How to download single file from github?

Problem:

Often, you will need a single file to download from github, but you can't figure out how to do that. In such a case, a lot of people will suggest that you will need to download the whole repository. But that's not a useful suggestion and you know it. So what to do?

Solution:

In such a case, first click the view raw option in github ui. This will redirect into a new tab generally and show the rawgithubusercontent.com/... site and the raw content in that tab. Avoid this. Get this raw content in the same tab. This will create a similar rawgithubusercontent.com/... url. 

Now, using this url, use curl <url> to fetch this content. This will download the raw content in your computer. 

Installation (if needed):

For linux and mac, you will have this curl installed by default. For windows, you need to install it if your version is not later than windows 10. To try out the installation see Testing your cURL installation below. [the following part is taken from zendesk website]

You can download and install cURL as follows.

1. In Windows, create a new folder called curl in your C: drive.

   C:\curl

2. Go to http://curl.haxx.se/download.html and download one of the following zip files:

   • If you have a Windows 64 system, scroll to the Win64 - Generic section and look for the latest Win64 ia64 zip version with SSL support. It's normally second in the list. Click the version number to start the download.
   • If you have a Windows 32 system, scroll to the Win32 - Generic section and look for the latest Win32 zip version with SSL support. It's normally second in the list. Click the version number to start the download.

3. Unzip the downloaded file and move the curl.exe file to your C:\curl folder.

4. Go to http://curl.haxx.se/docs/caextract.html and download the digital certificate file named cacert.pem.

   The PEM file contains a bundle of valid digital certificates. The certificates are used to verify the authenticity of secure websites. They're distributed by certificate authority (CA) companies such as GlobalSign and VeriSign. The PEM file allows cURL to connect securely to the Zendesk API using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol.

5. Move the cacert.pem file to your C:\curl folder and rename it curl-ca-bundle.crt.

6. Add the curl folder path to your Windows PATH environment variable so that the curl command is available from any location at the command prompt. Update the variable as follows:

   1. In the Start menu, right-click This PC and select More > Properties.

      Note: In Windows 7, right-click Computer and select Properties.

   2. Click Advanced System Settings.

   3. In the Advanced tab, click the Environment Variables button on the lower right side.

   4. Select the "Path" variable in System Variables, and click Edit.

   5. In the Edit environment variable dialog box, click New and add the path to the curl.exe file. Example: C:\curl.

       

      Windows 7: In the Variable Value textbox, append a semicolon to the value, followed by the path to the curl.exe file. Example: ;C:\curl

   6. Keep clicking OK to accept the change and close the dialog box.
      

Now that you have curl in your windows computer also, you can curl the url in above mentioned procedure.

Conclusion:

So in this article, not only we resolved the hiccup of downloading single file from github, but we also saw how to use curl and how to download curl if you don't have it in your machine. Hope it helped you.