What is curl and why it is used?

Author: Jaime Carter  |  Last update: Saturday, April 19, 2025

cURL, which stands for client URL, is a command line tool that developers use to transfer data to and from a server. At the most fundamental, cURL lets you talk to a server by specifying the location (in the form of a URL) and the data you want to send.

What is the purpose of cURL?

curl is a command-line tool for getting or sending data including files using URL syntax. curl provides an interface to the libcurl library; it supports every protocol libcurl supports. curl supports HTTPS and performs SSL certificate verification by default when a secure protocol is specified such as HTTPS.

What is cURL and how to use it?

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

What is the cURL option used for?

The cURL command lets you send or fetch data from an endpoint using different HTTP methods: GET – the default method that fetches data from the server. POST – sends data to the endpoint. PUT – creates a resource on the endpoint or updates an existing one.

What is the application of cURL?

curl is used in command lines or scripts to transfer data.

You NEED to know how to use CURL!

What is the curl application?

cURL (pronounced as “curl”) is an open-source command-line tool and library that enables data transfer using various network protocols, such as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, IMAP, and more. It's often used to interact with APIs, download files, or test server responses.

What is the importance of curl?

In addition to its intrinsic value, culture provides important social and economic benefits. With improved learning and health, increased tolerance, and opportunities to come together with others, culture enhances our quality of life and increases overall well-being for both individuals and communities.

What is the difference between wget and curl?

CURL uploads and downloads resources, whereas Wget primarily downloads files. Wget is a simple executable on the system, whereas cURL is a more complete application with a supporting library. Wget only uploads using a limited HTTP POST feature, while cURL is a better choice for pushing files to remote locations.

Why use curl instead of browser?

Efficient Data Transfer

cURL operates in a headless mode, meaning it doesn't need a graphical user interface (GUI) to function. This makes it incredibly lightweight and efficient, especially for server-side tasks and data transfers in background processes or on systems without a GUI.

Is using curl safe?

Unauthenticated connections

Unauthenticated protocols are unsafe. The data that comes back to curl may have been injected by an attacker. The data that curl sends might be modified before it reaches the intended server. If it even reaches the intended server at all.

What is the difference between curl and API?

cURL is a command line tool without any graphical user interface, on the other hand, REST API is an application programming interface deployed on a server or a device. cURL can make network requests and receive responses, and REST API can receive network requests and respond accordingly.

How do I know if curl is installed?

To check whether curl is installed, open the command prompt and type the curl -V command. If the command is recognized, curl is installed. More recent Windows builds already have curl installed by default. But you candownload a graphical installer.

What is the limit rate in curl?

With --limit-rate [speed] you can tell curl to not go faster than the given number of bytes per second. The rate limit value can be given with a letter suffix using one of K, M and G for kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes. The given limit is the maximum average speed allowed during a period of several seconds.

What is curl better explained?

Curl is simply the circulation per unit area, circulation density, or rate of rotation (amount of twisting at a single point). Imagine shrinking your whirlpool down smaller and smaller while keeping the force the same: you'll have a lot of power in a small area, so will have a large curl.

What is the difference between URL and curl?

curl is called curl because a substring in its name is URL (Uniform Resource Locator). It operates on URLs. URL is the name we casually use for the web address strings, like the ones we usually see prefixed with HTTP:// or starting with www. URL is, strictly speaking, the former name for these.

What is the difference between curl and postman?

cURL is a command-line tool used for transferring data using various protocols. However, it can be cumbersome to work with, especially for complex API requests. Postman is a more user-friendly tool that allows us to test and interact with HTTP-based APIs.

What is an example of a curl?

The most basic command in curl is curl http://example.com . The curl command is followed by the URL, from which we would like to retrieve some kind of data. In this case, it would return the html source for example.com .

Why do we use curl?

Originally developed by Daniel Stenberg, ` curl` is a command-line tool and library for transferring data with URLs. It supports a wide range of protocols, making it an invaluable tool for fetching, uploading, and managing data over the Internet.

What is curl alternative to Windows?

9 cURL Alternatives
  • Wget.
  • Aria2.
  • Postman.
  • Flurl.
  • WinSCP.
  • HTTPie.
  • FileZilla.
  • Kreya.

What does wget stand for?

Wget (short for World Wide Web Get) is an open-source utility that allows you to retrieve content from web servers via HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP protocols. It is designed for non-interactive downloads, meaning it can operate in the background without user input, making it great for scheduled downloads.

Does curl use FTP?

curl is a tool to transfer data from or to a server, using one of the supported protocols (DICT, FILE, FTP, FTPS, GOPHER, HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP, IMAPS, LDAP, LDAPS, POP3, POP3S, RTMP, RTSP, SCP, SFTP, SMB, SMBS, SMTP, SMTPS, TELNET and TFTP).

Does curl follow redirects?

By default, cURL doesn't follow redirects. The -L or –location option enables redirect following, with a limit of 30 redirects to prevent loops.

What does curl tell us?

In vector calculus, the curl, also known as rotor, is a vector operator that describes the infinitesimal circulation of a vector field in three-dimensional Euclidean space. The curl at a point in the field is represented by a vector whose length and direction denote the magnitude and axis of the maximum circulation.

What do curls do?

Bicep curls isolate the body movement of elbow flexion, or rather bending of the arm at the elbow. It targets the specific muscles located at the front of your arms called; biceps brachii, brachialis and brachioradialis.

What does curl get do?

cURL GET Request Arguments

Retrieves HTTP headers only. Includes the HTTP response headers in the output. Specifies the User-Agent string to send to the server. Specifies the request type to use (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.)

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