Guide

What is curl?

curl is a command-line tool for making HTTP requests. You give it a URL and some options, and it sends the request and prints the response. Developers use it every day to test APIs, download files, and debug what's actually going over the wire.

The name stands for "Client URL." It was created by Daniel Stenberg in 1997 and is installed by default on macOS, most Linux distros, and Windows 10+.

A basic example

curl https://api.github.com/users/torvalds

Common flags

-X--requestSet the HTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE…)

-H--headerAdd a request header (Authorization, Content-Type…)

-d--dataSend a request body (for POST/PUT)

-u--userSet username:password for Basic authentication

-o--outputWrite response to a file instead of stdout

-O--remote-nameSave the file using the remote filename

-L--locationFollow redirects automatically

-s--silentSuppress progress output

-v--verbosePrint full request and response headers

-k--insecureSkip SSL certificate verification (dangerous in production)

-I--headFetch headers only, not the body

--compressed--compressedRequest a compressed response and decompress it

Don't know what a flag does? Paste the curl command into curlwtf.com and get a plain-English explanation of every flag, a security check, and Python/JS/Go equivalents.

More guides

What does curl -X mean?What does curl -H mean?What does curl -d mean?What does curl -k mean?curl to Python curl to JavaScript