How can I download a single raw file from a private github repo using the command line?

The previous answers don't work (or don't work anymore).

You can use the V3 API to get a raw file like this (you'll need an OAuth token):

curl -H 'Authorization: token INSERTACCESSTOKENHERE' \
  -H 'Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.raw' \
  -O \
  -L https://api.github.com/repos/owner/repo/contents/path

All of this has to go on one line. The -O option saves the file in the current directory. You can use -o filename to specify a different filename.

To get the OAuth token follow the instructions here:

• https://help.github.com/articles/creating-an-access-token-for-command-line-use

I've written this up as a gist as well:

• https://gist.github.com/madrobby/9476733

EDIT: API references for the solution are as follows:

• https://developer.github.com/v3/#authentication
• https://developer.github.com/v3/media/#request-specific-version
• https://developer.github.com/v3/repos/contents/#get-contents

Alternatively, you can use a github "personal access token" (https://github.com/settings/tokens):

TOKEN=...
curl -s https://[email protected]/<user or organization>/<repo name>/<branch>/<path to file>/<file_name>

Example:

$ curl -s https://[email protected]/concourse/concourse/master/README.md
....

I know this is an old question, but none of the solutions proposed above worked for me. Perhaps the API has changed since then.

This worked:

curl -H 'Authorization: token [insert your token here]' -o output.txt https://raw.githubusercontent.com/[organization]/[repo]/[branch]/[path to file]