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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | URL | GLOBBING | VARIABLES | OUTPUT | PROTOCOLS | PROGRESS METER | VERSION | OPTIONS | FILES | ENVIRONMENT | PROXY PROTOCOL PREFIXES | EXIT CODES | BUGS | AUTHORS / CONTRIBUTORS | WWW | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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curl(1) curl Manual curl(1)
curl - transfer a URL
curl [options / URLs]
curl is a tool for transferring data from or to a server using
URLs. It supports these protocols: DICT, FILE, FTP, FTPS, GOPHER,
GOPHERS, HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP, IMAPS, LDAP, LDAPS, MQTT, POP3,
POP3S, RTMP, RTMPS, RTSP, SCP, SFTP, SMB, SMBS, SMTP, SMTPS,
TELNET, TFTP, WS and WSS.
curl is powered by libcurl for all transfer-related features. See
libcurl(3) for details.
The URL syntax is protocol-dependent. You find a detailed
description in RFC 3986.
If you provide a URL without a leading protocol:// scheme, curl
guesses what protocol you want. It then defaults to HTTP but
assumes others based on often-used host name prefixes. For
example, for host names starting with "ftp." curl assumes you
want FTP.
You can specify any amount of URLs on the command line. They are
fetched in a sequential manner in the specified order unless you
use -Z, --parallel. You can specify command line options and URLs
mixed and in any order on the command line.
curl attempts to reuse connections when doing multiple transfers,
so that getting many files from the same server do not use
multiple connects and setup handshakes. This improves speed.
Connection reuse can only be done for URLs specified for a single
command line invocation and cannot be performed between separate
curl runs.
Provide an IPv6 zone id in the URL with an escaped percentage
sign. Like in
"http://[fe80::3%25eth0]/"
Everything provided on the command line that is not a command
line option or its argument, curl assumes is a URL and treats it
as such.
You can specify multiple URLs or parts of URLs by writing lists
within braces or ranges within brackets. We call this "globbing".
Provide a list with three different names like this:
"http://site.{one,two,three}.com"
or you can get sequences of alphanumeric series by using [] as
in:
"ftp://ftp.example.com/file[1-100].txt"
"ftp://ftp.example.com/file[001-100].txt" (with leading zeros)
"ftp://ftp.example.com/file[a-z].txt"
Nested sequences are not supported, but you can use several ones
next to each other:
"http://example.com/archive[1996-1999]/vol[1-4]/part{a,b,c}.html"
You can specify a step counter for the ranges to get every Nth
number or letter:
"http://example.com/file[1-100:10].txt"
"http://example.com/file[a-z:2].txt"
When using [] or {} sequences when invoked from a command line
prompt, you probably have to put the full URL within double
quotes to avoid the shell from interfering with it. This also
goes for other characters treated special, like for example '&',
'?' and '*'.
Switch off globbing with -g, --globoff.
curl supports command line variables (added in 8.3.0). Set
variables with --variable name=content or --variable name@file
(where "file" can be stdin if set to a single dash (-)).
Variable contents can expanded in option parameters using
"{{name}}" (without the quotes) if the option name is prefixed
with "--expand-". This gets the contents of the variable "name"
inserted, or a blank if the name does not exist as a variable.
Insert "{{" verbatim in the string by prefixing it with a
backslash, like "\{{".
You an access and expand environment variables by first importing
them. You can select to either require the environment variable
to be set or you can provide a default value in case it is not
already set. Plain --variable %name imports the variable called
'name' but exits with an error if that environment variable is
not already set. To provide a default value if it is not set, use
--variable %name=content or --variable %name@content.
Example. Get the USER environment variable into the URL, fail if
USER is not set:
--variable '%USER'
--expand-url = "https://example.com/api/{{USER}}/method"
When expanding variables, curl supports a set of functions that
can make the variable contents more convenient to use. It can
trim leading and trailing white space with trim, it can output
the contents as a JSON quoted string with json, URL encode the
string with url or base64 encode it with b64. You apply function
to a variable expansion, add them colon separated to the right
side of the variable. Variable content holding null bytes that
are not encoded when expanded cause error.
Example: get the contents of a file called $HOME/.secret into a
variable called "fix". Make sure that the content is trimmed and
percent-encoded sent as POST data:
--variable %HOME
--expand-variable fix@{{HOME}}/.secret
--expand-data "{{fix:trim:url}}"
https://example.com/
Command line variables and expansions were added in in 8.3.0.
If not told otherwise, curl writes the received data to stdout.
It can be instructed to instead save that data into a local file,
using the -o, --output or -O, --remote-name options. If curl is
given multiple URLs to transfer on the command line, it similarly
needs multiple options for where to save them.
curl does not parse or otherwise "understand" the content it gets
or writes as output. It does no encoding or decoding, unless
explicitly asked to with dedicated command line options.
curl supports numerous protocols, or put in URL terms: schemes.
Your particular build may not support them all.
DICT Lets you lookup words using online dictionaries.
FILE Read or write local files. curl does not support accessing
file:// URL remotely, but when running on Microsoft
Windows using the native UNC approach works.
FTP(S) curl supports the File Transfer Protocol with a lot of
tweaks and levers. With or without using TLS.
GOPHER(S)
Retrieve files.
HTTP(S)
curl supports HTTP with numerous options and variations.
It can speak HTTP version 0.9, 1.0, 1.1, 2 and 3 depending
on build options and the correct command line options.
IMAP(S)
Using the mail reading protocol, curl can "download"
emails for you. With or without using TLS.
LDAP(S)
curl can do directory lookups for you, with or without
TLS.
MQTT curl supports MQTT version 3. Downloading over MQTT equals
"subscribe" to a topic while uploading/posting equals
"publish" on a topic. MQTT over TLS is not supported
(yet).
POP3(S)
Downloading from a pop3 server means getting a mail. With
or without using TLS.
RTMP(S)
The Realtime Messaging Protocol is primarily used to serve
streaming media and curl can download it.
RTSP curl supports RTSP 1.0 downloads.
SCP curl supports SSH version 2 scp transfers.
SFTP curl supports SFTP (draft 5) done over SSH version 2.
SMB(S) curl supports SMB version 1 for upload and download.
SMTP(S)
Uploading contents to an SMTP server means sending an
email. With or without TLS.
TELNET Telling curl to fetch a telnet URL starts an interactive
session where it sends what it reads on stdin and outputs
what the server sends it.
TFTP curl can do TFTP downloads and uploads.
curl normally displays a progress meter during operations,
indicating the amount of transferred data, transfer speeds and
estimated time left, etc. The progress meter displays the
transfer rate in bytes per second. The suffixes (k, M, G, T, P)
are 1024 based. For example 1k is 1024 bytes. 1M is 1048576
bytes.
curl displays this data to the terminal by default, so if you
invoke curl to do an operation and it is about to write data to
the terminal, it disables the progress meter as otherwise it
would mess up the output mixing progress meter and response data.
If you want a progress meter for HTTP POST or PUT requests, you
need to redirect the response output to a file, using shell
redirect (>), -o, --output or similar.
This does not apply to FTP upload as that operation does not spit
out any response data to the terminal.
If you prefer a progress "bar" instead of the regular meter, -#,
--progress-bar is your friend. You can also disable the progress
meter completely with the -s, --silent option.
This man page describes curl 8.6.0. If you use a later version,
chances are this man page does not fully document it. If you use
an earlier version, this document tries to include version
information about which specific version that introduced changes.
You can always learn which the latest curl version is by running
curl https://curl.se/info
The online version of this man page is always showing the latest
incarnation: https://curl.se/docs/manpage.html
Options start with one or two dashes. Many of the options require
an additional value next to them. If provided text does not start
with a dash, it is presumed to be and treated as a URL.
The short "single-dash" form of the options, -d for example, may
be used with or without a space between it and its value,
although a space is a recommended separator. The long
"double-dash" form, -d, --data for example, requires a space
between it and its value.
Short version options that do not need any additional values can
be used immediately next to each other, like for example you can
specify all the options -O, -L and -v at once as -OLv.
In general, all boolean options are enabled with --option and yet
again disabled with --no-option. That is, you use the same option
name but prefix it with "no-". However, in this list we mostly
only list and show the --option version of them.
When -:, --next is used, it resets the parser state and you start
again with a clean option state, except for the options that are
"global". Global options retain their values and meaning even
after -:, --next.
The following options are global: --fail-early, --libcurl,
--parallel-immediate, -Z, --parallel, -#, --progress-bar, --rate,
-S, --show-error, --stderr, --styled-output, --trace-ascii,
--trace-config, --trace-ids, --trace-time, --trace and -v,
--verbose.
--abstract-unix-socket <path>
(HTTP) Connect through an abstract Unix domain socket,
instead of using the network. Note: netstat shows the
path of an abstract socket prefixed with '@', however the
<path> argument should not have this leading character.
If --abstract-unix-socket is provided several times, the
last set value is used.
Example:
curl --abstract-unix-socket socketpath https://example.com
See also --unix-socket. Added in 7.53.0.
--alt-svc <file name>
(HTTPS) This option enables the alt-svc parser in curl. If
the file name points to an existing alt-svc cache file,
that gets used. After a completed transfer, the cache is
saved to the file name again if it has been modified.
Specify a "" file name (zero length) to avoid
loading/saving and make curl just handle the cache in
memory.
If this option is used several times, curl loads contents
from all the files but the last one is used for saving.
--alt-svc can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --alt-svc svc.txt https://example.com
See also --resolve and --connect-to. Added in 7.64.1.
--anyauth
(HTTP) Tells curl to figure out authentication method by
itself, and use the most secure one the remote site claims
to support. This is done by first doing a request and
checking the response-headers, thus possibly inducing an
extra network round-trip. This is used instead of setting
a specific authentication method, which you can do with
--basic, --digest, --ntlm, and --negotiate.
Using --anyauth is not recommended if you do uploads from
stdin, since it may require data to be sent twice and then
the client must be able to rewind. If the need should
arise when uploading from stdin, the upload operation
fails.
Used together with -u, --user.
Providing --anyauth multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --anyauth --user me:pwd https://example.com
See also --proxy-anyauth, --basic and --digest.
-a, --append
(FTP SFTP) When used in an upload, this option makes curl
append to the target file instead of overwriting it. If
the remote file does not exist, it is created. Note that
this flag is ignored by some SFTP servers (including
OpenSSH).
Providing -a, --append multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-append.
Example:
curl --upload-file local --append ftp://example.com/
See also -r, --range and -C, --continue-at.
--aws-sigv4 <provider1[:provider2[:region[:service]]]>
(HTTP) Use AWS V4 signature authentication in the
transfer.
The provider argument is a string that is used by the
algorithm when creating outgoing authentication headers.
The region argument is a string that points to a
geographic area of a resources collection (region-code)
when the region name is omitted from the endpoint.
The service argument is a string that points to a function
provided by a cloud (service-code) when the service name
is omitted from the endpoint.
If --aws-sigv4 is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --aws-sigv4 "aws:amz:us-east-2:es" --user "key:secret" https://example.com
See also --basic and -u, --user. Added in 7.75.0.
--basic
(HTTP) Tells curl to use HTTP Basic authentication with
the remote host. This is the default and this option is
usually pointless, unless you use it to override a
previously set option that sets a different authentication
method (such as --ntlm, --digest, or --negotiate).
Used together with -u, --user.
Providing --basic multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl -u name:password --basic https://example.com
See also --proxy-basic.
--ca-native
(TLS) Tells curl to use the CA store from the native
operating system to verify the peer. By default, curl
otherwise uses a CA store provided in a single file or
directory, but when using this option it interfaces the
operating system's own vault.
This option only works for curl on Windows when built to
use OpenSSL. When curl on Windows is built to use
Schannel, this feature is implied and curl then only uses
the native CA store.
curl built with wolfSSL also supports this option (added
in 8.3.0).
Providing --ca-native multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-ca-native.
Example:
curl --ca-native https://example.com
See also --cacert, --capath and -k, --insecure. Added in
8.2.0.
--cacert <file>
(TLS) Tells curl to use the specified certificate file to
verify the peer. The file may contain multiple CA
certificates. The certificate(s) must be in PEM format.
Normally curl is built to use a default file for this, so
this option is typically used to alter that default file.
curl recognizes the environment variable named
'CURL_CA_BUNDLE' if it is set, and uses the given path as
a path to a CA cert bundle. This option overrides that
variable.
The windows version of curl automatically looks for a CA
certs file named 'curl-ca-bundle.crt', either in the same
directory as curl.exe, or in the Current Working
Directory, or in any folder along your PATH.
(iOS and macOS only) If curl is built against Secure
Transport, then this option is supported for backward
compatibility with other SSL engines, but it should not be
set. If the option is not set, then curl uses the
certificates in the system and user Keychain to verify the
peer, which is the preferred method of verifying the
peer's certificate chain.
(Schannel only) This option is supported for Schannel in
Windows 7 or later (added in 7.60.0). This option is
supported for backward compatibility with other SSL
engines; instead it is recommended to use Windows' store
of root certificates (the default for Schannel).
If --cacert is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --cacert CA-file.txt https://example.com
See also --capath and -k, --insecure.
--capath <dir>
(TLS) Tells curl to use the specified certificate
directory to verify the peer. Multiple paths can be
provided by separating them with ":" (e.g.
"path1:path2:path3"). The certificates must be in PEM
format, and if curl is built against OpenSSL, the
directory must have been processed using the c_rehash
utility supplied with OpenSSL. Using --capath can allow
OpenSSL-powered curl to make SSL-connections much more
efficiently than using --cacert if the --cacert file
contains many CA certificates.
If this option is set, the default capath value is
ignored.
If --capath is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --capath /local/directory https://example.com
See also --cacert and -k, --insecure.
-E, --cert <certificate[:password]>
(TLS) Tells curl to use the specified client certificate
file when getting a file with HTTPS, FTPS or another
SSL-based protocol. The certificate must be in PKCS#12
format if using Secure Transport, or PEM format if using
any other engine. If the optional password is not
specified, it is queried for on the terminal. Note that
this option assumes a certificate file that is the private
key and the client certificate concatenated. See -E,
--cert and --key to specify them independently.
In the <certificate> portion of the argument, you must
escape the character ":" as "\:" so that it is not
recognized as the password delimiter. Similarly, you must
escape the character "\" as "\\" so that it is not
recognized as an escape character.
If curl is built against OpenSSL library, and the engine
pkcs11 is available, then a PKCS#11 URI (RFC 7512) can be
used to specify a certificate located in a PKCS#11 device.
A string beginning with "pkcs11:" is interpreted as a
PKCS#11 URI. If a PKCS#11 URI is provided, then the
--engine option is set as "pkcs11" if none was provided
and the --cert-type option is set as "ENG" if none was
provided.
(iOS and macOS only) If curl is built against Secure
Transport, then the certificate string can either be the
name of a certificate/private key in the system or user
keychain, or the path to a PKCS#12-encoded certificate and
private key. If you want to use a file from the current
directory, please precede it with "./" prefix, in order to
avoid confusion with a nickname.
(Schannel only) Client certificates must be specified by a
path expression to a certificate store. (Loading PFX is
not supported; you can import it to a store first). You
can use "<store location>\<store name>\<thumbprint>" to
refer to a certificate in the system certificates store,
for example,
"CurrentUser\MY\934a7ac6f8a5d579285a74fa61e19f23ddfe8d7a".
Thumbprint is usually a SHA-1 hex string which you can see
in certificate details. Following store locations are
supported: CurrentUser, LocalMachine, CurrentService,
Services, CurrentUserGroupPolicy, LocalMachineGroupPolicy
and LocalMachineEnterprise.
If -E, --cert is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --cert certfile --key keyfile https://example.com
See also --cert-type, --key and --key-type.
--cert-status
(TLS) Tells curl to verify the status of the server
certificate by using the Certificate Status Request (aka.
OCSP stapling) TLS extension.
If this option is enabled and the server sends an invalid
(e.g. expired) response, if the response suggests that the
server certificate has been revoked, or no response at all
is received, the verification fails.
This is currently only implemented in the OpenSSL and
GnuTLS backends.
Providing --cert-status multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-cert-status.
Example:
curl --cert-status https://example.com
See also --pinnedpubkey.
--cert-type <type>
(TLS) Tells curl what type the provided client certificate
is using. PEM, DER, ENG and P12 are recognized types.
The default type depends on the TLS backend and is usually
PEM, however for Secure Transport and Schannel it is P12.
If -E, --cert is a pkcs11: URI then ENG is the default
type.
If --cert-type is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --cert-type PEM --cert file https://example.com
See also -E, --cert, --key and --key-type.
--ciphers <list of ciphers>
(TLS) Specifies which ciphers to use in the connection.
The list of ciphers must specify valid ciphers. Read up on
SSL cipher list details on this URL:
https://curl.se/docs/ssl-ciphers.html
If --ciphers is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-CCM8 https://example.com
See also --tlsv1.3, --tls13-ciphers and --proxy-ciphers.
--compressed
(HTTP) Request a compressed response using one of the
algorithms curl supports, and automatically decompress the
content.
Response headers are not modified when saved, so if they
are "interpreted" separately again at a later point they
might appear to be saying that the content is (still)
compressed; while in fact it has already been
decompressed.
If this option is used and the server sends an unsupported
encoding, curl reports an error. This is a request, not an
order; the server may or may not deliver data compressed.
Providing --compressed multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-compressed.
Example:
curl --compressed https://example.com
See also --compressed-ssh.
--compressed-ssh
(SCP SFTP) Enables built-in SSH compression. This is a
request, not an order; the server may or may not do it.
Providing --compressed-ssh multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-compressed-ssh.
Example:
curl --compressed-ssh sftp://example.com/
See also --compressed. Added in 7.56.0.
-K, --config <file>
Specify a text file to read curl arguments from. The
command line arguments found in the text file are used as
if they were provided on the command line.
Options and their parameters must be specified on the same
line in the file, separated by whitespace, colon, or the
equals sign. Long option names can optionally be given in
the config file without the initial double dashes and if
so, the colon or equals characters can be used as
separators. If the option is specified with one or two
dashes, there can be no colon or equals character between
the option and its parameter.
If the parameter contains whitespace or starts with a
colon (:) or equals sign (=), it must be specified
enclosed within double quotes ("). Within double quotes
the following escape sequences are available: \\, \", \t,
\n, \r and \v. A backslash preceding any other letter is
ignored.
If the first non-blank column of a config line is a '#'
character, that line is treated as a comment.
Only write one option per physical line in the config
file. A single line is required to be no more than 10
megabytes (since 8.2.0).
Specify the filename to -K, --config as '-' to make curl
read the file from stdin.
Note that to be able to specify a URL in the config file,
you need to specify it using the --url option, and not by
simply writing the URL on its own line. So, it could look
similar to this:
url = "https://curl.se/docs/"
# --- Example file ---
# this is a comment
url = "example.com"
output = "curlhere.html"
user-agent = "superagent/1.0"
# and fetch another URL too
url = "example.com/docs/manpage.html"
-O
referer = "http://nowhereatall.example.com/"
# --- End of example file ---
When curl is invoked, it (unless -q, --disable is used)
checks for a default config file and uses it if found,
even when -K, --config is used. The default config file is
checked for in the following places in this order:
1) "$CURL_HOME/.curlrc"
2) "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/curlrc" (Added in 7.73.0)
3) "$HOME/.curlrc"
4) Windows: "%USERPROFILE%\.curlrc"
5) Windows: "%APPDATA%\.curlrc"
6) Windows: "%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\.curlrc"
7) Non-Windows: use getpwuid to find the home directory
8) On Windows, if it finds no .curlrc file in the sequence
described above, it checks for one in the same dir the
curl executable is placed.
On Windows two filenames are checked per location: .curlrc
and _curlrc, preferring the former. Older versions on
Windows checked for _curlrc only.
-K, --config can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --config file.txt https://example.com
See also -q, --disable.
--connect-timeout <fractional seconds>
Maximum time in seconds that you allow curl's connection
to take. This only limits the connection phase, so if
curl connects within the given period it continues - if
not it exits.
This option accepts decimal values. The decimal value
needs to be provided using a dot (.) as decimal separator
- not the local version even if it might be using another
separator.
The connection phase is considered complete when the DNS
lookup and requested TCP, TLS or QUIC handshakes are done.
If --connect-timeout is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Examples:
curl --connect-timeout 20 https://example.com
curl --connect-timeout 3.14 https://example.com
See also -m, --max-time.
--connect-to <HOST1:PORT1:HOST2:PORT2>
For a request to the given HOST1:PORT1 pair, connect to
HOST2:PORT2 instead. This option is suitable to direct
requests at a specific server, e.g. at a specific cluster
node in a cluster of servers. This option is only used to
establish the network connection. It does NOT affect the
hostname/port that is used for TLS/SSL (e.g. SNI,
certificate verification) or for the application
protocols. "HOST1" and "PORT1" may be the empty string,
meaning "any host/port". "HOST2" and "PORT2" may also be
the empty string, meaning "use the request's original
host/port".
A "host" specified to this option is compared as a string,
so it needs to match the name used in request URL. It can
be either numerical such as "127.0.0.1" or the full host
name such as "example.org".
--connect-to can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --connect-to example.com:443:example.net:8443 https://example.com
See also --resolve and -H, --header.
-C, --continue-at <offset>
Continue/Resume a previous file transfer at the given
offset. The given offset is the exact number of bytes that
are skipped, counting from the beginning of the source
file before it is transferred to the destination. If used
with uploads, the FTP server command SIZE is not used by
curl.
Use "-C -" to tell curl to automatically find out
where/how to resume the transfer. It then uses the given
output/input files to figure that out.
If -C, --continue-at is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Examples:
curl -C - https://example.com
curl -C 400 https://example.com
See also -r, --range.
