Possible for Bash scripts to return JSON?

[skurfuerst]

Hey,

I am currently trying to write a bash script which should return a PNG via the https://docs.windmill.dev/docs/reference#rich-display-rendering - but if I interpret

windmill/backend/windmill-worker/src/worker.rs

Line 1368 in d810e17

.map(|x| x.to_string())

correctly, it is force-interpreted as string.

can this be changed, or did I do a mistake? :)

All the best,
Sebastian
PS: I am executing https://playwright.dev/ for making screenshots - this does not exist in deno; so I am resorting to calling node.js via bash.
PPS: Sorry for the many questions in the last days ;) hope thats ok.

[skurfuerst]

Nevermind, I work-arounded it by using Deno.run instead :)

[rubenfiszel]

To give context around this for posterity. The reason why other languages can return json and not bash is that there is no notion of types in bash. In most programming languages, any value is represented by: A Tag, and a memory content or ref to a memory content. There is no such thing in bash, it's just stdout. We could invent our own standard (e.g: if the line start with json: then parse what follows. However, I prefer simplicity and not inventing our own standard so I would suggest doing what you already do.

[skurfuerst]

Yeah I totally understand. I could imagine some magic like "if it parses as JSON, we interpret it as JSON"; but can totally understand that you prefer less magic.

All the best,
Sebastian