Transfer.sh – Easy File Sharing from Linux Commandline

Transfer.sh is a simple, easy and fast service for file sharing from the command-line. It allows you to upload up to 10GB of data and files are stored for 14 days, for free.

You can maximize amount of downloads and it also supports encryption for security. It supports the local file system (local); together with s3 (Amazon S3), and gdrive (Google Drive) cloud storage services.

It is designed to be used with the Linux shell. In addition, you can preview your files in the browser. In this article, we will show how to use transfer.sh in Linux.

Upload a Single File

To upload a file, you can use the curl program with the --upload-file option as shown.

$ curl --upload-file ./tecmint.txt https://transfer.sh/tecmint.txt

Download a File

To download your file, a friend or colleague can run the following command.

$ curl https://transfer.sh/Vq3Kg/tecmint.txt -o tecmint.txt 

Upload Multiple Files

You can upload multiple files at once, for example:

$ curl -i -F filedata=@/path/to/tecmint.txt -F filedata=@/path/to/usernames.txt https://transfer.sh/ 

Encrypt Files Before Transfer

To encrypt your files before the transfer, use the following command (you must have the gpg tool installed on the system). You will be prompted to enter a password to encrypt the file.

$ cat usernames.txt | gpg -ac -o- | curl -X PUT --upload-file "-" https://transfer.sh/usernames.txt 

To download and decrypt the above file, use the following command:

$ curl https://transfer.sh/11Rnw5/usernames.txt | gpg -o- > ./usernames.txt

Use Wget Tool

Transfer.sh also supports the wget tool. To upload a file, run.

$ wget --method PUT –body-file=./tecmint.txt https://transfer.sh/tecmint.txt -O --nv 

Create Alias Command

To use the short transfer command, add an alias to your .bashrc or .zshrc startup file.

$ vim ~/.bashrc
OR
$ vim ~/.zshrc

Then add the lines below in it (you can only choose one tool, either curl or wget).

##using curl
transfer() {
    curl --progress-bar --upload-file "$1" https://transfer.sh/$(basename $1) | tee /dev/null;
}

alias transfer=transfer
##using wget
transfer() {
    wget -t 1 -qO - --method=PUT --body-file="$1" --header="Content-Type: $(file -b --mime-type $1)" https://transfer.sh/$(basename $1);
}

alias transfer=transfer

Save the changes and close the file. Then source it to apply the changes.

$ source ~/.bashrc
OR
$ source ~/.zshrc

From now on, you upload a file using the transfer command as shown.

$ transfer users.list.gz

To setup your own sharing server instance, download the program code from the Github repository.

You can find more information and sample use cases in the project homepage: https://transfer.sh/

Transfer.sh is a simple, easy and fast service for file sharing from the command-line. Share your thoughts about it with us via the feedback form below. You can also tell us about similar services that you have come across – we’ll be grateful.