A utility to create a gists from command line - for support, please check the repo https://github.com/ceremcem/create-gist

create-gist.sh

#!/bin/bash

GITHUB_USERNAME=rubo77

if [ "$1" == "" ]; then
  echo 'usage: gistfile-post.sh filename [gistname]'
  exit 0
fi

# 0. file name for the Gist
if [ "$2" == "" ]; then
  FNAME="$1"
else
  FNAME="$2"
fi

# 1. Somehow sanitize the file content
#    Remove \r (from Windows end-of-lines),
#    Replace tabs by \t
#    Replace " by \"
#    Replace EOL by \n
CONTENT=$(sed -e 's/\r//' -e's/\t/\\t/g' -e 's/"/\\"/g' "${FNAME}" | awk '{ printf($0 "\\n") }')

# 2. Build the JSON request
read -r -d '' DESC <<EOF
{
  "description": "some description",
  "public": true,
  "files": {
    "${FNAME}": {
      "content": "${CONTENT}"
    }
  }
}
EOF

# 3. Use curl to send a POST request

# ANONYMOUS GIST :
# curl -X POST -d "${DESC}" "https://api.github.com/gists"

# REGISTERED USER
curl -u "${GITHUB_USERNAME}" -X POST -d "${DESC}" "https://api.github.com/gists"

I needed to edit an existing gist to upload a binary file, which cannot be done via the UI.

To edit a gist, add a parameter $GIST_ID, replace POST with PATCH in curl, and after /gists add /$GIST_ID.
I still had formatting issues so I couldn't test it to the end, though. But I think that can work for normal text editing.

Then I tried the gist command line but defunkt/gist#191 mentions binaries cannot be uploaded.

So I followed the workaround at the end, cloning the gist repo and adding them manually locally, then pushing them.

Is elif on line 13 an error? My bash complains but it works when changed to else

Yes, That should be else.

thx, I corrected that

This was original asked here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26484337/upload-a-file-to-a-gist-with-bash and we continued the development from there.