gist(1) -- upload code to https://gist.github.com
Synopsis
The gist gem provides a gist command that you can use from your terminal to
upload content to https://gist.github.com/.
Installation
‌If you have ruby installed:
gem install gist
‌If you're using Bundler:
source :rubygems
gem 'gist'
‌For OS X, gist lives in Homebrew
brew install gist
‌For FreeBSD, gist lives in ports
pkg install gist
<200c>For Ubuntu/Debian
apt install gist
Note: Debian renames the binary to gist-paste to avoid a name conflict.
Command
‌To upload the contents of a.rb just:
gist a.rb
‌Upload multiple files:
gist a b c
gist *.rb
‌By default it reads from STDIN, and you can set a filename with -f.
gist -f test.rb <a.rb
‌Alternatively, you can just paste from the clipboard:
gist -P
‌Use -p to make the gist private:
gist -p a.rb
‌Use -d to add a description:
gist -d "Random rbx bug" a.rb
‌You can update existing gists with -u:
gist -u GIST_ID FILE_NAME
gist -u 42f2c239d2eb57299408 test.txt
‌If you'd like to copy the resulting URL to your clipboard, use -c.
gist -c <a.rb
‌If you'd like to copy the resulting embeddable URL to your clipboard, use -e.
gist -e <a.rb
‌And you can just ask gist to open a browser window directly with -o.
gist -o <a.rb
‌To list (public gists or all gists for authed user) gists for user
gist -l : all gists for authed user
gist -l defunkt : list defunkt's public gists
To read a gist and print it to STDOUT
gist -r GIST_ID
gist -r 374130
‌See gist --help for more detail.
Login
Before you use gist for the first time you will need to log in. There are two supported login flows:
- The Github device-code Oauth flow. This is the default for authenticating to github.com, and can be enabled for Github Enterprise by creating an Oauth app, and exporting the environment variable
GIST_CLIENT_IDwith the client id of the Oauth app. - The (deprecated) username and password token exchange flow. This is the default for GitHub Enterprise, and can be used to log into github.com by exporting the environment variable
GIST_USE_USERNAME_AND_PASSWORD.
The device-code flow
This flow allows you to obtain a token by logging into GitHub in the browser and typing a verification code. This is the preferred mechanism.
gist --login
Requesting login parameters...
Please sign in at https://github.com/login/device
and enter code: XXXX-XXXX
Success! https://github.com/settings/connections/applications/4f7ec0d4eab38e74384e
The returned access_token is stored in ~/.gist and used for all future gisting. If you need to you can revoke access from https://github.com/settings/connections/applications/4f7ec0d4eab38e74384e.
The username-password flow
This flow asks for your GitHub username and password (and 2FA code), and exchanges them for a token with the "gist" permission (your username and password are not stored). This mechanism is deprecated by GitHub, but may still work with GitHub Enterprise.
gist --login
Obtaining OAuth2 access_token from GitHub.
GitHub username: ConradIrwin
GitHub password:
2-factor auth code:
Success! https://github.com/settings/tokens
This token is stored in ~/.gist and used for all future gisting. If you need to
you can revoke it from https://github.com/settings/tokens, or just delete the
file.
Password-less login
If you have a complicated authorization requirement you can manually create a
token file by pasting a GitHub token with gist scope (and maybe the user:email
for GitHub Enterprise) into a file called ~/.gist. You can create one from
https://github.com/settings/tokens
This file should contain only the token (~40 hex characters), and to make it
easier to edit, can optionally have a final newline (\n or \r\n).
For example, one way to create this file would be to run:
(umask 0077 && echo MY_SECRET_TOKEN > ~/.gist)
The umask ensures that the file is only accessible from your user account.
GitHub Enterprise
If you'd like gist to use your locally installed GitHub Enterprise,
you need to export the GITHUB_URL environment variable (usually done in your ~/.bashrc).
export GITHUB_URL=http://github.internal.example.com/
Once you've done this and restarted your terminal (or run source ~/.bashrc), gist will
automatically use GitHub Enterprise instead of the public github.com
Your token for GitHub Enterprise will be stored in .gist.<protocol>.<server.name>[.<port>] (e.g.
~/.gist.http.github.internal.example.com for the GITHUB_URL example above) instead of ~/.gist.
If you have multiple servers or use Enterprise and public GitHub often, you can work around this by creating scripts
that set the env var and then run gist. Keep in mind that to use the public GitHub you must unset the env var. Just
setting it to the public URL will not work. Use unset GITHUB_URL
Token file format
If you cannot use passwords, as most Enterprise installations do, you can generate the token via the web interface and then simply save the string in the correct file. Avoid line breaks or you might see:
$ gist -l
Error: Bad credentials
Library
‌You can also use Gist as a library from inside your ruby code:
Gist.gist("Look.at(:my => 'awesome').code")
If you need more advanced features you can also pass:
:access_tokento authenticate using OAuth2 (default is `File.read("~/.gist")).:filenameto change the syntax highlighting (default isa.rb).:publicif you want your gist to have a guessable url.:descriptionto add a description to your gist.:updateto update an existing gist (can be a URL or an id).:copyto copy the resulting URL to the clipboard (default is false).:opento open the resulting URL in a browser (default is false).
NOTE: The access_token must have the gist scope and may also require the user:email scope.
‌If you want to upload multiple files in the same gist, you can:
Gist.multi_gist("a.rb" => "Foo.bar", "a.py" => "Foo.bar")
‌If you'd rather use gist's builtin access_token, then you can force the user to obtain one by calling:
Gist.login!
‌This will take them through the process of obtaining an OAuth2 token, and storing it
in ~/.gist, where it can later be read by Gist.gist
Configuration
‌If you'd like -o or -c to be the default when you use the gist executable, add an
alias to your ~/.bashrc (or equivalent). For example:
alias gist='gist -c'
‌If you'd prefer gist to open a different browser, then you can export the BROWSER environment variable:
export BROWSER=google-chrome
If clipboard or browser integration don't work on your platform, please file a bug or (more ideally) a pull request.
If you need to use an HTTP proxy to access the internet, export the HTTP_PROXY or
http_proxy environment variable and gist will use it.
Meta-fu
Thanks to @defunkt and @indirect for writing and maintaining versions 1 through 3. Thanks to @rking and @ConradIrwin for maintaining version 4.
Licensed under the MIT license. Bug-reports, and pull requests are welcome.