Convert flow style to block style¶

This guide shows how to convert JSON-style (flow) collections to block style with the -B/--enforce-block-style option.

By default, yamkix preserves the style of your collections: a list written [a, b, c] stays that way. If you want everything expanded to block style, opt in with --enforce-block-style.

Basic usage¶

With input example.yml:

---
a_list: [a, b, c]
a_map: {first: yolo, second: foo}

run:

yamkix --enforce-block-style example.yml

and the file becomes:

---
a_list:
  - a
  - b
  - c
a_map:
  first: yolo
  second: foo

Nested collections¶

The conversion is recursive — flow collections are converted at any depth:

---
nested:
  outer: {inner: [1, 2, {deep: true}]}

becomes:

---
nested:
  outer:
    inner:
      - 1
      - 2
      - deep: true

Empty collections¶

Empty collections stay in flow style because block style has no representation for them:

---
empty_list: []
empty_map: {}

is left unchanged.

Comments attached to flow collections¶

An end-of-line comment attached to a flow collection survives the conversion, but it is re-emitted at its original column on the key line:

---
a_list: [a, b] # eol comment

becomes:

---
a_list:        # eol comment
  - a
  - b

Combine with --spaces-before-comment

Add --spaces-before-comment 1 to reattach comments cleanly:

---
a_list: # eol comment
  - a
  - b

Interactions with other options¶

--enforce-block-style overrides --default-flow-style

If both options are set, block style wins for the whole document and a warning is printed to stderr.

With --typ safe, the option is a no-op: the safe parsing mode does not preserve per-node styles, and its output is already block style.
Works fine together with --no-quotes-preserved / --enforce-double-quotes.

To understand why flow-style collections are normally preserved and what this option changes under the hood, read Flow style vs block style.