diff --git a/cmd/climc/shell/compute/common.go b/cmd/climc/shell/compute/common.go
index c8bbda9526..bbe61bd8ee 100644
--- a/cmd/climc/shell/compute/common.go
+++ b/cmd/climc/shell/compute/common.go
@@ -21,8 +21,8 @@ import (
 
 var (
 	R                 = shell.R
-	printList         = printutils.PrintJSONList
-	printObject       = printutils.PrintJSONObject
+	printList         = shell.PrintList
+	printObject       = shell.PrintObject
 	printBatchResults = printutils.PrintJSONBatchResults
 
 	InvalidUpdateError   = shell.InvalidUpdateError
diff --git a/cmd/climc/shell/utils.go b/cmd/climc/shell/utils.go
index ae6adedf86..9939d4f355 100644
--- a/cmd/climc/shell/utils.go
+++ b/cmd/climc/shell/utils.go
@@ -41,10 +41,26 @@ func OutputFormat(s string) {
 	outputFormat = s
 }
 
+func PrintList(list *modulebase.ListResult, columns []string) {
+	switch outputFormat {
+	case OUTPUT_FORMAT_TABLE:
+		printutils.PrintJSONList(list, columns)
+	case OUTPUT_FORMAT_JSON:
+		fmt.Print(jsonutils.Marshal(list).PrettyString())
+		fmt.Print("\n")
+	default:
+		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "unknown output format: %q\n", outputFormat)
+	}
+}
+
 func printList(list *modulebase.ListResult, columns []string) {
 	printutils.PrintJSONList(list, columns)
 }
 
+func PrintObject(obj jsonutils.JSONObject) {
+	printObject(obj)
+}
+
 func printObject(obj jsonutils.JSONObject) {
 	switch outputFormat {
 	case OUTPUT_FORMAT_TABLE:
@@ -52,7 +68,7 @@ func printObject(obj jsonutils.JSONObject) {
 	case OUTPUT_FORMAT_KV:
 		printObjectFmtKv(obj)
 	case OUTPUT_FORMAT_JSON:
-		fmt.Print(obj.String())
+		fmt.Print(obj.PrettyString())
 		fmt.Print("\n")
 	case OUTPUT_FORMAT_FLATTEN_TABLE:
 		printObjectRecursive(obj)