-b, --cookie <data|filename>
(HTTP) Pass the data to the HTTP server in the Cookie
header. It is supposedly the data previously received from
the server in a "Set-Cookie:" line. The data should be in
the format "NAME1=VALUE1; NAME2=VALUE2". This makes curl
use the cookie header with this content explicitly in all
outgoing request(s). If multiple requests are done due to
authentication, followed redirects or similar, they all
get this cookie passed on.
If no '=' symbol is used in the argument, it is instead
treated as a filename to read previously stored cookie
from. This option also activates the cookie engine which
makes curl record incoming cookies, which may be handy if
you are using this in combination with the -L, --location
option or do multiple URL transfers on the same invoke. If
the file name is exactly a minus ("-"), curl instead reads
the contents from stdin.
The file format of the file to read cookies from should be
plain HTTP headers (Set-Cookie style) or the
Netscape/Mozilla cookie file format.
The file specified with -b, --cookie is only used as
input. No cookies are written to the file. To store
cookies, use the -c, --cookie-jar option.
If you use the Set-Cookie file format and do not specify a
domain then the cookie is not sent since the domain never
matches. To address this, set a domain in Set-Cookie line
(doing that includes subdomains) or preferably: use the
Netscape format.
Users often want to both read cookies from a file and
write updated cookies back to a file, so using both -b,
--cookie and -c, --cookie-jar in the same command line is
common.
-b, --cookie can be used several times in a command line
Examples:
curl -b cookiefile https://example.com
curl -b cookiefile -c cookiefile https://example.com
See also -c, --cookie-jar and -j, --junk-session-cookies.
-c, --cookie-jar <filename>
(HTTP) Specify to which file you want curl to write all
cookies after a completed operation. Curl writes all
cookies from its in-memory cookie storage to the given
file at the end of operations. If no cookies are known, no
data is written. The file is created using the Netscape
cookie file format. If you set the file name to a single
dash, "-", the cookies are written to stdout.
The file specified with -c, --cookie-jar is only used for
output. No cookies are read from the file. To read
cookies, use the -b, --cookie option. Both options can
specify the same file.
This command line option activates the cookie engine that
makes curl record and use cookies. The -b, --cookie option
also activates it.
If the cookie jar cannot be created or written to, the
whole curl operation does not fail or even report an error
clearly. Using -v, --verbose gets a warning displayed, but
that is the only visible feedback you get about this
possibly lethal situation.
If -c, --cookie-jar is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Examples:
curl -c store-here.txt https://example.com
curl -c store-here.txt -b read-these https://example.com
See also -b, --cookie.
--create-dirs
When used in conjunction with the -o, --output option,
curl creates the necessary local directory hierarchy as
needed. This option creates the directories mentioned with
the -o, --output option combined with the path possibly
set with --output-dir. If the combined output file name
uses no directory, or if the directories it mentions
already exist, no directories are created.
Created directories are made with mode 0750 on unix style
file systems.
To create remote directories when using FTP or SFTP, try
--ftp-create-dirs.
Providing --create-dirs multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-create-dirs.
Example:
curl --create-dirs --output local/dir/file https://example.com
See also --ftp-create-dirs and --output-dir.
--create-file-mode <mode>
(SFTP SCP FILE) When curl is used to create files remotely
using one of the supported protocols, this option allows
the user to set which 'mode' to set on the file at
creation time, instead of the default 0644.
This option takes an octal number as argument.
If --create-file-mode is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --create-file-mode 0777 -T localfile sftp://example.com/new
See also --ftp-create-dirs. Added in 7.75.0.
--crlf (FTP SMTP) Convert line feeds to carriage return plus line
feeds in upload. Useful for MVS (OS/390).
(SMTP added in 7.40.0)
Providing --crlf multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-crlf.
Example:
curl --crlf -T file ftp://example.com/
See also -B, --use-ascii.
--crlfile <file>
(TLS) Provide a file using PEM format with a Certificate
Revocation List that may specify peer certificates that
are to be considered revoked.
If --crlfile is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --crlfile rejects.txt https://example.com
See also --cacert and --capath.
--curves <algorithm list>
(TLS) Tells curl to request specific curves to use during
SSL session establishment according to RFC 8422, 5.1.
Multiple algorithms can be provided by separating them
with ":" (e.g. "X25519:P-521"). The parameter is
available identically in the "openssl s_client/s_server"
utilities.
--curves allows a OpenSSL powered curl to make
SSL-connections with exactly the (EC) curve requested by
the client, avoiding nontransparent client/server
negotiations.
If this option is set, the default curves list built into
OpenSSL are ignored.
If --curves is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --curves X25519 https://example.com
See also --ciphers. Added in 7.73.0.
-d, --data <data>
(HTTP MQTT) Sends the specified data in a POST request to
the HTTP server, in the same way that a browser does when
a user has filled in an HTML form and presses the submit
button. This makes curl pass the data to the server using
the content-type application/x-www-form-urlencoded.
Compare to -F, --form.
--data-raw is almost the same but does not have a special
interpretation of the @ character. To post data purely
binary, you should instead use the --data-binary option.
To URL-encode the value of a form field you may use
--data-urlencode.
If any of these options is used more than once on the same
command line, the data pieces specified are merged with a
separating &-symbol. Thus, using '-d name=daniel -d
skill=lousy' would generate a post chunk that looks like
'name=daniel&skill=lousy'.
If you start the data with the letter @, the rest should
be a file name to read the data from, or - if you want
curl to read the data from stdin. Posting data from a file
named 'foobar' would thus be done with -d, --data @foobar.
When -d, --data is told to read from a file like that,
carriage returns and newlines are stripped out. If you do
not want the @ character to have a special interpretation
use --data-raw instead.
The data for this option is passed on to the server
exactly as provided on the command line. curl does not
convert, change or improve it. It is up to the user to
provide the data in the correct form.
-d, --data can be used several times in a command line
Examples:
curl -d "name=curl" https://example.com
curl -d "name=curl" -d "tool=cmdline" https://example.com
curl -d @filename https://example.com
See also --data-binary, --data-urlencode and --data-raw.
This option is mutually exclusive to -F, --form and -I,
--head and -T, --upload-file.
--data-ascii <data>
(HTTP) This is just an alias for -d, --data.
--data-ascii can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --data-ascii @file https://example.com
See also --data-binary, --data-raw and --data-urlencode.
--data-binary <data>
(HTTP) This posts data exactly as specified with no extra
processing whatsoever.
If you start the data with the letter @, the rest should
be a filename. Data is posted in a similar manner as -d,
--data does, except that newlines and carriage returns are
preserved and conversions are never done.
Like -d, --data the default content-type sent to the
server is application/x-www-form-urlencoded. If you want
the data to be treated as arbitrary binary data by the
server then set the content-type to octet-stream: -H
"Content-Type: application/octet-stream".
If this option is used several times, the ones following
the first append data as described in -d, --data.
--data-binary can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --data-binary @filename https://example.com
See also --data-ascii.
--data-raw <data>
(HTTP) This posts data similarly to -d, --data but without
the special interpretation of the @ character.
--data-raw can be used several times in a command line
Examples:
curl --data-raw "hello" https://example.com
curl --data-raw "@at@at@" https://example.com
See also -d, --data.
--data-urlencode <data>
(HTTP) This posts data, similar to the other -d, --data
options with the exception that this performs
URL-encoding.
To be CGI-compliant, the <data> part should begin with a
name followed by a separator and a content specification.
The <data> part can be passed to curl using one of the
following syntaxes:
content
This makes curl URL-encode the content and pass
that on. Just be careful so that the content does
not contain any = or @ symbols, as that makes the
syntax match one of the other cases below!
=content
This makes curl URL-encode the content and pass
that on. The preceding = symbol is not included in
the data.
name=content
This makes curl URL-encode the content part and
pass that on. Note that the name part is expected
to be URL-encoded already.
@filename
This makes curl load data from the given file
(including any newlines), URL-encode that data and
pass it on in the POST.
name@filename
This makes curl load data from the given file
(including any newlines), URL-encode that data and
pass it on in the POST. The name part gets an equal
sign appended, resulting in
name=urlencoded-file-content. Note that the name is
expected to be URL-encoded already.
--data-urlencode can be used several times in a command
line
Examples:
curl --data-urlencode name=val https://example.com
curl --data-urlencode =encodethis https://example.com
curl --data-urlencode name@file https://example.com
curl --data-urlencode @fileonly https://example.com
See also -d, --data and --data-raw.
--delegation <LEVEL>
(GSS/kerberos) Set LEVEL to tell the server what it is
allowed to delegate when it comes to user credentials.
none Do not allow any delegation.
policy Delegates if and only if the OK-AS-DELEGATE flag is
set in the Kerberos service ticket, which is a
matter of realm policy.
always Unconditionally allow the server to delegate.
If --delegation is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --delegation "none" https://example.com
See also -k, --insecure and --ssl.
--digest
(HTTP) Enables HTTP Digest authentication. This is an
authentication scheme that prevents the password from
being sent over the wire in clear text. Use this in
combination with the normal -u, --user option to set user
name and password.
Providing --digest multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-digest.
Example:
curl -u name:password --digest https://example.com
See also -u, --user, --proxy-digest and --anyauth. This
option is mutually exclusive to --basic and --ntlm and
--negotiate.
-q, --disable
If used as the first parameter on the command line, the
curlrc config file is not read or used. See the -K,
--config for details on the default config file search
path.
Prior to 7.50.0 curl supported the short option name q but
not the long option name disable.
Providing -q, --disable multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-disable.
Example:
curl -q https://example.com
See also -K, --config.
--disable-eprt
(FTP) Tell curl to disable the use of the EPRT and LPRT
commands when doing active FTP transfers. Curl normally
first attempts to use EPRT before using PORT, but with
this option, it uses PORT right away. EPRT is an extension
to the original FTP protocol, and does not work on all
servers, but enables more functionality in a better way
than the traditional PORT command.
--eprt can be used to explicitly enable EPRT again and
--no-eprt is an alias for --disable-eprt.
If the server is accessed using IPv6, this option has no
effect as EPRT is necessary then.
Disabling EPRT only changes the active behavior. If you
want to switch to passive mode you need to not use -P,
--ftp-port or force it with --ftp-pasv.
Providing --disable-eprt multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-disable-eprt.
Example:
curl --disable-eprt ftp://example.com/
See also --disable-epsv and -P, --ftp-port.
--disable-epsv
(FTP) Tell curl to disable the use of the EPSV command
when doing passive FTP transfers. Curl normally first
attempts to use EPSV before PASV, but with this option, it
does not try EPSV.
--epsv can be used to explicitly enable EPSV again and
--no-epsv is an alias for --disable-epsv.
If the server is an IPv6 host, this option has no effect
as EPSV is necessary then.
Disabling EPSV only changes the passive behavior. If you
want to switch to active mode you need to use -P,
--ftp-port.
Providing --disable-epsv multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-disable-epsv.
Example:
curl --disable-epsv ftp://example.com/
See also --disable-eprt and -P, --ftp-port.
--disallow-username-in-url
This tells curl to exit if passed a URL containing a
username. This is probably most useful when the URL is
being provided at runtime or similar.
Providing --disallow-username-in-url multiple times has no
extra effect. Disable it again with
--no-disallow-username-in-url.
Example:
curl --disallow-username-in-url https://example.com
See also --proto. Added in 7.61.0.
--dns-interface <interface>
(DNS) Tell curl to send outgoing DNS requests through
<interface>. This option is a counterpart to --interface
(which does not affect DNS). The supplied string must be
an interface name (not an address).
If --dns-interface is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --dns-interface eth0 https://example.com
See also --dns-ipv4-addr and --dns-ipv6-addr.
--dns-interface requires that the underlying libcurl was
built to support c-ares.
--dns-ipv4-addr <address>
(DNS) Tell curl to bind to a specific IP address when
making IPv4 DNS requests, so that the DNS requests
originate from this address. The argument should be a
single IPv4 address.
If --dns-ipv4-addr is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --dns-ipv4-addr 10.1.2.3 https://example.com
See also --dns-interface and --dns-ipv6-addr.
--dns-ipv4-addr requires that the underlying libcurl was
built to support c-ares.
--dns-ipv6-addr <address>
(DNS) Tell curl to bind to a specific IP address when
making IPv6 DNS requests, so that the DNS requests
originate from this address. The argument should be a
single IPv6 address.
If --dns-ipv6-addr is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --dns-ipv6-addr 2a04:4e42::561 https://example.com
See also --dns-interface and --dns-ipv4-addr.
--dns-ipv6-addr requires that the underlying libcurl was
built to support c-ares.
--dns-servers <addresses>
(DNS) Set the list of DNS servers to be used instead of
the system default. The list of IP addresses should be
separated with commas. Port numbers may also optionally be
given as :<port-number> after each IP address.
If --dns-servers is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --dns-servers 192.168.0.1,192.168.0.2 https://example.com
See also --dns-interface and --dns-ipv4-addr.
--dns-servers requires that the underlying libcurl was
built to support c-ares.
--doh-cert-status
Same as --cert-status but used for DoH (DNS-over-HTTPS).
Providing --doh-cert-status multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-doh-cert-status.
Example:
curl --doh-cert-status --doh-url https://doh.example https://example.com
See also --doh-insecure. Added in 7.76.0.
--doh-insecure
Same as -k, --insecure but used for DoH (DNS-over-HTTPS).
Providing --doh-insecure multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-doh-insecure.
Example:
curl --doh-insecure --doh-url https://doh.example https://example.com
See also --doh-url. Added in 7.76.0.
--doh-url <URL>
Specifies which DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) server to use to
resolve hostnames, instead of using the default name
resolver mechanism. The URL must be HTTPS.
Some SSL options that you set for your transfer also
applies to DoH since the name lookups take place over SSL.
However, the certificate verification settings are not
inherited but are controlled separately via --doh-insecure
and --doh-cert-status.
This option is unset if an empty string "" is used as the
URL. (Added in 7.85.0)
If --doh-url is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --doh-url https://doh.example https://example.com
See also --doh-insecure. Added in 7.62.0.
-D, --dump-header <filename>
(HTTP FTP) Write the received protocol headers to the
specified file. If no headers are received, the use of
this option creates an empty file.
When used in FTP, the FTP server response lines are
considered being "headers" and thus are saved there.
Having multiple transfers in one set of operations (i.e.
the URLs in one -:, --next clause), appends them to the
same file, separated by a blank line.
If -D, --dump-header is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --dump-header store.txt https://example.com
See also -o, --output.
--egd-file <file>
(TLS) Deprecated option (added in 7.84.0). Prior to that
it only had an effect on curl if built to use old versions
of OpenSSL.
Specify the path name to the Entropy Gathering Daemon
socket. The socket is used to seed the random engine for
SSL connections.
If --egd-file is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --egd-file /random/here https://example.com
See also --random-file.
--engine <name>
(TLS) Select the OpenSSL crypto engine to use for cipher
operations. Use --engine list to print a list of
build-time supported engines. Note that not all (and
possibly none) of the engines may be available at runtime.
If --engine is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --engine flavor https://example.com
See also --ciphers and --curves.
--etag-compare <file>
(HTTP) This option makes a conditional HTTP request for
the specific ETag read from the given file by sending a
custom If-None-Match header using the stored ETag.
For correct results, make sure that the specified file
contains only a single line with the desired ETag. An
empty file is parsed as an empty ETag.
Use the option --etag-save to first save the ETag from a
response, and then use this option to compare against the
saved ETag in a subsequent request.
If --etag-compare is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --etag-compare etag.txt https://example.com
See also --etag-save and -z, --time-cond. Added in 7.68.0.
--etag-save <file>
(HTTP) This option saves an HTTP ETag to the specified
file. An ETag is a caching related header, usually
returned in a response.
If no ETag is sent by the server, an empty file is
created.
If --etag-save is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --etag-save storetag.txt https://example.com
See also --etag-compare. Added in 7.68.0.
--expect100-timeout <seconds>
(HTTP) Maximum time in seconds that you allow curl to wait
for a 100-continue response when curl emits an Expects:
100-continue header in its request. By default curl waits
one second. This option accepts decimal values! When curl
stops waiting, it continues as if the response has been
received.
The decimal value needs to provided using a dot (.) as
decimal separator - not the local version even if it might
be using another separator.
If --expect100-timeout is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --expect100-timeout 2.5 -T file https://example.com
See also --connect-timeout.
-f, --fail
(HTTP) Fail fast with no output at all on server errors.
This is useful to enable scripts and users to better deal
with failed attempts. In normal cases when an HTTP server
fails to deliver a document, it returns an HTML document
stating so (which often also describes why and more). This
flag prevents curl from outputting that and return error
22.
This method is not fail-safe and there are occasions where
non-successful response codes slip through, especially
when authentication is involved (response codes 401 and
407).
Providing -f, --fail multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-fail.
Example:
curl --fail https://example.com
See also --fail-with-body and --fail-early. This option is
mutually exclusive to --fail-with-body.
--fail-early
Fail and exit on the first detected transfer error.
When curl is used to do multiple transfers on the command
line, it attempts to operate on each given URL, one by
one. By default, it ignores errors if there are more URLs
given and the last URL's success determines the error code
curl returns. So early failures are "hidden" by subsequent
successful transfers.
Using this option, curl instead returns an error on the
first transfer that fails, independent of the amount of
URLs that are given on the command line. This way, no
transfer failures go undetected by scripts and similar.
This option does not imply -f, --fail, which causes
transfers to fail due to the server's HTTP status code.
You can combine the two options, however note -f, --fail
is not global and is therefore contained by -:, --next.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
Providing --fail-early multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-fail-early.
Example:
curl --fail-early https://example.com https://two.example
See also -f, --fail and --fail-with-body. Added in 7.52.0.
--fail-with-body
(HTTP) Return an error on server errors where the HTTP
response code is 400 or greater). In normal cases when an
HTTP server fails to deliver a document, it returns an
HTML document stating so (which often also describes why
and more). This flag allows curl to output and save that
content but also to return error 22.
This is an alternative option to -f, --fail which makes
curl fail for the same circumstances but without saving
the content.
Providing --fail-with-body multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-fail-with-body.
Example:
curl --fail-with-body https://example.com
See also -f, --fail and --fail-early. This option is
mutually exclusive to -f, --fail. Added in 7.76.0.
--false-start
(TLS) Tells curl to use false start during the TLS
handshake. False start is a mode where a TLS client starts
sending application data before verifying the server's
Finished message, thus saving a round trip when performing
a full handshake.
This is currently only implemented in the Secure Transport
(on iOS 7.0 or later, or OS X 10.9 or later) backend.
Providing --false-start multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-false-start.
Example:
curl --false-start https://example.com
See also --tcp-fastopen.
-F, --form <name=content>
(HTTP SMTP IMAP) For HTTP protocol family, this lets curl
emulate a filled-in form in which a user has pressed the
submit button. This causes curl to POST data using the
Content-Type multipart/form-data according to RFC 2388.
For SMTP and IMAP protocols, this is the means to compose
a multipart mail message to transmit.
This enables uploading of binary files etc. To force the
'content' part to be a file, prefix the file name with an
@ sign. To just get the content part from a file, prefix
the file name with the symbol <. The difference between @
and < is then that @ makes a file get attached in the post
as a file upload, while the < makes a text field and just
get the contents for that text field from a file.
Tell curl to read content from stdin instead of a file by
using - as filename. This goes for both @ and <
constructs. When stdin is used, the contents is buffered
in memory first by curl to determine its size and allow a
possible resend. Defining a part's data from a named
non-regular file (such as a named pipe or similar) is not
subject to buffering and is instead read at transmission
time; since the full size is unknown before the transfer
starts, such data is sent as chunks by HTTP and rejected
by IMAP.
Example: send an image to an HTTP server, where 'profile'
is the name of the form-field to which the file
portrait.jpg is the input:
curl -F profile=@portrait.jpg https://example.com/upload.cgi
Example: send your name and shoe size in two text fields
to the server:
curl -F name=John -F shoesize=11 https://example.com/
Example: send your essay in a text field to the server.
Send it as a plain text field, but get the contents for it
from a local file:
curl -F "story=<hugefile.txt" https://example.com/
You can also tell curl what Content-Type to use by using
'type=', in a manner similar to:
curl -F "web=@index.html;type=text/html" example.com
or
curl -F "name=daniel;type=text/foo" example.com
You can also explicitly change the name field of a file
upload part by setting filename=, like this:
curl -F "file=@localfile;filename=nameinpost" example.com
If filename/path contains ',' or ';', it must be quoted by
double-quotes like:
curl -F "file=@\"local,file\";filename=\"name;in;post\"" example.com
or
curl -F 'file=@"local,file";filename="name;in;post"' example.com
Note that if a filename/path is quoted by double-quotes,
any double-quote or backslash within the filename must be
escaped by backslash.
Quoting must also be applied to non-file data if it
contains semicolons, leading/trailing spaces or leading
double quotes:
curl -F 'colors="red; green; blue";type=text/x-myapp' example.com
You can add custom headers to the field by setting
headers=, like
curl -F "submit=OK;headers=\"X-submit-type: OK\"" example.com
or
curl -F "submit=OK;headers=@headerfile" example.com
The headers= keyword may appear more that once and above
notes about quoting apply. When headers are read from a
file, Empty lines and lines starting with '#' are comments
and ignored; each header can be folded by splitting
between two words and starting the continuation line with
a space; embedded carriage-returns and trailing spaces are
stripped. Here is an example of a header file contents:
# This file contain two headers.
X-header-1: this is a header
# The following header is folded.
X-header-2: this is
another header
To support sending multipart mail messages, the syntax is
extended as follows:
- name can be omitted: the equal sign is the first
character of the argument,
- if data starts with '(', this signals to start a new
multipart: it can be followed by a content type
specification.
- a multipart can be terminated with a '=)' argument.
