Converting JSON to YAML
For years, CloudFormation only supported JSON. We released YAML support and customers wanted a way to convert their existing templates.
AWS CloudFormation Template Flip is a tool that converts AWS CloudFormation templates between JSON and YAML formats, making use of the YAML format's short function syntax where possible.
The term "Flip" is inspired by the well-known Unix command-line tool flip which converts text files between Unix, Mac, and MS-DOS formats.
Step 1: Install
AWS CloudFormation Template Flip can be installed using snap:
snap install cfn-flip
Mac user? You can install via PIP too!
Step 2: Try it
Now you can see the available commands by typing:
cfn-flip
Step 3: Flip it
To test the tool let's create a basic JSON template:
echo '{"Description": "Test","Foo": { "Fn::Join": [" ", ["The", { "Ref": "cake" }, "is", "a", "lie"]] },"Bar": { "Fn::Base64": { "Ref": "Binary" } },"Baz": { "Fn::Sub": ["The cake is a...\n${CakeStatus}", { "CakeStatus": "lie" }] }}' >> example.json
Reading from stdin and outputting to stdout:
cat example.json | cfn-flip
Reading from a file and outputting to stdout:
cfn-flip example.json
Reading from a file and outputting to another file:
cfn-flip example.json output.yaml
Reading from a file and cleaning up the output:
cfn-flip -c example.json
Conclusion
We'll remind you the repo link at the end of the tutorial: github.com/awslabs/aws-cfn-template-flip.
Now go to the next step to learn about another tool.
