yq --sort-keys options, like jq

[robbat2]

Please describe your feature request.
TL;DR: Please add a yq --sort-keys option, like jq --sort-keys.

jq has a --sort-keys option, that sorts the keys in the output consistently.

I use it in shell commands like:

diff -NuarwbB <(jq --sort-keys $EXPR file-A) <(jq --sort-keys $EXPR file-B)

To be able to see the differences quickly regardless of any formatting or ordering of hashes.

It should sort all hashes by the lexical order of their keys; for the entire file, regardless of depth.

This is available via sort_keys(..) as documented in the manpage, but how about the command-line option for ease of use, esp. with other complex expressions.

Describe the solution you'd like
If we have data1.yml like:
(please keep to around 10 lines )

hash: 
  keyZ: Zambia
  keyA: Australia

And we run a command:

yq -P --sort-keys . 

it should output

hash:
  keyA: Australia
  keyZ: Zambia

Describe alternatives you've considered
A clear and concise description of any alternative solutions or features you've considered.
Existing workarounds:

• Convert to json, sort in JQ, convert back to YAML. This loses comments, anchors, references.
• yq $EXPR file-A | yq -P 'sort_keys(..)' => extra exec, sometimes forget about it

[mat813]

Ah, yes, I wanted that today, I had to resort going through jq via json with:

yq -o json input.yml | jq -S | yq -p json -o yaml >! sorted.yml

I tried to use sort_keys but it only sorts one level of keys, and here I am trying to compare .gitlab-ci.yml files, and those have multiple levels of objects.

[cs224]

+1