Question 1

How to use curl to send a POST request with JSON data?

Accepted Answer

Use the -X POST flag with -H 'Content-Type: application/json' and -d '{"key":"value"}'. For example: curl -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"name":"test"}' https://api.example.com. This allows easy API testing from the command line.

Question 2

curl vs wget: which one should I use for downloading files?

Accepted Answer

curl is better for API testing and supports more protocols, while wget is simpler for recursive downloads and website mirroring. Choose curl for flexibility or wget for straightforward file retrieval tasks.

Question 3

How to save output from curl to a file?

Accepted Answer

Use the -o flag to save to a specific file, or -O to save with the remote filename. For example: curl -o output.html https://example.com saves the content to output.html, making it easy to store responses.

Question 4

Does curl support HTTPS and SSL certificates?

Accepted Answer

Yes, curl fully supports HTTPS and can manage SSL certificates. Use -k to ignore certificate errors for testing, but in production, set proper certificate paths with --cacert for security.

Question 5

How to use curl with Bearer token authentication?

Accepted Answer

Add the -H flag with 'Authorization: Bearer <token>'. For example: curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer your_token' https://api.example.com/data. This is common for securing API requests.

Question 6

Can curl handle WebSocket connections?

Accepted Answer

Yes, curl supports WebSocket (WS and WSS protocols) since version 7.86.0, but it's primarily for data transfer and not optimized for interactive, real-time sessions like dedicated libraries.

curl (k)

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