This simple Ruby utility takes a file on your local machine and turns it into a gist on Github.

I could have used gems to simplify the development process, but I'm not sure how much code that would have actually saved me writing, and it would have undoubtedly added a layer of complexity in terms of understanding the codebase, so I decided to use only libraries which are built in to Ruby itself.

Getting started

gem install gistdoit

Usage

To create a new gist, you simply type gistdoit along with the relative file path for the file you want to make a gist out of

// PWD is /Users/AwesomeUser/Dev/Projects

gistdoit cool_project_file.rb

If you want to edit a file that is currently on Github, then you can pass the patch flag

// PWD is /Users/AwesomeUser/Dev/Projects

gistdoit patch cool_project_file.rb

If you like to update your gists remotely on Github, then we recommend that you first make sure that your local gist is up to date with the remote version

// PWD is /Users/AwesomeUser/Dev/Projects

gistdoit pull cool_project_file.rb

// Gistdoit needs permission to update the file
Password: ********

The file was successfully updated!

At the moment, Gistdoit only recognizes files which were added to gist.github via Gistdoit.

Internals

Gistdoit keeps a record of the full file paths for gists you've uploaded to Github via Gistdoit along with the slug for that file, and a SHA of the file itself. This allows Gistdoit to quickly check for changes in the file without having to parse it.

Things I would like to add in the future

• Allowing the user to select whether they would like a gist to be either secret or public.
• Listing all gists which the option of limited to a certain number of most recent.
• Editing a particular gist after selecting it by name.
• Show the diff of what was changed when files are updated