Install jq JSON processor on Ubuntu 10.04

It is possible to perform sudo apt-get install jq however you need to inform the system where to find jq.

ℹ️ Note: Ubuntu 14+ users can skip to step 3! 🎉

Install

1. Open your sources file in a text editor:

    sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list
   

2. Add the following line to the end of that file (note deb is not a command, more info):

   deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu vivid main universe

3. Then re-index apt-get so that it can find jq:

    sudo apt-get update
   

4. Then do the normal install and you should be the proud new user of jq!

    sudo apt-get install jq
   

Test

Test it works! Try this to see it pretty print some example json

echo '{ "name":"John", "age":31, "city":"New York" }' | jq .

The result should appear like so in your terminal:

{
  "name": "John",
  "age": 31,
  "city": "New York"
}

Since Ubuntu 16.04LTS xenial you do not need to modify /etc/apt/sources.list, just run

sudo apt-get install jq

jq 1.5 is in the official Debian and Ubuntu repositories.