There are a number really awesome tools that can be used to view and validate JSON files right from the command line. As it turns out, one such tool is built right into Python as the json.tool module. Usage is as follows:

python -m json.tool [-h] [--sort-keys] [infile] [outfile]

If a single argument is given, it will validate the file and (pretty) print it to stdout.

This is all good and dandy, but what if I want to edit this JSON file now. I could always write it to an output file and edit that, but that’s just extra steps to take. To bring this trick to another level of handiness, I added this mapping to my vimrc.

What is rsync

We can run the whatis rsync command to get a short description without opening the man page

rsync (1)            - a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool

Rsync is the ultimate tool for copying files and is loved by many people. It offers many advantages over traditional methods like SCP or FTP which are linear file transfer tools. Rsync checks the delta of files between the source and the destination and only transfers the difference. Additionally it allows an option for easy compression of files before they are sent over the network.