28/04/2016 cURLHowToUse

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Manual
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SYNOPSIS
curl[options][URL...]

DESCRIPTION
curlisatooltotransferdatafromortoaserver,usingoneofthesupportedprotocols
(DICT,FILE,FTP,FTPS,GOPHER,HTTP,HTTPS,IMAP,IMAPS,LDAP,LDAPS,POP3,
POP3S,RTMP,RTSP,SCP,SFTP,SMB,SMBS,SMTP,SMTPS,TELNETandTFTP).
Thecommandisdesignedtoworkwithoutuserinteraction.

curloffersabusloadofusefultrickslikeproxysupport,userauthentication,FTPupload,
HTTPpost,SSLconnections,cookies,filetransferresume,Metalink,andmore.Asyou
willseebelow,thenumberoffeatureswillmakeyourheadspin!

curlispoweredbylibcurlforalltransferrelatedfeatures.Seelibcurl(3)fordetails.

URL
TheURLsyntaxisprotocoldependent.You'llfindadetaileddescriptioninRFC3986.

YoucanspecifymultipleURLsorpartsofURLsbywritingpartsetswithinbracesasin:

http://site.{one,two,three}.com

oryoucangetsequencesofalphanumericseriesbyusing[]asin:

ftp://ftp.example.com/file[1100].txt

ftp://ftp.example.com/file[001100].txt(withleadingzeros)

ftp://ftp.example.com/file[az].txt

Nestedsequencesarenotsupported,butyoucanuseseveralonesnexttoeachother:

http://example.com/archive[19961999]/vol[14]/part{a,b,c}.html

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YoucanspecifyanyamountofURLsonthecommandline.Theywillbefetchedina
sequentialmannerinthespecifiedorder.

YoucanspecifyastepcounterfortherangestogeteveryNthnumberorletter:

http://example.com/file[1100:10].txt

http://example.com/file[az:2].txt

Whenusing[]or{}sequenceswheninvokedfromacommandlineprompt,youprobably
havetoputthefullURLwithindoublequotestoavoidtheshellfrominterferingwithit.This
alsogoesforothercharacterstreatedspecial,likeforexample'&','?'and'*'.

ProvidetheIPv6zoneindexintheURLwithanescapedpercentagesignandthe
interfacename.Likein

http://[fe80::3%25eth0]/

IfyouspecifyURLwithoutprotocol://prefix,curlwillattempttoguesswhatprotocolyou
mightwant.ItwillthendefaulttoHTTPbuttryotherprotocolsbasedonoftenusedhost
nameprefixes.Forexample,forhostnamesstartingwith"ftp."curlwillassumeyouwant
tospeakFTP.

curlwilldoitsbesttousewhatyoupasstoitasaURL.Itisnottryingtovalidateitasa
syntacticallycorrectURLbyanymeansbutisinsteadveryliberalwithwhatitaccepts.

curlwillattempttoreuseconnectionsformultiplefiletransfers,sothatgettingmanyfiles
fromthesameserverwillnotdomultipleconnects/handshakes.Thisimprovesspeed.Of
coursethisisonlydoneonfilesspecifiedonasinglecommandlineandcannotbeused
betweenseparatecurlinvokes.

PROGRESSMETER
curlnormallydisplaysaprogressmeterduringoperations,indicatingtheamountof
transferreddata,transferspeedsandestimatedtimeleft,etc.

curldisplaysthisdatatotheterminalbydefault,soifyouinvokecurltodoanoperation
anditisabouttowritedatatotheterminal,itdisablestheprogressmeterasotherwiseit
wouldmessuptheoutputmixingprogressmeterandresponsedata.

IfyouwantaprogressmeterforHTTPPOSTorPUTrequests,youneedtoredirectthe
responseoutputtoafile,usingshellredirect(>),o[file]orsimilar.

ItisnotthesamecaseforFTPuploadasthatoperationdoesnotspitoutanyresponse
datatotheterminal.

Ifyoupreferaprogress"bar"insteadoftheregularmeter,#isyourfriend.

OPTIONS
Optionsstartwithoneortwodashes.Manyoftheoptionsrequireanadditionalvaluenext
tothem.

Theshort"singledash"formoftheoptions,dforexample,maybeusedwithorwithouta
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spacebetweenitanditsvalue,althoughaspaceisarecommendedseparator.Thelong
"doubledash"form,dataforexample,requiresaspacebetweenitanditsvalue.

Shortversionoptionsthatdon'tneedanyadditionalvaluescanbeusedimmediatelynext
toeachother,likeforexampleyoucanspecifyalltheoptionsO,Landvatonceas
OLv.

