Extract token from a curl request and use in another shell command

Question

I've started picking up bash scripting and I'm stuck at something I'm trying to wrap my head around.

I have a curl command that outputs a token and I need to use it in the following command:

curl -k 'https://server:port/session' -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"username":"admin","password":"password"}'

It then outputs a token here:

{"token":"ac07098ad59ca6f3fccea0e2a2f6cb080df55c9a52fc9d65"}

I then need to use it in the follow up command

curl https://server:port/ -k -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-Cookie:token=token' -d '

I was thinking I could output the token to a file, then have a sed command write the token to a file, then the new command use a variable where token=$token

Thanks!

glenn jackman · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-21 16:50:39Z

13

This is where a JSON parsing tool comes in handy (such as jq):

$ echo '{"token":"ac07098ad59ca6f3fccea0e2a2f6cb080df55c9a52fc9d65"}' | jq -r .token
ac07098ad59ca6f3fccea0e2a2f6cb080df55c9a52fc9d65

So

json=$( curl -k 'https://server:port/session' -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"username":"admin","password":"password"}' )
token=$( jq -r ".token" <<<"$json" )

curl https://server:port/ -k -X POST -H "X-Cookie:token=$token" ...

answered Jul 21, 2017 at 16:50

glenn jackman

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1 Comment

glenn jackman Over a year ago

Install WSL and have Linux on Windows.

teikitel · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-24 13:14:13Z

10

With no further tool than a bash (tested Centos/Rhel7/GitBash) :

json=$(curl -k 'https://server:port/session' \
            -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
            -d '{"username":"admin","password":"password"}') \
&& token=$(echo $json | sed "s/{.*\"token\":\"\([^\"]*\).*}/\1/g") \
&& echo "token = $token"

then use your authentication needing commands like that :

curl https://server:port/ -k -X POST \
                          -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
                          -H 'X-Cookie:token=$token' -d ...'

edited Apr 24, 2018 at 13:14

answered Apr 10, 2018 at 10:13

teikitel

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2 Comments

Celestine Babayaro Over a year ago

Hi @teikitel What if I am using Bearer Token in format Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ5bWFudWNoYXJpYW4iLCJleHAiOjE2MjI3OTc5Mzl9.d7yT6r8pf0QEh-sMDxNiObDSdF2K17l3WqcjHnv9800

teikitel Over a year ago

Hello @MichaelKors, usually if the case your authentication service retruns a reponse payload containing only a string like "Bearer eyJhbG...". So it's even simpler, no need to parse it: token=$json. Then the http header you should use is -H 'Authorization: $token' instead of -H 'X-Cookie...'

Chad D · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-21 17:00:03Z

1

If Python is installed, and hopefully it is on modern systems, you can do something like:

OUTPUT="$(curl -k 'https://server:port/session' -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"username":"admin","password":"password"}' | python -c "import sys, json; print json.load(sys.stdin)['token']")"

This will give you:

echo $OUTPUT
ec2e99a1d294fd4bc0a04da852ecbdeed3b55671c08cc09f

answered Jul 21, 2017 at 17:00

Chad D

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Comments

Benjamin · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-21 17:04:50Z

-2

Use the `` syntax:

cmd1result=$(command1 | cut -d ':' -f 2 | grep -Po "[a-z0-9-]+")
command2 $cmd1result

edited Jul 21, 2017 at 17:04

answered Jul 21, 2017 at 16:10

Benjamin

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4 Comments

raze Over a year ago

it works, however, I just need the "ac07098ad59ca6f3fccea0e2a2f6cb080df55c9a52fc9d65" portion without quotes. It'll always be a random 48 character string. Example: 'X-Cookie:token=ac07098ad59ca6f3fccea0e2a2f6cb080df55c9a52fc9d65'

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

$() is the modern replacement. Backticks are literally legacy support, and have serious disadvantages -- it's easy to nest $( $( ) ), whereas putting backticks inside backticks is painful.

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

And your grep command strips hex digits from the token. It's thus inaccurate/corrupt, and (due to unnecessary use of the nonstandard option -P) needlessly platform-specific.

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

(note that the e in the word token is part of the character set that needs to be preserved, since e is within [0-9a-f] -- so just stripping a character range is quite thoroughly unworkable).

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