可以将一个小脚本传递给一些解释器，比如Python。使用Ruby和它的YAML库的简单方法如下:

$ RUBY_SCRIPT="data = YAML::load(STDIN.read); puts data['a']; puts data['b']"
$ echo -e '---\na: 1234\nb: 4321' | ruby -ryaml -e "$RUBY_SCRIPT"
1234
4321

，其中data是来自yaml的值的散列(或数组)。

作为奖励，它可以很好地解析杰基尔的正面问题。

ruby -ryaml -e "puts YAML::load(open(ARGV.first).read)['tags']" example.md

下面是一个bash-only解析器，利用sed和awk来解析简单的yaml文件:

function parse_yaml {
   local prefix=$2
   local s='[[:space:]]*' w='[a-zA-Z0-9_]*' fs=$(echo @|tr @ '\034')
   sed -ne "s|^\($s\):|\1|" \
        -e "s|^\($s\)\($w\)$s:$s[\"']\(.*\)[\"']$s\$|\1$fs\2$fs\3|p" \
        -e "s|^\($s\)\($w\)$s:$s\(.*\)$s\$|\1$fs\2$fs\3|p"  $1 |
   awk -F$fs '{
      indent = length($1)/2;
      vname[indent] = $2;
      for (i in vname) {if (i > indent) {delete vname[i]}}
      if (length($3) > 0) {
         vn=""; for (i=0; i<indent; i++) {vn=(vn)(vname[i])("_")}
         printf("%s%s%s=\"%s\"\n", "'$prefix'",vn, $2, $3);
      }
   }'
}

它可以理解以下文件:

## global definitions
global:
  debug: yes
  verbose: no
  debugging:
    detailed: no
    header: "debugging started"

## output
output:
   file: "yes"

在解析时使用:

parse_yaml sample.yml

将输出:

global_debug="yes"
global_verbose="no"
global_debugging_detailed="no"
global_debugging_header="debugging started"
output_file="yes"

它也理解由ruby生成的yaml文件，其中可能包含ruby符号，例如:

---
:global:
  :debug: 'yes'
  :verbose: 'no'
  :debugging:
    :detailed: 'no'
    :header: debugging started
  :output: 'yes'

并将输出与前一个示例相同的结果。

脚本中的典型用法是:

eval $(parse_yaml sample.yml)

Parse_yaml接受一个前缀参数，这样导入的所有设置都有一个公共前缀(这将减少名称空间冲突的风险)。

parse_yaml sample.yml "CONF_"

收益率:

CONF_global_debug="yes"
CONF_global_verbose="no"
CONF_global_debugging_detailed="no"
CONF_global_debugging_header="debugging started"
CONF_output_file="yes"

注意，之前文件中的设置可以被后面的设置引用:

## global definitions
global:
  debug: yes
  verbose: no
  debugging:
    detailed: no
    header: "debugging started"

## output
output:
   debug: $global_debug

另一个很好的用法是先解析默认文件，然后解析用户设置，这是可行的，因为后一个设置会覆盖第一个设置:

eval $(parse_yaml defaults.yml)
eval $(parse_yaml project.yml)

perl -ne 'chomp; printf qq/%s="%s"\n/, split(/\s*:\s*/,$_,2)' file.yml > file.sh

我已经用python编写了shyaml，用于从shell命令行查询YAML。

概述:

$ pip install shyaml      ## installation

示例的YAML文件(具有复杂的功能):

$ cat <<EOF > test.yaml
name: "MyName !!"
subvalue:
    how-much: 1.1
    things:
        - first
        - second
        - third
    other-things: [a, b, c]
    maintainer: "Valentin Lab"
    description: |
        Multiline description:
        Line 1
        Line 2
EOF

基本的查询:

$ cat test.yaml | shyaml get-value subvalue.maintainer
Valentin Lab

更复杂的循环查询复杂的值:

$ cat test.yaml | shyaml values-0 | \
  while read -r -d $'\0' value; do
      echo "RECEIVED: '$value'"
  done
RECEIVED: '1.1'
RECEIVED: '- first
- second
- third'
RECEIVED: '2'
RECEIVED: 'Valentin Lab'
RECEIVED: 'Multiline description:
Line 1
Line 2'

以下几个要点:

all YAML types and syntax oddities are correctly handled, as multiline, quoted strings, inline sequences... \0 padded output is available for solid multiline entry manipulation. simple dotted notation to select sub-values (ie: subvalue.maintainer is a valid key). access by index is provided to sequences (ie: subvalue.things.-1 is the last element of the subvalue.things sequence.) access to all sequence/structs elements in one go for use in bash loops. you can output whole subpart of a YAML file as ... YAML, which blend well for further manipulations with shyaml.

更多的示例和文档可以在shyaml github页面或shyaml PyPI页面上找到。

如果你需要一个单一的值，你可以使用一个工具将你的YAML文档转换为JSON并提供给jq，例如yq。

sample.yaml的内容:

---
bob:
  item1:
    cats: bananas
  item2:
    cats: apples
  thing:
    cats: oranges

例子:

$ yq -r '.bob["thing"]["cats"]' sample.yaml 
oranges

你可以用golang写成yq的等价形式:

./go-yg -yamlFile /home/user/dev/ansible-firefox/defaults/main.yml -key
firefox_version

返回:

62.0.3