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curl

https://curl.se

https://github.com/curl/curl

https://everything.curl.dev

Common options​

Options are case-sensitive, ie -s is not the same as -S.

  • Method: -X POST or --request POST.
  • Data: -d or --data.
    • Uses the application/x-www-form-urlencoded mime-type by default.
    • This flag implies POST so -X/--request is then optional.
    • Examples:
      • application/x-www-form-urlencoded: -d 'key1=value1&key2=value2' or --data 'key1=value1&key2=value2'.
      • JSON: -d '{"key": "value"}' or --data '{"key": "value"}'. Requires adding -H "Content-Type: application/json".
  • Header: -H "Content-Type: application/json" or --header "Content-Type: application/json".
  • Verbose: -v. Displays headers, status code and other info.
  • Only headers: -I or --head. Fetch the response headers only.
  • Silent mode: -s or --silent. Hides the body.

Examples​

tldr curl

curl --help

https://curl.se/docs/manual.html

https://curl.se/docs/httpscripting.html

https://github.com/trimstray/the-book-of-secret-knowledge#tool-curl

POST application/x-www-form-urlencoded​

curl -d 'key1=value1&key2=value2' URL
curl -d 'title=Some Title&message=The message' URL

POST multipart/form-data​

curl -F key1=value1 URL
curl -F key1=value1 -F upload=@localfilename URL

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19116016/what-is-the-right-way-to-post-multipart-form-data-using-curl

POST JSON​

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"key":"val"}' URL

POST JSON, with data read from a file data.json​

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @data.json URL

PUT JSON​

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X PUT -d '{"key":"val"}' URL
curl -s -I URL

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10060098/getting-only-response-header-from-http-post-using-curl

CORS OPTIONS preflight request​

You can get the command of a real request from Chrome DevTools at the Network tab by doing right-click → Copy → Copy as cURL

curl http://localhost:5000/api/recipes -v -X OPTIONS -H "Origin: http://example.com" -H "Access-Control-Request-Method: POST" -H "Access-Control-Request-Headers: Content-Type"

See more possibilities at:

Converters​

Run multiple times​

for i in `seq 1 5`; do curl https://www.google.com; echo; done

From https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/tutorials/aws/aws-asg#scale-instances.

Download a bash script and execute it​

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AWSinAction/code3/main/chapter10/cleanup.sh | bash -ex

From AWS in Action, page 279.