cURLing your way through the web

cURL is a command-line tool for transferring data using various protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and many more. It’s a Swiss Army knife for making web requests, downloading files, and interacting with APIs from your terminal.

The name stands for “Client URL”, though the original meaning has largely been forgotten in favor of just “curl”.

It comes pre-installed on most Unix-based systems (Linux, macOS) and can be installed on Windows. Here are some common ways to use it:

Basic website request:

curl example.com

Follow redirects:

curl -L example.com

Download to file:

curl -L example.com > index.html

Download script:

curl -L example.com/script.sh > script.sh

Query APIs:

curl https://wttr.in/edinburgh

Learn more: curl.se. A full practical guide here: https://youtu.be/Q3_3saEQiSA.