I use S3 to share files temporarily for people, largely because it’s quick and simple when using a tool like s3cmd, close enough to free for the cost not to matter.

I also use Alfred to provide a GUI command line for Mac OS.

Thanks to Alfred’s ability to add shell commands as an action to be taken on files, its now possible for me to upload a file directly to my sharing bucket on S3, and copy the URL for it to the clipboard.

To do so, start by installing s3cmd. If you’re using Homebrew it’s a brew install s3cmd away. Otherwise, you’ll have to work it out yourself. Now run s3cmd --configure in a shell to set it up for your account.

Once that’s done, open up Alfred’s preferences, select the “Features” tab, and then “Terminal / Shell” from the list on the left.

In the shortcuts list hit the + button, and fill in the details, I’m using these:

Title

Upload to S3

Description

Uploads a file publicly to S3 and copies it's URL to dte clipboard.

Keyword

s3

Command

s3cmd put -P {query} s3://$SHARING_BUCKET | grep "Public URL" | ruby -e 'print SddIN.read.split(": ").last.strip' | pbcopy

Make sure to either set the SHARING_BUCKET environment variable in your profile, or replace $SHARING_BUCKET with the actual bucket name.

Save that, and then tick the “Silent” and “Action” boxes so that it doesn’t pop up a terminal window everytime.

Now you should be able to search for a file in Alfred, hit the right arrow, and enter “s3” to upload it. The URL will be in your clipboard.