How to use pastebin from shell script?

Question

Is it possible to use pastebin (may be via their "API" functionality) inside bash shell scripts? How do I send http-post? How do I get back the URL?

Accepted Answer

The documentation says that you need to submit a `POST` request to

```
http://pastebin.com/api_public.php
```

and the only mandatory parameter is `paste_code`, of type string is the paste that you want to make.

On success a new `pastebin` URL will be returned.

You can easily do this from your bash shell using the command `curl`.

`curl` uses the `-d` option to send the `POST` data to the specified URL.

Demo:

This demo will create a new paste with the code:

```
printf("Hello..I am Codaddict");
```

From your shell:

```
$ curl -d 'paste_code=printf("Hello..I am Codaddict");' 'http://pastebin.com/api_public.php'
http://pastebin.com/598VLDZp
$
```

Now if you see the URL http://pastebin.com/598VLDZp, you'll see my paste :)

Alternatively you can do it using the `wget` command which uses the option `--post-data` to sent `POST` values.

I've tried this command it works fine:

```
wget --post-data 'paste_code=printf("Hello..I am Codaddict");' 'http://pastebin.com/api_public.php'
```

Solution