Example: the following command sends an SMTP mime email
consisting in an inline part in two alternative formats:
plain text and HTML. It attaches a text file:
curl -F '=(;type=multipart/alternative' \
-F '=plain text message' \
-F '= <body>HTML message</body>;type=text/html' \
-F '=)' -F '=@textfile.txt' ... smtp://example.com
Data can be encoded for transfer using encoder=. Available
encodings are binary and 8bit that do nothing else than
adding the corresponding Content-Transfer-Encoding header,
7bit that only rejects 8-bit characters with a transfer
error, quoted-printable and base64 that encodes data
according to the corresponding schemes, limiting lines
length to 76 characters.
Example: send multipart mail with a quoted-printable text
message and a base64 attached file:
curl -F '=text message;encoder=quoted-printable' \
-F '=@localfile;encoder=base64' ... smtp://example.com
See further examples and details in the MANUAL.
-F, --form can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --form "name=curl" --form "file=@loadthis" https://example.com
See also -d, --data, --form-string and --form-escape. This
option is mutually exclusive to -d, --data and -I, --head
and -T, --upload-file.
--form-escape
(HTTP) Tells curl to pass on names of multipart form
fields and files using backslash-escaping instead of
percent-encoding.
If --form-escape is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --form-escape -F 'field\name=curl' -F 'file=@load"this' https://example.com
See also -F, --form. Added in 7.81.0.
--form-string <name=string>
(HTTP SMTP IMAP) Similar to -F, --form except that the
value string for the named parameter is used literally.
Leading '@' and '<' characters, and the ';type=' string in
the value have no special meaning. Use this in preference
to -F, --form if there is any possibility that the string
value may accidentally trigger the '@' or '<' features of
-F, --form.
--form-string can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --form-string "data" https://example.com
See also -F, --form.
--ftp-account <data>
(FTP) When an FTP server asks for "account data" after
user name and password has been provided, this data is
sent off using the ACCT command.
If --ftp-account is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --ftp-account "mr.robot" ftp://example.com/
See also -u, --user.
--ftp-alternative-to-user <command>
(FTP) If authenticating with the USER and PASS commands
fails, send this command. When connecting to Tumbleweed's
Secure Transport server over FTPS using a client
certificate, using "SITE AUTH" tells the server to
retrieve the username from the certificate.
If --ftp-alternative-to-user is provided several times,
the last set value is used.
Example:
curl --ftp-alternative-to-user "U53r" ftp://example.com
See also --ftp-account and -u, --user.
--ftp-create-dirs
(FTP SFTP) When an FTP or SFTP URL/operation uses a path
that does not currently exist on the server, the standard
behavior of curl is to fail. Using this option, curl
instead attempts to create missing directories.
Providing --ftp-create-dirs multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-ftp-create-dirs.
Example:
curl --ftp-create-dirs -T file ftp://example.com/remote/path/file
See also --create-dirs.
--ftp-method <method>
(FTP) Control what method curl should use to reach a file
on an FTP(S) server. The method argument should be one of
the following alternatives:
multicwd
curl does a single CWD operation for each path part
in the given URL. For deep hierarchies this means
many commands. This is how RFC 1738 says it should
be done. This is the default but the slowest
behavior.
nocwd curl does no CWD at all. curl does SIZE, RETR, STOR
etc and give a full path to the server for all
these commands. This is the fastest behavior.
singlecwd
curl does one CWD with the full target directory
and then operates on the file "normally" (like in
the multicwd case). This is somewhat more standards
compliant than 'nocwd' but without the full penalty
of 'multicwd'.
If --ftp-method is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Examples:
curl --ftp-method multicwd ftp://example.com/dir1/dir2/file
curl --ftp-method nocwd ftp://example.com/dir1/dir2/file
curl --ftp-method singlecwd ftp://example.com/dir1/dir2/file
See also -l, --list-only.
--ftp-pasv
(FTP) Use passive mode for the data connection. Passive is
the internal default behavior, but using this option can
be used to override a previous -P, --ftp-port option.
Reversing an enforced passive really is not doable but you
must then instead enforce the correct -P, --ftp-port
again.
Passive mode means that curl tries the EPSV command first
and then PASV, unless --disable-epsv is used.
Providing --ftp-pasv multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-ftp-pasv.
Example:
curl --ftp-pasv ftp://example.com/
See also --disable-epsv.
-P, --ftp-port <address>
(FTP) Reverses the default initiator/listener roles when
connecting with FTP. This option makes curl use active
mode. curl then tells the server to connect back to the
client's specified address and port, while passive mode
asks the server to setup an IP address and port for it to
connect to. <address> should be one of:
interface
e.g. "eth0" to specify which interface's IP address
you want to use (Unix only)
IP address
e.g. "192.168.10.1" to specify the exact IP address
host name
e.g. "my.host.domain" to specify the machine
- make curl pick the same IP address that is already
used for the control connection
Disable the use of PORT with --ftp-pasv. Disable the
attempt to use the EPRT command instead of PORT by using
--disable-eprt. EPRT is really PORT++.
You can also append ":[start]-[end]" to the right of the
address, to tell curl what TCP port range to use. That
means you specify a port range, from a lower to a higher
number. A single number works as well, but do note that it
increases the risk of failure since the port may not be
available.
If -P, --ftp-port is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Examples:
curl -P - ftp:/example.com
curl -P eth0 ftp:/example.com
curl -P 192.168.0.2 ftp:/example.com
See also --ftp-pasv and --disable-eprt.
--ftp-pret
(FTP) Tell curl to send a PRET command before PASV (and
EPSV). Certain FTP servers, mainly drftpd, require this
non-standard command for directory listings as well as up
and downloads in PASV mode.
Providing --ftp-pret multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-ftp-pret.
Example:
curl --ftp-pret ftp://example.com/
See also -P, --ftp-port and --ftp-pasv.
--ftp-skip-pasv-ip
(FTP) Tell curl to not use the IP address the server
suggests in its response to curl's PASV command when curl
connects the data connection. Instead curl reuses the same
IP address it already uses for the control connection.
This option is enabled by default (added in 7.74.0).
This option has no effect if PORT, EPRT or EPSV is used
instead of PASV.
Providing --ftp-skip-pasv-ip multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-ftp-skip-pasv-ip.
Example:
curl --ftp-skip-pasv-ip ftp://example.com/
See also --ftp-pasv.
--ftp-ssl-ccc
(FTP) Use CCC (Clear Command Channel) Shuts down the
SSL/TLS layer after authenticating. The rest of the
control channel communication is be unencrypted. This
allows NAT routers to follow the FTP transaction. The
default mode is passive.
Providing --ftp-ssl-ccc multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-ftp-ssl-ccc.
Example:
curl --ftp-ssl-ccc ftps://example.com/
See also --ssl and --ftp-ssl-ccc-mode.
--ftp-ssl-ccc-mode <active/passive>
(FTP) Sets the CCC mode. The passive mode does not
initiate the shutdown, but instead waits for the server to
do it, and does not reply to the shutdown from the server.
The active mode initiates the shutdown and waits for a
reply from the server.
Providing --ftp-ssl-ccc-mode multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-ftp-ssl-ccc-mode.
Example:
curl --ftp-ssl-ccc-mode active --ftp-ssl-ccc ftps://example.com/
See also --ftp-ssl-ccc.
--ftp-ssl-control
(FTP) Require SSL/TLS for the FTP login, clear for
transfer. Allows secure authentication, but non-encrypted
data transfers for efficiency. Fails the transfer if the
server does not support SSL/TLS.
Providing --ftp-ssl-control multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-ftp-ssl-control.
Example:
curl --ftp-ssl-control ftp://example.com
See also --ssl.
-G, --get
(HTTP) When used, this option makes all data specified
with -d, --data, --data-binary or --data-urlencode to be
used in an HTTP GET request instead of the POST request
that otherwise would be used. The data is appended to the
URL with a '?' separator.
If used in combination with -I, --head, the POST data is
instead appended to the URL with a HEAD request.
Providing -G, --get multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-get.
Examples:
curl --get https://example.com
curl --get -d "tool=curl" -d "age=old" https://example.com
curl --get -I -d "tool=curl" https://example.com
See also -d, --data and -X, --request.
-g, --globoff
This option switches off the "URL globbing parser". When
you set this option, you can specify URLs that contain the
letters {}[] without having curl itself interpret them.
Note that these letters are not normal legal URL contents
but they should be encoded according to the URI standard.
Providing -g, --globoff multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-globoff.
Example:
curl -g "https://example.com/{[]}}}}"
See also -K, --config and -q, --disable.
--happy-eyeballs-timeout-ms <milliseconds>
Happy Eyeballs is an algorithm that attempts to connect to
both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for dual-stack hosts, giving
IPv6 a head-start of the specified number of milliseconds.
If the IPv6 address cannot be connected to within that
time, then a connection attempt is made to the IPv4
address in parallel. The first connection to be
established is the one that is used.
The range of suggested useful values is limited. Happy
Eyeballs RFC 6555 says "It is RECOMMENDED that connection
attempts be paced 150-250 ms apart to balance human
factors against network load." libcurl currently defaults
to 200 ms. Firefox and Chrome currently default to 300 ms.
If --happy-eyeballs-timeout-ms is provided several times,
the last set value is used.
Example:
curl --happy-eyeballs-timeout-ms 500 https://example.com
See also -m, --max-time and --connect-timeout. Added in
7.59.0.
--haproxy-clientip
(HTTP) Sets a client IP in HAProxy PROXY protocol v1
header at the beginning of the connection.
For valid requests, IPv4 addresses must be indicated as a
series of exactly 4 integers in the range [0..255]
inclusive written in decimal representation separated by
exactly one dot between each other. Heading zeroes are not
permitted in front of numbers in order to avoid any
possible confusion with octal numbers. IPv6 addresses must
be indicated as series of 4 hexadecimal digits (upper or
lower case) delimited by colons between each other, with
the acceptance of one double colon sequence to replace the
largest acceptable range of consecutive zeroes. The total
number of decoded bits must exactly be 128.
Otherwise, any string can be accepted for the client IP
and get sent.
It replaces --haproxy-protocol if used, it is not
necessary to specify both flags.
This option is primarily useful when sending test requests
to verify a service is working as intended.
If --haproxy-clientip is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --haproxy-clientip $IP
See also -x, --proxy. Added in 8.2.0.
--haproxy-protocol
(HTTP) Send a HAProxy PROXY protocol v1 header at the
beginning of the connection. This is used by some load
balancers and reverse proxies to indicate the client's
true IP address and port.
This option is primarily useful when sending test requests
to a service that expects this header.
Providing --haproxy-protocol multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-haproxy-protocol.
Example:
curl --haproxy-protocol https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy. Added in 7.60.0.
-I, --head
(HTTP FTP FILE) Fetch the headers only! HTTP-servers
feature the command HEAD which this uses to get nothing
but the header of a document. When used on an FTP or FILE
file, curl displays the file size and last modification
time only.
Providing -I, --head multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-head.
Example:
curl -I https://example.com
See also -G, --get, -v, --verbose and --trace-ascii.
-H, --header <header/@file>
(HTTP IMAP SMTP) Extra header to include in information
sent. When used within an HTTP request, it is added to the
regular request headers.
For an IMAP or SMTP MIME uploaded mail built with -F,
--form options, it is prepended to the resulting MIME
document, effectively including it at the mail global
level. It does not affect raw uploaded mails (Added in
7.56.0).
You may specify any number of extra headers. Note that if
you should add a custom header that has the same name as
one of the internal ones curl would use, your externally
set header is used instead of the internal one. This
allows you to make even trickier stuff than curl would
normally do. You should not replace internally set headers
without knowing perfectly well what you are doing. Remove
an internal header by giving a replacement without content
on the right side of the colon, as in: -H "Host:". If you
send the custom header with no-value then its header must
be terminated with a semicolon, such as -H
"X-Custom-Header;" to send "X-Custom-Header:".
curl makes sure that each header you add/replace is sent
with the proper end-of-line marker, you should thus not
add that as a part of the header content: do not add
newlines or carriage returns, they only mess things up for
you. curl passes on the verbatim string you give it
without any filter or other safe guards. That includes
white space and control characters.
This option can take an argument in @filename style, which
then adds a header for each line in the input file. Using
@- makes curl read the header file from stdin. Added in
7.55.0.
Please note that most anti-spam utilities check the
presence and value of several MIME mail headers: these are
"From:", "To:", "Date:" and "Subject:" among others and
should be added with this option.
You need --proxy-header to send custom headers intended
for an HTTP proxy. Added in 7.37.0.
Passing on a "Transfer-Encoding: chunked" header when
doing an HTTP request with a request body, makes curl send
the data using chunked encoding.
WARNING: headers set with this option are set in all HTTP
requests - even after redirects are followed, like when
told with -L, --location. This can lead to the header
being sent to other hosts than the original host, so
sensitive headers should be used with caution combined
with following redirects.
-H, --header can be used several times in a command line
Examples:
curl -H "X-First-Name: Joe" https://example.com
curl -H "User-Agent: yes-please/2000" https://example.com
curl -H "Host:" https://example.com
curl -H @headers.txt https://example.com
See also -A, --user-agent and -e, --referer.
-h, --help <category>
Usage help. This lists all curl command line options
within the given category.
If no argument is provided, curl displays only the most
important command line arguments.
For category all, curl displays help for all options.
If category is specified, curl displays all available help
categories.
Example:
curl --help all
See also -v, --verbose.
--hostpubmd5 <md5>
(SFTP SCP) Pass a string containing 32 hexadecimal digits.
The string should be the 128 bit MD5 checksum of the
remote host's public key, curl refuses the connection with
the host unless the md5sums match.
If --hostpubmd5 is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --hostpubmd5 e5c1c49020640a5ab0f2034854c321a8 sftp://example.com/
See also --hostpubsha256.
--hostpubsha256 <sha256>
(SFTP SCP) Pass a string containing a Base64-encoded
SHA256 hash of the remote host's public key. Curl refuses
the connection with the host unless the hashes match.
This feature requires libcurl to be built with libssh2 and
does not work with other SSH backends.
If --hostpubsha256 is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --hostpubsha256 NDVkMTQxMGQ1ODdmMjQ3MjczYjAyOTY5MmRkMjVmNDQ= sftp://example.com/
See also --hostpubmd5. Added in 7.80.0.
--hsts <file name>
(HTTPS) This option enables HSTS for the transfer. If the
file name points to an existing HSTS cache file, that is
used. After a completed transfer, the cache is saved to
the file name again if it has been modified.
If curl is told to use HTTP:// for a transfer involving a
host name that exists in the HSTS cache, it upgrades the
transfer to use HTTPS. Each HSTS cache entry has an
individual life time after which the upgrade is no longer
performed.
Specify a "" file name (zero length) to avoid
loading/saving and make curl just handle HSTS in memory.
If this option is used several times, curl loads contents
from all the files but the last one is used for saving.
--hsts can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --hsts cache.txt https://example.com
See also --proto. Added in 7.74.0.
--http0.9
(HTTP) Tells curl to be fine with HTTP version 0.9
response.
HTTP/0.9 is a response without headers and therefore you
can also connect with this to non-HTTP servers and still
get a response since curl simply transparently downgrades
- if allowed.
HTTP/0.9 is disabled by default (added in 7.66.0)
Providing --http0.9 multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-http0.9.
Example:
curl --http0.9 https://example.com
See also --http1.1, --http2 and --http3. Added in 7.64.0.
-0, --http1.0
(HTTP) Tells curl to use HTTP version 1.0 instead of using
its internally preferred HTTP version.
Providing -0, --http1.0 multiple times has no extra
effect.
Example:
curl --http1.0 https://example.com
See also --http0.9 and --http1.1. This option is mutually
exclusive to --http1.1 and --http2 and
--http2-prior-knowledge and --http3.
--http1.1
(HTTP) Tells curl to use HTTP version 1.1.
Providing --http1.1 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --http1.1 https://example.com
See also -0, --http1.0 and --http0.9. This option is
mutually exclusive to -0, --http1.0 and --http2 and
--http2-prior-knowledge and --http3.
--http2
(HTTP) Tells curl to use HTTP version 2.
For HTTPS, this means curl negotiates HTTP/2 in the TLS
handshake. curl does this by default.
For HTTP, this means curl attempts to upgrade the request
to HTTP/2 using the Upgrade: request header.
When curl uses HTTP/2 over HTTPS, it does not itself
insist on TLS 1.2 or higher even though that is required
by the specification. A user can add this version
requirement with --tlsv1.2.
Providing --http2 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --http2 https://example.com
See also --http1.1, --http3 and --no-alpn. --http2
requires that the underlying libcurl was built to support
HTTP/2. This option is mutually exclusive to --http1.1 and
-0, --http1.0 and --http2-prior-knowledge and --http3.
--http2-prior-knowledge
(HTTP) Tells curl to issue its non-TLS HTTP requests using
HTTP/2 without HTTP/1.1 Upgrade. It requires prior
knowledge that the server supports HTTP/2 straight away.
HTTPS requests still do HTTP/2 the standard way with
negotiated protocol version in the TLS handshake.
Providing --http2-prior-knowledge multiple times has no
extra effect. Disable it again with
--no-http2-prior-knowledge.
Example:
curl --http2-prior-knowledge https://example.com
See also --http2 and --http3. --http2-prior-knowledge
requires that the underlying libcurl was built to support
HTTP/2. This option is mutually exclusive to --http1.1 and
-0, --http1.0 and --http2 and --http3.
--http3
(HTTP) Tells curl to try HTTP/3 to the host in the URL,
but fallback to earlier HTTP versions if the HTTP/3
connection establishment fails. HTTP/3 is only available
for HTTPS and not for HTTP URLs.
This option allows a user to avoid using the Alt-Svc
method of upgrading to HTTP/3 when you know that the
target speaks HTTP/3 on the given host and port.
When asked to use HTTP/3, curl issues a separate attempt
to use older HTTP versions with a slight delay, so if the
HTTP/3 transfer fails or is slow, curl still tries to
proceed with an older HTTP version.
Use --http3-only for similar functionality without a
fallback.
Providing --http3 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --http3 https://example.com
See also --http1.1 and --http2. --http3 requires that the
underlying libcurl was built to support HTTP/3. This
option is mutually exclusive to --http1.1 and -0,
--http1.0 and --http2 and --http2-prior-knowledge and
--http3-only. Added in 7.66.0.
--http3-only
(HTTP) Instructs curl to use HTTP/3 to the host in the
URL, with no fallback to earlier HTTP versions. HTTP/3 can
only be used for HTTPS and not for HTTP URLs. For HTTP,
this option triggers an error.
This option allows a user to avoid using the Alt-Svc
method of upgrading to HTTP/3 when you know that the
target speaks HTTP/3 on the given host and port.
This option makes curl fail if a QUIC connection cannot be
established, it does not attempt any other HTTP versions
on its own. Use --http3 for similar functionality with a
fallback.
Providing --http3-only multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --http3-only https://example.com
See also --http1.1, --http2 and --http3. --http3-only
requires that the underlying libcurl was built to support
HTTP/3. This option is mutually exclusive to --http1.1 and
-0, --http1.0 and --http2 and --http2-prior-knowledge and
--http3. Added in 7.88.0.
--ignore-content-length
(FTP HTTP) For HTTP, Ignore the Content-Length header.
This is particularly useful for servers running Apache
1.x, which reports incorrect Content-Length for files
larger than 2 gigabytes.
For FTP, this makes curl skip the SIZE command to figure
out the size before downloading a file.
This option does not work for HTTP if libcurl was built to
use hyper.
Providing --ignore-content-length multiple times has no
extra effect. Disable it again with
--no-ignore-content-length.
Example:
curl --ignore-content-length https://example.com
See also --ftp-skip-pasv-ip.
-i, --include
(HTTP FTP) Include response headers in the output. HTTP
response headers can include things like server name,
cookies, date of the document, HTTP version and more...
With non-HTTP protocols, the "headers" are other server
communication.
To view the request headers, consider the -v, --verbose
option.
Prior to 7.75.0 curl did not print the headers if -f,
--fail was used in combination with this option and there
was error reported by server.
Providing -i, --include multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-include.
Example:
curl -i https://example.com
See also -v, --verbose.
-k, --insecure
(TLS SFTP SCP) By default, every secure connection curl
makes is verified to be secure before the transfer takes
place. This option makes curl skip the verification step
and proceed without checking.
When this option is not used for protocols using TLS, curl
verifies the server's TLS certificate before it continues:
that the certificate contains the right name which matches
the host name used in the URL and that the certificate has
been signed by a CA certificate present in the cert store.
See this online resource for further details:
https://curl.se/docs/sslcerts.html
For SFTP and SCP, this option makes curl skip the
known_hosts verification. known_hosts is a file normally
stored in the user's home directory in the ".ssh"
subdirectory, which contains host names and their public
keys.
WARNING: using this option makes the transfer insecure.
When curl uses secure protocols it trusts responses and
allows for example HSTS and Alt-Svc information to be
stored and used subsequently. Using -k, --insecure can
make curl trust and use such information from malicious
servers.
Providing -k, --insecure multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-insecure.
Example:
curl --insecure https://example.com
See also --proxy-insecure, --cacert and --capath.
--interface <name>
Perform an operation using a specified interface. You can
enter interface name, IP address or host name. An example
could look like:
curl --interface eth0:1 https://www.example.com/
On Linux it can be used to specify a VRF, but the binary
needs to either have CAP_NET_RAW or to be run as root.
More information about Linux VRF:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/networking/vrf.txt
If --interface is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --interface eth0 https://example.com
See also --dns-interface.
--ipfs-gateway <URL>
(IPFS) Specify which gateway to use for IPFS and IPNS
URLs. Not specifying this will instead make curl check if
the IPFS_GATEWAY environment variable is set, or if a
~/.ipfs/gateway file holding the gateway URL exists.
