curl command examples in Linux in details
In world of Linux, you must know various commands. One of them
is “curl”. It is very powerful utility and helps in playing
with URLs. It supports a wide range of protocols. It is used to
transferring the data with URLs. Let’s have a look to its
examples.
Its syntax is “curl [option] [URL]”.
A very simple GET response you can get from below command. You
can use protocol you are looking for. If we are opening a
HTTP/HTTPS then it will print a html output of the URL you have
mentioned.
# curl https://example.comIf you want to see in details then you can use verbose.
# curl –v https://example.comIf you want to save output of above command to file then you
can use option “-o” with output filename. It will show you
details of transfer data as well. And if you want to download
in form of zip file then you can use “-O”. The “-O” can also
be used to download files.
# curl https://example.com -o example.html
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 77914 0 77914 0 0 34876 0 --:--:-- 0:00:02 --:--:-- 34923
# curl -O https://example.com/example.zipThe below command is useful to follow if there is any new
location for the requested URL. Or you can simply understand it
to follow the redirection of URL.
# curl -L https://example.comSometimes you need to run commands in silent mode then you can
use –silent or –s as option.
# curl --silent https://example.comIf you want to upload some data to the URL then use “-F” option.
# curl –F “file=/tmp/file.txt” https://example.com/uploadIf your URL is having some authentication then you need to
specify the credential to it.
# curl –u username:password https://example.comLet’s say you want to limit the download speed then you can
also achieve this by curl.If there are URL needs authentication
to download then you can also use 2nd option with below command
to download it.
# curl --limit-rate 100K https://example.com/file.zipThere is option “-X” by using this you can send custom HTTP
requests with methods like GET, POST, DELETE, PUT etc.
# curl -X GET https://example.com/resourcesIf your environment having a proxy then you can also use proxy
to go out via curl command.
# curl –x https://proxyserver:port https://example.comLet’s send a data from a file to the URL.
# curl –d @file.txt https://example.comIf you want to save cookies and process in the other sequence
then you can do it via below commands.
# curl –c cookies-file.txt https://example.com
# curl –b cookies-file.txt https://example.com/resourcesIn some case, you will also get FTP link from where you need to
upload file and there you can go ahead and use below command.
# curl –T /tmp/test.txt ftp://example.com –user username:password
# curl –T /tmp/test.txt https://example.com/upload (using PUT method)Go through man page of curl command and you will find many possibilities to find details about URLs and helps in troubleshooting various WEB issues.
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