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I want to be able to output a QR code to the ubuntu cli terminal where I can scan with my phone. I have a configuration file I want to convert to a QR code so I can scan it vs having to transfer it over a usb drive. Many of the google results only show you how to convert a file to a QR image file, but I want to output to the terminal itself.

Patoshi パトシ
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3 Answers3

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Use the terminal application qrencode (man page). The command you are looking for is the following:

qrencode -t ansiutf8 < myfile_here

The t option is to specify output type. it can also be PNG for a file or ASCII as ascii format.

Saaru Lindestøkke
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Patoshi パトシ
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Passing an url inline:

qrencode -m 2 -t utf8 <<< "https://superuser.com/questions/1492624/how-do-you-output-a-qr-code-to-the-linux-cli-terminal-for-scanning/1492625"

To ease the use, with an alias:

alias qr='qrencode -m 2 -t utf8 <<< "$1"'

The first time:

. ~/.bashrc

Now, later on, possible usages:

qr https://superuser.com/questions/1492624/how-do-you-output-a-qr-code-to-the-linux-cli-terminal-for-scanning/1492625

qr "Hello world"

qr $(cat file.txt)

.

NVRM
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If you are looking for a python library, look at this GitHub project qrcodeT.

Install qrcodeT simply using:

pip install qrcodeT

Example usage:

import qrcodeT
qrcodeT.qrcodeT('https://github.com/Khalil-Youssefi/qrcodeT')

Sample result: sample output

Khalil Youssefi
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  • Question doesn't ask python solution. – Toto Aug 09 '22 at 10:08
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    @Toto, it doesn't exclude it either, right? It says "*...to output a QR code to the ubuntu cli terminal...*" and the [usage section](https://github.com/Khalil-Youssefi/qrcodeT#usage) actually shows an example of how to use this on the command line. It's cumbersome, sure, but it does answer the question. – Saaru Lindestøkke Aug 09 '22 at 10:14