Ingeneral,allbooleanoptionsareenabledwithoptionandyetagaindisabledwithno
option.Thatis,youusetheexactsameoptionnamebutprefixitwith"no".However,in
thislistwemostlyonlylistandshowtheoptionversionofthem.(Thisconceptwithno
optionswasaddedin7.19.0.Previouslymostoptionsweretoggledon/offonrepeateduse
ofthesamecommandlineoption.)

#,progressbar

Makecurldisplayprogressasasimpleprogressbarinsteadofthestandard,more
informational,meter.

:,next

TellscurltouseaseparateoperationforthefollowingURLandassociatedoptions.
ThisallowsyoutosendseveralURLrequests,eachwiththeirownspecificoptions,
forexample,suchasdifferentusernamesorcustomrequestsforeach.(Addedin
7.36.0)

0,http1.0

(HTTP)TellscurltouseHTTPversion1.0insteadofusingitsinternallypreferred:
HTTP1.1.

http1.1

(HTTP)TellscurltouseHTTPversion1.1.Thisistheinternaldefaultversion.(Added
in7.33.0)

http2

(HTTP)TellscurltoissueitsrequestsusingHTTP2.Thisrequiresthattheunderlying
libcurlwasbuilttosupportit.(Addedin7.33.0)

http2priorknowledge

(HTTP)TellscurltoissueitsnonTLSHTTPrequestsusingHTTP/2without
HTTP/1.1Upgrade.ItrequirespriorknowledgethattheserversupportsHTTP/2
straightaway.HTTPSrequestswillstilldoHTTP/2thestandardwaywithnegotiated
protocolversionintheTLShandshake.

HTTP/2supportingeneralalsorequiresthattheunderlyinglibcurlwasbuilttosupport
it.(Addedin7.49.0)

nonpn

DisabletheNPNTLSextension.NPNisenabledbydefaultiflibcurlwasbuiltwithan
SSLlibrarythatsupportsNPN.NPNisusedbyalibcurlthatsupportsHTTP2to
negotiateHTTP2supportwiththeserverduringhttpssessions.

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(Addedin7.36.0)

noalpn

DisabletheALPNTLSextension.ALPNisenabledbydefaultiflibcurlwasbuiltwith
anSSLlibrarythatsupportsALPN.ALPNisusedbyalibcurlthatsupportsHTTP2to
negotiateHTTP2supportwiththeserverduringhttpssessions.

(Addedin7.36.0)

1,tlsv1

(SSL)ForcescurltouseTLSversion1.xwhennegotiatingwitharemoteTLSserver.
Youcanuseoptionstlsv1.0,tlsv1.1,andtlsv1.2tocontroltheTLSversionmore
precisely(iftheSSLbackendinusesupportssuchalevelofcontrol).

2,sslv2

(SSL)ForcescurltouseSSLversion2whennegotiatingwitharemoteSSLserver.
SometimescurlisbuiltwithoutSSLv2support.SSLv2iswidelyconsideredinsecure
(seeRFC6176).

3,sslv3

(SSL)ForcescurltouseSSLversion3whennegotiatingwitharemoteSSLserver.
SometimescurlisbuiltwithoutSSLv3support.SSLv3iswidelyconsideredinsecure
(seeRFC7568).

4,ipv4

ThisoptiontellscurltoresolvenamestoIPv4addressesonly,andnotforexampletry
IPv6.

6,ipv6

ThisoptiontellscurltoresolvenamestoIPv6addressesonly,andnotforexampletry
IPv4.

a,append

(FTP/SFTP)Whenusedinanupload,thismakescurlappendtothetargetfileinstead
ofoverwritingit.Iftheremotefiledoesn'texist,itwillbecreated.Notethatthisflagis
ignoredbysomeSFTPservers(includingOpenSSH).

A,useragent<agentstring>

(HTTP)SpecifytheUserAgentstringtosendtotheHTTPserver.Somebadlydone
CGIsfailifthisfieldisn'tsetto"Mozilla/4.0".Toencodeblanksinthestring,surround
thestringwithsinglequotemarks.ThiscanalsobesetwiththeH,headeroptionof
course.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

anyauth

(HTTP)Tellscurltofigureoutauthenticationmethodbyitself,andusethemost
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secureonetheremotesiteclaimstosupport.Thisisdonebyfirstdoingarequestand
checkingtheresponseheaders,thuspossiblyinducinganextranetworkroundtrip.
Thisisusedinsteadofsettingaspecificauthenticationmethod,whichyoucando
withbasic,digest,ntlm,andnegotiate.

