YINI CLI Command Reference

The YINI CLI is the official command-line tool for validating, parsing, and converting YINI files from a terminal. For a friendlier overview with install notes and examples, see the YINI CLI page.

yini-cli 1.5.1
YINI CLI (by the YINI-lang project)

The official terminal / command-line (CLI) for parsing and validating YINI
configuration files. A config format, inspired by INI, with type-safe values,
nested sections, comments, minimal syntax noise, and optional strict mode.

Designed for clarity and consistency. :)

Usage: yini [options] [command]

The official terminal / command-line (CLI) for parsing and validating YINI configuration files.

Options:
  -v, --version                            Display the version number.
  --strict                                 Enable strict parsing mode.
  --lenient                                Use lenient mode (this is the default).
  -q, --quiet                              Suppress successful per-file output; still show failures and final summary.
  -s, --silent                             Suppress validation output and use exit code only.
  --verbose                                Show extra processing details.
  -h, --help                               Display full help for all commands.

Commands:
  parse [options] <file>                   Parse a YINI file (*.yini) and output the result as JSON or JavaScript.
  validate [options] <fileOrDirectory...>  Validate one or more YINI files.

                                           <file>       Validate a single file.
                                           <directory>  Validate all .yini files in the directory.

                                           You can provide multiple files and directories, separated by spaces.
  info                                     Display extended information about the YINI CLI environment.
  help <command>                           Display help for a specific command.


--------------------------------------------------------
* Command: parse
--------------------------------------------------------
Usage: yini parse [options] <file>

Parse a YINI file (*.yini) and output the result as JSON or JavaScript.

Options:
  --json               Output as formatted JSON (default).
  --compact            Output compact JSON (no whitespace).
  --js                 Output as JavaScript.
  --yaml               Output as YAML.
  --xml                Output as XML.
  -o, --output <file>  Write output to <file>. By default, an existing output file is only overwritten if it is older than the input YINI file.
  --overwrite          Always overwrite the output file, even if it is newer than the input YINI file.
  --no-overwrite       Fail if the output file already exists.
  --best-effort        Ignore parse errors.
  --pretty             (deprecated) Use --json instead.
  -h, --help           Display full help for all commands.


--------------------------------------------------------
* Command: validate
--------------------------------------------------------
Usage: yini validate [options] <fileOrDirectory...>

Validate one or more YINI files.

<file>       Validate a single file.
<directory>  Validate all .yini files in the directory.

You can provide multiple files and directories, separated by spaces.

Options:
  --warnings-as-errors  Treat warnings as errors for exit code purposes.
  --stats               In text mode, stats only shown when file mode validates exactly one file.
  --format <type>       Output format for validation results: text | json (choices: "text", "json", default: "text")
  --fail-fast           Stop after first file that fails validation.
  --max-errors <n>      Stop after N total errors (across files).
  --no-recursive        Do not scan subdirectories.
  -h, --help            Display full help for all commands.


--------------------------------------------------------
* Command: info
--------------------------------------------------------
Usage: yini info

Display extended information about the YINI CLI environment.

Options:
  -h, --help  Display full help for all commands.

========================================================

Quick Examples:
  $ yini parse file.yini
  $ yini parse file.yini --json
  $ yini parse file.yini --js
  $ yini parse file.yini -o output.json
  $ yini validate config.yini --stats
  $ yini validate . --strict

For help with a specific command, use -h or --help. For example:
  $ yini validate --help

========================================================
Example YINI configuration file (config.yini)
========================================================
    ^ App
    title = 'My App'
    items = 10
    debug = ON
    tags  = ['web', 'demo', 'prod']

    ^ Server
    host   = 'localhost'
    port   = 8080
    useTLS = OFF
    limits = { timeout: 30, keepAlive: true }

        // Sub-section of Server.
        ^^ Login
        username = 'user'
        password = 'secret'
========================================================

More information:
  https://github.com/YINI-lang/yini-cli

Homepage:
  https://yini-lang.org