curlgithuboauth

How can I download a single raw file from a private github repo using the command line?

On the CI server, I want to fetch a config file that we maintain on Github so it can be shared between many jobs. I'm trying to get this file via curl, but these approaches both fail (I get a 404):

# As advised by the oAuth docs
curl -H 'Authorization: token the_token' -L -o setup.sh https://raw.github.com/org/repo/file

# The url of the raw file after clicking to view it
curl -L https://raw.github.com/org/repo/file?login=username&token=the_token
Solution

  • The previous answers don't work (or don't work anymore).

    You can use the V3 API to get a raw file like this (you'll need an OAuth token):

    curl -H 'Authorization: token INSERTACCESSTOKENHERE' \
  -H 'Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.raw' \
  -O \
  -L https://api.github.com/repos/owner/repo/contents/path

    All of this has to go on one line. The -O option saves the file in the current directory. You can use -o filename to specify a different filename.

    To get the OAuth token follow the instructions here:

    I've written this up as a gist as well:

    EDIT: API references for the solution are as follows: