Files
jq/README.md
Hugohong258andHugohong258 1b4109b0d0 docs: clarify that prebuilt downloads are standalone executables (#3632)
State explicitly in the README and download page that the
platform-specific prebuilt files are standalone executables, not
archives. Include the rename and executable-permission step for macOS
and Linux in the README.

Addresses #2956. Source archives are not described as executables.

Validation: the official `docs/build_website.py` completed and the
generated download page contains the new guidance. Used a Python venv
with the site's required rendering packages; restored the Windows
checkout's manual symlink in a temporary build copy only. jq itself was
not built or tested for this documentation-only change.

Co-authored-by: Hugohong258 <[email protected]>
2026-09-15 11:13:25 +02:00

2.5 KiB

jq

jq is a lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor akin to sed,awk,grep, and friends for JSON data. It's written in portable C and has zero runtime dependencies, allowing you to easily slice, filter, map, and transform structured data.

Documentation

Installation

Prebuilt Binaries

Download the latest releases from the GitHub release page. The platform-specific assets are standalone executables, not archives. On macOS and Linux, rename the downloaded file to jq and make it executable with chmod +x jq.

Docker Image

Pull the jq image to start quickly with Docker.

Run with Docker

Example: Extracting the version from a package.json file
docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/jqlang/jq:latest < package.json '.version'
Example: Extracting the version from a package.json file with a mounted volume
docker run --rm -i -v "$PWD:$PWD" -w "$PWD" ghcr.io/jqlang/jq:latest '.version' package.json

Building from source

Dependencies

  • libtool
  • make
  • automake
  • autoconf

Instructions

git submodule update --init    # if building from git to get oniguruma
autoreconf -i                  # if building from git
./configure --with-oniguruma=builtin
make clean                     # if upgrading from a version previously built from source
make -j8
make check
sudo make install

Build a statically linked version:

make LDFLAGS=-all-static

If you're not using the latest git version but instead building a released tarball (available on the release page), skip the autoreconf step, and flex or bison won't be needed.

Cross-Compilation

For details on cross-compilation, check out the GitHub Actions file and the cross-compilation wiki page.

Community & Support

License

jq is released under the MIT License. jq's documentation is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY 3.0. jq uses parts of the open source C library "decNumber", which is distributed under ICU License