4 ms·

Is there a tool that returns linux system information in json format, that works for most kernel versions and / is actively supported? i think it would be easie

Is there a tool that returns linux system information in json format, that works for most kernel versions and / is actively supported? i think it would be easier to pipe through jq in order to get a desired value, rather then pipe through grep/awk/sed.

aepiepaey 7y ago
There's facter (used by and developed for Puppet): https://github.com/puppetlabs/facter https://github.com/puppetlabs/facter Pass --json for JSON output.
bkq 7y ago
There's jc [1], that can return the JSON output of standard Linux CLI tools. [1] - https://github.com/kellyjonbrazil/jc https://github.com/kellyjonbrazil/jc
- dejj 7y ago
  This is neat. Set your locale to English for parsers to work: LANG=en jc df
- fizixer 7y ago
  Off-topic: Whenever I start thinking about json (or xml) I get lost in the turtle tower of metadata. Like 'jc ls' gives json output with following entry format: { "filename": "[actual-filename-string]" } Then I start asking: why not simply { "[actual-filename-string]" } ? But then why stop at keyword value pairs? Why not: { "keyword": "filename", "value": "[actual-filename-string]" } But then why not: { { "metakeyword": "keyword", "metavalue": "filename" }, { "metakeyword": "value", "metavalue": "[actual-filename-string]" } } And so on. Surely I can't be the only one. Would love to have this discussed, where to draw the line (and why), what's the utility, and so on.
  - msla 7y ago
    > Like 'jc ls' gives json output with following entry format: { "filename": "[actual-filename-string]" } > Then I start asking: why not simply { "[actual-filename-string]" } ? Because the first at least has a stab at being self-documenting, and maybe even forwards- and backwards-compatible: The file is saying what the values are (unless you're kinda dumb when choosing keys) and, since programs can ask for values by name, older programs won't have to deal with keys added by newer versions and newer programs can deal with missing values more gracefully than abandoning a whole parse because the record has six values instead of ten. > But then why not: > { { "metakeyword": "keyword", "metavalue": "filename" }, { "metakeyword": "value", "metavalue": "[actual-filename-string]" } } Same information, now more verbose. Is there ever going to be a key other than "metakeyword" in that slot? If not, drop it.
  - dejj 7y ago
    For a related discussion, see "Evolution of a Haskell Programmer": https://willamette.edu/~fruehr/haskell/evolution.html https://willamette.edu/~fruehr/haskell/evolution.html
  - Xophmeister 7y ago
    { "[actual-filename-string]" } ...isn't valid JSON. As for going up the metatower, my personal take on this would be to strive for brevity. That is, what's the least structure we can get away with to unambiguously serialise what is needed? In most(?) cases, this is probably best: { "filename": "whatever", "foo": "bar", "etc": "etc" } However, maybe there are instances where: [ { "attribute": "filename", "value": "whatever" }, { "attribute": "foo", "value": "bar" }, { "attribute": "etc", "value": "etc" } ] ...is more appropriate. If, for example, you need to encode a flexible schema, rather than a fixed one.
    - swiley 7y ago
      If brevity is what you want then what’s wrong with the default field record ls output? It’s even a regular language!
- tjoff 7y ago
  The answer to 'who would parse the result of ls' is answered in the first example of the readme. I feel one might be tricked into believing this is a more sensible or stable than awk/sed.
de_watcher 7y ago
Oh, that "easier" is very much a matter of preference. For me jq/yq is long syntax, slow execution, needs installation, format of the numbers is questionable. Netplan with its yaml config made into the mainstream, so there is hope that problems will be addressed because of friction it and similar subsystems create.
jhoechtl 7y ago
Output of systemd can be configured to return JSON: -o json OR -o json-pretty
- arminiusreturns 7y ago
  I was going to say this has come in very handy when shipping from systemd to syslog type parsers.
robmccoll 7y ago
I realize this doesn't give you JSON, but if the goal is to retrieve information with little-to-no parsing, /etc/os-release defines everything in environment variable format. You can just source it and then use the environment variables directly for distro info.

