Install jc Command Output Converter on Ubuntu 26.04

The jc is a command-line utility that transforms the output of common Linux commands into structured JSON. This makes command results easier to process with scripts, automation tools, and other programs. This tutorial explains how to install jc command output converter on Ubuntu 26.04.

Install jc

Get the newest jc release published on GitHub and store its version number in a variable:

JC_VERSION=$(curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/kellyjonbrazil/jc/releases/latest" | grep -Po '"tag_name": "v\K[0-9.]+')

Download the corresponding archive and extract the jc executable into /usr/local/bin:

curl -sSL https://github.com/kellyjonbrazil/jc/releases/latest/download/jc-$JC_VERSION-linux-x86_64.tar.gz \
  | sudo tar xz -C /usr/local/bin jc

Verify that the jc executable is available by displaying the version:

jc --version

Testing jc

The jc command can parse the output of many standard Linux utilities and return structured JSON. For example, pipe the output of the date command through the jc date parser:

date | jc --date

The output should appear similar to the following:

{"year":2026,"month":"Aug","month_num":8,"day":17,"weekday":"Mon","weekday_num":1,"hour":1,"hour_24":13,"minute":14,"second":34,"period":"PM","timezone":"CEST","utc_offset":null,"day_of_year":229,"week_of_year":33,"iso":"2026-08-17T13:14:34","epoch":1786965274,"epoch_utc":null,"timezone_aware":false}

Uninstall jc

When jc is no longer required, remove its executable from the system path:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/jc