ion-cli

This repository is home to the ion command line tool, which provides subcommands for working with the Ion data format.

Table of contents

• Examples
  • Converting between formats with dump
  • Analyzing binary Ion file encodings with inspect
• Installation
  • via brew
  • via cargo
• Build Instructions
  • From source
  • Using Docker

Examples

These examples use the .ion file extension for text Ion and the .10n file extension for binary Ion. This is simply a convention; the tool does not evaluate the file extension.

Unless otherwise noted, these commands can accept any Ion format as input.

Converting between formats with dump

Convert Ion text (or JSON) to Ion binary:

ion dump --format binary my_file.ion

Convert Ion binary to generously-spaced, human-friendly text:

ion dump --format pretty my_file.10n

Convert Ion binary to minimally-spaced, compact text:

ion dump --format text my_file.10n

Analyzing binary Ion file encodings with inspect

The beta inspect command can display the hex bytes of a binary Ion file alongside the equivalent text Ion for easier analysis.

# Write some text Ion to a file
echo '{foo: null, bar: true, baz: [1, 2, 3]}' > my_file.ion

# Convert the text Ion to binary Ion
ion dump --format binary my_file.ion > my_file.10n

# Show the binary encoding alongside its equivalent text 
ion beta inspect my_file.10n

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Offset   |  Length   |        Binary Ion        |         Text Ion
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
          |         4 | e0 01 00 ea              |  // Ion 1.0 Version Marker
        4 |         4 | ee 95 81 83              |  '$ion_symbol_table':: // $3::
        8 |        19 | de 91                    |  {
       10 |         1 | 86                       |    'imports': // $6:
       11 |         2 | 71 03                    |    $ion_symbol_table, // $3
       13 |         1 | 87                       |    'symbols': // $7:
       14 |        13 | bc                       |    [
       15 |         4 | 83 66 6f 6f              |       "foo",
       19 |         4 | 83 62 61 72              |       "bar",
       23 |         4 | 83 62 61 7a              |       "baz",
          |           |                          |    ],
          |           |                          |  }
       27 |        13 | dc                       |  {
       28 |         1 | 8a                       |    'foo': // $10:
       29 |         1 | 0f                       |     null,
       30 |         1 | 8b                       |    'bar': // $11:
       31 |         1 | 11                       |     true,
       32 |         1 | 8c                       |    'baz': // $12:
       33 |         7 | b6                       |    [
       34 |         2 | 21 01                    |       1,
       36 |         2 | 21 02                    |       2,
       38 |         2 | 21 03                    |       3,
          |           |                          |    ],
          |           |                          |  }

To skip to a particular offset in the stream, you can use the --skip-bytes flag:

ion beta inspect --skip-bytes 30 my_file.10n
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Offset   |  Length   |        Binary Ion        |         Text Ion
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
          |         4 | e0 01 00 ea              |  // Ion 1.0 Version Marker
          |           | ...                      |  // Skipped 23 bytes of user-level data
       27 |        13 | dc                       |  {
          |           | ...                      |    // Skipped 2 bytes of user-level data
       30 |         1 | 8b                       |    'bar': // $11:
       31 |         1 | 11                       |    true,
       32 |         1 | 8c                       |    'baz': // $12:
       33 |         7 | b6                       |    [
       34 |         2 | 21 01                    |       1,
       36 |         2 | 21 02                    |       2,
       38 |         2 | 21 03                    |       3,
          |           |                          |    ],
          |           |                          |  }

Notice that the text column adds comments indicating where data has been skipped. Also, if the requested index is nested inside one or more containers, the beginnings of those containers (along with their lengths and offsets) will still be included in the output.

You can limit the amount of data that inspect displays by using the --limit-bytes flag:

ion beta inspect --skip-bytes 30 --limit-bytes 2 my_file.10n
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Offset   |  Length   |        Binary Ion        |         Text Ion
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
          |         4 | e0 01 00 ea              |  // Ion 1.0 Version Marker
          |           | ...                      |  // Skipped 23 bytes of user-level data
       27 |        13 | dc                       |  {
          |           | ...                      |    // Skipped 2 bytes of user-level data
       30 |         1 | 8b                       |    'bar': // $11:
       31 |         1 | 11                       |    true,
          |           | ...                      |    // --limit-bytes reached, stepping out.
          |           |                          |  }

Installation

via brew

The easiest way to install the ion-cli is via Homebrew.

Once the brew command is available, run:

brew tap amazon-ion/ion-cli
brew install ion-cli

via cargo

The ion-cli can also be installed by using Rust's package manager, cargo. If you don't already have cargo, you can install it by visiting rustup.rs.

To install ion-cli, run the following command:

cargo install ion-cli

Then make sure that ~/.cargo/bin is on your $PATH. You can confirm that it has been installed successfully by running:

ion help

You should see output that resembles the following:

ion 0.4.0
The Ion Team <[email protected]>

USAGE:
    ion <SUBCOMMAND>

FLAGS:
    -h, --help       Prints help information
    -V, --version    Prints version information

SUBCOMMANDS:
    beta    The 'beta' command is a namespace for commands whose interfaces are 
            not yet stable.
    dump    Prints Ion in the requested format
    help    Prints this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Build instructions

From source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/amzn/ion-cli.git
   

2. Step into the newly created directory:

   cd ion-cli
   

3. Install Rust/Cargo by visiting rustup.rs.

4. Build the ion tool:

   cargo install --path .
   

   This will put a copy of the ion executable in ~/.cargo/bin.

5. Confirm that ~/.cargo/bin is on your $PATH. rustup will probably take care of this for you.

6. Confirm that the executable is available by running:

   ion help
   

Using Docker

1. Install Docker (see OS specific instructions on the Docker website)
2. Clone the repository (recursive clone not necessary)

   git clone https://github.com/amzn/ion-cli.git
   

3. Step into the newly created directory

   cd ion-cli
   

4. Build and run the image

   # build the image
   docker build -t <IMAGE_NAME>:<TAG> .
   
   
   # run the CLI binary inside the Docker image
   docker run -it --rm [optional flags...] <IMAGE_NAME>:<TAG> ion <SUBCOMMAND>
   
   # examples:
   
   # build docker image with current release version
   docker build -t ion-cli:0.1.1 .
   
   # print the help message
   docker run -it --rm ion-cli:0.1.1 ion -V
   
   # mount current directory to /data volume and dump an ion file
   docker run -it --rm -v $PWD:/data ion-cli:0.1.1 ion dump /data/test.ion
   
   

Security

See CONTRIBUTING for more information.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License.