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jq array filter works locally, but not in a GitHub workflow

I'm using jq to extract an array from a JSON in a GitHub workflow:

name: Test

on:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
    - name: Test
      run: echo $(echo '{"value":[{"displayName":"test"}]}' | jq -c '.value.[]')

However, it fails with the error

Run echo $(echo '{"value":[{"displayName":"test"}]}' | jq -c '.value.[]')
jq: error: syntax error, unexpected '[', expecting FORMAT or QQSTRING_START (Unix shell quoting issues?) at <top-level>, line 1:
.value.[]       
jq: 1 compile error

If I run the same command with jq locally, it works - why doesn't it work on a GitHub runner?

Solution

  • You're using .value.[]; support for chained .[] was added in jq 1.7 (see the release notes, under "language changes"), and ubuntu-22.04 Actions runners use jq 1.6.

    You can fix it by using .value[] instead.

    Alternatively, you can run your job on an ubuntu-24.04 runner; they have jq 1.7.1 installed, but the image is currently (June 2024) in beta. ubuntu-latest still uses 22.04.