Fixed Download File Using Curl Command

curl is a command-line tool to transfer data to or from a server, using any of the supported protocols (HTTP, FTP, IMAP, POP3, SCP, SFTP, SMTP, TFTP, TELNET, LDAP, or FILE). curl is powered by Libcurl. This tool is preferred for automation since it is designed to work without user interaction. curl can transfer multiple files at once.

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DICT protocol: The Libcurl defines the DICT protocol which can be used to easily get the definition or meaning of any word directly from the command line.

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Download File Using Curl Command

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As a web developer or tech enthusiast, understanding HTTP requests and how to interact with APIs is crucial, particularly when it comes to automating requests and debugging. In such scenarios, you might want to execute a quick HTML request from your terminal and this is where cURL, a free command-line tool for data transfer, comes in handy.

Client URL (cURL) lets you exchange data between your device and a server through a command-line interface (CLI). By simply specifying a server URL and the data to be sent, cURL enables diverse request forms, much like API tools like Postman and Insomnia, but directly from your terminal.

API tools like Postman and Insomnia provide an interactive user interface (UI) that allows you to make different forms of requests to URLs, for receiving and processing requests. The cURL command does the same thing, except in your terminal. cURL works on Linux, Mac, and Windows.

The cURL command uses the libcURL client-side URL transfer library. This library supports many different transfer protocols including HTTPS, SMTP, and FTP. It also enables you to include cookies, set proxies, and add authentication credentials when making requests.

Without passing any flags or options, the cURL command defaults to making a GET request to the specified URL. The command returns the response body sent from the API, which would look like this in your terminal:

Additionally, you can include options and values to use a different request method with the cURL command. For example, you can use the -X (hyphen and uppercase X) option with the request method. The -X option is an alias for --request.

Using the POST method and the cURL command, you can transfer data to a server through an API. The API processes the data, then takes steps such as saving it to a database, and returns return a response indicating the status of your request.

This command makes a POST request to and passes the URL encoded data "name=cURL&type=article" which is a name key with a cURL value and a type key with an article value.

Instead of typing the JSON string in the terminal, you can specify a JSON file that the cURL command will use for the data option. For example, suppose you have a file called data.json with the following contents:

While API platforms usually provide intuitive interfaces for requesting and transferring data to a URL, cURL can be a great tool to use with the terminal. Here are some common use cases for the cURL command.

Folks that don't literally need the curl executable, but rather just need to e.g. see or save the results of a GET request now and again, can use powershell directly. From a normal command prompt, type:

I was able to use this site to easily download and install curl on my Windows machine. It took all of 30 seconds. I'm using Windows 7 (w/ Admin privelages), so I downloaded curl-7.37.0-win64.msi from

Assuming you are new to the game or are unable to install software because of security restrictions, you could use Scoop to install curl. From a powershell or command window run the following commands. Note this assumes that you have Powershell v3.0+.

While installing you will get in a step to select packages. In the select package window --> change the view to "Not installed" and search for curl. click on the necessary packages to install by clicking on the "new" column for the package --> you can see the version number and then click next. ( see the image attached below)

I might be late for the thread, since no one mentioned for those who are using latest windows 11 (also 10) they are now shipped with a copy of curl. So you don't need to explicitly download it. You can use it right away. Open the cmd and type curl -help to verify.

It's a useful tool for the average sysadmin, whether you use it as a quick way to download a file you need from the Internet, or to script automated updates. Curl is also an important tool for testing remote APIs. If a service you rely on or provide is unresponsive, you can use the curl command to test it.

You can download a file with curl by providing a link to a specific URL. Whatever exists at the URL you provide is, by default, downloaded and printed in your terminal. HTML is relatively verbose, so that's often a lot of text.

A query to an API endpoint is technically as simple as the most basic curl command. You point curl at the API gateway URL, and ideally, get the default response from the API. Not all APIs provide a response, but here's a good example:

You can also send commands with curl. For example, for an API behind a login screen, you can use the --form option to pass your credentials before accessing the data you need. This example isn't advisable, because your password would appear in your Bash history. However, you can configure your shell history to ignore commands preceded by a space to safeguard against this (as long as you do indeed precede the command with a blank space).

Because web API interactions are often structured as URLs, you can send complex requests either as a long URL or by appending the target URL with strings passed as raw data. This usually means that instead of using the ? delimiter common in complex URLs, you place the phrase in quotes after a --data flag. You can use as many --data flags as necessary.

If your only interface to the Internet is through a graphical web browser, you're doomed to manual intervention almost 100% of the time. Learning to wield curl gives you new flexibility for faster interactions, automated responses, and bulk data dumps that would be unmanageable otherwise. Install curl today, and start using it for your networking needs.

Curl is a command line tool for doing all sorts of URL manipulations and transfers, but this particular document will focus on how to use it when doing HTTP requests for fun and profit. This documents assumes that you know how to invoke curl --help or curl --manual to get basic information about it.

Curl is not written to do everything for you. It makes the requests, it gets the data, it sends data and it retrieves the information. You probably need to glue everything together using some kind of script language or repeated manual invokes.

HTTP is the protocol used to fetch data from web servers. It is a simple protocol that is built upon TCP/IP. The protocol also allows information to get sent to the server from the client using a few different methods, as will be shown here.

The client, curl, sends an HTTP request. The request contains a method (like GET, POST, HEAD etc), a number of request headers and sometimes a request body. The HTTP server responds with a status line (indicating if things went well), response headers and most often also a response body. The "body" part is the plain data you requested, like the actual HTML or the image etc.

The host name is usually resolved using DNS or your /etc/hosts file to an IP address and that is what curl will communicate with. Alternatively you specify the IP address directly in the URL instead of a name.

Each protocol curl supports operates on a default port number, be it over TCP or in some cases UDP. Normally you do not have to take that into consideration, but at times you run test servers on other ports or similar. Then you can specify the port number in the URL with a colon and a number immediately following the host name. Like when doing HTTP to port 1234:

The port number you specify in the URL is the number that the server uses to offer its services. Sometimes you may use a proxy, and then you may need to specify that proxy's port number separately from what curl needs to connect to the server. Like when using an HTTP proxy on port 4321:

The simplest and most common request/operation made using HTTP is to GET a URL. The URL could itself refer to a web page, an image or a file. The client issues a GET request to the server and receives the document it asked for. If you issue the command line

You can ask the remote server for ONLY the headers by using the --head (-I) option which will make curl issue a HEAD request. In some special cases servers deny the HEAD method while others still work, which is a particular kind of annoyance.

A single curl command line may involve one or many URLs. The most common case is probably to just use one, but you can specify any amount of URLs. Yes any. No limits. You will then get requests repeated over and over for all the given URLs.

Sometimes you need to operate on several URLs in a single command line and do different HTTP methods on each. For this, you will enjoy the --next option. It is basically a separator that separates a bunch of options from the next. All the URLs before --next will get the same method and will get all the POST data merged into one.

Forms are the general way a website can present an HTML page with fields for the user to enter data in, and then press some kind of 'OK' or 'Submit' button to get that data sent to the server. The server then typically uses the posted data to decide how to act. Like using the entered words to search in a database, or to add the info in a bug tracking system, display the entered address on a map or using the info as a login-prompt verifying that the user is allowed to see what it is about to see.

The data you send to the server MUST already be properly encoded, curl will not do that for you. For example, if you want the data to contain a space, you need to replace that space with %20, etc. Failing to comply with this will most likely cause your data to be received wrongly and messed up. e24fc04721