Client URL (curl) is a command line tool used to transfer data. Curl uses URLs to specify where a request is sent, followed by the data to be transferred.
Curl is widely used across the web and is highly portable. It is compatible with almost every operating system and supports many protocols, including HTTPS, FTP, SMPT, POP3, and more.
In terms of APIs, curl is great for testing endpoints.
A curl request, in its most basic form, looks like this: curl [URL]
By default, curl requests that only specify a URL are sent as GET requests. So the example above would return the HTML source for the specified URL.
There are over 200 curl commands that can be used. Most follow this basic format: curl [option] [URL] . You can run ‘curl –help’ or simply ‘-h’ in your command line to get a list of all the available curl commands.
curl can be used for authentication and sending all the usual HTTP method requests (GET, POST, DELETE, etc.) . This is done using the -X option. For example, a POST request syntax is as follows: curl -X POST [URL]
Other commonly used options are,
-I : This command returns HTTP header fields such as Content-Type, Date, etc.
-v: The ‘verbose’ command, which returns data to tell you everything that happened when you ran the curl request, including connection info and headers.
-o : -o is followed by a specified file and redirects the returned data there instead of the standard output.
-H: Adds additional HTTP Headers to a request. It is followed by the header name and value in enclosed quotes, e.g. Curl -H ‘[Header name: value]’ [URL]
Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.