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Thomas Gotwig
Thomas Gotwig

Posted on • Edited on

Executing Github Gist files from Linux Shell via cURL 🚀

#bash #github #tutorial #shell

We have two different URL options to fetch a Github Gist file via cURL:

  1. gist.githubusercontent.com
  2. api.github.com

The second one is a bit more work, but always instant up-to-date! 🌟

1️⃣ gist.githubusercontent.com 

curl -s https://gist.githubusercontent.com/[user]/[gist_id]/raw/[gist_file]?_=$(uuidgen) \
| bash
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🌍 Hello World!
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But this can run a older version of the file 😖

2️⃣ api.github.com

🔧 Fix limitations of api.github.com

Using api.github.com comes with rate-limiting per hour:

curl -I -s https://api.github.com/users/[user] | grep x-ratelimit
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x-ratelimit-limit: 60
x-ratelimit-remaining: 59
x-ratelimit-reset: 1636928776
x-ratelimit-resource: core
x-ratelimit-used: 1
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However, we can get around this strong limitation by using a PAT:

curl -I -s -u <user>:<pat> \
    https://api.github.com/users/[user] | grep x-ratelimit
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x-ratelimit-limit: 5000
x-ratelimit-remaining: 4999
x-ratelimit-reset: 1636928894
x-ratelimit-used: 1
x-ratelimit-resource: core
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🚀 Executing the Gist file! 

curl -s -u <user>:<pat> \
    "https://api.github.com/gists/[gist_id]?_=$(uuidgen)" \
    | jq --raw-output '.files."<GIST_FILE>".content' | bash
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🌍 Hello World!
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Until now it was always up-to-date! 😊

Top comments (1)

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roneo profile image
Roneo.org •

Executing random Gists may have really bad consequences, use this with trusted sources only!

See news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12766049 for examples