YOURLS URL Shortener Script

October 12, 2024 ยท View on GitHub

A simple Bash script to shorten URLs using the YOURLS API. This script allows you to easily generate short links directly from your command line.

Inspirated from https://github.com/ozh/yourls-bash

Command Usage

Features

  • Shortens URLs using a configurable YOURLS instance.
  • Supports custom keywords and titles.
  • Outputs results in multiple formats (JSON, XML, Simple).
  • Configuration is stored in an external file for easy access.

Requirements

  • curl command-line tool installed on your system.
  • Access to a YOURLS instance with an API key.

Installation

  1. Clone this repository or download the script.
  2. Make the script executable: 
    chmod +x yourls

Configuration

Before using the script, you need to set up the YOURLS configuration.

Create Configuration File

The script checks for the configuration file at ~/.config/shortlink.conf. If it doesn't exist, the script will prompt you to create one.

To create the configuration file:

  1. Run the script:

    ./yourls

  2. When prompted, enter the YOURLS host URL (e.g., https://sho.rt/) and your YOURLS API key.

Example Configuration File (~/.config/shortlink.conf)

YOURLS_HOST="https://sho.rt/"
YOURLS_KEY="eb9444558f"

Usage

You can use the script to shorten URLs in the following ways:

Shorten a URL

./yourls <URL>

Options

  • -k, --keyword <KEYWORD>: Specify a custom keyword for the shortened URL.
  • -t, --title <TITLE>: Specify a custom title for the URL.
  • -f, --format <FORMAT>: Specify the output format (json, xml, simple; default: simple).
  • -h, --help: Show the help message.

Examples

Shorten a URL without options

./yourls https://example.com

Shorten a URL with a custom keyword and title

./yourls https://example.com -k mykeyword -t "My Example"

Shorten a URL with JSON output format

./yourls https://example.com -f json

Output

The script will display both the original URL and the shortened URL. In case of any errors, appropriate messages will be shown.

Sample Output

Original URL: https://example.com
Shortened URL: https://sho.rt/abc123

Contributing

Feel free to submit pull requests or issues to improve this script!