If you run a local IPFS node, this gateway is by default
available under http://localhost:8080. A full example URL
would look like:
curl --ipfs-gateway http://localhost:8080 ipfs://bafybeigagd5nmnn2iys2f3doro7ydrevyr2mzarwidgadawmamiteydbzi
There are many public IPFS gateways. See for example:
https://ipfs.github.io/public-gateway-checker/
WARNING: If you opt to go for a remote gateway you should
be aware that you completely trust the gateway. This is
fine in local gateways as you host it yourself. With
remote gateways there could potentially be a malicious
actor returning you data that does not match the request
you made, inspect or even interfere with the request. You
will not notice this when using curl. A mitigation could
be to go for a "trustless" gateway. This means you locally
verify that the data. Consult the docs page on trusted vs
trustless:
https://docs.ipfs.tech/reference/http/gateway/#trusted-vs-trustless
If --ipfs-gateway is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --ipfs-gateway https://example.com ipfs://
See also -h, --help and -M, --manual. Added in 8.4.0.
-4, --ipv4
This option tells curl to use IPv4 addresses only when
resolving host names, and not for example try IPv6.
Providing -4, --ipv4 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --ipv4 https://example.com
See also --http1.1 and --http2. This option is mutually
exclusive to -6, --ipv6.
-6, --ipv6
This option tells curl to use IPv6 addresses only when
resolving host names, and not for example try IPv4.
Providing -6, --ipv6 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --ipv6 https://example.com
See also --http1.1 and --http2. This option is mutually
exclusive to -4, --ipv4.
--json <data>
(HTTP) Sends the specified JSON data in a POST request to
the HTTP server. --json works as a shortcut for passing on
these three options:
--data [arg]
--header "Content-Type: application/json"
--header "Accept: application/json"
There is no verification that the passed in data is actual
JSON or that the syntax is correct.
If you start the data with the letter @, the rest should
be a file name to read the data from, or a single dash (-)
if you want curl to read the data from stdin. Posting data
from a file named 'foobar' would thus be done with --json
@foobar and to instead read the data from stdin, use
--json @-.
If this option is used more than once on the same command
line, the additional data pieces are concatenated to the
previous before sending.
The headers this option sets can be overridden with -H,
--header as usual.
--json can be used several times in a command line
Examples:
curl --json '{ "drink": "coffe" }' https://example.com
curl --json '{ "drink":' --json ' "coffe" }' https://example.com
curl --json @prepared https://example.com
curl --json @- https://example.com < json.txt
See also --data-binary and --data-raw. This option is
mutually exclusive to -F, --form and -I, --head and -T,
--upload-file. Added in 7.82.0.
-j, --junk-session-cookies
(HTTP) When curl is told to read cookies from a given
file, this option makes it discard all "session cookies".
This has the same effect as if a new session is started.
Typical browsers discard session cookies when they are
closed down.
Providing -j, --junk-session-cookies multiple times has no
extra effect. Disable it again with
--no-junk-session-cookies.
Example:
curl --junk-session-cookies -b cookies.txt https://example.com
See also -b, --cookie and -c, --cookie-jar.
--keepalive-time <seconds>
This option sets the time a connection needs to remain
idle before sending keepalive probes and the time between
individual keepalive probes. It is currently effective on
operating systems offering the TCP_KEEPIDLE and
TCP_KEEPINTVL socket options (meaning Linux, recent AIX,
HP-UX and more). Keepalives are used by the TCP stack to
detect broken networks on idle connections. The number of
missed keepalive probes before declaring the connection
down is OS dependent and is commonly 9 or 10. This option
has no effect if --no-keepalive is used.
If unspecified, the option defaults to 60 seconds.
If --keepalive-time is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --keepalive-time 20 https://example.com
See also --no-keepalive and -m, --max-time.
--key <key>
(TLS SSH) Private key file name. Allows you to provide
your private key in this separate file. For SSH, if not
specified, curl tries the following candidates in order:
'~/.ssh/id_rsa', '~/.ssh/id_dsa', './id_rsa', './id_dsa'.
If curl is built against OpenSSL library, and the engine
pkcs11 is available, then a PKCS#11 URI (RFC 7512) can be
used to specify a private key located in a PKCS#11 device.
A string beginning with "pkcs11:" is interpreted as a
PKCS#11 URI. If a PKCS#11 URI is provided, then the
--engine option is set as "pkcs11" if none was provided
and the --key-type option is set as "ENG" if none was
provided.
If curl is built against Secure Transport or Schannel then
this option is ignored for TLS protocols (HTTPS, etc).
Those backends expect the private key to be already
present in the keychain or PKCS#12 file containing the
certificate.
If --key is provided several times, the last set value is
used.
Example:
curl --cert certificate --key here https://example.com
See also --key-type and -E, --cert.
--key-type <type>
(TLS) Private key file type. Specify which type your --key
provided private key is. DER, PEM, and ENG are supported.
If not specified, PEM is assumed.
If --key-type is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --key-type DER --key here https://example.com
See also --key.
--krb <level>
(FTP) Enable Kerberos authentication and use. The level
must be entered and should be one of 'clear', 'safe',
'confidential', or 'private'. Should you use a level that
is not one of these, 'private' is used.
If --krb is provided several times, the last set value is
used.
Example:
curl --krb clear ftp://example.com/
See also --delegation and --ssl. --krb requires that the
underlying libcurl was built to support Kerberos.
--libcurl <file>
Append this option to any ordinary curl command line, and
you get libcurl-using C source code written to the file
that does the equivalent of what your command-line
operation does!
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
If --libcurl is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --libcurl client.c https://example.com
See also -v, --verbose.
--limit-rate <speed>
Specify the maximum transfer rate you want curl to use -
for both downloads and uploads. This feature is useful if
you have a limited pipe and you would like your transfer
not to use your entire bandwidth. To make it slower than
it otherwise would be.
The given speed is measured in bytes/second, unless a
suffix is appended. Appending 'k' or 'K' counts the
number as kilobytes, 'm' or 'M' makes it megabytes, while
'g' or 'G' makes it gigabytes. The suffixes (k, M, G, T,
P) are 1024 based. For example 1k is 1024. Examples: 200K,
3m and 1G.
The rate limiting logic works on averaging the transfer
speed to no more than the set threshold over a period of
multiple seconds.
If you also use the -Y, --speed-limit option, that option
takes precedence and might cripple the rate-limiting
slightly, to help keeping the speed-limit logic working.
If --limit-rate is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Examples:
curl --limit-rate 100K https://example.com
curl --limit-rate 1000 https://example.com
curl --limit-rate 10M https://example.com
See also --rate, -Y, --speed-limit and -y, --speed-time.
-l, --list-only
(FTP POP3 SFTP) (FTP) When listing an FTP directory, this
switch forces a name-only view. This is especially useful
if the user wants to machine-parse the contents of an FTP
directory since the normal directory view does not use a
standard look or format. When used like this, the option
causes an NLST command to be sent to the server instead of
LIST.
Note: Some FTP servers list only files in their response
to NLST; they do not include sub-directories and symbolic
links.
(SFTP) When listing an SFTP directory, this switch forces
a name-only view, one per line. This is especially useful
if the user wants to machine-parse the contents of an SFTP
directory since the normal directory view provides more
information than just file names.
(POP3) When retrieving a specific email from POP3, this
switch forces a LIST command to be performed instead of
RETR. This is particularly useful if the user wants to see
if a specific message-id exists on the server and what
size it is.
Note: When combined with -X, --request, this option can be
used to send a UIDL command instead, so the user may use
the email's unique identifier rather than its message-id
to make the request.
Providing -l, --list-only multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-list-only.
Example:
curl --list-only ftp://example.com/dir/
See also -Q, --quote and -X, --request.
--local-port <num/range>
Set a preferred single number or range (FROM-TO) of local
port numbers to use for the connection(s). Note that port
numbers by nature are a scarce resource so setting this
range to something too narrow might cause unnecessary
connection setup failures.
If --local-port is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --local-port 1000-3000 https://example.com
See also -g, --globoff.
-L, --location
(HTTP) If the server reports that the requested page has
moved to a different location (indicated with a Location:
header and a 3XX response code), this option makes curl
redo the request on the new place. If used together with
-i, --include or -I, --head, headers from all requested
pages are shown.
When authentication is used, curl only sends its
credentials to the initial host. If a redirect takes curl
to a different host, it does not get the user+password
pass on. See also --location-trusted on how to change
this.
Limit the amount of redirects to follow by using the
--max-redirs option.
When curl follows a redirect and if the request is a POST,
it sends the following request with a GET if the HTTP
response was 301, 302, or 303. If the response code was
any other 3xx code, curl resends the following request
using the same unmodified method.
You can tell curl to not change POST requests to GET after
a 30x response by using the dedicated options for that:
--post301, --post302 and --post303.
The method set with -X, --request overrides the method
curl would otherwise select to use.
Providing -L, --location multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-location.
Example:
curl -L https://example.com
See also --resolve and --alt-svc.
--location-trusted
(HTTP) Like -L, --location, but allows sending the name +
password to all hosts that the site may redirect to. This
may or may not introduce a security breach if the site
redirects you to a site to which you send your
authentication info (which is plaintext in the case of
HTTP Basic authentication).
Providing --location-trusted multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-location-trusted.
Example:
curl --location-trusted -u user:password https://example.com
See also -u, --user.
--login-options <options>
(IMAP LDAP POP3 SMTP) Specify the login options to use
during server authentication.
You can use login options to specify protocol specific
options that may be used during authentication. At present
only IMAP, POP3 and SMTP support login options. For more
information about login options please see RFC 2384, RFC
5092 and the IETF draft
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-earhart-url-smtp-00.
Since 8.2.0, IMAP supports the login option "AUTH=+LOGIN".
With this option, curl uses the plain (not SASL) LOGIN
IMAP command even if the server advertises SASL
authentication. Care should be taken in using this option,
as it sends your password over the network in plain text.
This does not work if the IMAP server disables the plain
LOGIN (e.g. to prevent password snooping).
If --login-options is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --login-options 'AUTH=*' imap://example.com
See also -u, --user.
--mail-auth <address>
(SMTP) Specify a single address. This is used to specify
the authentication address (identity) of a submitted
message that is being relayed to another server.
If --mail-auth is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --mail-auth user@example.come -T mail smtp://example.com/
See also --mail-rcpt and --mail-from.
--mail-from <address>
(SMTP) Specify a single address that the given mail should
get sent from.
If --mail-from is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --mail-from user@example.com -T mail smtp://example.com/
See also --mail-rcpt and --mail-auth.
--mail-rcpt <address>
(SMTP) Specify a single email address, user name or
mailing list name. Repeat this option several times to
send to multiple recipients.
When performing an address verification (VRFY command),
the recipient should be specified as the user name or user
name and domain (as per Section 3.5 of RFC 5321).
When performing a mailing list expand (EXPN command), the
recipient should be specified using the mailing list name,
such as "Friends" or "London-Office".
--mail-rcpt can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --mail-rcpt user@example.net smtp://example.com
See also --mail-rcpt-allowfails.
--mail-rcpt-allowfails
(SMTP) When sending data to multiple recipients, by
default curl aborts SMTP conversation if at least one of
the recipients causes RCPT TO command to return an error.
The default behavior can be changed by passing
--mail-rcpt-allowfails command-line option which makes
curl ignore errors and proceed with the remaining valid
recipients.
If all recipients trigger RCPT TO failures and this flag
is specified, curl still aborts the SMTP conversation and
returns the error received from to the last RCPT TO
command.
Providing --mail-rcpt-allowfails multiple times has no
extra effect. Disable it again with
--no-mail-rcpt-allowfails.
Example:
curl --mail-rcpt-allowfails --mail-rcpt dest@example.com smtp://example.com
See also --mail-rcpt. Added in 7.69.0.
-M, --manual
Manual. Display the huge help text.
Example:
curl --manual
See also -v, --verbose, --libcurl and --trace.
--max-filesize <bytes>
(FTP HTTP MQTT) Specify the maximum size (in bytes) of a
file to download. If the file requested is larger than
this value, the transfer does not start and curl returns
with exit code 63.
A size modifier may be used. For example, Appending 'k' or
'K' counts the number as kilobytes, 'm' or 'M' makes it
megabytes, while 'g' or 'G' makes it gigabytes. Examples:
200K, 3m and 1G. (Added in 7.58.0)
NOTE: before curl 8.4.0, when the file size is not known
prior to download, for such files this option has no
effect even if the file transfer ends up being larger than
this given limit.
Starting with curl 8.4.0, this option aborts the transfer
if it reaches the threshold during transfer.
If --max-filesize is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --max-filesize 100K https://example.com
See also --limit-rate.
--max-redirs <num>
(HTTP) Set maximum number of redirections to follow. When
-L, --location is used, to prevent curl from following too
many redirects, by default, the limit is set to 50
redirects. Set this option to -1 to make it unlimited.
If --max-redirs is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --max-redirs 3 --location https://example.com
See also -L, --location.
-m, --max-time <fractional seconds>
Maximum time in seconds that you allow each transfer to
take. This is useful for preventing your batch jobs from
hanging for hours due to slow networks or links going
down. This option accepts decimal values.
If you enable retrying the transfer (--retry) then the
maximum time counter is reset each time the transfer is
retried. You can use --retry-max-time to limit the retry
time.
The decimal value needs to provided using a dot (.) as
decimal separator - not the local version even if it might
be using another separator.
If -m, --max-time is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Examples:
curl --max-time 10 https://example.com
curl --max-time 2.92 https://example.com
See also --connect-timeout and --retry-max-time.
--metalink
This option was previously used to specify a Metalink
resource. Metalink support is disabled in curl for
security reasons (added in 7.78.0).
If --metalink is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --metalink file https://example.com
See also -Z, --parallel.
--negotiate
(HTTP) Enables Negotiate (SPNEGO) authentication.
This option requires a library built with GSS-API or SSPI
support. Use -V, --version to see if your curl supports
GSS-API/SSPI or SPNEGO.
When using this option, you must also provide a fake -u,
--user option to activate the authentication code
properly. Sending a '-u :' is enough as the user name and
password from the -u, --user option are not actually used.
Providing --negotiate multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --negotiate -u : https://example.com
See also --basic, --ntlm, --anyauth and --proxy-negotiate.
-n, --netrc
Makes curl scan the .netrc file in the user's home
directory for login name and password. This is typically
used for FTP on Unix. If used with HTTP, curl enables user
authentication. See netrc(5) and ftp(1) for details on the
file format. Curl does not complain if that file does not
have the right permissions (it should be neither world-
nor group-readable). The environment variable "HOME" is
used to find the home directory.
On Windows two filenames in the home directory are
checked: .netrc and _netrc, preferring the former. Older
versions on Windows checked for _netrc only.
A quick and simple example of how to setup a .netrc to
allow curl to FTP to the machine host.domain.com with user
name 'myself' and password 'secret' could look similar to:
machine host.domain.com
login myself
password secret
Providing -n, --netrc multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-netrc.
Example:
curl --netrc https://example.com
See also --netrc-file, -K, --config and -u, --user. This
option is mutually exclusive to --netrc-file and
--netrc-optional.
--netrc-file <filename>
This option is similar to -n, --netrc, except that you
provide the path (absolute or relative) to the netrc file
that curl should use. You can only specify one netrc file
per invocation.
It abides by --netrc-optional if specified.
If --netrc-file is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --netrc-file netrc https://example.com
See also -n, --netrc, -u, --user and -K, --config. This
option is mutually exclusive to -n, --netrc.
--netrc-optional
Similar to -n, --netrc, but this option makes the .netrc
usage optional and not mandatory as the -n, --netrc option
does.
Providing --netrc-optional multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-netrc-optional.
Example:
curl --netrc-optional https://example.com
See also --netrc-file. This option is mutually exclusive
to -n, --netrc.
-:, --next
Tells curl to use a separate operation for the following
URL and associated options. This allows you to send
several URL requests, each with their own specific
options, for example, such as different user names or
custom requests for each.
-:, --next resets all local options and only global ones
have their values survive over to the operation following
the -:, --next instruction. Global options include -v,
--verbose, --trace, --trace-ascii and --fail-early.
For example, you can do both a GET and a POST in a single
command line:
curl www1.example.com --next -d postthis www2.example.com
-:, --next can be used several times in a command line
Examples:
curl https://example.com --next -d postthis www2.example.com
curl -I https://example.com --next https://example.net/
See also -Z, --parallel and -K, --config.
--no-alpn
(HTTPS) Disable the ALPN TLS extension. ALPN is enabled by
default if libcurl was built with an SSL library that
supports ALPN. ALPN is used by a libcurl that supports
HTTP/2 to negotiate HTTP/2 support with the server during
https sessions.
Note that this is the negated option name documented. You
can use --alpn to enable ALPN.
Providing --no-alpn multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --alpn.
Example:
curl --no-alpn https://example.com
See also --no-npn and --http2. --no-alpn requires that the
underlying libcurl was built to support TLS.
-N, --no-buffer
Disables the buffering of the output stream. In normal
work situations, curl uses a standard buffered output
stream that has the effect that it outputs the data in
chunks, not necessarily exactly when the data arrives.
Using this option disables that buffering.
Note that this is the negated option name documented. You
can use --buffer to enable buffering again.
Providing -N, --no-buffer multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --buffer.
Example:
curl --no-buffer https://example.com
See also -#, --progress-bar.
--no-clobber
When used in conjunction with the -o, --output, -J,
--remote-header-name, -O, --remote-name, or
--remote-name-all options, curl avoids overwriting files
that already exist. Instead, a dot and a number gets
appended to the name of the file that would be created, up
to filename.100 after which it does not create any file.
Note that this is the negated option name documented. You
can thus use --clobber to enforce the clobbering, even if
-J, --remote-header-name is specified.
Providing --no-clobber multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --clobber.
Example:
curl --no-clobber --output local/dir/file https://example.com
See also -o, --output and -O, --remote-name. Added in
7.83.0.
--no-keepalive
Disables the use of keepalive messages on the TCP
connection. curl otherwise enables them by default.
Note that this is the negated option name documented. You
can thus use --keepalive to enforce keepalive.
Providing --no-keepalive multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --keepalive.
Example:
curl --no-keepalive https://example.com
See also --keepalive-time.
--no-npn
(HTTPS) curl never uses NPN, this option has no effect
(added in 7.86.0).
Disable the NPN TLS extension. NPN is enabled by default
if libcurl was built with an SSL library that supports
NPN. NPN is used by a libcurl that supports HTTP/2 to
negotiate HTTP/2 support with the server during https
sessions.
Providing --no-npn multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --npn.
Example:
curl --no-npn https://example.com
See also --no-alpn and --http2. --no-npn requires that the
underlying libcurl was built to support TLS.
--no-progress-meter
Option to switch off the progress meter output without
muting or otherwise affecting warning and informational
messages like -s, --silent does.
Note that this is the negated option name documented. You
can thus use --progress-meter to enable the progress meter
again.
Providing --no-progress-meter multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --progress-meter.
Example:
curl --no-progress-meter -o store https://example.com
See also -v, --verbose and -s, --silent. Added in 7.67.0.
--no-sessionid
(TLS) Disable curl's use of SSL session-ID caching. By
default all transfers are done using the cache. Note that
while nothing should ever get hurt by attempting to reuse
SSL session-IDs, there seem to be broken SSL
implementations in the wild that may require you to
disable this in order for you to succeed.
Note that this is the negated option name documented. You
can thus use --sessionid to enforce session-ID caching.
Providing --no-sessionid multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --sessionid.
Example:
curl --no-sessionid https://example.com
See also -k, --insecure.
--noproxy <no-proxy-list>
Comma-separated list of hosts for which not to use a
proxy, if one is specified. The only wildcard is a single
* character, which matches all hosts, and effectively
disables the proxy. Each name in this list is matched as
either a domain which contains the hostname, or the
hostname itself. For example, local.com would match
local.com, local.com:80, and www.local.com, but not
www.notlocal.com.
This option overrides the environment variables that
disable the proxy ('no_proxy' and 'NO_PROXY') (added in
7.53.0). If there is an environment variable disabling a
proxy, you can set the no proxy list to "" to override it.
IP addresses specified to this option can be provided
using CIDR notation (added in 7.86.0): an appended slash
and number specifies the number of "network bits" out of
the address to use in the comparison. For example
"192.168.0.0/16" would match all addresses starting with
"192.168".
If --noproxy is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --noproxy "www.example" https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy.
--ntlm (HTTP) Enables NTLM authentication. The NTLM
authentication method was designed by Microsoft and is
used by IIS web servers. It is a proprietary protocol,
reverse-engineered by clever people and implemented in
curl based on their efforts. This kind of behavior should
not be endorsed, you should encourage everyone who uses
NTLM to switch to a public and documented authentication
method instead, such as Digest.
If you want to enable NTLM for your proxy authentication,
then use --proxy-ntlm.
Providing --ntlm multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --ntlm -u user:password https://example.com
See also --proxy-ntlm. --ntlm requires that the underlying
libcurl was built to support TLS. This option is mutually
exclusive to --basic and --negotiate and --digest and
--anyauth.
--ntlm-wb
(HTTP) Enables NTLM much in the style --ntlm does, but
hand over the authentication to the separate binary
ntlmauth application that is executed when needed.
Providing --ntlm-wb multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --ntlm-wb -u user:password https://example.com
See also --ntlm and --proxy-ntlm.
--oauth2-bearer <token>
(IMAP LDAP POP3 SMTP HTTP) Specify the Bearer Token for
OAUTH 2.0 server authentication. The Bearer Token is used
in conjunction with the user name which can be specified
as part of the --url or -u, --user options.
The Bearer Token and user name are formatted according to
RFC 6750.
If --oauth2-bearer is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --oauth2-bearer "mF_9.B5f-4.1JqM" https://example.com
See also --basic, --ntlm and --digest.
