A command line tool for file transfer with a URL syntax is cURL, which stands for client URL and can be written as curl. Several cURL proxy protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and many more, are supported. HTTP / HTTPS makes it an excellent candidate for API interactions!

cURL can be used on any hardware that exists today, on just any device. This implies that the most simple cURL commands can only work regardless of what you are running and where.

Native cURL is installed on all new MacOS and Windows machines, so you do not need to make any extra effort to start using cURL.

What is cURL PHP?

cURL PHP is a module that allows PHP programs to gain access to PHP cURL functions. For example, in PHP, cURL exec is a command line that makes calling GET / POST requests easier and faster as well as receiving responses from other servers such as JSON and downloading files.

History of cURL

Daniel Stenberg invented cURL in 1997 as HttpGet. It was a tool for having URLs at first, but soon the developers extended their upload capabilities and introduced additional protocols.

Now, cURL is a transfer library for client-side URLs. In addition to supporting all major protocols, on most platforms, including Android, MS Windows, iOS, macOS, NetBSD, or DOS, cURL also works. Supporting over 40 programming languages, it is IPv6 compatible.

Over the years, cURL has become a global standard that is installed worldwide on more than 5 billion devices.

What can cURL do?

cURL can move data to and from servers Via syntax commands. Since it needs no user interaction, for automation, cURL is often the first option.

Getting multiple URLs with cURL

By using brackets, cURL lets you get alphanumeric sequences. Here’s an example:
http://www.website.example/photo[1-11].jpeg
http://www.website.example/photo[a-z].jpeg

{} brackets let you set multiple URLs, for example:
http://website.com/{home,about,contacts}

Pro tip: If you use cURL from a prompt on the command line, it’s best to place the entire URL in double quotes. Otherwise, the shell can interfere with the syntax, especially if the URL uses special symbols (for example, ‘&’ or ‘?’).

If you don’t define a protocol at the beginning of the syntax, cURL uses HTTP by default but tries other protocols depending on the prefix.

What is cURL used for?

cURL deals with various programming languages, so it is used by developers to build different applications, but most individuals know cURL from calling APIs.

The cURL commands in our industry are great for checking if a proxy connection is set up correctly.

What is a cURL Command?

It’s a command available on most systems based on Unix. This stands for ‘Client URL’ as an abbreviation. cURL commands are designed to act as a means of testing URL connectivity and as a great data transfer tool. Let’s learn how it can start to be used.

cURL command supports the below list of protocols:

• HTTP and HTTPS
• FTP and FTPS
• IMAP and IMAPS
• POP3 and POP3S
• SMB and SMBS
• SFTP
• SCP
• TELNET
• GOPHER
• LDAP and LDAPS
• SMTP and SMTPS

These are the most important protocols that are supported, but there are also some others. cURL is operated by libcurl, which is on the client side of a free URL transfer library.

When to use cURL?

Since cURL supports HTTP, HTTPS, TELNET, and a wide variety of other protocols connecting to remote systems, it is used when a script needs to access information from a remote device just like it was a local file/data stream.

This is important for developers who wish to receive data from a remote device and view it as they had it locally. cURL can be used in a terminal or command prompt, but before you try to use it, you need to make sure it’s installed in the device you’re using.

Conclusion

The cURL is a strong command that is commonly used. When you’re dependent on the command line, it’s useful. It has several choices and follows different protocols. We hope you got a strong jump off point for using cURL with this tutorial!

Frequently Asked Question

1. Who makes curl?

cURL and libcurl are not created by a single person. Daniel Stenberg is the project leader and principal developer, but the submissions of other individuals are significant and crucial. Anyone may contribute and post their updates and enhancements to the key sources and get them inserted.

2. Where do I buy commercial support for curl?

cURL is a fully open source. This means that you can employ any trained engineer to solve your curl-related problems.