pc

pc (paste-client) is a command line tool for uploading text to a pastebin server. It supports many different pastebin style servers, and is highly configurable. It aims to be simple, work with stdin/stdout, and adhere to the unix philosophy.

Please note that until v1 is released, the command line args api and config file specification should be considered unstable. Anything could change without notice. Please avoid using this non-interactively if you plan to update it often and do not want to debug failures because of api changes.

Features

• Many supported servers. If your favourite pastebin isn't supported, please open an issue.
• Configuration file for providing defaults and server configurations.
• Comprehensive command line help. Quickly list configured servers, backends, full config, detailed backend information.
• Comprehensive graceful error handling.
• Baked in, sane defaults for use without config file.
• Optional paste url history.
• Optional arguments for servers that support extra features, such as title, filetype, private pastes, expire time, etc.

Installation

Build from source (git clone):

git clone git@git.sr.ht:~swalladge/pc
cd pc
cargo build --release
./target/release/pc --help
# Copy the binary above to your system path to use from anywhere.

Install latest release from crates.io with cargo (note that cargo installs binaries to ~/.cargo/bin by default, and it is not recommended to use cargo as a system package manager alternative):

cargo install pc

Use cargo to install the latest git master:

cargo install --git git@git.sr.ht:~swalladge/pc

Arch users can use the PKGBUILDs available on the AUR: pc-git, pc.

Usage examples

Simplest, out of the box usage:

$ echo "Hello" | pc
https://paste.rs/saC

Select a custom server:

$ pc vpaste < code.txt
http://vpaste.net/example

Each configured server accepts cli args to override defaults, depending on which backend is used. Here, the fedora server block uses the modern_paste backend, which allows setting a custom title for the paste. Note: can only use server-specific args if specifying the server on the cli.

$ pc fedora --title "foo debug log" < debug.log
https://paste.fedoraproject.org/paste/7Taaazf88VimfqOnriOsFg

To see a server block's configuration, backend, and allowed args:

$ pc fedora --help
[servers.fedora]
backend = "modern_paste"
url = "https://paste.fedoraproject.org/"
title = "my paste"
expires = "10m"
syntax = "python"
password = "password123"
apikey = "BbK1F09sZZXL2335iqDGvGeQswQUcvUmzxMoWjp3yvZDxpWwRiP4YQL6PiUA8gy2"
---

modern_paste backend

USAGE:
    fedora [OPTIONS]

FLAGS:
    -h, --help       Prints help information
    -V, --version    Prints version information

OPTIONS:
    -k, --apikey <apikey|NONE>        Upload paste as authenticated user
    -e, --expires <duration|NONE>     Time to live as a duration
    -P, --password <password|NONE>    Protects paste access with a password
    -s, --syntax <filetype|NONE>      Filetype for syntax highlighting
    -t, --title <title|NONE>          Title for the paste
    -u, --url <url>                   Overrides url set in config

Show a concise list of configured servers available to use:

$ pc list
rs => paste_rs | https://paste.rs/ [default]
vpaste => vpaste | http://vpaste.net/
haste => haste | https://hastebin.com/
...

List all supported backends:

$ pc list-backends
paste_rs
haste
vpaste
...

Show info and configuration help for a particular backend:

$ pc show-backend fiche
Fiche backend.
Supports any servers running fiche <https://github.com/solusipse/fiche>.
(for example: termbin.com)

Example config block:

    [servers.termbin]
    backend = "fiche"
    url = "termbin.com"

    # Optional values

    # default port if missing is 9999
    port = 9999

Dump the current config as interpreted. Helpful for debugging.

$ pc dump-config
<toml config as currently used>

Copy the default config to the user config file. Could be useful for first setup (although the example config with comments may be more helpful).

$ mkdir -p ~/.config/pc/ && pc -c NONE dump-config > ~/.config/pc/config.toml

Histfile feature can also be disabled temporarily with args:

$ echo "hi" | pc --histfile NONE
http://vpaste.net/example

Configuration

Configuration is via a toml file. The configuration file is determined by the following:

1. file given to the -c command line arg a) if filename is NONE, skip to 5 b) if file isn't found, exit with error
2. otherwise use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pc/config.toml if exists
3. otherwise use $HOME/.config/pc/config.toml if exists
4. finally, no files found; use defaults (see what defaults are with pc -c NONE dump-config or see the default config file in this repo.

See example_config.toml for an example config file with an exhaustive listing of options. See also default_config.toml, which gets compiled into the binary and used as the default config if no config file found.

Supported server backends

*: open source; possible to self-host or find alternate public servers.

See the server list for a list of public server instances supported.

See also the feature matrix page for which features each backend supports.

Development

Standard cargo project. cargo build, cargo run, et al.

There is a Makefile for some other common tasks. Eg. make fmt will run rustfmt on all source files. make test will run some basic tests.

Related projects

• pastebinit: similar concept, supports config file, several pastebin servers, and options like private paste, set title, etc. An advantage is that this is available in several distros' official repos.
• curl: most lightweight pastebins support uploading text in a curl-friendly way. Eg. <command> | curl -F 'sprunge=<-' http://sprunge.us for sprunge. This is the simplest and most lightweight option, but requires remembering the specific curl arguments or setting up a shell alias for easy use.
• server/site-specific clients include: ix, gist, fb (paste.xinu.at), ...

See the archwiki list of pastebin clients for other related projects.

License

Copyright © 2019-2021 Samuel Walladge

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, version 3 of the License.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.