Why?

• Because I like my yaml file to be nicely formatted

• Because https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=adamvoss.yaml creates (valid) yaml not compatible for kubernetes (and I mainly edit yaml files for kubernetes)

• Because https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=redhat.vscode-yaml does not add explicit start of documents and I don’t like it this way

• Because I’m not a js/typescript dev so I don’t want to go into a VSCode extension with client and server language

What?

> ./yamkix -h
usage: yamkix [-h] -i INPUT [-t TYP] [-o OUTPUT] [-n] [-e] [-q] [-f] [-d]

Format yaml input file. By default, explicit_start is `On`, explicit_end is
`Off` and array elements are pushed inwards the start of the matching
sequence. Comments are preserved thanks to default parsing mode `rt`.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i INPUT, --input INPUT
                        the file to parse
  -t TYP, --typ TYP     the yaml parser mode. Can be `safe` or `rt`
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        the name of the file to generate (same as input file
                        if not specied)
  -n, --no-explicit-start
                        by default, explicit start of the yaml doc is `On`,
                        you can disable it with this option
  -e, --explicit-end    by default, explicit end of the yaml doc is `Off`, you
                        can enable it with this option
  -q, --no-quotes-preserved
                        by default, quotes are preserverd you can disable this
                        with this option
  -f, --default-flow-style
                        enable the default flow style `Off` by default. In
                        default flow style (with typ=`rt`), maps and lists are
                        written like json
  -d, --no-dash-inwards
                        by default, dash are pushed inwards use `--no-dash-inwards` to have the dash start at the sequence level

Config

• Explicit start of yaml docs by default (you can disable it with --no-explicit-start)

• Quotes preserved by default (you can disable it with --no-quotes-preserved)

• Arrays elements pushed inwards by default (you can disable it with --no-dash-inwards)

• Output file is input file by default

• Comments preserved by default thanks to ruamel.yaml round_trip mode (you can disable it with --typ safe)

To preserve or not to preserve quotes?

• Quotes preserved means : if there were quotes in the input, they will also be present in the output, and it will be the same type (single/double) of quotes

• Quotes not preserved means :

  • if quotes are not necessary (around pure strings), they will be removed

  • if quotes are present around booleans and numbers, they will be converted to default (single quotes)

  • if quotes are not present around booleans and numbers, there will be no quotes in the output too

Note: there is no option for the moment to force the usage of double quotes when -q/–no-quotes-preserved is used.

---
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1 # with comment
kind: ReplicaSet
metadata:
  name: tname
  namespace: tns
  annotations:
    string_no_quotes: frontend
    string_single_quotes: 'frontend'
    string_double_quotes: "frontend"
    boolean_no_quotes: true
    boolean_single_quotes: 'true'
    boolean_double_quotes: "true"
    number_no_quotes: 1
    number_single_quotes: '1'
    number_double_quotes: "1"

---
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1 # with comment
kind: ReplicaSet
metadata:
  name: tname
  namespace: tns
  annotations:
    string_no_quotes: frontend
    string_single_quotes: 'frontend'
    string_double_quotes: "frontend"
    boolean_no_quotes: true
    boolean_single_quotes: 'true'
    boolean_double_quotes: "true"
    number_no_quotes: 1
    number_single_quotes: '1'
    number_double_quotes: "1"

---
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1 # with comment
kind: ReplicaSet
metadata:
  name: tname
  namespace: tns
  annotations:
    string_no_quotes: frontend
    string_single_quotes: 'frontend'
    string_double_quotes: "frontend"
    boolean_no_quotes: true
    boolean_single_quotes: 'true'
    boolean_double_quotes: "true"
    number_no_quotes: 1
    number_single_quotes: '1'
    number_double_quotes: "1"

---
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1 # with comment
kind: ReplicaSet
metadata:
  name: tname
  namespace: tns
  annotations:
    string_no_quotes: frontend
    string_single_quotes: frontend
    string_double_quotes: frontend
    boolean_no_quotes: true
    boolean_single_quotes: 'true'
    boolean_double_quotes: 'true'
    number_no_quotes: 1
    number_single_quotes: '1'
    number_double_quotes: '1'

Where does the name ‘yamkix’ come from?

• Thanks to http://online-generator.com/name-generator/product-name-generator.php that suggested me zamkix. Just switched the starting z for the y of yaml

Usage

• Install the package with pip install --user yamkix

• Sample vscode task :

{
  "taskName": "format yaml with yamkix",
  "type": "shell",
  "command": "yamkix --input ${file}",
  "group": "build",
  "presentation": {
    "reveal": "always",
    "panel": "shared"
  },
  "problemMatcher": []
}

Hack

python3 -m virtualenv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements_dev.txt
make all

Acknowledgements

• Dependencies scanned by PyUp.io