JSON Output

The --json flag makes fobis build, fobis clean, and fobis fetch emit a single JSON object to stdout instead of human-readable progress messages. This is useful for scripting, CI pipelines, and AI agent workflows that need to parse the result programmatically.

Usage

fobis build --json
fobis clean --json
fobis fetch --json

--json can be combined with any other option:

fobis build --fobos project.fobos --mode release --json
fobis clean --fobos project.fobos --json
fobis fetch --update --json

Schemas

fobis build --json

{
  "status": "ok",
  "target": "all",
  "objects_compiled": 3,
  "errors": []
}

Field	Type	Description
status	"ok" | "error"	Whether the build succeeded
target	string	The --target value, or "all" when building all programs
objects_compiled	integer	Number of .o files newly written in this run
errors	string[]	Compiler error lines and any warning messages emitted during the build

fobis clean --json

{
  "status": "ok",
  "removed": [
    "build/obj/main.o",
    "build/mod/mymodule.mod"
  ],
  "errors": []
}

Field	Type	Description
status	"ok" | "error"	Whether the clean succeeded
removed	string[]	Paths of .o, .mod, and .smod files that were deleted
errors	string[]	Any warning messages emitted during the clean

fobis fetch --json

{
  "status": "ok",
  "deps_dir": ".fobis_deps",
  "dependencies": [
    { "name": "penf",    "path": ".fobis_deps/penf",    "use": "sources" },
    { "name": "jsonfort","path": ".fobis_deps/jsonfort", "use": "fobos"   }
  ],
  "errors": []
}

Field	Type	Description
status	"ok" | "error"	Whether all dependencies were fetched successfully
deps_dir	string	The directory where dependencies were cloned
dependencies	object[]	One entry per dependency (see below)
errors	string[]	Git error messages or build failures

Each entry in dependencies:

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Dependency name (matches the fobos key)
path	string	Absolute path to the cloned directory
use	"sources" | "fobos"	Integration mode

Exit codes

--json does not change the exit code behaviour:

• 0 on success — "status": "ok"
• 1 on failure — "status": "error", errors contains the diagnostics

Scripting example

Parse the JSON output with jq:

# Build and check status
result=$(fobis build --json)
status=$(echo "$result" | jq -r '.status')
if [ "$status" != "ok" ]; then
  echo "Build failed:"
  echo "$result" | jq -r '.errors[]'
  exit 1
fi
echo "Built $(echo "$result" | jq '.objects_compiled') object(s)"

Python example:

import json
import subprocess

result = subprocess.run(
    ["fobis", "build", "--fobos", "fobos", "--json"],
    capture_output=True,
    text=True,
)
data = json.loads(result.stdout)
if data["status"] != "ok":
    raise RuntimeError("Build failed: " + "\n".join(data["errors"]))
print(f"Compiled {data['objects_compiled']} object(s)")

Notes

• All human-readable output is suppressed when --json is active.
• Compiler diagnostics written to stderr are captured and included in the errors array.
• On build failure the JSON is still printed before FoBiS.py exits with code 1, so the calling process can always parse the output regardless of the exit code.