File hosts that accept uploads with minimal friction come and go. So it is a positive find that Catbox.moe, unofficially Voat’s “Imgur”, has maintained some longevity. “But Catbox uses proprietary javascript!”, I can hear you say. But it doesn’t. An upload page has been built specifically for js blocking Chads. Although this introduces a limitation, only one file may be uploaded at a time.
However, we don’t need to hand control over to some javascript to recover this functionality. We take things a step further and ditch the web interface for the much more utilitarian terminal program! MineBartekSA’s CatBox bash script leverages the Catbox API to upload and optionally manage content.
Usage: catbox <command> [arguments]
Commands:
user [userhash] - Gets or sets current userhash. If you pass 'off' then it will make you anonymous
file <filename(s)> - Uploads files to catbox.moe
url <url(s)> - Uploads files from URLs to catbox.moe
delete <filenames(s)> - Deletes files from catbox.moe. Requires userhash
album - Album Managment
usage, --usage, -h, --help - Prints this message
version, -v, --version - Prints version
Setting a user hash allows you to later delete files that you no longer require hosted. Although if you’re looking to temporarily share a file, it may be best to use their litterbox.catbox.moe option which allows files to be deleted automatically anywhere between one hour to three days after posting.
Let’s say you have a folder with several items you want to share. This can be done in a single command:
catbox file SecretDocuments/*
The wildcard will grab all of the files in the directory, in order. It is also possible to pass multiple files individually. The resulting link URLs are supplied in the output.
Uploading anonymously...
letter-to-meemaw.txt:
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 445 0 35 100 410 8 93 0:00:02 0:00:02 --:--:-- 101
Uploaded to: https://files.catbox.moe/bj9k3z.txt
proof-that-aliens-are-real.txt:
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 401 0 35 100 366 9 100 0:00:01 0:00:01 --:--:-- 109
Uploaded to: https://files.catbox.moe/mbhj46.txt
stalker-notes.txt:
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 379 0 35 100 344 7 73 0:00:02 0:00:02 --:--:-- 91
Uploaded to: https://files.catbox.moe/3n1hwo.txt
Play fair
It is with only a bit of hesitation that I write about Catbox, as the service is provided on the goodwill of an anonymous do-gooder who thanklessly keeps things running with over 200TB of bandwidth used monthly. So please be respectful of the filesizes that you upload. I know that automated uploads can be tempting to start dumping tons of content. Even a simple 3.5MB video file viewed by just two thousand people easily translates into ~7GB of content that their servers need to deliver.