-o, --output <file>
Write output to <file> instead of stdout. If you are using
{} or [] to fetch multiple documents, you should quote the
URL and you can use '#' followed by a number in the <file>
specifier. That variable is replaced with the current
string for the URL being fetched. Like in:
curl "http://{one,two}.example.com" -o "file_#1.txt"
or use several variables like:
curl "http://{site,host}.host[1-5].example" -o "#1_#2"
You may use this option as many times as the number of
URLs you have. For example, if you specify two URLs on the
same command line, you can use it like this:
curl -o aa example.com -o bb example.net
and the order of the -o options and the URLs does not
matter, just that the first -o is for the first URL and so
on, so the above command line can also be written as
curl example.com example.net -o aa -o bb
See also the --create-dirs option to create the local
directories dynamically. Specifying the output as '-' (a
single dash) passes the output to stdout.
To suppress response bodies, you can redirect output to
/dev/null:
curl example.com -o /dev/null
Or for Windows:
curl example.com -o nul
-o, --output can be used several times in a command line
Examples:
curl -o file https://example.com
curl "http://{one,two}.example.com" -o "file_#1.txt"
curl "http://{site,host}.host[1-5].example" -o "#1_#2"
curl -o file https://example.com -o file2 https://example.net
See also -O, --remote-name, --remote-name-all and -J,
--remote-header-name.
--output-dir <dir>
This option specifies the directory in which files should
be stored, when -O, --remote-name or -o, --output are
used.
The given output directory is used for all URLs and output
options on the command line, up until the first -:,
--next.
If the specified target directory does not exist, the
operation fails unless --create-dirs is also used.
If --output-dir is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --output-dir "tmp" -O https://example.com
See also -O, --remote-name and -J, --remote-header-name.
Added in 7.73.0.
-Z, --parallel
Makes curl perform its transfers in parallel as compared
to the regular serial manner.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
Providing -Z, --parallel multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-parallel.
Example:
curl --parallel https://example.com -o file1 https://example.com -o file2
See also -:, --next and -v, --verbose. Added in 7.66.0.
--parallel-immediate
When doing parallel transfers, this option instructs curl
that it should rather prefer opening up more connections
in parallel at once rather than waiting to see if new
transfers can be added as multiplexed streams on another
connection.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
Providing --parallel-immediate multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-parallel-immediate.
Example:
curl --parallel-immediate -Z https://example.com -o file1 https://example.com -o file2
See also -Z, --parallel and --parallel-max. Added in
7.68.0.
--parallel-max <num>
When asked to do parallel transfers, using -Z, --parallel,
this option controls the maximum amount of transfers to do
simultaneously.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of -:, --next.
The default is 50.
If --parallel-max is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --parallel-max 100 -Z https://example.com ftp://example.com/
See also -Z, --parallel. Added in 7.66.0.
--pass <phrase>
(SSH TLS) Passphrase for the private key.
If --pass is provided several times, the last set value is
used.
Example:
curl --pass secret --key file https://example.com
See also --key and -u, --user.
--path-as-is
Tell curl to not handle sequences of /../ or /./ in the
given URL path. Normally curl squashes or merges them
according to standards but with this option set you tell
it not to do that.
Providing --path-as-is multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-path-as-is.
Example:
curl --path-as-is https://example.com/../../etc/passwd
See also --request-target.
--pinnedpubkey <hashes>
(TLS) Tells curl to use the specified public key file (or
hashes) to verify the peer. This can be a path to a file
which contains a single public key in PEM or DER format,
or any number of base64 encoded sha256 hashes preceded by
'sha256//' and separated by ';'.
When negotiating a TLS or SSL connection, the server sends
a certificate indicating its identity. A public key is
extracted from this certificate and if it does not exactly
match the public key provided to this option, curl aborts
the connection before sending or receiving any data.
This option is independent of option -k, --insecure. If
you use both options together then the peer is still
verified by public key.
PEM/DER support:
OpenSSL and GnuTLS, wolfSSL (added in 7.43.0), mbedTLS ,
Secure Transport macOS 10.7+/iOS 10+ (7.54.1), Schannel
(7.58.1)
sha256 support:
OpenSSL, GnuTLS and wolfSSL, mbedTLS (added in 7.47.0),
Secure Transport macOS 10.7+/iOS 10+ (7.54.1), Schannel
(7.58.1)
Other SSL backends not supported.
If --pinnedpubkey is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Examples:
curl --pinnedpubkey keyfile https://example.com
curl --pinnedpubkey 'sha256//ce118b51897f4452dc' https://example.com
See also --hostpubsha256.
--post301
(HTTP) Tells curl to respect RFC 7231/6.4.2 and not
convert POST requests into GET requests when following a
301 redirection. The non-RFC behavior is ubiquitous in web
browsers, so curl does the conversion by default to
maintain consistency. However, a server may require a POST
to remain a POST after such a redirection. This option is
meaningful only when using -L, --location.
Providing --post301 multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-post301.
Example:
curl --post301 --location -d "data" https://example.com
See also --post302, --post303 and -L, --location.
--post302
(HTTP) Tells curl to respect RFC 7231/6.4.3 and not
convert POST requests into GET requests when following a
302 redirection. The non-RFC behavior is ubiquitous in web
browsers, so curl does the conversion by default to
maintain consistency. However, a server may require a POST
to remain a POST after such a redirection. This option is
meaningful only when using -L, --location.
Providing --post302 multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-post302.
Example:
curl --post302 --location -d "data" https://example.com
See also --post301, --post303 and -L, --location.
--post303
(HTTP) Tells curl to violate RFC 7231/6.4.4 and not
convert POST requests into GET requests when following 303
redirections. A server may require a POST to remain a POST
after a 303 redirection. This option is meaningful only
when using -L, --location.
Providing --post303 multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-post303.
Example:
curl --post303 --location -d "data" https://example.com
See also --post302, --post301 and -L, --location.
--preproxy [protocol://]host[:port]
Use the specified SOCKS proxy before connecting to an HTTP
or HTTPS -x, --proxy. In such a case curl first connects
to the SOCKS proxy and then connects (through SOCKS) to
the HTTP or HTTPS proxy. Hence pre proxy.
The pre proxy string should be specified with a
protocol:// prefix to specify alternative proxy protocols.
Use socks4://, socks4a://, socks5:// or socks5h:// to
request the specific SOCKS version to be used. No protocol
specified makes curl default to SOCKS4.
If the port number is not specified in the proxy string,
it is assumed to be 1080.
User and password that might be provided in the proxy
string are URL decoded by curl. This allows you to pass in
special characters such as @ by using %40 or pass in a
colon with %3a.
If --preproxy is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --preproxy socks5://proxy.example -x http://http.example https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy and --socks5. Added in 7.52.0.
-#, --progress-bar
Make curl display transfer progress as a simple progress
bar instead of the standard, more informational, meter.
This progress bar draws a single line of '#' characters
across the screen and shows a percentage if the transfer
size is known. For transfers without a known size, there
is a space ship (-=o=-) that moves back and forth but only
while data is being transferred, with a set of flying hash
sign symbols on top.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
Providing -#, --progress-bar multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-progress-bar.
Example:
curl -# -O https://example.com
See also --styled-output.
--proto <protocols>
Tells curl to limit what protocols it may use for
transfers. Protocols are evaluated left to right, are
comma separated, and are each a protocol name or 'all',
optionally prefixed by zero or more modifiers. Available
modifiers are:
+ Permit this protocol in addition to protocols
already permitted (this is the default if no
modifier is used).
- Deny this protocol, removing it from the list of
protocols already permitted.
= Permit only this protocol (ignoring the list
already permitted), though subject to later
modification by subsequent entries in the comma
separated list.
For example: --proto -ftps uses the default protocols, but
disables ftps
--proto -all,https,+http only enables http and https
--proto =http,https also only enables http and https
Unknown and disabled protocols produce a warning. This
allows scripts to safely rely on being able to disable
potentially dangerous protocols, without relying upon
support for that protocol being built into curl to avoid
an error.
This option can be used multiple times, in which case the
effect is the same as concatenating the protocols into one
instance of the option.
If --proto is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --proto =http,https,sftp https://example.com
See also --proto-redir and --proto-default.
--proto-default <protocol>
Tells curl to use protocol for any URL missing a scheme
name.
An unknown or unsupported protocol causes error
CURLE_UNSUPPORTED_PROTOCOL (1).
This option does not change the default proxy protocol
(http).
Without this option set, curl guesses protocol based on
the host name, see --url for details.
If --proto-default is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --proto-default https ftp.example.com
See also --proto and --proto-redir.
--proto-redir <protocols>
Tells curl to limit what protocols it may use on redirect.
Protocols denied by --proto are not overridden by this
option. See --proto for how protocols are represented.
Example, allow only HTTP and HTTPS on redirect:
curl --proto-redir -all,http,https http://example.com
By default curl only allows HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS on
redirects (added in 7.65.2). Specifying all or +all
enables all protocols on redirects, which is not good for
security.
If --proto-redir is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --proto-redir =http,https https://example.com
See also --proto.
-x, --proxy [protocol://]host[:port]
Use the specified proxy.
The proxy string can be specified with a protocol://
prefix. No protocol specified or http:// it is treated as
an HTTP proxy. Use socks4://, socks4a://, socks5:// or
socks5h:// to request a specific SOCKS version to be used.
Unix domain sockets are supported for socks proxy. Set
localhost for the host part. e.g.
socks5h://localhost/path/to/socket.sock
HTTPS proxy support works set with the https:// protocol
prefix for OpenSSL and GnuTLS (added in 7.52.0). It also
works for BearSSL, mbedTLS, rustls, Schannel, Secure
Transport and wolfSSL (added in 7.87.0).
Unrecognized and unsupported proxy protocols cause an
error (added in 7.52.0). Ancient curl versions ignored
unknown schemes and used http:// instead.
If the port number is not specified in the proxy string,
it is assumed to be 1080.
This option overrides existing environment variables that
set the proxy to use. If there is an environment variable
setting a proxy, you can set proxy to "" to override it.
All operations that are performed over an HTTP proxy are
transparently converted to HTTP. It means that certain
protocol specific operations might not be available. This
is not the case if you can tunnel through the proxy, as
one with the -p, --proxytunnel option.
User and password that might be provided in the proxy
string are URL decoded by curl. This allows you to pass in
special characters such as @ by using %40 or pass in a
colon with %3a.
The proxy host can be specified the same way as the proxy
environment variables, including the protocol prefix
(http://) and the embedded user + password.
When a proxy is used, the active FTP mode as set with -P,
--ftp-port, cannot be used.
If -x, --proxy is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy http://proxy.example https://example.com
See also --socks5 and --proxy-basic.
--proxy-anyauth
Tells curl to pick a suitable authentication method when
communicating with the given HTTP proxy. This might cause
an extra request/response round-trip.
Providing --proxy-anyauth multiple times has no extra
effect.
Example:
curl --proxy-anyauth --proxy-user user:passwd -x proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy, --proxy-basic and --proxy-digest.
--proxy-basic
Tells curl to use HTTP Basic authentication when
communicating with the given proxy. Use --basic for
enabling HTTP Basic with a remote host. Basic is the
default authentication method curl uses with proxies.
Providing --proxy-basic multiple times has no extra
effect.
Example:
curl --proxy-basic --proxy-user user:passwd -x proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy, --proxy-anyauth and --proxy-digest.
--proxy-ca-native
(TLS) Tells curl to use the CA store from the native
operating system to verify the HTTPS proxy. By default,
curl uses a CA store provided in a single file or
directory, but when using this option it interfaces the
operating system's own vault.
This option only works for curl on Windows when built to
use OpenSSL. When curl on Windows is built to use
Schannel, this feature is implied and curl then only uses
the native CA store.
curl built with wolfSSL also supports this option (added
in 8.3.0).
Providing --proxy-ca-native multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-proxy-ca-native.
Example:
curl --ca-native https://example.com
See also --cacert, --capath and -k, --insecure. Added in
8.2.0.
--proxy-cacert <file>
Same as --cacert but used in HTTPS proxy context.
If --proxy-cacert is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-cacert CA-file.txt -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also --proxy-capath, --cacert, --capath and -x,
--proxy. Added in 7.52.0.
--proxy-capath <dir>
Same as --capath but used in HTTPS proxy context.
If --proxy-capath is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-capath /local/directory -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also --proxy-cacert, -x, --proxy and --capath. Added
in 7.52.0.
--proxy-cert <cert[:passwd]>
Same as -E, --cert but used in HTTPS proxy context.
If --proxy-cert is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-cert file -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also --proxy-cert-type. Added in 7.52.0.
--proxy-cert-type <type>
Same as --cert-type but used in HTTPS proxy context.
If --proxy-cert-type is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-cert-type PEM --proxy-cert file -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also --proxy-cert. Added in 7.52.0.
--proxy-ciphers <list>
Same as --ciphers but used in HTTPS proxy context.
Specifies which ciphers to use in the connection to the
HTTPS proxy. The list of ciphers must specify valid
ciphers. Read up on SSL cipher list details on this URL:
https://curl.se/docs/ssl-ciphers.html
If --proxy-ciphers is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-CCM8 -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also --ciphers, --curves and -x, --proxy. Added in
7.52.0.
--proxy-crlfile <file>
Same as --crlfile but used in HTTPS proxy context.
If --proxy-crlfile is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-crlfile rejects.txt -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also --crlfile and -x, --proxy. Added in 7.52.0.
--proxy-digest
Tells curl to use HTTP Digest authentication when
communicating with the given proxy. Use --digest for
enabling HTTP Digest with a remote host.
Providing --proxy-digest multiple times has no extra
effect.
Example:
curl --proxy-digest --proxy-user user:passwd -x proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy, --proxy-anyauth and --proxy-basic.
--proxy-header <header/@file>
(HTTP) Extra header to include in the request when sending
HTTP to a proxy. You may specify any number of extra
headers. This is the equivalent option to -H, --header but
is for proxy communication only like in CONNECT requests
when you want a separate header sent to the proxy to what
is sent to the actual remote host.
curl makes sure that each header you add/replace is sent
with the proper end-of-line marker, you should thus not
add that as a part of the header content: do not add
newlines or carriage returns, they only mess things up for
you.
Headers specified with this option are not included in
requests that curl knows are not be sent to a proxy.
This option can take an argument in @filename style, which
then adds a header for each line in the input file (added
in 7.55.0). Using @- makes curl read the headers from
stdin.
This option can be used multiple times to
add/replace/remove multiple headers.
--proxy-header can be used several times in a command line
Examples:
curl --proxy-header "X-First-Name: Joe" -x http://proxy https://example.com
curl --proxy-header "User-Agent: surprise" -x http://proxy https://example.com
curl --proxy-header "Host:" -x http://proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy.
--proxy-http2
(HTTP) Tells curl to try negotiate HTTP version 2 with an
HTTPS proxy. The proxy might still only offer HTTP/1 and
then curl sticks to using that version.
This has no effect for any other kinds of proxies.
Providing --proxy-http2 multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-proxy-http2.
Example:
curl --proxy-http2 -x proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy. --proxy-http2 requires that the
underlying libcurl was built to support HTTP/2. Added in
8.1.0.
--proxy-insecure
Same as -k, --insecure but used in HTTPS proxy context.
Providing --proxy-insecure multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-proxy-insecure.
Example:
curl --proxy-insecure -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy and -k, --insecure. Added in 7.52.0.
--proxy-key <key>
Same as --key but used in HTTPS proxy context.
If --proxy-key is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-key here -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also --proxy-key-type and -x, --proxy. Added in
7.52.0.
--proxy-key-type <type>
Same as --key-type but used in HTTPS proxy context.
If --proxy-key-type is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-key-type DER --proxy-key here -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also --proxy-key and -x, --proxy. Added in 7.52.0.
--proxy-negotiate
Tells curl to use HTTP Negotiate (SPNEGO) authentication
when communicating with the given proxy. Use --negotiate
for enabling HTTP Negotiate (SPNEGO) with a remote host.
Providing --proxy-negotiate multiple times has no extra
effect.
Example:
curl --proxy-negotiate --proxy-user user:passwd -x proxy https://example.com
See also --proxy-anyauth and --proxy-basic.
--proxy-ntlm
Tells curl to use HTTP NTLM authentication when
communicating with the given proxy. Use --ntlm for
enabling NTLM with a remote host.
Providing --proxy-ntlm multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --proxy-ntlm --proxy-user user:passwd -x http://proxy https://example.com
See also --proxy-negotiate and --proxy-anyauth.
--proxy-pass <phrase>
Same as --pass but used in HTTPS proxy context.
If --proxy-pass is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-pass secret --proxy-key here -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy and --proxy-key. Added in 7.52.0.
--proxy-pinnedpubkey <hashes>
(TLS) Tells curl to use the specified public key file (or
hashes) to verify the proxy. This can be a path to a file
which contains a single public key in PEM or DER format,
or any number of base64 encoded sha256 hashes preceded by
'sha256//' and separated by ';'.
When negotiating a TLS or SSL connection, the server sends
a certificate indicating its identity. A public key is
extracted from this certificate and if it does not exactly
match the public key provided to this option, curl aborts
the connection before sending or receiving any data.
If --proxy-pinnedpubkey is provided several times, the
last set value is used.
Examples:
curl --proxy-pinnedpubkey keyfile https://example.com
curl --proxy-pinnedpubkey 'sha256//ce118b51897f4452dc' https://example.com
See also --pinnedpubkey and -x, --proxy. Added in 7.59.0.
--proxy-service-name <name>
This option allows you to change the service name for
proxy negotiation.
If --proxy-service-name is provided several times, the
last set value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-service-name "shrubbery" -x proxy https://example.com
See also --service-name and -x, --proxy.
--proxy-ssl-allow-beast
Same as --ssl-allow-beast but used in HTTPS proxy context.
Providing --proxy-ssl-allow-beast multiple times has no
extra effect. Disable it again with
--no-proxy-ssl-allow-beast.
Example:
curl --proxy-ssl-allow-beast -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also --ssl-allow-beast and -x, --proxy. Added in
7.52.0.
--proxy-ssl-auto-client-cert
Same as --ssl-auto-client-cert but used in HTTPS proxy
context.
Providing --proxy-ssl-auto-client-cert multiple times has
no extra effect. Disable it again with
--no-proxy-ssl-auto-client-cert.
Example:
curl --proxy-ssl-auto-client-cert -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also --ssl-auto-client-cert and -x, --proxy. Added in
7.77.0.
--proxy-tls13-ciphers <ciphersuite list>
(TLS) Specifies which cipher suites to use in the
connection to your HTTPS proxy when it negotiates TLS 1.3.
The list of ciphers suites must specify valid ciphers.
Read up on TLS 1.3 cipher suite details on this URL:
https://curl.se/docs/ssl-ciphers.html
This option is currently used only when curl is built to
use OpenSSL 1.1.1 or later. If you are using a different
SSL backend you can try setting TLS 1.3 cipher suites by
using the --proxy-ciphers option.
If --proxy-tls13-ciphers is provided several times, the
last set value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-tls13-ciphers TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 -x proxy https://example.com
See also --tls13-ciphers, --curves and --proxy-ciphers.
Added in 7.61.0.
--proxy-tlsauthtype <type>
Same as --tlsauthtype but used in HTTPS proxy context.
If --proxy-tlsauthtype is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-tlsauthtype SRP -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy and --proxy-tlsuser. Added in 7.52.0.
--proxy-tlspassword <string>
Same as --tlspassword but used in HTTPS proxy context.
If --proxy-tlspassword is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-tlspassword passwd -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy and --proxy-tlsuser. Added in 7.52.0.
--proxy-tlsuser <name>
Same as --tlsuser but used in HTTPS proxy context.
If --proxy-tlsuser is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-tlsuser smith -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy and --proxy-tlspassword. Added in
7.52.0.
--proxy-tlsv1
Same as -1, --tlsv1 but used in HTTPS proxy context.
Providing --proxy-tlsv1 multiple times has no extra
effect.
Example:
curl --proxy-tlsv1 -x https://proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy. Added in 7.52.0.
-U, --proxy-user <user:password>
Specify the user name and password to use for proxy
authentication.
If you use a Windows SSPI-enabled curl binary and do
either Negotiate or NTLM authentication then you can tell
curl to select the user name and password from your
environment by specifying a single colon with this option:
"-U :".
On systems where it works, curl hides the given option
argument from process listings. This is not enough to
protect credentials from possibly getting seen by other
users on the same system as they still are visible for a
moment before cleared. Such sensitive data should be
retrieved from a file instead or similar and never used in
clear text in a command line.
If -U, --proxy-user is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --proxy-user name:pwd -x proxy https://example.com
See also --proxy-pass.
--proxy1.0 <host[:port]>
Use the specified HTTP 1.0 proxy. If the port number is
not specified, it is assumed at port 1080.
The only difference between this and the HTTP proxy option
-x, --proxy, is that attempts to use CONNECT through the
proxy specifies an HTTP 1.0 protocol instead of the
default HTTP 1.1.
Providing --proxy1.0 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --proxy1.0 -x http://proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy, --socks5 and --preproxy.
-p, --proxytunnel
When an HTTP proxy is used -x, --proxy, this option makes
curl tunnel the traffic through the proxy. The tunnel
approach is made with the HTTP proxy CONNECT request and
requires that the proxy allows direct connect to the
remote port number curl wants to tunnel through to.
To suppress proxy CONNECT response headers when curl is
set to output headers use --suppress-connect-headers.
Providing -p, --proxytunnel multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-proxytunnel.
Example:
curl --proxytunnel -x http://proxy https://example.com
See also -x, --proxy.
--pubkey <key>
(SFTP SCP) Public key file name. Allows you to provide
your public key in this separate file.
curl attempts to automatically extract the public key from
the private key file, so passing this option is generally
not required. Note that this public key extraction
requires libcurl to be linked against a copy of libssh2
1.2.8 or higher that is itself linked against OpenSSL.
If --pubkey is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --pubkey file.pub sftp://example.com/
See also --pass.
-Q, --quote <command>
(FTP SFTP) Send an arbitrary command to the remote FTP or
SFTP server. Quote commands are sent BEFORE the transfer
takes place (just after the initial PWD command in an FTP
transfer, to be exact). To make commands take place after
a successful transfer, prefix them with a dash '-'.
