cURL

cURL (pronounced like "curl",[7] UK:  [kəːl], US:  [kɝl]) is a

cURL
computer software project providing a library (libcurl) and
command-line tool (curl) for transferring data using various
network protocols. The name stands for "Client for URL".[8]

History Example output from curl -O

Original author(s) Daniel
cURL was first released in 1996.[9] It was originally named httpget Stenberg[1]
and then became urlget before adopting the current name of
Developer(s) Contributors to
cURL.[10][11] The original author and lead developer is the
Swedish developer Daniel Stenberg, who created cURL because the cURL
he wanted to automate the fetching of currency exchange rates for project (https://
IRC users.[2] curl.se/docs/th
anks.html)

libcurl Initial release 1996[2]

Stable release 8.2[3]  / 19
libcurl is a free client-side URL transfer library,[12]
supporting July 2023
[13]
cookies, DICT, FTP, FTPS, Gopher, HTTP/1 (with HTTP/2 Repository github.com/curl
and HTTP/3 support), HTTP POST, HTTP PUT, HTTP proxy
/curl (https://git
tunneling, HTTPS, IMAP, Kerberos, LDAP, MQTT, POP3,
RTSP, RTMP, SCP, SMTP, and SMB. The library supports the file hub.com/curl/c
URI scheme, SFTP, Telnet, TFTP, file transfer resume, FTP url)
uploading, HTTP form-based upload, HTTPS certificates, Written in C
LDAPS, proxies, and user-plus-password authentication.[14]
Platform Cross-platform
The libcurl library is portable. It builds and works identically on Type web client
many platforms, including AIX, AmigaOS, Android, BeOS, (supports e.g.
BlackBerry Tablet OS and BlackBerry 10,[15] OpenVMS, HTTPS, and
Darwin, DOS, FreeBSD, HP-UX, HURD, iOS, IRIX, Linux, FTP)
macOS, NetBSD, NetWare, OpenBSD, OS/2, QNX Neutrino,
License curl license[4][5]
RISC OS, Solaris, Symbian, Tru64, Ultrix, UnixWare, and
Microsoft Windows.[16] (inspired on
the MIT
The libcurl library is free, thread-safe and IPv6 compatible. License[6])
Bindings are available for more than 50 languages, including Website curl.se (https://
C/C++, Java, Julia (is bundled with), PHP and Python.[17] curl.se/)
The libcurl library supports GnuTLS, mbed TLS, NSS, gskit on
IBM i, SChannel on Windows, Secure Transport on macOS and iOS, SSL/TLS through OpenSSL,
BoringSSL, libreSSL, AmiSSL, wolfSSL, BearSSL and rustls.[18]

curl
curl is a command-line tool for getting or sending data including files using URL syntax. Since curl uses
libcurl, it supports every protocol libcurl supports.[14]

curl supports HTTPS and performs SSL certificate verification by default when a secure protocol is
specified such as HTTPS. When curl connects to a remote server via HTTPS, it will obtain the remote
server certificate, then check against its CA certificate store the validity of the remote server to ensure the
remote server is the one it claims to be. Some curl packages are bundled with CA certificate store file.
There are several options to specify a CA certificate such as --cacert and --capath. The --
cacert option can be used to specify the location of the CA certificate store file. In the Windows
platform, if a CA certificate file is not specified, curl will look for a CA certificate file name “curl-ca-
bundle.crt” in the following order:

1. Directory where the curl program is located.

2. Current working directory.
3. Windows system directory.
4. Windows directory.
5. Directories specified in the %PATH% environment variables.[19]

curl will return an error message if the remote server is using a self-signed certificate, or if the remote server
certificate is not signed by a CA listed in the CA cert file. -k or --insecure option can be used to skip
certificate verification. Alternatively, if the remote server is trusted, the remote server CA certificate can be
added to the CA certificate store file.

Examples
Basic use of curl involves simply typing curl at the command line, followed by the URL of the output to
retrieve:

$ curl www.example.com

curl defaults to displaying the output it retrieves to the standard output specified on the system (usually the
terminal window). So running the command above would, on most systems, display the
www.example.com source-code in the terminal window. The -o flag can be used to store the output in a file
instead:

$ curl -o example.html www.example.com

More options that change the tool's behavior are available.

