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JSON Output

Use JSON output when feeding Zelta into monitoring, logs, or reporting tools. This page is operator-focused; field lists and option inheritance live in zelta-options(7).

zelta backup --json tank/data backup:tank/Backups/data
zelta match --json tank/data backup:tank/Backups/data
zelta policy --json

For cron jobs, redirect JSON to a log and import it with your normal telemetry pipeline:

0 */6 * * * zelta policy --json >> /var/log/zelta-policy.json

Known Limitations

  • JSON field names currently use mixed conventions. Aligning with OpenZFS zfs list -j naming is planned for a later release; do not hard-code brittle parsers against every key name yet.
  • Nested zelta match JSON is not a full substitute for human match output today. Prefer human output for interactive diagnosis.
  • When using mawk, JSON timestamps require ZELTA_SYSTIME='date +%s'. gawk and original-awk work without this setting.