Needed a binary paste bin since GitHub gists and GitLab snippets cannot even contain non-picture small binaries
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/07/25
Most of what I share is in text or picture form but every once in a blue moon I need to share small binaries publicly in a way mere mortals can use.
Since neither GitHub gists nor GitLab snippets support other binary files than images*, and most Pastebin sites are text-only I queried [Wayback/Archive] binary pastebin – Google Search which got me to [Wayback/Archive] Binary pastebin | boltblog.
That in turn pointed to [Wayback/Archive] Pastebin (paste.c-net.org) which has a full page of help, including this important bit:
Contact: pastebin@cathedral-networks.org
Maximum file size: 50M
Files expire after: 180 days
* File expiration will be reset to 180 days every time a file is accessed.
Thus, a file that is accessed more often than this will never expire.
* HEAD requests are sufficient to reset the expiration:
$ curl --head https://paste.c-net.org/ExampleRenew
I used it to store [Wayback] https://paste.c-net.org/TumbleIntend (the name gets autogenerated upon upload) which contains the attachment mentioned in The queste on figuring out why iqvw64e.sys is considered unsafe in Windows 11 22H2 after upgrading from Windows 10 on a Dell Optiplex 3060 Micro system.
Uploading multiple files result into a URL serving a zipped file like above. Uploading a single text file servers as plain text like at [Wayback/Archive] https://paste.c-net.org/PursuedSwinging.
They have a bash script creating some functions to make it easier to access the service from the CLI at .
More info
Some links on binaries:
- [Wayback/Archive] Snippets | GitLab
- Binary files are not supported.
- …
- Snippets’ repositories are limited to 10 files. Attempting to push more than 10 files results in an error.
- …
- The maximum size for a snippet is 50 MB, by default.
- [Wayback/Archive] Remove functionality to add, view and edit binary files in gists by g14a · Pull Request #3042 · cli/cli
This commit adds file validation to check if file contents are binary in nature, and if so halts creation, edition and rendering of contents directly to stdout.
*Images:
- [Wayback/Archive] How to add an image to a gist (clone your gist, commit the image, push the change; not sure if this still works after the above Pull Request)
- [Wayback/Archive] How to drop images onto your gist? · Discussion #23311 · community
As a workaround, you could open an issue or pull request and drag and drop the image as a file attachment:[Wayback/Archive] https://help.github.com/en/github/managing-your-work-on-github/file-attachments-on-issues-and-pull-requests
This produces an image URL that you can use in one of your gists (since Markdown is supported).
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
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