Replace a nested value in package.json using sed

Question

I have a package.json file like below:-

{
  "name": "app",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  },
  "scripts": {
    
  },
  "lint-staged": {
    "client/**/*.{js,jsx}": [
      "prettier --ignore-unknown --write",
      "npm run fix:js:lint"
    ]
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@neha/testapp": "0.0.80",
    "date-fns": "^2.0.0-alpha.27",,
    "react": "^17.0.2",
    "react-datepicker": "^2.8.0",
    "react-dom": "^17.0.2",
    "react-draggable": "^4.4.3",
    "react-hot-loader": "^4.13.0",
    "react-markdown": "^5.0.2",
    "react-redux": "^7.1.3",
    "react-router": "^5.1.2",
    "react-router-dom": "^5.1.2"
  },
}

I want to change the version of @neha/testapp under dependencies to something like this by PACKAGE_VERSION variable

"@neha/testapp": "0.0.80-test"

I tried this so far to reach the nested key but could only reach version

sed  -i '/version/s/[^.]*$/'"${PACKAGE_VERSION}\"/" package.json

I suggest to use [jq](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/jq/info) for this job and no regex. — Cyrus, Sep 25 '22 at 19:32
This might help: [How do I update a single value in a json document using jq?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/31034746/3776858) — Cyrus, Sep 25 '22 at 19:33
I get jq: not found hence I'm trying to do it with sed @Cyrus — Neha Chaudhary, Sep 25 '22 at 19:42

markp-fuso · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-25T20:02:10.067

One sed idea:

PACKAGE_VERSION='0.0.80-test'

sed -E "s|(@neha/testapp\": \")[^\"]*|\1${PACKAGE_VERSION}|" package.json

Where:

-E - enable extended regex support (and use of capture groups)
(@neha/testapp\": \") - (1st capture group) look for exact match @neha/testapp": "
[^\"]* - everything that's not a literal double quote (ie, the version number we want to replace)
\1${PACKAGE_VERSION} - replacement string consists of the contents of the 1st capture group plus the contents of the bash variable PACKAGE_VERSION

NOTE: if there are multiple entries for @neha/testapp then this will change all of them

This generates:

{
  "name": "app",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  },
  "scripts": {

  },
  "lint-staged": {
    "client/**/*.{js,jsx}": [
      "prettier --ignore-unknown --write",
      "npm run fix:js:lint"
    ]
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@neha/testapp": "0.0.80-test",
    "date-fns": "^2.0.0-alpha.27",,
    "react": "^17.0.2",
    "react-datepicker": "^2.8.0",
    "react-dom": "^17.0.2",
    "react-draggable": "^4.4.3",
    "react-hot-loader": "^4.13.0",
    "react-markdown": "^5.0.2",
    "react-redux": "^7.1.3",
    "react-router": "^5.1.2",
    "react-router-dom": "^5.1.2"
  },
}

Once OP has verified the results the -i flag could be added to facilitate an inplace update of the source file.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 26 '22 at 06:18

In GNU awk with your shown samples please try following code. In case you want to save output into Input_file itself then please run this code first and once you are Happy with results then append > temp && mv temp Input_file to the end of the code.

awk -v RS= '
match($0,/(},\n[[:space:]]+"dependencies": {\n[[:space:]]+")(@neha\/testapp": ")([^"]+)/,arr){
  print substr($0,1,RSTART-1) arr[1] arr[2] arr[3]"-test" substr($0,RSTART+RLENGTH)
}
'  Input_file

Replace a nested value in package.json using sed

2 Answers2