NextcloudUploadTool/docs/automation-recipes.md

CLI Automation & Scripting Recipes

This guide contains practical recipes for integrating nut into bash scripts, Unix pipelines, CI/CD runners, and headless server environments.

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1. Piping Streams & Backups

Piping Database Backups Directly to Nextcloud

Stream database dumps straight to Nextcloud without creating intermediate local files:

# MySQL / MariaDB Dump
mysqldump -u root -p mydb | gzip -9 | \
  nut upload -d "Backups/MySQL" --stdin --filename "mydb-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz"

# PostgreSQL Dump
pg_dump mydb | zstd | \
  nut upload -d "Backups/Postgres" --stdin --filename "mydb-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.zst"

Piping Compressed Archives with pv Rate Metering

# Compress and stream with live throughput monitoring
tar -czf - /var/log/nginx | pv | \
  nut upload -d "Backups/Logs" --stdin --filename "nginx-logs-$(date +%F).tar.gz"

Piping from curl / wget

Download a remote file and forward it to Nextcloud in one pipeline:

curl -fsSL https://example.com/large-dataset.csv.gz | \
  nut upload -s -d "Datasets" --stdin --filename "large-dataset.csv.gz"

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2. Scripting with jq, xargs, and Clipboard

Uploading and Instant Clipboard Copy (macOS, Linux, Windows)

# macOS
nut upload -s --url-only screenshot.png | pbcopy

# Linux (X11 / Wayland)
nut upload -s --url-only screenshot.png | xclip -selection clipboard
# or wl-copy
nut upload -s --url-only screenshot.png | wl-copy

# Windows PowerShell
nut upload -s --url-only screenshot.png | Set-Clipboard

Batch Processing with xargs

Upload all modified markdown files found with find:

find ./notes -name "*.md" -mtime -1 -print0 | \
  xargs -0 nut upload -s -d "Notes/Daily" --json

Extracting Links and Metadata with jq

# Extract all public share URLs into a text list
nut upload -s -r assets/ --json | jq -r '.[].share_url // empty' > links.txt

# Query direct download links
nut upload -s build/*.pkg --json | jq -r '.[] | select(.success == true) | "\(.file): \(.direct_download_url)"'

Scripting with TSV

Parse tabular output in bash loops:

nut upload -s -r photos/ --tsv | while IFS=$'\t' read -r file remote bytes success share direct; do
  if [ "$success" = "true" ]; then
    echo "Uploaded $file ($bytes bytes) -> $share"
  else
    echo "Failed to upload $file"
  fi
done

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3. CI/CD & Headless Automation

Non-Interactive CI / GitHub Actions Setup

Authenticate non-interactively using environment secrets in CI pipelines:

name: Deploy Build Artifacts
on: [push]

jobs:
  upload:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install nut
        run: |
          curl -fsSL https://github.com/majinnaibu/nextcloud-upload-tool/releases/latest/download/nut-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz | tar -xz
          sudo mv nut /usr/local/bin/

      - name: Authenticate Nextcloud
        env:
          NC_SERVER: ${{ secrets.NEXTCLOUD_SERVER_URL }}
          NC_USER: ${{ secrets.NEXTCLOUD_USERNAME }}
          NC_PASS: ${{ secrets.NEXTCLOUD_APP_PASSWORD }}
        run: |
          nut login "$NC_SERVER" -u "$NC_USER" -p "$NC_PASS" --label "CI"

      - name: Build and Upload Artifact
        run: |
          tar -czf release-build.tar.gz dist/
          SHARE_URL=$(nut upload -s --account "CI" --url-only release-build.tar.gz)
          echo "Download link: $SHARE_URL"

Headless SSH Remote Server Authorization

When working over an SSH connection without X11 or desktop forwarding:

# Run login in headless mode
nut login https://cloud.example.com --no-browser --label "ProductionServer"

# nut prints:
# ==> Please authorize access in your browser:
#     https://cloud.example.com/index.php/login/v2/flow/abc123xyz
# ==> Waiting for browser authorization...

# Open that link on your local computer, authorize, and nut immediately captures the token!