(FTP only) To make commands be sent after curl has changed
the working directory, just before the file transfer
command(s), prefix the command with a '+'. This is not
performed when a directory listing is performed.
You may specify any number of commands.
By default curl stops at first failure. To make curl
continue even if the command fails, prefix the command
with an asterisk (*). Otherwise, if the server returns
failure for one of the commands, the entire operation is
aborted.
You must send syntactically correct FTP commands as RFC
959 defines to FTP servers, or one of the commands listed
below to SFTP servers.
SFTP is a binary protocol. Unlike for FTP, curl interprets
SFTP quote commands itself before sending them to the
server. File names may be quoted shell-style to embed
spaces or special characters. Following is the list of all
supported SFTP quote commands:
atime date file
The atime command sets the last access time of the
file named by the file operand. The <date
expression> can be all sorts of date strings, see
the curl_getdate(3) man page for date expression
details. (Added in 7.73.0)
chgrp group file
The chgrp command sets the group ID of the file
named by the file operand to the group ID specified
by the group operand. The group operand is a
decimal integer group ID.
chmod mode file
The chmod command modifies the file mode bits of
the specified file. The mode operand is an octal
integer mode number.
chown user file
The chown command sets the owner of the file named
by the file operand to the user ID specified by the
user operand. The user operand is a decimal integer
user ID.
ln source_file target_file
The ln and symlink commands create a symbolic link
at the target_file location pointing to the
source_file location.
mkdir directory_name
The mkdir command creates the directory named by
the directory_name operand.
mtime date file
The mtime command sets the last modification time
of the file named by the file operand. The <date
expression> can be all sorts of date strings, see
the curl_getdate(3) man page for date expression
details. (Added in 7.73.0)
pwd The pwd command returns the absolute path name of
the current working directory.
rename source target
The rename command renames the file or directory
named by the source operand to the destination path
named by the target operand.
rm file
The rm command removes the file specified by the
file operand.
rmdir directory
The rmdir command removes the directory entry
specified by the directory operand, provided it is
empty.
symlink source_file target_file
See ln.
-Q, --quote can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --quote "DELE file" ftp://example.com/foo
See also -X, --request.
--random-file <file>
Deprecated option. This option is ignored (added in
7.84.0). Prior to that it only had an effect on curl if
built to use old versions of OpenSSL.
Specify the path name to file containing random data. The
data may be used to seed the random engine for SSL
connections.
If --random-file is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --random-file rubbish https://example.com
See also --egd-file.
-r, --range <range>
(HTTP FTP SFTP FILE) Retrieve a byte range (i.e. a partial
document) from an HTTP/1.1, FTP or SFTP server or a local
FILE. Ranges can be specified in a number of ways.
0-499 specifies the first 500 bytes
500-999
specifies the second 500 bytes
-500 specifies the last 500 bytes
9500- specifies the bytes from offset 9500 and forward
0-0,-1 specifies the first and last byte only(*)(HTTP)
100-199,500-599
specifies two separate 100-byte ranges(*) (HTTP)
(*) = NOTE that this causes the server to reply with a
multipart response, which is returned as-is by curl!
Parsing or otherwise transforming this response is the
responsibility of the caller.
Only digit characters (0-9) are valid in the 'start' and
'stop' fields of the 'start-stop' range syntax. If a
non-digit character is given in the range, the server's
response is unspecified, depending on the server's
configuration.
Many HTTP/1.1 servers do not have this feature enabled, so
that when you attempt to get a range, curl instead gets
the whole document.
FTP and SFTP range downloads only support the simple
'start-stop' syntax (optionally with one of the numbers
omitted). FTP use depends on the extended FTP command
SIZE.
If -r, --range is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --range 22-44 https://example.com
See also -C, --continue-at and -a, --append.
--rate <max request rate>
Specify the maximum transfer frequency you allow curl to
use - in number of transfer starts per time unit
(sometimes called request rate). Without this option, curl
starts the next transfer as fast as possible.
If given several URLs and a transfer completes faster than
the allowed rate, curl waits until the next transfer is
started to maintain the requested rate. This option has no
effect when -Z, --parallel is used.
The request rate is provided as "N/U" where N is an
integer number and U is a time unit. Supported units are
's' (second), 'm' (minute), 'h' (hour) and 'd' /(day, as
in a 24 hour unit). The default time unit, if no "/U" is
provided, is number of transfers per hour.
If curl is told to allow 10 requests per minute, it does
not start the next request until 6 seconds have elapsed
since the previous transfer was started.
This function uses millisecond resolution. If the allowed
frequency is set more than 1000 per second, it instead
runs unrestricted.
When retrying transfers, enabled with --retry, the
separate retry delay logic is used and not this setting.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
If --rate is provided several times, the last set value is
used.
Examples:
curl --rate 2/s https://example.com ...
curl --rate 3/h https://example.com ...
curl --rate 14/m https://example.com ...
See also --limit-rate and --retry-delay. Added in 7.84.0.
--raw (HTTP) When used, it disables all internal HTTP decoding
of content or transfer encodings and instead makes them
passed on unaltered, raw.
Providing --raw multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-raw.
Example:
curl --raw https://example.com
See also --tr-encoding.
-e, --referer <URL>
(HTTP) Sends the "Referrer Page" information to the HTTP
server. This can also be set with the -H, --header flag of
course. When used with -L, --location you can append
";auto" to the -e, --referer URL to make curl
automatically set the previous URL when it follows a
Location: header. The ";auto" string can be used alone,
even if you do not set an initial -e, --referer.
If -e, --referer is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Examples:
curl --referer "https://fake.example" https://example.com
curl --referer "https://fake.example;auto" -L https://example.com
curl --referer ";auto" -L https://example.com
See also -A, --user-agent and -H, --header.
-J, --remote-header-name
(HTTP) This option tells the -O, --remote-name option to
use the server-specified Content-Disposition filename
instead of extracting a filename from the URL. If the
server-provided file name contains a path, that is
stripped off before the file name is used.
The file is saved in the current directory, or in the
directory specified with --output-dir.
If the server specifies a file name and a file with that
name already exists in the destination directory, it is
not overwritten and an error occurs - unless you allow it
by using the --clobber option. If the server does not
specify a file name then this option has no effect.
There is no attempt to decode %-sequences (yet) in the
provided file name, so this option may provide you with
rather unexpected file names.
This feature uses the name from the "filename" field, it
does not yet support the "filename*" field (filenames with
explicit character sets).
WARNING: Exercise judicious use of this option, especially
on Windows. A rogue server could send you the name of a
DLL or other file that could be loaded automatically by
Windows or some third party software.
Providing -J, --remote-header-name multiple times has no
extra effect. Disable it again with
--no-remote-header-name.
Example:
curl -OJ https://example.com/file
See also -O, --remote-name.
-O, --remote-name
Write output to a local file named like the remote file we
get. (Only the file part of the remote file is used, the
path is cut off.)
The file is saved in the current working directory. If you
want the file saved in a different directory, make sure
you change the current working directory before invoking
curl with this option or use --output-dir.
The remote file name to use for saving is extracted from
the given URL, nothing else, and if it already exists it
is overwritten. If you want the server to be able to
choose the file name refer to -J, --remote-header-name
which can be used in addition to this option. If the
server chooses a file name and that name already exists it
is not overwritten.
There is no URL decoding done on the file name. If it has
%20 or other URL encoded parts of the name, they end up
as-is as file name.
You may use this option as many times as the number of
URLs you have.
-O, --remote-name can be used several times in a command
line
Example:
curl -O https://example.com/filename
See also --remote-name-all, --output-dir and -J,
--remote-header-name.
--remote-name-all
This option changes the default action for all given URLs
to be dealt with as if -O, --remote-name were used for
each one. So if you want to disable that for a specific
URL after --remote-name-all has been used, you must use
"-o -" or --no-remote-name.
Providing --remote-name-all multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-remote-name-all.
Example:
curl --remote-name-all ftp://example.com/file1 ftp://example.com/file2
See also -O, --remote-name.
-R, --remote-time
Makes curl attempt to figure out the timestamp of the
remote file that is getting downloaded, and if that is
available make the local file get that same timestamp.
Providing -R, --remote-time multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-remote-time.
Example:
curl --remote-time -o foo https://example.com
See also -O, --remote-name and -z, --time-cond.
--remove-on-error
When curl returns an error when told to save output in a
local file, this option removes that saved file before
exiting. This prevents curl from leaving a partial file in
the case of an error during transfer.
If the output is not a file, this option has no effect.
Providing --remove-on-error multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-remove-on-error.
Example:
curl --remove-on-error -o output https://example.com
See also -f, --fail. Added in 7.83.0.
-X, --request <method>
Change the method to use when starting the transfer.
curl passes on the verbatim string you give it its the
request without any filter or other safe guards. That
includes white space and control characters.
HTTP Specifies a custom request method to use when
communicating with the HTTP server. The specified
request method is used instead of the method
otherwise used (which defaults to GET). Read the
HTTP 1.1 specification for details and
explanations. Common additional HTTP requests
include PUT and DELETE, but related technologies
like WebDAV offers PROPFIND, COPY, MOVE and more.
Normally you do not need this option. All sorts of
GET, HEAD, POST and PUT requests are rather invoked
by using dedicated command line options.
This option only changes the actual word used in
the HTTP request, it does not alter the way curl
behaves. So for example if you want to make a
proper HEAD request, using -X HEAD does not
suffice. You need to use the -I, --head option.
The method string you set with -X, --request is
used for all requests, which if you for example use
-L, --location may cause unintended side-effects
when curl does not change request method according
to the HTTP 30x response codes - and similar.
FTP Specifies a custom FTP command to use instead of
LIST when doing file lists with FTP.
POP3 Specifies a custom POP3 command to use instead of
LIST or RETR.
IMAP Specifies a custom IMAP command to use instead of
LIST.
SMTP Specifies a custom SMTP command to use instead of
HELP or VRFY.
If -X, --request is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Examples:
curl -X "DELETE" https://example.com
curl -X NLST ftp://example.com/
See also --request-target.
--request-target <path>
(HTTP) Tells curl to use an alternative "target" (path)
instead of using the path as provided in the URL.
Particularly useful when wanting to issue HTTP requests
without leading slash or other data that does not follow
the regular URL pattern, like "OPTIONS *".
curl passes on the verbatim string you give it its the
request without any filter or other safe guards. That
includes white space and control characters.
If --request-target is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --request-target "*" -X OPTIONS https://example.com
See also -X, --request. Added in 7.55.0.
--resolve <[+]host:port:addr[,addr]...>
Provide a custom address for a specific host and port
pair. Using this, you can make the curl requests(s) use a
specified address and prevent the otherwise normally
resolved address to be used. Consider it a sort of
/etc/hosts alternative provided on the command line. The
port number should be the number used for the specific
protocol the host is used for. It means you need several
entries if you want to provide address for the same host
but different ports.
By specifying '*' as host you can tell curl to resolve any
host and specific port pair to the specified address.
Wildcard is resolved last so any --resolve with a specific
host and port is used first.
The provided address set by this option is used even if
-4, --ipv4 or -6, --ipv6 is set to make curl use another
IP version.
By prefixing the host with a '+' you can make the entry
time out after curl's default timeout (1 minute). Note
that this only makes sense for long running parallel
transfers with a lot of files. In such cases, if this
option is used curl tries to resolve the host as it
normally would once the timeout has expired.
Support for providing the IP address within [brackets] was
added in 7.57.0.
Support for providing multiple IP addresses per entry was
added in 7.59.0.
Support for resolving with wildcard was added in 7.64.0.
Support for the '+' prefix was was added in 7.75.0.
--resolve can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --resolve example.com:443:127.0.0.1 https://example.com
See also --connect-to and --alt-svc.
--retry <num>
If a transient error is returned when curl tries to
perform a transfer, it retries this number of times before
giving up. Setting the number to 0 makes curl do no
retries (which is the default). Transient error means
either: a timeout, an FTP 4xx response code or an HTTP
408, 429, 500, 502, 503 or 504 response code.
When curl is about to retry a transfer, it first waits one
second and then for all forthcoming retries it doubles the
waiting time until it reaches 10 minutes which then
remains delay between the rest of the retries. By using
--retry-delay you disable this exponential backoff
algorithm. See also --retry-max-time to limit the total
time allowed for retries.
curl complies with the Retry-After: response header if one
was present to know when to issue the next retry (added in
7.66.0).
If --retry is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --retry 7 https://example.com
See also --retry-max-time.
--retry-all-errors
Retry on any error. This option is used together with
--retry.
This option is the "sledgehammer" of retrying. Do not use
this option by default (for example in your curlrc), there
may be unintended consequences such as sending or
receiving duplicate data. Do not use with redirected input
or output. You'd be much better off handling your unique
problems in shell script. Please read the example below.
WARNING: For server compatibility curl attempts to retry
failed flaky transfers as close as possible to how they
were started, but this is not possible with redirected
input or output. For example, before retrying it removes
output data from a failed partial transfer that was
written to an output file. However this is not true of
data redirected to a | pipe or > file, which are not
reset. We strongly suggest you do not parse or record
output via redirect in combination with this option, since
you may receive duplicate data.
By default curl does not return error for transfers with
an HTTP response code that indicates an HTTP error, if the
transfer was successful. For example, if a server replies
404 Not Found and the reply is fully received then that is
not an error. When --retry is used then curl retries on
some HTTP response codes that indicate transient HTTP
errors, but that does not include most 4xx response codes
such as 404. If you want to retry on all response codes
that indicate HTTP errors (4xx and 5xx) then combine with
-f, --fail.
Providing --retry-all-errors multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-retry-all-errors.
Example:
curl --retry 5 --retry-all-errors https://example.com
See also --retry. Added in 7.71.0.
--retry-connrefused
In addition to the other conditions, consider ECONNREFUSED
as a transient error too for --retry. This option is used
together with --retry.
Providing --retry-connrefused multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-retry-connrefused.
Example:
curl --retry-connrefused --retry 7 https://example.com
See also --retry and --retry-all-errors. Added in 7.52.0.
--retry-delay <seconds>
Make curl sleep this amount of time before each retry when
a transfer has failed with a transient error (it changes
the default backoff time algorithm between retries). This
option is only interesting if --retry is also used.
Setting this delay to zero makes curl use the default
backoff time.
If --retry-delay is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --retry-delay 5 --retry 7 https://example.com
See also --retry.
--retry-max-time <seconds>
The retry timer is reset before the first transfer
attempt. Retries are done as usual (see --retry) as long
as the timer has not reached this given limit. Notice that
if the timer has not reached the limit, the request is
made and while performing, it may take longer than this
given time period. To limit a single request's maximum
time, use -m, --max-time. Set this option to zero to not
timeout retries.
If --retry-max-time is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --retry-max-time 30 --retry 10 https://example.com
See also --retry.
--sasl-authzid <identity>
Use this authorization identity (authzid), during SASL
PLAIN authentication, in addition to the authentication
identity (authcid) as specified by -u, --user.
If the option is not specified, the server derives the
authzid from the authcid, but if specified, and depending
on the server implementation, it may be used to access
another user's inbox, that the user has been granted
access to, or a shared mailbox for example.
If --sasl-authzid is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --sasl-authzid zid imap://example.com/
See also --login-options. Added in 7.66.0.
--sasl-ir
Enable initial response in SASL authentication.
Providing --sasl-ir multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-sasl-ir.
Example:
curl --sasl-ir imap://example.com/
See also --sasl-authzid.
--service-name <name>
This option allows you to change the service name for
SPNEGO.
If --service-name is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --service-name sockd/server https://example.com
See also --negotiate and --proxy-service-name.
-S, --show-error
When used with -s, --silent, it makes curl show an error
message if it fails.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
Providing -S, --show-error multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-show-error.
Example:
curl --show-error --silent https://example.com
See also --no-progress-meter.
-s, --silent
Silent or quiet mode. Do not show progress meter or error
messages. Makes Curl mute. It still outputs the data you
ask for, potentially even to the terminal/stdout unless
you redirect it.
Use -S, --show-error in addition to this option to disable
progress meter but still show error messages.
Providing -s, --silent multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-silent.
Example:
curl -s https://example.com
See also -v, --verbose, --stderr and --no-progress-meter.
--socks4 <host[:port]>
Use the specified SOCKS4 proxy. If the port number is not
specified, it is assumed at port 1080. Using this socket
type make curl resolve the host name and passing the
address on to the proxy.
To specify proxy on a unix domain socket, use localhost
for host, e.g. socks4://localhost/path/to/socket.sock
This option overrides any previous use of -x, --proxy, as
they are mutually exclusive.
This option is superfluous since you can specify a socks4
proxy with -x, --proxy using a socks4:// protocol prefix.
--preproxy can be used to specify a SOCKS proxy at the
same time proxy is used with an HTTP/HTTPS proxy (added in
7.52.0). In such a case, curl first connects to the SOCKS
proxy and then connects (through SOCKS) to the HTTP or
HTTPS proxy.
If --socks4 is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --socks4 hostname:4096 https://example.com
See also --socks4a, --socks5 and --socks5-hostname.
--socks4a <host[:port]>
Use the specified SOCKS4a proxy. If the port number is not
specified, it is assumed at port 1080. This asks the proxy
to resolve the host name.
To specify proxy on a unix domain socket, use localhost
for host, e.g. socks4a://localhost/path/to/socket.sock
This option overrides any previous use of -x, --proxy, as
they are mutually exclusive.
This option is superfluous since you can specify a socks4a
proxy with -x, --proxy using a socks4a:// protocol prefix.
--preproxy can be used to specify a SOCKS proxy at the
same time -x, --proxy is used with an HTTP/HTTPS proxy
(added in 7.52.0). In such a case, curl first connects to
the SOCKS proxy and then connects (through SOCKS) to the
HTTP or HTTPS proxy.
If --socks4a is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --socks4a hostname:4096 https://example.com
See also --socks4, --socks5 and --socks5-hostname.
--socks5 <host[:port]>
Use the specified SOCKS5 proxy - but resolve the host name
locally. If the port number is not specified, it is
assumed at port 1080.
To specify proxy on a unix domain socket, use localhost
for host, e.g. socks5://localhost/path/to/socket.sock
This option overrides any previous use of -x, --proxy, as
they are mutually exclusive.
This option is superfluous since you can specify a socks5
proxy with -x, --proxy using a socks5:// protocol prefix.
--preproxy can be used to specify a SOCKS proxy at the
same time -x, --proxy is used with an HTTP/HTTPS proxy
(added in 7.52.0). In such a case, curl first connects to
the SOCKS proxy and then connects (through SOCKS) to the
HTTP or HTTPS proxy.
This option (as well as --socks4) does not work with IPV6,
FTPS or LDAP.
If --socks5 is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --socks5 proxy.example:7000 https://example.com
See also --socks5-hostname and --socks4a.
--socks5-basic
Tells curl to use username/password authentication when
connecting to a SOCKS5 proxy. The username/password
authentication is enabled by default. Use --socks5-gssapi
to force GSS-API authentication to SOCKS5 proxies.
Providing --socks5-basic multiple times has no extra
effect.
Example:
curl --socks5-basic --socks5 hostname:4096 https://example.com
See also --socks5. Added in 7.55.0.
--socks5-gssapi
Tells curl to use GSS-API authentication when connecting
to a SOCKS5 proxy. The GSS-API authentication is enabled
by default (if curl is compiled with GSS-API support).
Use --socks5-basic to force username/password
authentication to SOCKS5 proxies.
Providing --socks5-gssapi multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-socks5-gssapi.
Example:
curl --socks5-gssapi --socks5 hostname:4096 https://example.com
See also --socks5. Added in 7.55.0.
--socks5-gssapi-nec
As part of the GSS-API negotiation a protection mode is
negotiated. RFC 1961 says in section 4.3/4.4 it should be
protected, but the NEC reference implementation does not.
The option --socks5-gssapi-nec allows the unprotected
exchange of the protection mode negotiation.
Providing --socks5-gssapi-nec multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-socks5-gssapi-nec.
Example:
curl --socks5-gssapi-nec --socks5 hostname:4096 https://example.com
See also --socks5.
--socks5-gssapi-service <name>
The default service name for a socks server is
rcmd/server-fqdn. This option allows you to change it.
If --socks5-gssapi-service is provided several times, the
last set value is used.
Example:
curl --socks5-gssapi-service sockd --socks5 hostname:4096 https://example.com
See also --socks5.
--socks5-hostname <host[:port]>
Use the specified SOCKS5 proxy (and let the proxy resolve
the host name). If the port number is not specified, it is
assumed at port 1080.
To specify proxy on a unix domain socket, use localhost
for host, e.g. socks5h://localhost/path/to/socket.sock
This option overrides any previous use of -x, --proxy, as
they are mutually exclusive.
This option is superfluous since you can specify a socks5
hostname proxy with -x, --proxy using a socks5h://
protocol prefix.
--preproxy can be used to specify a SOCKS proxy at the
same time -x, --proxy is used with an HTTP/HTTPS proxy
(added in 7.52.0). In such a case, curl first connects to
the SOCKS proxy and then connects (through SOCKS) to the
HTTP or HTTPS proxy.
If --socks5-hostname is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --socks5-hostname proxy.example:7000 https://example.com
See also --socks5 and --socks4a.
-Y, --speed-limit <speed>
If a transfer is slower than this given speed (in bytes
per second) for speed-time seconds it gets aborted.
speed-time is set with -y, --speed-time and is 30 if not
set.
If -Y, --speed-limit is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --speed-limit 300 --speed-time 10 https://example.com
See also -y, --speed-time, --limit-rate and -m,
--max-time.
-y, --speed-time <seconds>
If a transfer runs slower than speed-limit bytes per
second during a speed-time period, the transfer is
aborted. If speed-time is used, the default speed-limit is
1 unless set with -Y, --speed-limit.
This option controls transfers (in both directions) but
does not affect slow connects etc. If this is a concern
for you, try the --connect-timeout option.
