1GIST(1) Gist manual GIST(1)
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6 gist - upload code to https://gist.github.com
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9 The gist gem provides a gist command that you can use from your termi‐
10 nal to upload content to https://gist.github.com/.
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13 ○ If you have ruby installed:
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15 gem install gist
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17 ○ If you´re using Bundler:
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19 source :rubygems gem ´gist´
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21 ○ For OS X, gist lives in Homebrew
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23 brew install gist
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25 ○ For FreeBSD, gist lives in ports
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27 pkg install gist
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32 ○ To upload the contents of a.rb just:
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34 gist a.rb
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36 ○ Upload multiple files:
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38 gist a b c gist *.rb
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40 ○ By default it reads from STDIN, and you can set a filename with -f.
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42 gist -f test.rb <a.rb
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44 ○ Alternatively, you can just paste from the clipboard:
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46 gist -P
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48 ○ Use -p to make the gist private:
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50 gist -p a.rb
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52 ○ Use -d to add a description:
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54 gist -d "Random rbx bug" a.rb
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56 ○ You can update existing gists with -u:
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58 gist -u GIST_ID FILE_NAME gist -u 42f2c239d2eb57299408 test.txt
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60 ○ If you´d like to copy the resulting URL to your clipboard, use -c.
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62 gist -c <a.rb
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64 ○ If you´d like to copy the resulting embeddable URL to your clip‐
65 board, use -e.
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67 gist -e <a.rb
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69 ○ And you can just ask gist to open a browser window directly with
70 -o.
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72 gist -o <a.rb
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74 ○ To list (public gists or all gists for authed user) gists for user
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76 gist -l : all gists for authed user gist -l defunkt : list de‐
77 funkt´s public gists
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81 To read a gist and print it to STDOUT
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84 gist -r GIST_ID
85 gist -r 374130
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89 ○ See gist --help for more detail.
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94 Before you use gist for the first time you will need to log in. There
95 are two supported login flows:
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97 1. The Github device-code Oauth flow. This is the default for authen‐
98 ticating to github.com, and can be enabled for Github Enterprise by
99 creating an Oauth app, and exporting the environment variable
100 GIST_CLIENT_ID with the client id of the Oauth app.
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102 2. The (deprecated) username and password token exchange flow. This is
103 the default for GitHub Enterprise, and can be used to log into
104 github.com by exporting the environment variable GIST_USE_USER‐
105 NAME_AND_PASSWORD.
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109 The device-code flow
110 This flow allows you to obtain a token by logging into GitHub in the
111 browser and typing a verification code. This is the preferred mecha‐
112 nism.
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115 gist --login
116 Requesting login parameters...
117 Please sign in at https://github.com/login/device
118 and enter code: XXXX-XXXX
119 Success! https://github.com/settings/connections/applications/4f7ec0d4eab38e74384e
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123 The returned access_token is stored in ~/.gist and used for all future
124 gisting. If you need to you can revoke access from
125 https://github.com/settings/connections/applica‐
126 tions/4f7ec0d4eab38e74384e.
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128 The username-password flow
129 This flow asks for your GitHub username and password (and 2FA code),
130 and exchanges them for a token with the "gist" permission (your user‐
131 name and password are not stored). This mechanism is deprecated by
132 GitHub, but may still work with GitHub Enterprise.
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135 gist --login
136 Obtaining OAuth2 access_token from GitHub.
137 GitHub username: ConradIrwin
138 GitHub password:
139 2-factor auth code:
140 Success! https://github.com/settings/tokens
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144 This token is stored in ~/.gist and used for all future gisting. If you
145 need to you can revoke it from https://github.com/settings/tokens, or
146 just delete the file.
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148 If you have a complicated authorization requirement you can manually
149 create a token file by pasting a GitHub token with gist scope (and
150 maybe the user:email for GitHub Enterprise) into a file called ~/.gist.
151 You can create one from https://github.com/settings/tokens
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153 This file should contain only the token (~40 hex characters), and to
154 make it easier to edit, can optionally have a final newline (\n or
155 \r\n).
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157 For example, one way to create this file would be to run:
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160 (umask 0077 && echo MY_SECRET_TOKEN > ~/.gist)
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164 The umask ensures that the file is only accessible from your user ac‐
165 count.
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167 GitHub Enterprise
168 If you´d like gist to use your locally installed GitHub Enterprise
169 https://enterprise.github.com/, you need to export the GITHUB_URL envi‐
170 ronment variable (usually done in your ~/.bashrc).
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173 export GITHUB_URL=http://github.internal.example.com/
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177 Once you´ve done this and restarted your terminal (or run source
178 ~/.bashrc), gist will automatically use GitHub Enterprise instead of
179 the public github.com
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181 Your token for GitHub Enterprise will be stored in .gist.<proto‐
182 col>.<server.name>[.<port>] (e.g. ~/.gist.http.github.internal.exam‐
183 ple.com for the GITHUB_URL example above) instead of ~/.gist.
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185 If you have multiple servers or use Enterprise and public GitHub often,
186 you can work around this by creating scripts that set the env var and
187 then run gist. Keep in mind that to use the public GitHub you must un‐
188 set the env var. Just setting it to the public URL will not work. Use
189 unset GITHUB_URL
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191 Token file format
192 If you cannot use passwords, as most Enterprise installations do, you
193 can generate the token via the web interface and then simply save the
194 string in the correct file. Avoid line breaks or you might see: $ gist
195 -l Error: Bad credentials
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197 You can also use Gist as a library from inside your ruby code:
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200 If you need more advanced features you can also pass:
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202 ○ :access_token to authenticate using OAuth2 (default is
203 `File.read("~/.gist")).
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205 ○ :filename to change the syntax highlighting (default is a.rb).
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207 ○ :public if you want your gist to have a guessable url.
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209 ○ :description to add a description to your gist.
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211 ○ :update to update an existing gist (can be a URL or an id).
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213 ○ :copy to copy the resulting URL to the clipboard (default is
214 false).
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216 ○ :open to open the resulting URL in a browser (default is false).
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220 NOTE: The access_token must have the gist scope and may also require
221 the user:email scope.
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223 ○ If you want to upload multiple files in the same gist, you can:
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225 Gist.multi_gist("a.rb" => "Foo.bar", "a.py" => "Foo.bar")
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227 ○ If you´d rather use gist´s builtin access_token, then you can force
228 the user to obtain one by calling:
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230 Gist.login!
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232 ○ This will take them through the process of obtaining an OAuth2 to‐
233 ken, and storing it in ~/.gist, where it can later be read by
234 Gist.gist
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239 ○ If you´d like -o or -c to be the default when you use the gist exe‐
240 cutable, add an alias to your ~/.bashrc (or equivalent). For exam‐
241 ple:
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243 alias gist=´gist -c´
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245 ○ If you´d prefer gist to open a different browser, then you can ex‐
246 port the BROWSER environment variable:
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248 export BROWSER=google-chrome
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252 If clipboard or browser integration don´t work on your platform, please
253 file a bug or (more ideally) a pull request.
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255 If you need to use an HTTP proxy to access the internet, export the
256 HTTP_PROXY or http_proxy environment variable and gist will use it.
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259 Thanks to @defunkt and @indirect for writing and maintaining versions 1
260 through 3. Thanks to @rking and @ConradIrwin for maintaining version 4.
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262 Licensed under the MIT license. Bug-reports, and pull requests are wel‐
263 come.
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267 July 2023 GIST(1)