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

Question

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:

https://help.github.com/articles/creating-an-access-token-for-command-line-use

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

https://gist.github.com/madrobby/9476733

EDIT: API references for the solution are as follows:

https://developer.github.com/v3/#authentication
https://developer.github.com/v3/media/#request-specific-version
https://developer.github.com/v3/repos/contents/#get-contents

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