If -y, --speed-time is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl --speed-limit 300 --speed-time 10 https://example.com
See also -Y, --speed-limit and --limit-rate.
--ssl (FTP IMAP POP3 SMTP LDAP) Warning: this is considered an
insecure option. Consider using --ssl-reqd instead to be
sure curl upgrades to a secure connection.
Try to use SSL/TLS for the connection. Reverts to a
non-secure connection if the server does not support
SSL/TLS. See also --ftp-ssl-control and --ssl-reqd for
different levels of encryption required.
This option is handled in LDAP (added in 7.81.0). It is
fully supported by the OpenLDAP backend and ignored by the
generic ldap backend.
Please note that a server may close the connection if the
negotiation does not succeed.
This option was formerly known as --ftp-ssl. That option
name can still be used but might be removed in a future
version.
Providing --ssl multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-ssl.
Example:
curl --ssl pop3://example.com/
See also --ssl-reqd, -k, --insecure and --ciphers.
--ssl-allow-beast
(TLS) This option tells curl to not work around a security
flaw in the SSL3 and TLS1.0 protocols known as BEAST. If
this option is not used, the SSL layer may use workarounds
known to cause interoperability problems with some older
SSL implementations.
WARNING: this option loosens the SSL security, and by
using this flag you ask for exactly that.
Providing --ssl-allow-beast multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-ssl-allow-beast.
Example:
curl --ssl-allow-beast https://example.com
See also --proxy-ssl-allow-beast and -k, --insecure.
--ssl-auto-client-cert
(TLS) (Schannel) Tell libcurl to automatically locate and
use a client certificate for authentication, when
requested by the server. Since the server can request any
certificate that supports client authentication in the OS
certificate store it could be a privacy violation and
unexpected.
Providing --ssl-auto-client-cert multiple times has no
extra effect. Disable it again with
--no-ssl-auto-client-cert.
Example:
curl --ssl-auto-client-cert https://example.com
See also --proxy-ssl-auto-client-cert. Added in 7.77.0.
--ssl-no-revoke
(TLS) (Schannel) This option tells curl to disable
certificate revocation checks. WARNING: this option
loosens the SSL security, and by using this flag you ask
for exactly that.
Providing --ssl-no-revoke multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-ssl-no-revoke.
Example:
curl --ssl-no-revoke https://example.com
See also --crlfile.
--ssl-reqd
(FTP IMAP POP3 SMTP LDAP) Require SSL/TLS for the
connection. Terminates the connection if the transfer
cannot be upgraded to use SSL/TLS.
This option is handled in LDAP (added in 7.81.0). It is
fully supported by the OpenLDAP backend and rejected by
the generic ldap backend if explicit TLS is required.
This option is unnecessary if you use a URL scheme that in
itself implies immediate and implicit use of TLS, like for
FTPS, IMAPS, POP3S, SMTPS and LDAPS. Such a transfer
always fails if the TLS handshake does not work.
This option was formerly known as --ftp-ssl-reqd.
Providing --ssl-reqd multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-ssl-reqd.
Example:
curl --ssl-reqd ftp://example.com
See also --ssl and -k, --insecure.
--ssl-revoke-best-effort
(TLS) (Schannel) This option tells curl to ignore
certificate revocation checks when they failed due to
missing/offline distribution points for the revocation
check lists.
Providing --ssl-revoke-best-effort multiple times has no
extra effect. Disable it again with
--no-ssl-revoke-best-effort.
Example:
curl --ssl-revoke-best-effort https://example.com
See also --crlfile and -k, --insecure. Added in 7.70.0.
-2, --sslv2
(SSL) This option previously asked curl to use SSLv2, but
is now ignored (added in 7.77.0). SSLv2 is widely
considered insecure (see RFC 6176).
Providing -2, --sslv2 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --sslv2 https://example.com
See also --http1.1 and --http2. -2, --sslv2 requires that
the underlying libcurl was built to support TLS. This
option is mutually exclusive to -3, --sslv3 and -1,
--tlsv1 and --tlsv1.1 and --tlsv1.2.
-3, --sslv3
(SSL) This option previously asked curl to use SSLv3, but
is now ignored (added in 7.77.0). SSLv3 is widely
considered insecure (see RFC 7568).
Providing -3, --sslv3 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --sslv3 https://example.com
See also --http1.1 and --http2. -3, --sslv3 requires that
the underlying libcurl was built to support TLS. This
option is mutually exclusive to -2, --sslv2 and -1,
--tlsv1 and --tlsv1.1 and --tlsv1.2.
--stderr <file>
Redirect all writes to stderr to the specified file
instead. If the file name is a plain '-', it is instead
written to stdout.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
If --stderr is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --stderr output.txt https://example.com
See also -v, --verbose and -s, --silent.
--styled-output
Enables the automatic use of bold font styles when writing
HTTP headers to the terminal. Use --no-styled-output to
switch them off.
Styled output requires a terminal that supports bold
fonts. This feature is not present on curl for Windows due
to lack of this capability.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
Providing --styled-output multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-styled-output.
Example:
curl --styled-output -I https://example.com
See also -I, --head and -v, --verbose. Added in 7.61.0.
--suppress-connect-headers
When -p, --proxytunnel is used and a CONNECT request is
made do not output proxy CONNECT response headers. This
option is meant to be used with -D, --dump-header or -i,
--include which are used to show protocol headers in the
output. It has no effect on debug options such as -v,
--verbose or --trace, or any statistics.
Providing --suppress-connect-headers multiple times has no
extra effect. Disable it again with
--no-suppress-connect-headers.
Example:
curl --suppress-connect-headers --include -x proxy https://example.com
See also -D, --dump-header, -i, --include and -p,
--proxytunnel. Added in 7.54.0.
--tcp-fastopen
Enable use of TCP Fast Open (RFC 7413). TCP Fast Open is a
TCP extension that allows data to get sent earlier over
the connection (before the final handshake ACK) if the
client and server have been connected previously.
Providing --tcp-fastopen multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-tcp-fastopen.
Example:
curl --tcp-fastopen https://example.com
See also --false-start.
--tcp-nodelay
Turn on the TCP_NODELAY option. See the
curl_easy_setopt(3) man page for details about this
option.
curl sets this option by default and you need to
explicitly switch it off if you do not want it on (added
in 7.50.2).
Providing --tcp-nodelay multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-tcp-nodelay.
Example:
curl --tcp-nodelay https://example.com
See also -N, --no-buffer.
-t, --telnet-option <opt=val>
Pass options to the telnet protocol. Supported options
are:
TTYPE=<term>
Sets the terminal type.
XDISPLOC=<X display>
Sets the X display location.
NEW_ENV=<var,val>
Sets an environment variable.
-t, --telnet-option can be used several times in a command
line
Example:
curl -t TTYPE=vt100 telnet://example.com/
See also -K, --config.
--tftp-blksize <value>
(TFTP) Set the TFTP BLKSIZE option (must be >512). This is
the block size that curl tries to use when transferring
data to or from a TFTP server. By default 512 bytes are
used.
If --tftp-blksize is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --tftp-blksize 1024 tftp://example.com/file
See also --tftp-no-options.
--tftp-no-options
(TFTP) Tells curl not to send TFTP options requests.
This option improves interop with some legacy servers that
do not acknowledge or properly implement TFTP options.
When this option is used --tftp-blksize is ignored.
Providing --tftp-no-options multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-tftp-no-options.
Example:
curl --tftp-no-options tftp://192.168.0.1/
See also --tftp-blksize.
-z, --time-cond <time>
(HTTP FTP) Request a file that has been modified later
than the given time and date, or one that has been
modified before that time. The <date expression> can be
all sorts of date strings or if it does not match any
internal ones, it is taken as a filename and tries to get
the modification date (mtime) from <file> instead. See the
curl_getdate(3) man pages for date expression details.
Start the date expression with a dash (-) to make it
request for a document that is older than the given
date/time, default is a document that is newer than the
specified date/time.
If provided a non-existing file, curl outputs a warning
about that fact and proceeds to do the transfer without a
time condition.
If -z, --time-cond is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Examples:
curl -z "Wed 01 Sep 2021 12:18:00" https://example.com
curl -z "-Wed 01 Sep 2021 12:18:00" https://example.com
curl -z file https://example.com
See also --etag-compare and -R, --remote-time.
--tls-max <VERSION>
(TLS) VERSION defines maximum supported TLS version. The
minimum acceptable version is set by tlsv1.0, tlsv1.1,
tlsv1.2 or tlsv1.3.
If the connection is done without TLS, this option has no
effect. This includes QUIC-using (HTTP/3) transfers.
default
Use up to recommended TLS version.
1.0 Use up to TLSv1.0.
1.1 Use up to TLSv1.1.
1.2 Use up to TLSv1.2.
1.3 Use up to TLSv1.3.
If --tls-max is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Examples:
curl --tls-max 1.2 https://example.com
curl --tls-max 1.3 --tlsv1.2 https://example.com
See also --tlsv1.0, --tlsv1.1, --tlsv1.2 and --tlsv1.3.
--tls-max requires that the underlying libcurl was built
to support TLS. Added in 7.54.0.
--tls13-ciphers <ciphersuite list>
(TLS) Specifies which cipher suites to use in the
connection if it negotiates TLS 1.3. The list of ciphers
suites must specify valid ciphers. Read up on TLS 1.3
cipher suite details on this URL:
https://curl.se/docs/ssl-ciphers.html
This option is currently used only when curl is built to
use OpenSSL 1.1.1 or later, or Schannel. If you are using
a different SSL backend you can try setting TLS 1.3 cipher
suites by using the --ciphers option.
If --tls13-ciphers is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --tls13-ciphers TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 https://example.com
See also --ciphers, --curves and --proxy-tls13-ciphers.
Added in 7.61.0.
--tlsauthtype <type>
(TLS) Set TLS authentication type. Currently, the only
supported option is "SRP", for TLS-SRP (RFC 5054). If
--tlsuser and --tlspassword are specified but
--tlsauthtype is not, then this option defaults to "SRP".
This option works only if the underlying libcurl is built
with TLS-SRP support, which requires OpenSSL or GnuTLS
with TLS-SRP support.
If --tlsauthtype is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --tlsauthtype SRP https://example.com
See also --tlsuser.
--tlspassword <string>
(TLS) Set password for use with the TLS authentication
method specified with --tlsauthtype. Requires that
--tlsuser also be set.
This option does not work with TLS 1.3.
If --tlspassword is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --tlspassword pwd --tlsuser user https://example.com
See also --tlsuser.
--tlsuser <name>
(TLS) Set username for use with the TLS authentication
method specified with --tlsauthtype. Requires that
--tlspassword also is set.
This option does not work with TLS 1.3.
If --tlsuser is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --tlspassword pwd --tlsuser user https://example.com
See also --tlspassword.
-1, --tlsv1
(TLS) Tells curl to use at least TLS version 1.x when
negotiating with a remote TLS server. That means TLS
version 1.0 or higher
Providing -1, --tlsv1 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --tlsv1 https://example.com
See also --http1.1 and --http2. -1, --tlsv1 requires that
the underlying libcurl was built to support TLS. This
option is mutually exclusive to --tlsv1.1 and --tlsv1.2
and --tlsv1.3.
--tlsv1.0
(TLS) Forces curl to use TLS version 1.0 or later when
connecting to a remote TLS server.
In old versions of curl this option was documented to
allow _only_ TLS 1.0. That behavior was inconsistent
depending on the TLS library. Use --tls-max if you want to
set a maximum TLS version.
Providing --tlsv1.0 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --tlsv1.0 https://example.com
See also --tlsv1.3.
--tlsv1.1
(TLS) Forces curl to use TLS version 1.1 or later when
connecting to a remote TLS server.
In old versions of curl this option was documented to
allow _only_ TLS 1.1. That behavior was inconsistent
depending on the TLS library. Use --tls-max if you want to
set a maximum TLS version.
Providing --tlsv1.1 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --tlsv1.1 https://example.com
See also --tlsv1.3 and --tls-max.
--tlsv1.2
(TLS) Forces curl to use TLS version 1.2 or later when
connecting to a remote TLS server.
In old versions of curl this option was documented to
allow _only_ TLS 1.2. That behavior was inconsistent
depending on the TLS library. Use --tls-max if you want to
set a maximum TLS version.
Providing --tlsv1.2 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --tlsv1.2 https://example.com
See also --tlsv1.3 and --tls-max.
--tlsv1.3
(TLS) Forces curl to use TLS version 1.3 or later when
connecting to a remote TLS server.
If the connection is done without TLS, this option has no
effect. This includes QUIC-using (HTTP/3) transfers.
Note that TLS 1.3 is not supported by all TLS backends.
Providing --tlsv1.3 multiple times has no extra effect.
Example:
curl --tlsv1.3 https://example.com
See also --tlsv1.2 and --tls-max. Added in 7.52.0.
--tr-encoding
(HTTP) Request a compressed Transfer-Encoding response
using one of the algorithms curl supports, and uncompress
the data while receiving it.
Providing --tr-encoding multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-tr-encoding.
Example:
curl --tr-encoding https://example.com
See also --compressed.
--trace <file>
Enables a full trace dump of all incoming and outgoing
data, including descriptive information, to the given
output file. Use "-" as filename to have the output sent
to stdout. Use "%" as filename to have the output sent to
stderr.
Note that verbose output of curl activities and network
traffic might contain sensitive data, including user
names, credentials or secret data content. Be aware and be
careful when sharing trace logs with others.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
If --trace is provided several times, the last set value
is used.
Example:
curl --trace log.txt https://example.com
See also --trace-ascii, --trace-config, --trace-ids and
--trace-time. This option is mutually exclusive to -v,
--verbose and --trace-ascii.
--trace-ascii <file>
Enables a full trace dump of all incoming and outgoing
data, including descriptive information, to the given
output file. Use "-" as filename to have the output sent
to stdout.
This is similar to --trace, but leaves out the hex part
and only shows the ASCII part of the dump. It makes
smaller output that might be easier to read for untrained
humans.
Note that verbose output of curl activities and network
traffic might contain sensitive data, including user
names, credentials or secret data content. Be aware and be
careful when sharing trace logs with others.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
If --trace-ascii is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --trace-ascii log.txt https://example.com
See also -v, --verbose and --trace. This option is
mutually exclusive to --trace and -v, --verbose.
--trace-config <string>
Set configuration for trace output. A comma-separated list
of components where detailed output can be made available
from. Names are case-insensitive. Specify 'all' to enable
all trace components.
In addition to trace component names, specify "ids" and
"time" to avoid extra --trace-ids or --trace-time
parameters.
See the curl_global_trace(3) man page for more details.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
--trace-config can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --trace-config ids,http/2 https://example.com
See also -v, --verbose and --trace. This option is
mutually exclusive to --trace and -v, --verbose. Added in
8.3.0.
--trace-ids
Prepends the transfer and connection identifiers to each
trace or verbose line that curl displays.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
Providing --trace-ids multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-trace-ids.
Example:
curl --trace-ids --trace-ascii output https://example.com
See also --trace and -v, --verbose. Added in 8.2.0.
--trace-time
Prepends a time stamp to each trace or verbose line that
curl displays.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
Providing --trace-time multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-trace-time.
Example:
curl --trace-time --trace-ascii output https://example.com
See also --trace and -v, --verbose.
--unix-socket <path>
(HTTP) Connect through this Unix domain socket, instead of
using the network.
If --unix-socket is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl --unix-socket socket-path https://example.com
See also --abstract-unix-socket.
-T, --upload-file <file>
This transfers the specified local file to the remote URL.
If there is no file part in the specified URL, curl
appends the local file name to the end of the URL before
the operation starts. You must use a trailing slash (/) on
the last directory to prove to curl that there is no file
name or curl thinks that your last directory name is the
remote file name to use.
When putting the local file name at the end of the URL,
curl ignores what is on the left side of any slash (/) or
backslash (\) used in the file name and only appends what
is on the right side of the rightmost such character.
Use the file name "-" (a single dash) to use stdin instead
of a given file. Alternately, the file name "." (a single
period) may be specified instead of "-" to use stdin in
non-blocking mode to allow reading server output while
stdin is being uploaded.
If this option is used with a HTTP(S) URL, the PUT method
is used.
You can specify one -T, --upload-file for each URL on the
command line. Each -T, --upload-file + URL pair specifies
what to upload and to where. curl also supports "globbing"
of the -T, --upload-file argument, meaning that you can
upload multiple files to a single URL by using the same
URL globbing style supported in the URL.
When uploading to an SMTP server: the uploaded data is
assumed to be RFC 5322 formatted. It has to feature the
necessary set of headers and mail body formatted correctly
by the user as curl does not transcode nor encode it
further in any way.
-T, --upload-file can be used several times in a command
line
Examples:
curl -T file https://example.com
curl -T "img[1-1000].png" ftp://ftp.example.com/
curl --upload-file "{file1,file2}" https://example.com
See also -G, --get, -I, --head, -X, --request and -d,
--data.
--url <url>
Specify a URL to fetch. This option is mostly handy when
you want to specify URL(s) in a config file.
If the given URL is missing a scheme name (such as
"http://" or "ftp://" etc) then curl makes a guess based
on the host. If the outermost subdomain name matches DICT,
FTP, IMAP, LDAP, POP3 or SMTP then that protocol is used,
otherwise HTTP is used. Guessing can be avoided by
providing a full URL including the scheme, or disabled by
setting a default protocol (added in 7.45.0), see
--proto-default for details.
To control where this URL is written, use the -o, --output
or the -O, --remote-name options.
WARNING: On Windows, particular file:// accesses can be
converted to network accesses by the operating system.
Beware!
--url can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --url https://example.com
See also -:, --next and -K, --config.
--url-query <data>
(all) This option adds a piece of data, usually a name +
value pair, to the end of the URL query part. The syntax
is identical to that used for --data-urlencode with one
extension:
If the argument starts with a '+' (plus), the rest of the
string is provided as-is unencoded.
The query part of a URL is the one following the question
mark on the right end.
--url-query can be used several times in a command line
Examples:
curl --url-query name=val https://example.com
curl --url-query =encodethis http://example.net/foo
curl --url-query name@file https://example.com
curl --url-query @fileonly https://example.com
curl --url-query "+name=%20foo" https://example.com
See also --data-urlencode and -G, --get. Added in 7.87.0.
-B, --use-ascii
(FTP LDAP) Enable ASCII transfer. For FTP, this can also
be enforced by using a URL that ends with ";type=A". This
option causes data sent to stdout to be in text mode for
win32 systems.
Providing -B, --use-ascii multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-use-ascii.
Example:
curl -B ftp://example.com/README
See also --crlf and --data-ascii.
-u, --user <user:password>
Specify the user name and password to use for server
authentication. Overrides -n, --netrc and
--netrc-optional.
If you simply specify the user name, curl prompts for a
password.
The user name and passwords are split up on the first
colon, which makes it impossible to use a colon in the
user name with this option. The password can, still.
On systems where it works, curl hides the given option
argument from process listings. This is not enough to
protect credentials from possibly getting seen by other
users on the same system as they still are visible for a
brief moment before cleared. Such sensitive data should be
retrieved from a file instead or similar and never used in
clear text in a command line.
When using Kerberos V5 with a Windows based server you
should include the Windows domain name in the user name,
in order for the server to successfully obtain a Kerberos
Ticket. If you do not, then the initial authentication
handshake may fail.
When using NTLM, the user name can be specified simply as
the user name, without the domain, if there is a single
domain and forest in your setup for example.
To specify the domain name use either Down-Level Logon
Name or UPN (User Principal Name) formats. For example,
EXAMPLE\user and user@example.com respectively.
If you use a Windows SSPI-enabled curl binary and perform
Kerberos V5, Negotiate, NTLM or Digest authentication then
you can tell curl to select the user name and password
from your environment by specifying a single colon with
this option: "-u :".
If -u, --user is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl -u user:secret https://example.com
See also -n, --netrc and -K, --config.
-A, --user-agent <name>
(HTTP) Specify the User-Agent string to send to the HTTP
server. To encode blanks in the string, surround the
string with single quote marks. This header can also be
set with the -H, --header or the --proxy-header options.
If you give an empty argument to -A, --user-agent (""), it
removes the header completely from the request. If you
prefer a blank header, you can set it to a single space ("
").
If -A, --user-agent is provided several times, the last
set value is used.
Example:
curl -A "Agent 007" https://example.com
See also -H, --header and --proxy-header.
--variable <[%]name=text/@file>
Set a variable with "name=content" or "name@file" (where
"file" can be stdin if set to a single dash (-)). The name
is a case sensitive identifier that must consist of no
other letters than a-z, A-Z, 0-9 or underscore. The
specified content is then associated with this identifier.
Setting the same variable name again overwrites the old
contents with the new.
The contents of a variable can be referenced in a later
command line option when that option name is prefixed with
"--expand-", and the name is used as "{{name}}" (without
the quotes).
--variable can import environment variables into the name
space. Opt to either require the environment variable to
be set or provide a default value for the variable in case
it is not already set.
--variable %name imports the variable called 'name' but
exits with an error if that environment variable is not
already set. To provide a default value if the environment
variable is not set, use --variable %name=content or
--variable %name@content. Note that on some systems - but
not all - environment variables are case insensitive.
When expanding variables, curl supports a set of functions
that can make the variable contents more convenient to
use. You apply a function to a variable expansion by
adding a colon and then list the desired functions in a
comma-separated list that is evaluated in a left-to-right
order. Variable content holding null bytes that are not
encoded when expanded, causes an error.
Available functions:
trim removes all leading and trailing white space.
json outputs the content using JSON string quoting
rules.
url shows the content URL (percent) encoded.
b64 expands the variable base64 encoded
--variable can be used several times in a command line
Example:
curl --variable name=smith https://example.com
See also -K, --config. Added in 8.3.0.
