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I am trying to use the GitHub API to retrieve and download the contents of a file in my GitHub repository to mimic how I am using the Azure DevOps REST API.

My ADO URL is:

https://dev.azure.com/<Org>/<Project>/_apis/git/repositories/<Repository>/items?versionType=branch&version=develop&path=<Path to file>/DEV1.yml&download=true

Above works perfectly fine and if I type that into my browser, it immediately downloads the DEV1.yml file.

I am trying to mimic this implementation using GitHub's REST API. My URL looks like:

https://api.github.com/repos/<Org>/<Repository>/contents/<Path to file>/DEV1.yml&download=true

This GitHub URL does not work in the browser, I assume it's because the repo is private and I need a token. However when I use curl:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <PAT>" https://api.github.com/repos/<Org>/<Repository>/contents/<Path to file>/DEV1.yml&download=true

This returns a large base64 encoded JSON object. I attempted to use the URL in place of the existing ADO one and it failed.

Are the 2 above URLs not the same?

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  • The url you are using now should be used to get the 'file actual content url', it is a necessary step. However, the content of the file cannot be captured only through this url, and the specific file data must be obtained by re-requesting the download_url attribute in the return value of this url request. Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 7:19
  • As a command line file transfer tool, curl may not be able to implement complex logic, you need some code to implement the logic. I provide a python example, if you are not familiar with python and need a code example, please tell me what language you are good at and I can write an example for you. Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 7:31

2 Answers 2

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Yes, it is different.

Github REST API download files has two steps.

1, The first step is get the download url.

The url format like this:

https://api.github.com/repos/<Project Name>/<Repository Name>/contents/<File Name>

The response format like this:

enter image description here

2, The second step is using the download url to get the file content.

The url format like this:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/<Project Name>/<Repository Name>/main/<File Name>?token=<Random Token that related to Revision Version>

Please notice that the first step can't skip, otherwise you will be unable to get the revision token.

I can achieve your requirement using python:

import requests #Define required information project_name = "xxx" repository_name = "xxx" # repository_name = "xxx" branch_name = "xxx" File_name = "xxx" PAT = "xxx" url = "https://api.github.com/repos/"+project_name+"/"+repository_name+"/contents/"+File_name #downoad file from github payload = {} headers = { 'Authorization': 'token '+PAT } #download file file_content = requests.request("GET", ((requests.request("GET", url, headers=headers, data=payload)).json())['download_url'], headers=headers, data=payload) print(file_content.text)

Successfully get the latest contents(I am also based on private repository):

enter image description here

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If you want a raw file, you just need to set request header Accept with application/vnd.github.v3.raw. Just one step would be enough.

GitHub API: /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents/{path}

Refer to:

Official way to access / download github files from scripts?

https://docs.github.com/en/rest/repos/contents

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