Format files¶

This guide shows the different ways to feed YAML content to yamkix and control where the formatted output goes.

Check the available options with yamkix --help (or see the CLI options reference).

Format a single yaml file and control where to output the outcome¶

Use the -i/--input option to identify the source file
If you don't specify any output option with -o/--output or -s/--stdout then the result will overwrite the source file
```
yamkix --input path/to/yolo.yml
# the formatted result will overwrite the content at path/to/yolo.yml
```

You can specify the target file with -o/--output

yamkix --input path/to/yolo.yml --output path/to/nice.yml
# the formatted result will write the result at path/to/nice.yml
# if nice.yml exists, it will be overwritten

You can output the result to STDOUT using either --output STDOUT or -s/--stdout

yamkix --input path/to/yolo.yml --stdout
# output is written to STDOUT
---
toto: foo
titi:
  - bar
  - quix
tutu:
  yolo: baz

If you use -s/--stdout and -i/--input, specifying an output file with -o/--output will not be taken into account

yamkix --input path/to/yolo.yml -output path/to/nice.yml --stdout
# output is written to STDOUT
---
toto: foo
titi:
  - bar
  - quix
tutu:
  yolo: baz

Read from STDIN¶

You can format the input provide through stdin
stdin input can be specified explicitly, using --input STDIN
```
cat file.yml | yamkix --input STDIN
```
stdin input is implicit if you don't specify any input through -i/--input or any CLI argument:
```
cat file.yml | yamkix -q
```
if stdin is used for input and nothing is specified for output, then stdout will be used for output.

Format multiple files¶

If you need to format multiple files in a single call to Yamkix, don't use -i/--input, just pass the list of files as arguments to the yamkix cli
```
yamkix --silent path/to/file1.yml path/to/file2.yml
```

Note

It is not possible to output to stdout when formatting multiple files (feel free to raise an issue if you are interested in this feature).

Print a processing summary¶

Use --summary to print processing statistics after all files have been processed
The summary includes:
Total number of files processed
Number of files that encountered parse errors
Number of files with unchanged content (already properly formatted)

Total processing time

yamkix --summary path/to/file1.yml path/to/file2.yml
# Output:
# [yamkix] Summary: 2 file(s) processed, 0 error(s), 1 unchanged, 0.042s

When combined with --silent (which suppresses per-file config output), only the summary is printed to stderr:

yamkix --silent --summary path/to/file1.yml path/to/file2.yml
# Produces minimal output:
# [yamkix] Summary: 2 file(s) processed, 0 error(s), 1 unchanged, 0.042s