RetroArch playlist key extractor - Dirty way of reading and printing values from .lpl playlist files

lplpath

#!/usr/bin/bash

# RetroArch playlist key extractor
# Dirty way of reading and printing values from .lpl playlist files.
#
# EXAMPLES:
#   lplpath
#   lplpath "~/.config/retroarch/playlists/Nintendo - Game Boy.lpl"

KEY=path

#DEFAULT_FILE=~/.config/retroarch/content_favorites.lpl
DEFAULT_FILE=~/.config/retroarch/content_history.lpl

if [ "$#" -eq "0" ]
then
    FILE=$DEFAULT_FILE
else
    FILE=$1
fi

# grep: get all lines with path
# awk: get the filepath
# sed: remove surrounding quotes and comma
grep -E '\s*"'$KEY'":\s*' "$FILE" \
    | awk -F: '{print $2}' \
    | sed 's/",\s*//g' \
    | sed 's/\s*"//g'

jq (sudo apt install jq --yes) is your friend.

jq -r '.items[].path' content_favorites.lpl

At that time I didn't know about jq and didn't understood the file format. I actually plan on revisiting this soon, so it is good to know. Thanks for the reply, it's a great idea in case someone comes across this script. Edit: BTW I did it already it seems: https://gist.github.com/thingsiplay/21f92ab90cfbb75afc49a4624389c462