jaq vs jq

jaq is a free jq clone for querying and transforming data, available as both a command-line replacement and a Rust library for compiling and running jq programs. Alongside JSON, it handles YAML, CBOR, TOML, XML, CSV, and TSV, and can convert between those formats while applying a jq filter. Its jaq-core library supports multithreaded use and data types beyond JSON. jaq also accepts arbitrary values as object keys and can process strings containing arbitrary bytes, including invalid UTF-8. The project publishes benchmarks comparing jaq with jq and gojq, and reports faster results on many benchmarks. It states that jaq is memory-safe and prevents input data or filters from initiating I/O, although filters may read files before execution. The project also warns that it does not guard against resource exhaustion, so processing may use unlimited time, memory, or stack space. Binary downloads and installation instructions are provided for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and an online playground is available. jaq is MIT-licensed.

jq is a free command-line processor for selecting and transforming JSON data. A jq filter takes an input and produces output; filters can be combined to access nested attributes, construct objects, gather results into arrays, or make other transformations. It reads whitespace-separated JSON values and writes serialized results separated by whitespace. Each expression runs on each input value and may produce zero or more outputs. For very large inputs, the --stream option parses incrementally. Output options include compact, raw, ASCII, sorted-key, and colored forms. Written in portable C, jq has no runtime dependencies, and a standalone binary can be copied to another machine of the same type. Standalone executables are available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with packages listed for Linux distributions and package managers including Homebrew, MacPorts, winget, Scoop, and Chocolatey. A Docker image is also available. Release binaries have SHA-256 checksums, and signed release artifacts use jq release keys. The code is licensed under MIT; the documentation uses CC-BY-3.0.