[PLUG] Using jq to clean/organize SeaMonkey bookmarks?

[Paul Heinlein]

On Wed, 8 Aug 2018, Richard Owlett wrote:

> My bookmarks have grown like Topsy
> I have many duplicates and the tree structure is a mess.
> I have two primary goals:
>   1. find and purge duplicates.
>   2. move folders around to create a more reasonable structure.
>
> After trying several approaches and looking for useful tools I found
> jq [https://stedolan.github.io/jq/]. One related page I found is titled "jq 
> is sed for JSON".
>
> An outline of a possible procedure might be:
>  1. Export SeaMonkey bookmarks in JSON format.
>  2. use jq to pretty print the JSON. It does so nicely.
>  3. Find duplicate targets and delete all but one.
>  4. Each leaf of the bookmark tree is an object.
>     Move these objects around to create a more friendly tree.
>  5. Import the clean organized bookmarks.
>
> Has anyone done this?
> Is there a friendly in depth jq tutorial? The ones I've found tend to be on 
> the "Hello world" level. There is just enough to tantalize.

jq is a great tool. I don't know if it by itself could find 
duplicates, but you could use its sort_by() routine in conjunction 
with uniq to do so.

My understanding of jq's logic is limited, however, so I can't offer 
an example without knowing the exact format of the JSON you're seeing.

Another part of the problem is that I'm a bit more familiar with the 
implementation of JMESPath queries in AWS than in jq.

-- 
Paul Heinlein
heinlein at madboa.com
45°38' N, 122°6' W