Why is the same jsonpath query returning a different output?

Question

I am trying to extract podname using the below jq query.

❯ kubectl get pods -l app=mssql-primary --output jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}'
mssqlag-primary-deployment-77b8974bb9-dbltl%                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
❯ kubectl get pods -l app=mssql-primary -o json | jq -r '.items[0].metadata.name'
mssqlag-primary-deployment-77b8974bb9-dbltl

While they both provide the same out put the first one has a % character at the end of the pod name. Any reason why ? Is there something wrong with the jsonpath representation in the first command ?

Answer 1

I reproduced your case with the same deployment name and label. And I get the same output from both of your commands:

mssqlag-primary-deployment-77b8974bb9-dbltl

But kubectl ... --output jsonpath does not print a new line in terminal while kubectl -o json | jq -r prints new line.

So, if you assign the output of your commands to a variable, there will be the same string.

OUTPUT1=$(kubectl get pods -l app=mssql-primary --output jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
OUTPUT2=$(kubectl get pods -l app=mssql-primary -o json | jq -r '.items[0].metadata.name')

The $OUTPUT1 is equal to $OUTPUT2.

And you got % just because of the specifics of your shell/terminal.