Post to Twitter using the command line

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Unix

File this one squarely in the "because we can," category, but the Digital Streets blog has a tip for command line junkies who want to update Twitter without opening a web browser or a 3rd party application. All you need to do is install cURL, a command line utility for Linux, Windows or OS X and then send a message to Twitter with your status updates.

In Ubuntu, here's how to install cURL:

1. Open a terminal
2. Type "sudo apt-get install curl" (without the quotes)
3. Enter your root password when prompted

Once cURL is installed, you just need to type the following to send a tweet (this time you should include the quotation marks around your message): curl -u yourusername:yourpassword -d status="Your Message Here" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

It's up to you to figure out why you would actually want to do this, but now you can.

Post to Twitter using the command line originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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