r"""Command-line tool to validate and pretty-print JSON Usage:: $ echo '{"json":"obj"}' | python -m json.tool { "json": "obj" } $ echo '{ 1.2:3.4}' | python -m json.tool Expecting property name enclosed in double quotes: line 1 column 3 (char 2) """ import argparse import collections import json import sys def main(): prog = 'python -m json.tool' description = ('A simple command line interface for json module ' 'to validate and pretty-print JSON objects.') parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog=prog, description=description) parser.add_argument('infile', nargs='?', type=argparse.FileType(), help='a JSON file to be validated or pretty-printed') parser.add_argument('outfile', nargs='?', type=argparse.FileType('w'), help='write the output of infile to outfile') parser.add_argument('--sort-keys', action='store_true', default=False, help='sort the output of dictionaries alphabetically by key') options = parser.parse_args() infile = options.infile or sys.stdin outfile = options.outfile or sys.stdout sort_keys = options.sort_keys with infile: try: if sort_keys: obj = json.load(infile) else: obj = json.load(infile, object_pairs_hook=collections.OrderedDict) except ValueError as e: raise SystemExit(e) with outfile: json.dump(obj, outfile, sort_keys=sort_keys, indent=4) outfile.write('\n') if __name__ == '__main__': main()