Curl Reference

Use the curl command line tool from your terminal window to access web pages, resources, and API's. This swiss-army knife of the internet also supports many more protocols and tools.

Command format

curl [options] URL

The complete, offical reference page is here.

Download a file, page, or response

-o, --output <file> -- Saves data in given file
-O, --remote-name   -- Saves as URL filename without a path

curl -o robots.txt https://example.com/robots.txt

Authentication

-u, --user <user:password> -- Use HTTP Authentication
--anyauth                  -- Use the more secure authentication scheme
--basic                    -- use Basic Authentication (default)
--digest                   -- HTTP Digest Authentication
--ntlm                     -- Microsoft NTLM authentication
--oauth2-bearer <token>    -- OAuth2 token
--negotiate

curl -u "apikey:" https://example.org

Additional Headers

-H, --header <"Header: Value" | @headerfilename>
-A, --user-agent <name>
-e, --referer <URL>

curl -H "Accept: application/json" https://json.org

Cookies

-b <"name=value;name=value" | filename>
-c, --cookie-jar <filename>

HTTP Method & Get Request with Query Parameters

When you give data parameters (-d, --data, --data-urlencode), curl will make a POST request. To force these data parameters onto the query part of the URL as a GET request, use --get

-G, --get               -- Use with data args for query params
-I, --head
-X, --request <command> -- custom: PUT, DELETE, PATCH + WebDAV

curl --get --data-urlencode "q=foo" https://search.com/

Certificates

-E, --cert <certificate[:password]> -- Use client cert
-k, --insecure                       -- allow insecure operations

Data: Payload, Forms, Fields, Files, and Query Parameters

--data-urlencode <data> -- URL (Percent) encodes data
data can be formatted as:
  content        -- use "=content" instead if contains = or @
  =content       -- do not interpret the data (does not send the initial =)
  name=content   -- name is not encoded
  @filename      -- Load data from the filename
  name=@filename -- loads value from the filename
  (Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded)

-F, --form <name=content>
  (Content-Type: multipart/form-data)
  name=@filename -- Uploads file as binary as attachment (- for Stdin)
  name=<filename -- Gets field value from the filename
  name=@filename;type=image/png;filename=name
    -- Specify the Content-Type and upload filename (must quote)

-d, --data <"data"|"name=value"|"@filename"> -- does not encode
--data-raw <"data"|"@data">                  -- Doesn't interpret file name
--data-binary <data|@filename>

-T, --upload-file <file>

Curl Control

-i, --include       -- Include HTTP Response Headers
-v, --verose        -- Show all headers & data sent and received
-K, --config <file> -- Additional command line arguments
-f, --fail          -- Fail silently on server errors
-L, --location      -- Follow redirect Location headers
-s, --silent        -- No progress or error message
-S, --show-error    -- with ilent but show errors (-sS)
--no-progress-meter -- Nuf said
-D, --dump-header <filename> -- Save response headers