Termbin – Netcat-based command line pastebin.
Today we will learn how we can share the output of a command from our terminal using nothing but netcat.
What is pastebin?
A pastebin or text storage site is a type of online content-hosting service where users can store plain text (e.g. source code snippets for code review via Internet Relay Chat (IRC)) Source: Wikipedia
How to use termbin?
Using termbin is really simple. As you head over to https://termbin.com/ you will see:
Usage
echo just testing! | nc termbin.com 9999
cat ~/some_file.txt | nc termbin.com 9999
ls -la | nc termbin.com 9999
So the format is:
command | nc termbin.com 9999
When “command” executes, “|” will redirect its output to “termbin.com” on port “9999” via “nc” (netcat).
Installing netcat
Most linux distributions come with netcat preinstalled, for in case you're using Termux or a linux distribution which doesn't come with netcat preinstalled then you can install it using yourm package manager.
On Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install netcat
On Fedora
sudo dnf install nc
On Arch Linux:
sudo pacman -S gnu-netcat
Demonstration
Let's try to create a termbin of manpage of netcat.
man nc | nc termbin.com 9999
Output:
https://termbin.com/sln3
Alias
For more ease, you can also create an alias of the command and simply pipe the output to it.
echo 'alias tb="nc termbin.com 9999"' >> .bashrc
Then to use it, simply type:
command | tb
Now you can share the above URL with anyone you like, post it on a forum asking for help with an error, or sharing your code with your colleagues.
~ spignelon | Ujjawal Saini