curl Command Examples

Transfers data from or to a server. Supports most protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SCP, etc. More information: https://curl.se/docs/manpage.html.

• Make an HTTP GET request and dump the contents in stdout:

curl {{https://example.com}}

• Make an HTTP GET request, follow any 3xx redirects, and dump the reply headers and contents to stdout:

curl {{[-L|--location]}} {{[-D|--dump-header]}} - {{https://example.com}}

• Download a file, saving the output under the filename indicated by the URL:

curl {{[-O|--remote-name]}} {{https://example.com/filename.zip}}

• Send form-encoded data (POST request of type application/x-www-form-urlencoded). Use --data @file_name or --data @'-' to read from stdin:

curl {{[-X|--request]}} POST {{[-d|--data]}} {{'name=bob'}} {{http://example.com/form}}

• Send a request with an extra header, using a custom HTTP method and over a proxy (such as BurpSuite), ignoring insecure self-signed certificates:

curl {{[-k|--insecure]}} {{[-x|--proxy]}} {{http://127.0.0.1:8080}} {{[-H|--header]}} {{'Authorization: Bearer token'}} {{[-X|--request]}} {{GET|PUT|POST|DELETE|PATCH|...}} {{https://example.com}}

• Send data in JSON format, specifying the appropriate Content-Type header:

curl {{[-d|--data]}} {{'{"name":"bob"}'}} {{[-H|--header]}} {{'Content-Type: application/json'}} {{http://example.com/users/1234}}

• Pass client certificate and key for a resource, skipping certificate validation:

curl {{[-E|--cert]}} {{client.pem}} --key {{key.pem}} {{[-k|--insecure]}} {{https://example.com}}

• Resolve a hostname to a custom IP address, with verbose output (similar to editing the /etc/hosts file for custom DNS resolution):

curl {{[-v|--verbose]}} --resolve {{example.com}}:{{80}}:{{127.0.0.1}} {{http://example.com}}