-v, --verbose
Makes curl verbose during the operation. Useful for
debugging and seeing what's going on "under the hood". A
line starting with '>' means "header data" sent by curl,
'<' means "header data" received by curl that is hidden in
normal cases, and a line starting with '*' means
additional info provided by curl.
If you only want HTTP headers in the output, -i, --include
or -D, --dump-header might be more suitable options.
If you think this option still does not give you enough
details, consider using --trace or --trace-ascii instead.
Note that verbose output of curl activities and network
traffic might contain sensitive data, including user
names, credentials or secret data content. Be aware and be
careful when sharing trace logs with others.
This option is global and does not need to be specified
for each use of --next.
Providing -v, --verbose multiple times has no extra
effect. Disable it again with --no-verbose.
Example:
curl --verbose https://example.com
See also -i, --include, -s, --silent, --trace and
--trace-ascii. This option is mutually exclusive to
--trace and --trace-ascii.
-V, --version
Displays information about curl and the libcurl version it
uses.
The first line includes the full version of curl, libcurl
and other 3rd party libraries linked with the executable.
The second line (starts with "Release-Date:") shows the
release date.
The third line (starts with "Protocols:") shows all
protocols that libcurl reports to support.
The fourth line (starts with "Features:") shows specific
features libcurl reports to offer. Available features
include:
alt-svc
Support for the Alt-Svc: header is provided.
AsynchDNS
This curl uses asynchronous name resolves.
Asynchronous name resolves can be done using either
the c-ares or the threaded resolver backends.
brotli Support for automatic brotli compression over
HTTP(S).
CharConv
curl was built with support for character set
conversions (like EBCDIC)
Debug This curl uses a libcurl built with Debug. This
enables more error-tracking and memory debugging
etc. For curl-developers only!
gsasl The built-in SASL authentication includes
extensions to support SCRAM because libcurl was
built with libgsasl.
GSS-API
GSS-API is supported.
HSTS HSTS support is present.
HTTP2 HTTP/2 support has been built-in.
HTTP3 HTTP/3 support has been built-in.
HTTPS-proxy
This curl is built to support HTTPS proxy.
IDN This curl supports IDN - international domain
names.
IPv6 You can use IPv6 with this.
Kerberos
Kerberos V5 authentication is supported.
Largefile
This curl supports transfers of large files, files
larger than 2GB.
libz Automatic decompression (via gzip, deflate) of
compressed files over HTTP is supported.
MultiSSL
This curl supports multiple TLS backends.
NTLM NTLM authentication is supported.
NTLM_WB
NTLM delegation to winbind helper is supported.
PSL PSL is short for Public Suffix List and means that
this curl has been built with knowledge about
"public suffixes".
SPNEGO SPNEGO authentication is supported.
SSL SSL versions of various protocols are supported,
such as HTTPS, FTPS, POP3S and so on.
SSPI SSPI is supported.
TLS-SRP
SRP (Secure Remote Password) authentication is
supported for TLS.
TrackMemory
Debug memory tracking is supported.
Unicode
Unicode support on Windows.
UnixSockets
Unix sockets support is provided.
zstd Automatic decompression (via zstd) of compressed
files over HTTP is supported.
Example:
curl --version
See also -h, --help and -M, --manual.
-w, --write-out <format>
Make curl display information on stdout after a completed
transfer. The format is a string that may contain plain
text mixed with any number of variables. The format can be
specified as a literal "string", or you can have curl read
the format from a file with "@filename" and to tell curl
to read the format from stdin you write "@-".
The variables present in the output format are substituted
by the value or text that curl thinks fit, as described
below. All variables are specified as %{variable_name} and
to output a normal % you just write them as %%. You can
output a newline by using \n, a carriage return with \r
and a tab space with \t.
The output is by default written to standard output, but
can be changed with %{stderr} and %output{}.
Output HTTP headers from the most recent request by using
%header{name} where name is the case insensitive name of
the header (without the trailing colon). The header
contents are exactly as sent over the network, with
leading and trailing whitespace trimmed (added in 7.84.0).
Select a specific target destination file to write the
output to, by using %output{name} (added in curl 8.3.0)
where name is the full file name. The output following
that instruction is then written to that file. More than
one %output{} instruction can be specified in the same
write-out argument. If the file name cannot be created,
curl leaves the output destination to the one used prior
to the %output{} instruction. Use %output{>>name} to
append data to an existing file.
NOTE: In Windows the %-symbol is a special symbol used to
expand environment variables. In batch files all
occurrences of % must be doubled when using this option to
properly escape. If this option is used at the command
prompt then the % cannot be escaped and unintended
expansion is possible.
The variables available are:
certs Output the certificate chain with details.
Supported only by the OpenSSL, GnuTLS, Schannel and
Secure Transport backends. (Added in 7.88.0)
content_type
The Content-Type of the requested document, if
there was any.
errormsg
The error message. (Added in 7.75.0)
exitcode
The numerical exit code of the transfer. (Added in
7.75.0)
filename_effective
The ultimate filename that curl writes out to. This
is only meaningful if curl is told to write to a
file with the -O, --remote-name or -o, --output
option. It's most useful in combination with the
-J, --remote-header-name option.
ftp_entry_path
The initial path curl ended up in when logging on
to the remote FTP server.
header_json
A JSON object with all HTTP response headers from
the recent transfer. Values are provided as arrays,
since in the case of multiple headers there can be
multiple values. (Added in 7.83.0)
The header names provided in lowercase, listed in
order of appearance over the wire. Except for
duplicated headers. They are grouped on the first
occurrence of that header, each value is presented
in the JSON array.
http_code
The numerical response code that was found in the
last retrieved HTTP(S) or FTP(s) transfer.
http_connect
The numerical code that was found in the last
response (from a proxy) to a curl CONNECT request.
http_version
The http version that was effectively used. (Added
in 7.50.0)
json A JSON object with all available keys. (Added in
7.70.0)
local_ip
The IP address of the local end of the most
recently done connection - can be either IPv4 or
IPv6.
local_port
The local port number of the most recently done
connection.
method The http method used in the most recent HTTP
request. (Added in 7.72.0)
num_certs
Number of server certificates received in the TLS
handshake. Supported only by the OpenSSL, GnuTLS,
Schannel and Secure Transport backends. (Added in
7.88.0)
num_connects
Number of new connects made in the recent transfer.
num_headers
The number of response headers in the most recent
request (restarted at each redirect). Note that the
status line IS NOT a header. (Added in 7.73.0)
num_redirects
Number of redirects that were followed in the
request.
onerror
The rest of the output is only shown if the
transfer returned a non-zero error. (Added in
7.75.0)
proxy_ssl_verify_result
The result of the HTTPS proxy's SSL peer
certificate verification that was requested. 0
means the verification was successful. (Added in
7.52.0)
redirect_url
When an HTTP request was made without -L,
--location to follow redirects (or when
--max-redirs is met), this variable shows the
actual URL a redirect would have gone to.
referer
The Referer: header, if there was any. (Added in
7.76.0)
remote_ip
The remote IP address of the most recently done
connection - can be either IPv4 or IPv6.
remote_port
The remote port number of the most recently done
connection.
response_code
The numerical response code that was found in the
last transfer (formerly known as "http_code").
scheme The URL scheme (sometimes called protocol) that was
effectively used. (Added in 7.52.0)
size_download
The total amount of bytes that were downloaded.
This is the size of the body/data that was
transferred, excluding headers.
size_header
The total amount of bytes of the downloaded
headers.
size_request
The total amount of bytes that were sent in the
HTTP request.
size_upload
The total amount of bytes that were uploaded. This
is the size of the body/data that was transferred,
excluding headers.
speed_download
The average download speed that curl measured for
the complete download. Bytes per second.
speed_upload
The average upload speed that curl measured for the
complete upload. Bytes per second.
ssl_verify_result
The result of the SSL peer certificate verification
that was requested. 0 means the verification was
successful.
stderr From this point on, the -w, --write-out output is
written to standard error. (Added in 7.63.0)
stdout From this point on, the -w, --write-out output is
written to standard output. This is the default,
but can be used to switch back after switching to
stderr. (Added in 7.63.0)
time_appconnect
The time, in seconds, it took from the start until
the SSL/SSH/etc connect/handshake to the remote
host was completed.
time_connect
The time, in seconds, it took from the start until
the TCP connect to the remote host (or proxy) was
completed.
time_namelookup
The time, in seconds, it took from the start until
the name resolving was completed.
time_pretransfer
The time, in seconds, it took from the start until
the file transfer was just about to begin. This
includes all pre-transfer commands and negotiations
that are specific to the particular protocol(s)
involved.
time_redirect
The time, in seconds, it took for all redirection
steps including name lookup, connect, pretransfer
and transfer before the final transaction was
started. time_redirect shows the complete execution
time for multiple redirections.
time_starttransfer
The time, in seconds, it took from the start until
the first byte is received. This includes
time_pretransfer and also the time the server
needed to calculate the result.
time_total
The total time, in seconds, that the full operation
lasted.
url The URL that was fetched. (Added in 7.75.0)
url.scheme
The scheme part of the URL that was fetched. (Added
in 8.1.0)
url.user
The user part of the URL that was fetched. (Added
in 8.1.0)
url.password
The password part of the URL that was fetched.
(Added in 8.1.0)
url.options
The options part of the URL that was fetched.
(Added in 8.1.0)
url.host
The host part of the URL that was fetched. (Added
in 8.1.0)
url.port
The port number of the URL that was fetched. If no
port number was specified, but the URL scheme is
known, that scheme's default port number is shown.
(Added in 8.1.0)
url.path
The path part of the URL that was fetched. (Added
in 8.1.0)
url.query
The query part of the URL that was fetched. (Added
in 8.1.0)
url.fragment
The fragment part of the URL that was fetched.
(Added in 8.1.0)
url.zoneid
The zone id part of the URL that was fetched.
(Added in 8.1.0)
urle.scheme
The scheme part of the effective (last) URL that
was fetched. (Added in 8.1.0)
urle.user
The user part of the effective (last) URL that was
fetched. (Added in 8.1.0)
urle.password
The password part of the effective (last) URL that
was fetched. (Added in 8.1.0)
urle.options
The options part of the effective (last) URL that
was fetched. (Added in 8.1.0)
urle.host
The host part of the effective (last) URL that was
fetched. (Added in 8.1.0)
urle.port
The port number of the effective (last) URL that
was fetched. If no port number was specified, but
the URL scheme is known, that scheme's default port
number is shown. (Added in 8.1.0)
urle.path
The path part of the effective (last) URL that was
fetched. (Added in 8.1.0)
urle.query
The query part of the effective (last) URL that was
fetched. (Added in 8.1.0)
urle.fragment
The fragment part of the effective (last) URL that
was fetched. (Added in 8.1.0)
urle.zoneid
The zone id part of the effective (last) URL that
was fetched. (Added in 8.1.0)
urlnum The URL index number of this transfer, 0-indexed.
Unglobbed URLs share the same index number as the
origin globbed URL. (Added in 7.75.0)
url_effective
The URL that was fetched last. This is most
meaningful if you have told curl to follow
location: headers.
If -w, --write-out is provided several times, the last set
value is used.
Example:
curl -w '%{response_code}\n' https://example.com
See also -v, --verbose and -I, --head.
--xattr
When saving output to a file, this option tells curl to
store certain file metadata in extended file attributes.
Currently, the URL is stored in the xdg.origin.url
attribute and, for HTTP, the content type is stored in the
mime_type attribute. If the file system does not support
extended attributes, a warning is issued.
Providing --xattr multiple times has no extra effect.
Disable it again with --no-xattr.
Example:
curl --xattr -o storage https://example.com
See also -R, --remote-time, -w, --write-out and -v,
--verbose.
~/.curlrc
Default config file, see -K, --config for details.
The environment variables can be specified in lower case or upper
case. The lower case version has precedence. http_proxy is an
exception as it is only available in lower case.
Using an environment variable to set the proxy has the same
effect as using the -x, --proxy option.
http_proxy [protocol://]<host>[:port]
Sets the proxy server to use for HTTP.
HTTPS_PROXY [protocol://]<host>[:port]
Sets the proxy server to use for HTTPS.
[url-protocol]_PROXY [protocol://]<host>[:port]
Sets the proxy server to use for [url-protocol], where the
protocol is a protocol that curl supports and as specified
in a URL. FTP, FTPS, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, LDAP, etc.
ALL_PROXY [protocol://]<host>[:port]
Sets the proxy server to use if no protocol-specific proxy
is set.
NO_PROXY <comma-separated list of hosts/domains>
list of host names that should not go through any proxy.
If set to an asterisk '*' only, it matches all hosts. Each
name in this list is matched as either a domain name which
contains the hostname, or the hostname itself.
This environment variable disables use of the proxy even
when specified with the -x, --proxy option. That is
NO_PROXY=direct.example.com curl -x
http://proxy.example.com http://direct.example.com
accesses the target URL directly, and
NO_PROXY=direct.example.com curl -x
http://proxy.example.com http://somewhere.example.com
accesses the target URL through the proxy.
The list of host names can also be include numerical IP
addresses, and IPv6 versions should then be given without
enclosing brackets.
IP addresses can be specified using CIDR notation: an
appended slash and number specifies the number of "network
bits" out of the address to use in the comparison (added
in 7.86.0). For example "192.168.0.0/16" would match all
addresses starting with "192.168".
APPDATA <dir>
On Windows, this variable is used when trying to find the
home directory. If the primary home variable are all
unset.
COLUMNS <terminal width>
If set, the specified number of characters is used as the
terminal width when the alternative progress-bar is shown.
If not set, curl tries to figure it out using other ways.
CURL_CA_BUNDLE <file>
If set, it is used as the --cacert value.
CURL_HOME <dir>
If set, is the first variable curl checks when trying to
find its home directory. If not set, it continues to check
XDG_CONFIG_HOME
CURL_SSL_BACKEND <TLS backend>
If curl was built with support for "MultiSSL", meaning
that it has built-in support for more than one TLS
backend, this environment variable can be set to the case
insensitive name of the particular backend to use when
curl is invoked. Setting a name that is not a built-in
alternative makes curl stay with the default.
SSL backend names (case-insensitive): bearssl, gnutls,
mbedtls, openssl, rustls, schannel, secure-transport,
wolfssl
HOME <dir>
If set, this is used to find the home directory when that
is needed. Like when looking for the default .curlrc.
CURL_HOME and XDG_CONFIG_HOME have preference.
QLOGDIR <directory name>
If curl was built with HTTP/3 support, setting this
environment variable to a local directory makes curl
produce qlogs in that directory, using file names named
after the destination connection id (in hex). Do note that
these files can become rather large. Works with the ngtcp2
and quiche QUIC backends.
SHELL Used on VMS when trying to detect if using a DCL or a unix
shell.
SSL_CERT_DIR <dir>
If set, it is used as the --capath value.
SSL_CERT_FILE <path>
If set, it is used as the --cacert value.
SSLKEYLOGFILE <file name>
If you set this environment variable to a file name, curl
stores TLS secrets from its connections in that file when
invoked to enable you to analyze the TLS traffic in real
time using network analyzing tools such as Wireshark. This
works with the following TLS backends: OpenSSL, libressl,
BoringSSL, GnuTLS and wolfSSL.
USERPROFILE <dir>
On Windows, this variable is used when trying to find the
home directory. If the other, primary, variable are all
unset. If set, curl uses the path
"$USERPROFILE\Application Data".
XDG_CONFIG_HOME <dir>
If CURL_HOME is not set, this variable is checked when
looking for a default .curlrc file.
The proxy string may be specified with a protocol:// prefix to
specify alternative proxy protocols.
If no protocol is specified in the proxy string or if the string
does not match a supported one, the proxy is treated as an HTTP
proxy.
The supported proxy protocol prefixes are as follows:
http://
Makes it use it as an HTTP proxy. The default if no scheme
prefix is used.
https://
Makes it treated as an HTTPS proxy.
socks4://
Makes it the equivalent of --socks4
socks4a://
Makes it the equivalent of --socks4a
socks5://
Makes it the equivalent of --socks5
socks5h://
Makes it the equivalent of --socks5-hostname
There are a bunch of different error codes and their
corresponding error messages that may appear under error
conditions. At the time of this writing, the exit codes are:
0 Success. The operation completed successfully according to
the instructions.
1 Unsupported protocol. This build of curl has no support
for this protocol.
2 Failed to initialize.
3 URL malformed. The syntax was not correct.
4 A feature or option that was needed to perform the desired
request was not enabled or was explicitly disabled at
build-time. To make curl able to do this, you probably
need another build of libcurl.
5 Could not resolve proxy. The given proxy host could not be
resolved.
6 Could not resolve host. The given remote host could not be
resolved.
7 Failed to connect to host.
8 Weird server reply. The server sent data curl could not
parse.
9 FTP access denied. The server denied login or denied
access to the particular resource or directory you wanted
to reach. Most often you tried to change to a directory
that does not exist on the server.
10 FTP accept failed. While waiting for the server to connect
back when an active FTP session is used, an error code was
sent over the control connection or similar.
11 FTP weird PASS reply. Curl could not parse the reply sent
to the PASS request.
12 During an active FTP session while waiting for the server
to connect back to curl, the timeout expired.
13 FTP weird PASV reply, Curl could not parse the reply sent
to the PASV request.
14 FTP weird 227 format. Curl could not parse the 227-line
the server sent.
15 FTP cannot use host. Could not resolve the host IP we got
in the 227-line.
16 HTTP/2 error. A problem was detected in the HTTP2 framing
layer. This is somewhat generic and can be one out of
several problems, see the error message for details.
17 FTP could not set binary. Could not change transfer method
to binary.
18 Partial file. Only a part of the file was transferred.
19 FTP could not download/access the given file, the RETR (or
similar) command failed.
21 FTP quote error. A quote command returned error from the
server.
22 HTTP page not retrieved. The requested URL was not found
or returned another error with the HTTP error code being
400 or above. This return code only appears if -f, --fail
is used.
23 Write error. Curl could not write data to a local
filesystem or similar.
25 Failed starting the upload. For FTP, the server typically
denied the STOR command.
26 Read error. Various reading problems.
27 Out of memory. A memory allocation request failed.
28 Operation timeout. The specified time-out period was
reached according to the conditions.
30 FTP PORT failed. The PORT command failed. Not all FTP
servers support the PORT command, try doing a transfer
using PASV instead!
31 FTP could not use REST. The REST command failed. This
command is used for resumed FTP transfers.
33 HTTP range error. The range "command" did not work.
34 HTTP post error. Internal post-request generation error.
35 SSL connect error. The SSL handshaking failed.
36 Bad download resume. Could not continue an earlier aborted
download.
37 FILE could not read file. Failed to open the file.
Permissions?
38 LDAP cannot bind. LDAP bind operation failed.
39 LDAP search failed.
41 Function not found. A required LDAP function was not
found.
42 Aborted by callback. An application told curl to abort the
operation.
43 Internal error. A function was called with a bad
parameter.
45 Interface error. A specified outgoing interface could not
be used.
47 Too many redirects. When following redirects, curl hit the
maximum amount.
48 Unknown option specified to libcurl. This indicates that
you passed a weird option to curl that was passed on to
libcurl and rejected. Read up in the manual!
49 Malformed telnet option.
52 The server did not reply anything, which here is
considered an error.
53 SSL crypto engine not found.
54 Cannot set SSL crypto engine as default.
55 Failed sending network data.
56 Failure in receiving network data.
58 Problem with the local certificate.
59 Could not use specified SSL cipher.
60 Peer certificate cannot be authenticated with known CA
certificates.
61 Unrecognized transfer encoding.
63 Maximum file size exceeded.
64 Requested FTP SSL level failed.
65 Sending the data requires a rewind that failed.
66 Failed to initialize SSL Engine.
67 The user name, password, or similar was not accepted and
curl failed to log in.
68 File not found on TFTP server.
69 Permission problem on TFTP server.
70 Out of disk space on TFTP server.
71 Illegal TFTP operation.
72 Unknown TFTP transfer ID.
73 File already exists (TFTP).
74 No such user (TFTP).
77 Problem reading the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?).
78 The resource referenced in the URL does not exist.
79 An unspecified error occurred during the SSH session.
80 Failed to shut down the SSL connection.
82 Could not load CRL file, missing or wrong format.
83 Issuer check failed.
84 The FTP PRET command failed.
85 Mismatch of RTSP CSeq numbers.
86 Mismatch of RTSP Session Identifiers.
87 Unable to parse FTP file list.
88 FTP chunk callback reported error.
89 No connection available, the session is queued.
90 SSL public key does not matched pinned public key.
91 Invalid SSL certificate status.
92 Stream error in HTTP/2 framing layer.
93 An API function was called from inside a callback.
94 An authentication function returned an error.
95 A problem was detected in the HTTP/3 layer. This is
somewhat generic and can be one out of several problems,
see the error message for details.
96 QUIC connection error. This error may be caused by an SSL
library error. QUIC is the protocol used for HTTP/3
transfers.
97 Proxy handshake error.
98 A client-side certificate is required to complete the TLS
handshake.
99 Poll or select returned fatal error.
XX More error codes might appear here in future releases. The
existing ones are meant to never change.
If you experience any problems with curl, submit an issue in the
project's bug tracker on GitHub:
https://github.com/curl/curl/issues
Daniel Stenberg is the main author, but the whole list of
contributors is found in the separate THANKS file.
https://curl.se
ftp(1), wget(1)
This page is part of the curl (Command line tool and library for
transferring data with URLs) project. Information about the
project can be found at ⟨https://curl.haxx.se/⟩. If you have a
bug report for this manual page, see
⟨https://curl.haxx.se/docs/bugs.html⟩. This page was obtained
from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/curl/curl.git⟩ on 2024-06-14. (At that time,
the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2024-06-14.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
curl 8.6.0 December 22 2023 curl(1)
Pages that refer to this page: curl-config(1), git-config(1), mk-ca-bundle(1), pmwebapi(3), systemd-socket-proxyd(8), update-pciids(8)
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