YAML.sh v1.2.0 — the tiny parser writes back

Version 1.2 turns YAML.sh from a read-only query engine into a writable YAML transformer—still one portable /bin/sh + AWK file.

Highlights:

• recursive descent (..) and optional traversal (?)
• array and object construction plus null input (-n)
• arithmetic, string/sequence concatenation, and shallow mapping +
• assignment (=), relative update (|=), compound updates, missing-path creation, and del(...)
• semantic YAML output with -y / -o=yaml
• permission-preserving in-place updates with -i
• multi-document in-place safety: reject before replacement instead of dropping documents
• 57 behavioral tests across macOS, Ubuntu, BusyBox AWK, and POSIX shell
• 18 representative v1.2 expressions matched yq v4.53.3 byte-for-byte in JSON mode

The honest bit: YAML output preserves semantic structure, not comments or presentation style. Variables, reducers, dynamic keys, deep merge, style/comment operators, file operators, and non-YAML codecs remain outside this tiny, mischievous subset.

Docs: https://yaml.azohra.com/docs/#/queries