See also
Free and open-
source software
portal

curl-loader – an open-source testing tool based on curl

libwww – an early library that comes with a command line interface
PowerShell – the iwr (Invoke-WebRequest) Windows PowerShell had functionality akin to
curl; class Web-client too.[20]
 Web crawler – an internet bot that can crawl the web
Wget – similar command-line tool with no associated library but capable of recursive
downloading

References
1. Stenberg, Daniel (20 March 2015). "curl, 17 years old today" (https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/201
5/03/20/curl-17-years-old-today/). daniel.haxx.se. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
2. "History of curl - How curl Became Like This" (https://web.archive.org/web/2017093016372
7/https://curl.se/docs/history.html). curl. Archived from the original (https://curl.se/docs/history.
html) on September 30, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2016. "Daniel simply adopted an
existing command-line open-source tool, httpget, that Brazilian Rafael Sagula had written
and recently release version 0.1 of. After a few minor adjustments, it did just what he
needed. […] HttpGet 1.0 was released on April 8th 1997 with brand new HTTP proxy
support. […] Stenberg was spending time writing an IRC bot for an Amiga related channel on
EFnet. He then came up with the idea to make currency-exchange calculations available to
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) users."
3. Daniel Stenberg (19 July 2023). "Curl: [RELEASE] curl and libcurl 8.2.0" (https://curl.se/mail/
archive-2023-07/0017.html).
4. "curl License" (https://spdx.org/licenses/curl.html). spdx.org.
5. "curl - copyright" (https://curl.se/docs/copyright.html). curl.se.
6. "curl - copyright" (https://curl.se/docs/copyright.html). curl.se. Retrieved 2023-05-02.
7. "curl - Frequently Asked Questions" (https://curl.se/docs/faq.html). curl.se.
8. Stenberg, Daniel. "Origin of the name" (https://everything.curl.dev/project/name). curl.se.
Retrieved 2021-03-27.
9. "History of curl" (https://curl.se/docs/history.html). fossies.org. Archived (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20210917071434/https://curl.se/docs/history.html) from the original on September 29,
2021. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
10. "Changelog" (https://curl.se/changes.html#4_0). 4 January 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
"The first curl release. The tool was named urlget before this. And httpget before that."
11. Stenberg, Daniel (4 January 2020). "Restored complete curl changelog" (https://daniel.haxx.
se/blog/2020/01/04/restored-complete-curl-changelog/) (html). Haxx Se. Retrieved
2 January 2020.
12. Jones, M. Tim (8 September 2009). "Conversing through the Internet with cURL and libcurl -
Using libcurl with C and Python" (https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-curl/index.
html). IBM Developerworks. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150414143804/https://
www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-curl/index.html) from the original on 14 April 2015.
Retrieved 12 September 2018.
13. Stenberg, Daniel (5 August 2019). "http09: disable HTTP/0.9 by default in both tool and
library" (https://web.archive.org/web/20190805160316/https://github.com/curl/curl/pull/4191/
commits/2723285b39a19151808c92efa859d3afae46898e). GitHub. Archived from the
original (https://github.com/curl/curl/pull/4191/commits/2723285b39a19151808c92efa859d3
afae46898e) (html) on 5 August 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2019. "As the plan has been laid
out in Deprecated. Update docs accordingly and verify in test 1174."
14. "curl - How To Use" (https://curl.se/docs/manpage.html). curl.se.
15. "Open Source Components for the Native SDK for BlackBerry Tablet OS" (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20130127102233/http://blackberry.github.com/ndk/components.html). Archived
from the original (https://blackberry.github.com/ndk/components.html) on 2013-01-27.
Retrieved 2017-09-19.
16. "Tar and Curl Come to Windows!" (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/containers/tar-and
-curl-come-to-windows/ba-p/382409). techcommunity.microsoft.com. March 22, 2019.
17. "libcurl bindings" (https://curl.se/libcurl/bindings.html). curl.se.
18. "curl supports rustls | daniel.haxx.se" (https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2021/02/09/curl-supports-r
ustls/). Retrieved 2022-01-01.
19. "curl - SSL CA Certificates" (https://curl.se/docs/sslcerts.html). curl.se.
20. Del, Ryan (2 March 2018). "Comandi equivalenti a cURL e Wget per Windows command-
line con Powershell" (https://www.ryadel.com/curl-wget-comandi-equivalenti-alternative-win
dows-command-line-prompt-powershell/) [cURL and Wget equivalent commands for
Windows command-line with Powershell] (html). Ryadel (in Italian). Retrieved 4 January
2020. "Per emulare il comportamento del comando Linux cURL, è sufficiente creare un file
cURL.ps1 contenente la seguente riga di codice"

External links
Official website (https://curl.se/)
Comparison of curl vs other open source download tools (https://curl.se/docs/comparison-ta
ble.html)
Stenberg, Daniel (Nov 9, 2021) [2007]. "Comparison of curl vs wget" (https://daniel.haxx.se/d
ocs/curl-vs-wget.html).

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