Quickly Share Screenshots to ImgBB from the Linux Command Line!

As an avid IRC user, I often want to share screenshots. Given IRC doesn't have the fancy features that Discord does, I can't just simply paste my screenshots. While services like ImgBB are great for quick hosting, the process usually involves more steps than I care for:

1. Taking the screenshot (often saving to a file or copying to clipboard).
2. Opening a web browser.
3. Navigating to imgbb.com.
4. Clicking "Upload", then finding the file or pasting.
5. Waiting for the upload.
6. Copying the desired link format.
7. Pasting the link to IRC, Browser, etc..

This felt like too many manual steps interrupting my workflow. If you know me. You know I want as minimal effort as required so we can be quick fast! I needed a command-line solution!

To scratch this itch, I created a Bash script, conveniently named `imgbb`, that leverages command-line tools (`curl`, `jq`, `xclip`) to automate the entire process.

With this script, I can copy an image to my clipboard (or specify a file path) and simply run `imgbb` in my terminal. It handles the upload, gets the direct image link, prints it, and copies it straight to my clipboard, ready to paste into IRC or anywhere else I might like.

If like me, you're often hosting images on imgBB and want to upload quickly, you can download the code from my Git repository. Be sure to check the README, even after reading this blog post, there may be some slight changed made.

• Upload images directly from the X11 clipboard (attempts PNG then JPEG).
• Upload images directly from a specified file path.
• Set an optional auto-deletion expiration time using human-friendly durations (e.g., 5m, 2h, 7d) or set it to never expire (0). Defaults to 2 hours if not specified.
• Specify a custom filename for the uploaded image on ImgBB.
• Optionally output and copy the URL in Markdown format (![](URL)).
• Copies the resulting URL to the X11 clipboard using xclip.
• Provides optional desktop notifications using notify-send.

The script relies on a few standard Linux tools. Make sure you have them installed:

• bash (v4+ recommended for features used)
• curl (For web requests)
• jq (For parsing the JSON response from ImgBB)
• xclip (For accessing the X11 clipboard - Note: clipboard features won't work on Wayland, but IRC user dacav is working on that)
• notify-send (Optional - for desktop pop-up notifications)
• Standard coreutils (mktemp, basename, rm, cat, echo, etc.)

On Debian based distributions, you can install the main dependencies like this:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install curl jq xclip notify-send

1. Clone the repository from my Gitea instance:

   git clone git@git.ritchiecunningham.co.uk:Rtch/imgbb-uploader.git
   cd imgbb-uploader

2. Make the script executable:

   chmod +x imgbb

3. Link it to your path for easy access (e.g., ~/.local/bin):

   mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
   # Make sure you are in the cloned repo directory first.
   ln -s "$(pwd)/imgbb" ~/.local/bin/imgbb

   (Ensure ~/.local/bin is in your $PATH environment variable).

You need a free API key from ImgBB for the script to work.

1. Get your key from https://api.imgbb.com/.

2. Store the key:

   • File: Create a file containing *only your API key:

     mkdir -p ~/.config/imgbb_uploader
     vi ~/.config/imgbb_uploader/api_key # Paste key here, save file
     chmod 600 ~/.config/imgbb_uploader/api_key # Restrict permissions

Run the script from your terminal. Provide options before the optional filepath.

imgbb [options] [filepath]

Options:

Examples:

# Upload from clipboard (expires in 2h)
$ imgbb
Image URL:
https://i.ibb.co/YourLinkHere/image.png
(URL copied to clipboard)

# Upload file (expires in 2h)
$ imgbb screenshot.png
Using image from file: screenshot.png
Image URL:
https://i.ibb.co/AnotherLink/screenshot.png
(URL copied to clipboard)

# Upload from clipboard, expire in 10 minutes
$ imgbb -e 10m
Expiration set to 600 seconds (10m).
Image URL:
https://i.ibb.co/Link3/clipboard.png
(URL copied to clipboard)

# Upload from clipboard, never expire
$ imgbb -e 0
Setting NO expiration.
Image URL:
https://i.ibb.co/Link4/clipboard_noexpire.png
(URL copied to clipboard)

# Upload file, custom name, Markdown output
$ imgbb -n "My Cool Setup" --markdown ~/img/desktop.jpg
Using image from file: /home/user/img/desktop.jpg
Setting custom name to 'My Cool Setup'.
Formatting as Markdown.
Image URL:
![](https://i.ibb.co/Link5/desktop.jpg)
(Markdown copied to clipboard)

• Currently, the script relies on xclip and therefore only works correctly for clipboard operations under X11 sessions. Adding Wayland support (using wl-clipboard) would be a good enhancement. Error handling could also potentially be expanded. (dacav from Libera.Chat IRC #hackers, requires this feature and is currently working on a patch. Thanks dacav!).
• Change api_key file to a conf file for users to set their preferences without requiring to edit the source code. Some people may not want to use `~/.config/`, so allow the user to select for themselves with an additional command option.
• Potentially add support for uploading to personal webservers. Typically I like imgbb for temporary screenshots I intend to expire after a bit, and that means I don't need to direct someone to my personal server. But for permanent screenshots, I'd like to keep control of them on my own server rather than be subject to imgBB.