# curl

## Introduction

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.

***

## Syntax

`curl [options...]`

***

## Important Flags

<table><thead><tr><th width="201">Flags</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><code>-#</code></td><td>Will display a progress meter for you to know how much the download has progressed.(or use --silent flag for a silent crawl)</td></tr><tr><td><code>-o</code></td><td>Saves the file downloaded with the name given following the flag.</td></tr><tr><td><code>-O</code></td><td>Saves the file with the name it was saved on the server.</td></tr><tr><td><code>-C -</code></td><td>This flag can resume your broken download without specifying an offset.</td></tr><tr><td><code>--limit-rate</code></td><td>Limits the download/upload rate to somewhere near the specified range (Units in 100K,100M,100G)</td></tr><tr><td><code>-u</code></td><td>Provides user authentication (Format: -u user:password)</td></tr><tr><td><code>-T</code></td><td>Helps in uploading the file to some server(In our case php-reverse-shell)</td></tr><tr><td><code>-x</code></td><td>If you have to view the page through a PROXY. You can specify the proxy server with this flag. (-x proxy.server.com -u user:password(Authentication for proxy server))</td></tr><tr><td><code>-I</code></td><td>(Caps i) Queries the header and not the webpage.</td></tr><tr><td><code>-A</code></td><td>You can specify user agent to make request to the server</td></tr><tr><td><code>-L</code></td><td>Tells curl to follow redirects</td></tr><tr><td><code>-b</code></td><td>This flag allows you to specify cookies while making a curl request(Cookie should be in the format "NAME1=VALUE1;NAME2=VALUE2")</td></tr><tr><td><code>-d</code></td><td>This flag can be used to POST data to the server(generally used for posting form data).</td></tr><tr><td><code>-X</code></td><td>To specify the HTTP method on the URL. (GET,POST,TRACE,OPTIONS)</td></tr></tbody></table>

***

## Examples

<table><thead><tr><th width="435">Command</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><pre class="language-bash"><code class="lang-bash">curl -h
</code></pre></td><td>cURL help menu</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash"><code class="lang-bash">curl inlanefreight.com
</code></pre></td><td>Basic GET request</td></tr><tr><td><p></p><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -s -O inlanefreight.com/index.html
</code></pre></td><td>Download file</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -k https://inlanefreight.com
</code></pre></td><td>Skip HTTPS (SSL) certificate validation</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash"><code class="lang-bash">curl inlanefreight.com -v
</code></pre></td><td>Print full HTTP request/response details</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -I https://www.inlanefreight.com
</code></pre></td><td>Send HEAD request (only prints response headers)</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -i https://www.inlanefreight.com
</code></pre></td><td>Print response headers and response body</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl https://www.inlanefreight.com -A 'Mozilla/5.0'
</code></pre></td><td>Set User-Agent header</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -u admin:admin http://&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/
</code></pre></td><td>Set HTTP basic authorization credentials</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl http://admin:admin@&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/
</code></pre></td><td>Pass HTTP basic authorization credentials in the URL</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -H 'Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=' http://&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/
</code></pre></td><td>Set request header</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl 'http://&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/search.php?search=le'
</code></pre></td><td>Pass GET parameters</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -X POST -d 'username=admin&#x26;password=admin' http://&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/
</code></pre></td><td>Send POST request with POST data</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -b 'PHPSESSID=c1nsa6op7vtk7kdis7bcnbadf1' http://&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/
</code></pre></td><td>Set request cookies</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -X POST -d '{"search":"london"}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' http://&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/search.php
</code></pre></td><td>Send POST request with JSON data</td></tr></tbody></table>

### **APIs**

<table><thead><tr><th width="433">Command</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl http://&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/api.php/city/london
</code></pre></td><td>Read entry</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -s http://&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/api.php/city/ | jq
</code></pre></td><td>jq</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -X POST http://&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/api.php/city/ -d '{"city_name":"HTB_City", "country_name":"HTB"}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json'
</code></pre></td><td>Create (add) entry</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -X PUT http://&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/api.php/city/london -d '{"city_name":"New_HTB_City", "country_name":"HTB"}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json'
</code></pre></td><td>Update (modify) entry</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">curl -X DELETE http://&#x3C;SERVER_IP>:&#x3C;PORT>/api.php/city/New_HTB_City
</code></pre></td><td>Delete entry</td></tr></tbody></table>


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://thamizhiniyancs.gitbook.io/cheatsheets/linux/web-interaction/curl.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.