Json Question posted in
Our archive of expertly curated questions and answers provides insights and solutions to common problems related to this popular data interchange format. From parsing and manipulating JSON data to integrating it with various programming languages and web services, our archive has got you covered. Start exploring today and take your JSON skills to the next level

Json – Using Bash to edit VS Code Settings

I am trying to use the npm package.json to edit the VS Code settings from a bash script. I found How to change VS Code settings from terminal (bash) which has helped me to almost achieve what I wanted.

I am trying to change the color theme of the workbench. My settings.json currently looks like this and is located under HOME/.config/Code/User/ (Linux):

{
   "workbench.colorTheme": "Default Dark Modern"
}

My bash script looks as follows:

#! /usr/bin/bash

json -I -f $HOME/.config/Code/User/settings.json -e 'this.workbench.colorTheme="Default Dark Modern"'

and I get the following error:

undefined:3
this.workbench.colorTheme="Default Dark Modern"
                         ^

TypeError: Cannot set properties of undefined (setting 'colorTheme')
    at Object.eval (eval at main (/usr/lib/node_modules/json/lib/json.js:1365:27), <anonymous>:3:26)
    at parseChunk (/usr/lib/node_modules/json/lib/json.js:1569:29)
    at /usr/lib/node_modules/json/lib/json.js:1426:13
    at getInput (/usr/lib/node_modules/json/lib/json.js:738:17)
    at main (/usr/lib/node_modules/json/lib/json.js:1396:9)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/json/lib/json.js:1764:5)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1368:14)
    at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1426:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1205:32)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1021:12)

Node.js v21.7.1

I think it has something to do with that the key "workbench.colorTheme" is separated by a dot, but I unfortunately cannot find anything to fix this issue. I have already tried switching out the " " with ‘ ‘ and accessing the key in different ways, for example this[workbench.colorTheme] or this.workbench[colorTheme]

Tags:

2

Answers


  1. 0

    I’m not familiar with the json NPM package, but jq is much more common tool that is purpose-built for command-line JSON manipulation.
    If you want to edit this JSON inline, then you want to pipe the jq result to sponge

    Example:

    jq '.["workbench.colorTheme"] |= "My New Theme"' /tmp/foo.json | sponge /tmp/foo.json

    For Example:

    $ cat /tmp/foo.json
{
  "workbench.colorTheme": "Default Dark Modern"
}
$ jq '.["workbench.colorTheme"] |= "My New Theme"' /tmp/foo.json | sponge /tmp/foo.json
$ cat /tmp/foo.json
{
  "workbench.colorTheme": "My New Theme"
}
    Login or Signup to reply.
  2. 0

    The brackets and quotes are needed.

    #!/usr/bin/env bash

json -I -f $HOME/.config/Code/User/settings.json -e 'this["workbench.colorTheme"]="Default Dark Modern"'
    Login or Signup to reply.
Please signup or login to give your own answer.

Back To Top
Search