NAME

rest.bash - a REST client inside the GNU Bourne-Again SHell

SYNOPSIS

rest.bash [options] [script]

DESCRIPTION

rest.bash is a curl based REST client leveraging the GNU Bourne-Again SHell for command input. This means you can use any and all features Bash provides when interacting with your REST based services, including functions, loops, and pipes as well as using arbitrary commands and programs for input and output processing.

rest.bash does use a few features which are non-POSIX Bash extensions (such as associative arrays), thus it might not be trivial to port to other shells.

OPTIONS

rest.bash does not currently intercept any options, they are all passed along to Bash as is.

INVOCATION

An interactive shell is started when no script-file parameter is given. rest.bash will suppress the reading of the .bashrc file and instead the ~/.rest.bashrc will be sourced if present. After that, all files in ~/.rest.bashrc.d/ will be sourced, and is a useful place to store custom scripts for common services. When executing interactively, the PS1 prompt will show the current URL (http://localhost/ by default) as well as the HTTP code from the last call (if any).

Like normal Bash, a non-interactive shell executing a script will not parse .rest.bashrc and .rest.bashrc.d scripts, if they are needed, they must be sourced explicitly.

REST.BASH COMMANDS

header [header-value]
authorization [header-value]
accept [header-value]
content-type [header-value]
cookie [header-value]
Set the HTTP header to the specified value. Omitting the value prints the currently set value, if any.
header -d Remove the header if set.
basic-auth [user] [pass]
Set the Authentication header to use basic authentication. If user and/or password are omitted a prompt will be displayed, if no user is entered the authentication header is removed. Digest authentication is currently not supported.
cq
Change current URL. Accepts a few different formats:
- protocol://[host[/path]]
  Change protocol, host and path. If host or path is omitted they will remain the same as before.
- //host[/path]
  Change host and path, using the same protocol as before. If path is omitted, it will remain the same as before.
- /absolute-path
  Change path using an absolute path.
- relative-path
  Change path using a relative path. '.' and '..' are interpreted as the current path and one level up in the current path respectively. Both can be used as part of a path as well.
- - Switch to the last path used, similar to how 'cd -' switches to the previous directory. Useful for alternating back and forth between two paths.
files
List the temporary files managed by rest.bash. Note that these are also available through environment variables which can be used directly when launching an editor. Some editors (e.g. VIm) imports environment variables as well, meaning they can even be used inside the editor once it's running.
get [-dn] [url]
post [-dn] [url]
put [-dn] [url]
options [-dn] [url]
delete [-dn] [url]
Execute get, post, put, and delete requests using the current URL. If the optional URL element is specified it is interpreted relative to the current URL as 'cq' would have.

If stdin is a TTY, the $PAYLOAD file will be read when using 'post' and 'put'. If stdin is NOT a TTY, stdin will be used instead. Be wary of this if executing automated scripts using something which isn't connected to a TTY (e.g. cron) and redirect the stdin to $PAYLOAD on each call explicitly in case you want to use $PAYLOAD for input. Note that in a script there's no real good reason for actually using $PAYLOAD as you can simply pipe your payload directly.

In the context of a boolean expression, a failed curl (e.g. host unreachable) or any HTTP response code of 400 or greater is considered false.
- -d
  Read payload data from $PAYLOAD
- -n
  Do not read any payload.
'get', 'options', and 'delete' will not read $PAYLOAD unless '-d' is set, whereas 'post' and put will read $PAYLOAD unless '-n' is set. If both '-d' and '-n' are specified and/or multiple times, the last occurence will take precedence.
load [file]
Short hand command for loading a file into $PAYLOAD. If no file is given, stdin is read and can be useful for loading prepared payloads or templates.
mode
Select I/O mode. Effectively configures headers and output formatting hooks for a specific file format. To define more modes, see CUSTOM MODES. By default the following modes are supported:
- plain
  Plain mode uses no output formatting and uses simply 'grep' for selections using 'sel'.
- json
  JSON mode uses 'joqe' if available for pretty printing, input filtering, and selections using 'sel', if available. If not, Python's json module is used for pretty printing.
- xml
  XML mode uses 'xmllint' for pretty printing and XPath selections using 'sel' if available.
sel
Select data from the previous output. This uses the $OUTPUT file and can be executed several times without sending new requests to the service. The query syntax is defined by the I/O mode, e.g. use XPath for XML. NOTE: 'sel' is an alias, and can't reliably be used in functions as aliases are resolved during function declaration.
suffix [suffix]
Add an implicit suffix to all URLs. Some APIs use a 'file extension' to specify content type, like '.json', (rather than the Accept header), in which case this comes in handy. The suffix is inserted before the '?' if present, otherwise it's appended.
ssl-insecure [on]
Specify 'ssl-insecure on' or 'ssl-insecure yes' to tell curl to ignore SSL certificate errors. Useful when running tests using self signed certificates or similar. Specifying anything else (such as 'off' or 'no') will enable certificate validation (this is also the default).
cookie-jar [on/file-name/off]
Enable or disable the use of a cookie jar. Specifying a file-name will enable cookie-jar with that file, specifying "on" will use a temporary file. If not parameter is given, the current state is returned.
user-agent [-d] [user-agent]
Set the user-agent string, or use -d to revert to default. If no parameter is given, the current state is returned.
reload-cookbook
Reload the custom scripts from rest.bashrc and rest.bashrc.d, useful if you're editing these as you go.

