://elv.sh/ref/builtin.html for more info.

NGS

In Next Generation Shell, you will typically use the double-backtick "run and parse" syntax with jc and built-in features for data filtering and other manipulation. Examples:

``jc dig example.com``[0].answer
``jc ifconfig``.the_one({"name": "en0"}).ipv4_addr
``jc ifconfig``.name.filter(/tun/)
``jc ifconfig``.filter({"name": /tun/}).mtu

Notes:

• Non-zero exit code from jc will cause an exception to be thrown.
• The double-backtick will parse any JSON, not just output of jc.
• the_one() will throw an exception if there is not exactly one matching item.
• .name and .mtu result an array as .FIELD_NAME on an array is defined as mapping each element to the given field.

Next Generation Shell documentation: https://ngs-lang.org/doc/latest/index.html

Nu Shell

You can use the from json builtin to read JSON data into a variable

> myvar = dig www.google.com | jc --dig | from json
> echo $myvar | get 0.answer.0.data
64.233.185.104

See https://www.nushell.sh/book/ for more info.

Oil

You can use the json read builtin to read JSON data into a variable

$ dig www.google.com | jc --dig | json read myvar
$ json write (myvar[0]['answer'][0]['data']) | json read mydata
$ echo $mydata
64.233.185.104

See https://www.oilshell.org/preview/doc/json.html for more info.

PowerShell

You can use the ConvertFrom-Json utility to parse JSON output from jc

PS C:> myvar = dig www.google.com | jc --dig | ConvertFrom-Json
PS C:> Write-Output $myvar[0].answer[0].data
64.233.185.104

See https://techgenix.com/json-with-powershell/ for more info.