A script to transform a filesystem tree into a JSON structure, a little like an inverse procfs/sysfs.

fs-to-json.py

#!/bin/env python

import sys
import os
import json

def clean_lines(lines):
    clean_lines=[]
    # TODO: a map/reduce or a comprehension might be better
    for line in lines:
        # remove linebreaks
        # TODO: see if a proper regex is needed
        clean_line = line.replace("\n","")
        # don't return empty lines
        if len(clean_line) > 0:
            clean_lines.append(clean_line)
    return clean_lines

def read_entry(path):
    f = open(path,"r")
    lines = clean_lines(f.readlines())
    
    if len(lines) > 1:
        # return multiple lines as array
        return lines
    else:
        # return single lines as string
        return lines[0]

def build_dict(dir):
    data = {}
    for path in os.listdir(dir):
        if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(dir, path)):
            # if entry is a file, the value is the content of the file
            data[path] = read_entry(os.path.join(dir, path))
        elif os.path.isdir(os.path.join(dir, path)):
            # is entry is a directory, add recursively
            data[path] = build_dict(os.path.join(dir, path))
    return data

def main():
    if len(sys.argv) > 1:
        basedir = sys.argv[1]
    else:
        print("You must provide a base directory", file=sys.stderr)
        sys.exit(2)

    if os.path.isdir(basedir):
        data = build_dict(basedir)
    
        print(json.dumps(data, sort_keys=True))
        sys.exit(0)
    else:
        print("Directory "+basedir+" not found", file=sys.stderr)
        sys.exit(1)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

sys.exit(0)

structure.json

{
  "client_hostname": "foo.example.com",
  "client_number": "FOOBAR",
  "dir1": {
    "dir2": {
      "baz": [
        "1",
        "2",
        "3",
        "4",
        "5"
      ],
      "foo-ln": "bar"
    },
    "foo": "bar"
  },
  "dir3": {
    "hook_db": "0",
    "mail": "[email protected]"
  },
  "monitoring": "everytime"
}

structure.tree

├── client_hostname
├── client_number
├── dir1
│   ├── dir2
│   │   ├── baz
│   │   └── foo-ln -> ../foo
│   └── foo
├── dir3
│   ├── hook_db
│   └── mail
└── monitoring

This can be used as-is, but the final intent is tu use this in combination with Ansible local facts.