How to Tweet from the Command Line/Terminal

Dec 1, 2016

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in Technology, Marketing Technology, Twitter

Warning: this content is older than 365 days. It may be out of date and no longer relevant.

How to Tweet from the Command Line%2FTerminal.png

If you’ve ever wanted a super-slim, super-lightweight way to use Twitter, you’ve probably thought about using the command line (Windows) or Terminal (Mac). I love using command line applications. Part of it may be my retro-technical (techno-hipster?) love of things as they used to be, but part of it is efficiency. Command line applications aren’t bloated applications that take forever to launch.

Installing Oysttyer

The Twitter command line application of choice these days is Oysttyer, an open-source fork of the popular but now dead TTYtter. Oysttyer is a Perl application. For Windows users, you’ll need to have Perl installed on your machines; for Mac users, it’s built-in.

Download a copy of Oysttyer from its Github repository here. Once you’ve downloaded it, follow the instructions and get your Twitter developer API key here. After you’ve obtained your API key, simply embed it in the launch command for your script according to the directions.

Oysttyer will walk you through a simple setup process.

So What Does It Do?

My preferred use of Oysttyer is for super-lightweight monitoring of my Twitter stream for mentions/replies:

I can read and respond very quickly from a command line, without running a browser or a mobile app:

Wouldn’t a Mobile App/Web App Be Easier?

Yes. This is a specific use-case for people who live in and love the command line, or for people who have a machine that doesn’t support a browser well. For example, if you’ve got a Raspberry Pi or other low power computer, this is a super-efficient way to use Twitter that doesn’t require a lot of computing power.

Oysttyer is not convenient for the average user who loves the point-and-click/tap friendly user interface.

Enjoy Oysttyer for what it is; if you have a use-case for it, make the most of it. If you don’t, then try it out just to see how it works and then move to the Twitter environment you prefer best.

Comments

24 responses to “How to Tweet from the Command Line/Terminal”

Daniel Johnson, Jr.

June 1, 2007

Anyone know if this or something similar works in windows?

Reply
Daniel Johnson, Jr.

June 1, 2007

Anyone know if this or something similar works in windows?

Reply
Chris Brogan…

June 1, 2007

That’s for outbound, right? Is there a way to “tail the log” and watch realtime status come IN?

Reply
Chris Brogan…

June 1, 2007

That’s for outbound, right? Is there a way to “tail the log” and watch realtime status come IN?

Reply
Andrew Pennebaker

June 14, 2007

Thanks! I added the silent option and sent the stdout text to heck:

#!/usr/bin/env sh
curl -u yourusername -d status=”$1″ -s -o /dev/null http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

Reply
Andrew Pennebaker

June 14, 2007

Thanks! I added the silent option and sent the stdout text to heck:

#!/usr/bin/env sh
curl -u yourusername -d status=”$1″ -s -o /dev/null http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

Reply
carlos

January 8, 2008

Hi,
I work with ubuntu 7.10
I’ve follow the steps but when I type in the terminal:
tw
and ask for my host password I enter my twitter pass, but it says:
Couldn’t resolve host
The host pass and the twitter pass are different?
Thanks

Reply
carlos

January 8, 2008

Hi,
I work with ubuntu 7.10
I’ve follow the steps but when I type in the terminal:
tw
and ask for my host password I enter my twitter pass, but it says:
Couldn’t resolve host
The host pass and the twitter pass are different?
Thanks

Reply
carlos

January 8, 2008

Now, works fine. I don’t know what’s happened.
Only to add the script works in gnu/linux OS too
Regards

Reply
carlos

January 8, 2008

Now, works fine. I don’t know what’s happened.
Only to add the script works in gnu/linux OS too
Regards

Reply
Murphy Mac

April 5, 2008

Does this not work with the curl that ships with Leopard? I left my password out of the command, was prompted for it, but my post didn’t appear. I saw the html go by.

Cool. I’ll be looking into Chris Brogan’s question. I’m definitely interested in seeing Tweets in the Terminal.

Reply
Murphy Mac

April 5, 2008

Does this not work with the curl that ships with Leopard? I left my password out of the command, was prompted for it, but my post didn’t appear. I saw the html go by.

Cool. I’ll be looking into Chris Brogan’s question. I’m definitely interested in seeing Tweets in the Terminal.

Reply
Christopher S. Penn

April 6, 2008

Dunno – as a rule, I typically compile major packages I know I’m going to use from source. That’s a me oddity 🙂

Reply
Christopher S. Penn

April 6, 2008

Dunno – as a rule, I typically compile major packages I know I’m going to use from source. That’s a me oddity 🙂

Reply
crimeboy

April 16, 2008

to improve that, and use without commas i make it

crimeboy@groselia:~ $cat twi #!/bin/bash # requires curl ###########################$

######## CONFIG
USER=YOULOGIN
PASS=YOURPASS
URL=”http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml”
###############
curl -uUSER: $PASS -d status=”$ *” -s -o /dev/null ${URL}

Reply
crimeboy

April 16, 2008

to improve that, and use without commas i make it

crimeboy@groselia:~ $cat twi #!/bin/bash # requires curl ###########################$

######## CONFIG
USER=YOULOGIN
PASS=YOURPASS
URL=”http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml”
###############
curl -uUSER: $PASS -d status=”$ *” -s -o /dev/null ${URL}

Reply
Jesse

April 18, 2008

Hello,

I like you script, its simple and sweet. I only have to say that its probably not a good idea to advise people to chmod something to 777. This would enable other users (who would have access to your machine or network) to see not only the password which is hard coded in the script, but to change the script and insert something malicious. Perhaps something a bit more conservative like 700 would be a better choice. This value would mean that the owner (you) has read, write and execute permissions on the file, but no one else. I know you probably, and rightfully trust the people on your network, but hey–its the same amount of typing and you get free security :).

Kind Regards,

Jesse

Reply
Jesse

April 18, 2008

Hello,

I like you script, its simple and sweet. I only have to say that its probably not a good idea to advise people to chmod something to 777. This would enable other users (who would have access to your machine or network) to see not only the password which is hard coded in the script, but to change the script and insert something malicious. Perhaps something a bit more conservative like 700 would be a better choice. This value would mean that the owner (you) has read, write and execute permissions on the file, but no one else. I know you probably, and rightfully trust the people on your network, but hey–its the same amount of typing and you get free security :).

Kind Regards,

Jesse

Reply
Bonnie

May 7, 2008

This looks great. I don’t know anything about compiling commands so I tried the curl that comes with OS X. When I try this only the content up to my first space is posted on Twitter. Do you think that’s my curl or is there something else you think it might be?

Reply
Bonnie

May 7, 2008

This looks great. I don’t know anything about compiling commands so I tried the curl that comes with OS X. When I try this only the content up to my first space is posted on Twitter. Do you think that’s my curl or is there something else you think it might be?

Reply
Bonnie

May 8, 2008

Huh, my quotes looked funny around the $1 – I created the text file using the cat command. Fixed the quotes with pico, they look right now, and it works. Thanks.

Reply
Bonnie

May 8, 2008

Huh, my quotes looked funny around the $1 – I created the text file using the cat command. Fixed the quotes with pico, they look right now, and it works. Thanks.

Reply
Murk

September 3, 2010

I think this is now broken due to OAuth.

Reply
Christopher S. Penn

September 3, 2010

Post updated!

Reply