Issue loading JSON documents from file into CouchDB from cURL command line

Question

I am on a Windows platform and I have a file called agent_import.json in a c:\Temp directory.

The file contains the following test JSON document(s) which to my knowledge is valid JSON:

{
    docs: [{
        "_id": "11",
        "name11": "test11"
    }, {
        "_id": "12",
        "name12": "test12"
    }]
}

I have a CouchDB installation and test database called agents installed on Windows.

From the cURL command line I execute:

curl -vX POST -H "Content-Type":"application/json" -d @c:\Temp\agent_import.json http://127.0.0.1:5984/agents/_bulk_docs

The above curl command fails, complaining about the JSON.

*   Trying 127.0.0.1...
* Connected to 127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1) port 5984 (#0)
> POST /agents/_bulk_docs HTTP/1.1
> Host: 127.0.0.1:5984
> User-Agent: curl/7.48.0
> Accept: */*
> Content-Type:application/json
> Content-Length: 25
>
* upload completely sent off: 25 out of 25 bytes
< HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
< Server: CouchDB/1.6.1 (Erlang OTP/R16B02)
< Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2016 16:42:51 GMT
< Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
< Content-Length: 48
< Cache-Control: must-revalidate
<
{"error":"bad_request","reason":"invalid_json"}
* Connection #0 to host 127.0.0.1 left intact

I have tried changing the content of the Json file so that every double quote is proceeded with a backslash as listed below but alas the same error as above...

{
    docs: [{
        \"_id\": \"11\",
        \"name11\": \"test11\"
    }, {
        \"_id\": \"12\",
        \"name12\": \"test12\"
    }]
}

I have seen people post similar issues but not exactly the same so I wanted to ask if I am doing something obviously wrong here with regards to the use of my curl command and/or my expectations of _bulk_docs.

Regards

Gytis Raciukaitis · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-06 12:50:00Z

1

First of all the json you are trying to post is invalid - docs should be in quotes. The correct one is:

{
  "docs": [{
    "_id": "11",
    "name11": "test11"
  }, {
    "_id": "12",
    "name12": "test12"
  }]
}

You can always validate the file with tools like jq. I've just tried with he updated file and curl 7.48.0 on Windows and it did work. Alternatively you could try and use the option --data-binary

answered May 6, 2016 at 12:50

Gytis Raciukaitis

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1 Comment

Allan Over a year ago

Thanks Gytis, you are absolutely right. Changing the docs to "docs" worked perfectly! simple as that! Many thanks

smathy · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-28 23:02:28Z

0

If you take a look in your curl headers you can see the first clue:

Content-Length: 25

It should be clear to you that no amount of fiddling will get your JSON content down to 25 bytes.

On the other hand, the string: @c:\Temp\agent_import.json is 27 bytes, assume those \s are being treated as escapes and it's precisely 25 bytes.

No idea how your version of curl works, but it would seem like it's not processing the @ based file input to -d like the *nix version does.

answered Apr 28, 2016 at 23:02

smathy

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2 Comments

Allan Over a year ago

Just to add, the version of curl is 7.48.0 which is a recent build so unlikely to be the issue. It is more likely, as you suggest, that I have the wrong directive on the command line as -d is saying what follows is {json}. I now need to find what the command line needs in order to read the supplied file :(

smathy Over a year ago

I meant to imply that it was the fact that you were on Windows that's causing this problem, the -d @filename works perfectly in *nix.

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