RESPONSE HISTORY

back [n]
Go back to a previous response. $OUTPUT will be replaced.
forward [n]
Go forward again to a later response. $OUTPUT will be replaced.

CUSTOM MODES

To define custom modes you need to define a function using the name of the mode you want to define prefixed with two a plus ('+'). You should take care to define the headers you need, an appropriate $output_filter, as well as alias 'sel' to the appropriate selection function.

To clean up configuration done in the '+' function, define a '-' function as well, which will be called when leaving the mode. The '-' function will also be called on exit if the mode is still active, in case you need to clean up any side effects such as temporary files.

For example, the following could define an XML mode (the built-in XML mode is slightly more elaborate):

+xml() {
    accept text/xml
    content-type text/xml
    output_filter='=xml-filter'
    alias sel='=xml-select'
}
-xml() {
    =unset-mode
}
=xml-filter() {
    xmllint --format "$1"
}
=xml-select() {
    xmllint --xpath "$*" $OUTPUT
}

To enable, use 'mode xml'. '=unset-mode' is a helper function provided by rest.bash to unset common mode overrides, such as the accept header, content-type header, output_filter and sel alias.

VARIABLES

These variables are not exported and are invisible to sub processes, and are used to modify rest.bash's behavior.

$output_filter
Executed with a temporary output file as parameter, should contain the name of a output filter function, such as a pretty printer.
$input_filter
Executed with a the input file and the previous output file as parameter, should contain the name of a input filter function, such as a normalizer or a tool that maps data from the previous output into the input.
$_on_output
Hook which is evaluated once new data is available. The evaluated value is ignored.
$_stdout
Hook for controlling stdout from network calls. Evaluate to false to suppress output. Note that if stdout is suppressed the network calls can't be used in pipes. A common value is to use 'test ! -t 1' to suppress output only if stdout is a TTY, i.e. the terminal.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

These variables are exported through the environment, and are visible to subprocess such as your editor.

$OUTPUT
Temporary file containing the output produced by the last call. The file will be removed on exit.
$PAYLOAD
Temporary file containing the payload to send. Having the payload in a separate file allows you to keep it open in an editor, without having to worry about the life cycle of that file. The file will be removed on exit.
$HTTPHEADER
Temporary file containing the HTTP headers produced by the last call. The file will be removed on exit.

FILES

~/.rest.bashrc
Personal initialization script
~/.rest.bashrc.d/
The directory containing personal custom scripts. All files (except .*) in this directory will be sourced on launch. See the cookbook directory in the source tree for examples. Use the reload-cookbook command to reload these. Useful if you're editing as you go.

BUGS

Probably several. One source of confusion is the practice of testing whether stdin is bound to a terminal or not in order to detect whether input was redirected. This works find when running manually, but if ever run as a cron script, it'll cause weird behavior.

Currently the first HTTP status code received is evaluated, which in case of a POST or PUT is often 100 (Continue) which is less than 400 and thus considered successful.

AUTHOR

Written by Fredrik Alstromer falstro@excu.se

COPYRIGHT

Distributed under the MIT license.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Bash is Copyright (C) by the Free Software Foundation, Inc. and is neither part of this package, nor is it covered by above license.

cilesiz/rest.bash