Curl command reference with most used options. No overwhelming man page.

curl reference.md

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