# YAML marshaling and unmarshaling support for Go
[](https://travis-ci.org/kubernetes-sigs/yaml)
kubernetes-sigs/yaml is a permanent fork of [ghodss/yaml](https://github.com/ghodss/yaml).
## Introduction
A wrapper around [go-yaml](https://github.com/go-yaml/yaml) designed to enable a better way of handling YAML when marshaling to and from structs.
In short, this library first converts YAML to JSON using go-yaml and then uses `json.Marshal` and `json.Unmarshal` to convert to or from the struct. This means that it effectively reuses the JSON struct tags as well as the custom JSON methods `MarshalJSON` and `UnmarshalJSON` unlike go-yaml. For a detailed overview of the rationale behind this method, [see this blog post](http://web.archive.org/web/20190603050330/http://ghodss.com/2014/the-right-way-to-handle-yaml-in-golang/).
## Compatibility
This package uses [go-yaml](https://github.com/go-yaml/yaml) and therefore supports [everything go-yaml supports](https://github.com/go-yaml/yaml#compatibility).
## Caveats
**Caveat #1:** When using `yaml.Marshal` and `yaml.Unmarshal`, binary data should NOT be preceded with the `!!binary` YAML tag. If you do, go-yaml will convert the binary data from base64 to native binary data, which is not compatible with JSON. You can still use binary in your YAML files though - just store them without the `!!binary` tag and decode the base64 in your code (e.g. in the custom JSON methods `MarshalJSON` and `UnmarshalJSON`). This also has the benefit that your YAML and your JSON binary data will be decoded exactly the same way. As an example:
```
BAD:
exampleKey: !!binary gIGC
GOOD:
exampleKey: gIGC
... and decode the base64 data in your code.
```
**Caveat #2:** When using `YAMLToJSON` directly, maps with keys that are maps will result in an error since this is not supported by JSON. This error will occur in `Unmarshal` as well since you can't unmarshal map keys anyways since struct fields can't be keys.
## Installation and usage
To install, run:
```
$ go get sigs.k8s.io/yaml
```
And import using:
```
import "sigs.k8s.io/yaml"
```
Usage is very similar to the JSON library:
```go
package main
import (
"fmt"
"sigs.k8s.io/yaml"
)
type Person struct {
Name string `json:"name"` // Affects YAML field names too.
Age int `json:"age"`
}
func main() {
// Marshal a Person struct to YAML.
p := Person{"John", 30}
y, err := yaml.Marshal(p)
if err != nil {
fmt.Printf("err: %v\n", err)
return
}
fmt.Println(string(y))
/* Output:
age: 30
name: John
*/
// Unmarshal the YAML back into a Person struct.
var p2 Person
err = yaml.Unmarshal(y, &p2)
if err != nil {
fmt.Printf("err: %v\n", err)
return
}
fmt.Println(p2)
/* Output:
{John 30}
*/
}
```
`yaml.YAMLToJSON` and `yaml.JSONToYAML` methods are also available:
```go
package main
import (
"fmt"
"sigs.k8s.io/yaml"
)
func main() {
j := []byte(`{"name": "John", "age": 30}`)
y, err := yaml.JSONToYAML(j)
if err != nil {
fmt.Printf("err: %v\n", err)
return
}
fmt.Println(string(y))
/* Output:
age: 30
name: John
*/
j2, err := yaml.YAMLToJSON(y)
if err != nil {
fmt.Printf("err: %v\n", err)
return
}
fmt.Println(string(j2))
/* Output:
{"age":30,"name":"John"}
*/
}
```
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