aepiepaey 7y ago

There's facter (used by and developed for Puppet): https://github.com/puppetlabs/facter https://github.com/puppetlabs/facter Pass --json for JSON output.

bkq 7y ago

There's jc [1], that can return the JSON output of standard Linux CLI tools. [1] - https://github.com/kellyjonbrazil/jc https://github.com/kellyjonbrazil/jc

dejj 7y ago
This is neat. Set your locale to English for parsers to work: LANG=en jc df
fizixer 7y ago
Off-topic: Whenever I start thinking about json (or xml) I get lost in the turtle tower of metadata. Like 'jc ls' gives json output with following entry format: { "filename": "[actual-filename-string]" } Then I start asking: why not simply { "[actual-filename-string]" } ? But then why stop at keyword value pairs? Why not: { "keyword": "filename", "value": "[actual-filename-string]" } But then why not: { { "metakeyword": "keyword", "metavalue": "filename" }, { "metakeyword": "value", "metavalue": "[actual-filename-string]" } } And so on. Surely I can't be the only one. Would love to have this discussed, where to draw the line (and why), what's the utility, and so on.
- msla 7y ago
  > Like 'jc ls' gives json output with following entry format: { "filename": "[actual-filename-string]" } > Then I start asking: why not simply { "[actual-filename-string]" } ? Because the first at least has a stab at being self-documenting, and maybe even forwards- and backwards-compatible: The file is saying what the values are (unless you're kinda dumb when choosing keys) and, since programs can ask for values by name, older programs won't have to deal with keys added by newer versions and newer programs can deal with missing values more gracefully than abandoning a whole parse because the record has six values instead of ten. > But then why not: > { { "metakeyword": "keyword", "metavalue": "filename" }, { "metakeyword": "value", "metavalue": "[actual-filename-string]" } } Same information, now more verbose. Is there ever going to be a key other than "metakeyword" in that slot? If not, drop it.
- dejj 7y ago
  For a related discussion, see "Evolution of a Haskell Programmer": https://willamette.edu/~fruehr/haskell/evolution.html https://willamette.edu/~fruehr/haskell/evolution.html
- Xophmeister 7y ago
  { "[actual-filename-string]" } ...isn't valid JSON. As for going up the metatower, my personal take on this would be to strive for brevity. That is, what's the least structure we can get away with to unambiguously serialise what is needed? In most(?) cases, this is probably best: { "filename": "whatever", "foo": "bar", "etc": "etc" } However, maybe there are instances where: [ { "attribute": "filename", "value": "whatever" }, { "attribute": "foo", "value": "bar" }, { "attribute": "etc", "value": "etc" } ] ...is more appropriate. If, for example, you need to encode a flexible schema, rather than a fixed one.
  - swiley 7y ago
    If brevity is what you want then what’s wrong with the default field record ls output? It’s even a regular language!
tjoff 7y ago
The answer to 'who would parse the result of ls' is answered in the first example of the readme. I feel one might be tricked into believing this is a more sensible or stable than awk/sed.

de_watcher 7y ago

Oh, that "easier" is very much a matter of preference. For me jq/yq is long syntax, slow execution, needs installation, format of the numbers is questionable. Netplan with its yaml config made into the mainstream, so there is hope that problems will be addressed because of friction it and similar subsystems create.

jhoechtl 7y ago

Output of systemd can be configured to return JSON: -o json OR -o json-pretty

arminiusreturns 7y ago
I was going to say this has come in very handy when shipping from systemd to syslog type parsers.

robmccoll 7y ago

I realize this doesn't give you JSON, but if the goal is to retrieve information with little-to-no parsing, /etc/os-release defines everything in environment variable format. You can just source it and then use the environment variables directly for distro info.