Notethatusinganyauthisnotrecommendedifyoudouploadsfromstdin,sinceit
mayrequiredatatobesenttwiceandthentheclientmustbeabletorewind.Ifthe
needshouldarisewhenuploadingfromstdin,theuploadoperationwillfail.

b,cookie<name=data>

(HTTP)PassthedatatotheHTTPserverasacookie.Itissupposedlythedata
previouslyreceivedfromtheserverina"SetCookie:"line.Thedatashouldbeinthe
format"NAME1=VALUE1NAME2=VALUE2".

Ifno'='symbolisusedintheline,itistreatedasafilenametousetoreadpreviously
storedcookielinesfrom,whichshouldbeusedinthissessioniftheymatch.Using
thismethodalsoactivatesthecookieenginewhichwillmakecurlrecordincoming
cookiestoo,whichmaybehandyifyou'reusingthisincombinationwiththeL,
locationoption.ThefileformatofthefiletoreadcookiesfromshouldbeplainHTTP
headers(SetCookiestyle)ortheNetscape/Mozillacookiefileformat.

Thefilespecifiedwithb,cookieisonlyusedasinput.Nocookieswillbewrittento
thefile.Tostorecookies,usethec,cookiejaroption.

Exercisecautionifyouareusingthisoptionandmultipletransfersmayoccur.Ifyou
usetheNAME1=VALUE1format,orinafileusetheSetCookieformatanddon't
specifyadomain,thenthecookieissentforanydomain(evenafterredirectsare
followed)andcannotbemodifiedbyaserversetcookie.Ifthecookieengineis
enabledandaserversetsacookieofthesamenamethenbothwillbesentona
futuretransfertothatserver,likelynotwhatyouintended.Toaddresstheseissues
setadomaininSetCookie(doingthatwillincludesubdomains)orusetheNetscape
format.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

B,useascii

(FTP/LDAP)EnableASCIItransfer.ForFTP,thiscanalsobeenforcedbyusingan
URLthatendswith"type=A".Thisoptioncausesdatasenttostdouttobeintext
modeforwin32systems.

basic

(HTTP)TellscurltouseHTTPBasicauthenticationwiththeremotehost.Thisisthe
defaultandthisoptionisusuallypointless,unlessyouuseittooverrideapreviously
setoptionthatsetsadifferentauthenticationmethod(suchasntlm,digest,or
negotiate).

Usedtogetherwithu,userandx,proxy.

Seealsoproxybasic.

c,cookiejar<filename>

(HTTP)Specifytowhichfileyouwantcurltowriteallcookiesafteracompleted
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operation.Curlwritesallcookiespreviouslyreadfromaspecifiedfileaswellasall
cookiesreceivedfromremoteserver(s).Ifnocookiesareknown,nodatawillbe
written.ThefilewillbewrittenusingtheNetscapecookiefileformat.Ifyousetthefile
nametoasingledash,"",thecookieswillbewrittentostdout.

Thiscommandlineoptionwillactivatethecookieenginethatmakescurlrecordand
usecookies.Anotherwaytoactivateitistousetheb,cookieoption.

Ifthecookiejarcan'tbecreatedorwrittento,thewholecurloperationwon'tfailor
evenreportanerrorclearly.Usingvwillgetawarningdisplayed,butthatistheonly
visiblefeedbackyougetaboutthispossiblylethalsituation.

Since7.43.0cookiesthatwereimportedintheSetCookieformatwithoutadomain
namearenotexportedbythisoption.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastspecifiedfilenamewillbeused.

C,continueat<offset>

Continue/Resumeapreviousfiletransferatthegivenoffset.Thegivenoffsetisthe
exactnumberofbytesthatwillbeskipped,countingfromthebeginningofthesource
filebeforeitistransferredtothedestination.Ifusedwithuploads,theFTPserver
commandSIZEwillnotbeusedbycurl.

Use"C"totellcurltoautomaticallyfindoutwhere/howtoresumethetransfer.It
thenusesthegivenoutput/inputfilestofigurethatout.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

ciphers<listofciphers>

(SSL)Specifieswhichcipherstouseintheconnection.Thelistofciphersmust
specifyvalidciphers.ReaduponSSLcipherlistdetailsonthisURL:
https://www.openssl.org/docs/apps/ciphers.html

NSSciphersaredonedifferentlythanOpenSSLandGnuTLS.ThefulllistofNSS
ciphersisintheNSSCipherSuiteentryatthisURL:
https://git.fedorahosted.org/cgit/mod_nss.git/plain/docs/mod_nss.html#Directives

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

compressed

(HTTP)Requestacompressedresponseusingoneofthealgorithmscurlsupports,
andsavetheuncompresseddocument.Ifthisoptionisusedandtheserversendsan
unsupportedencoding,curlwillreportanerror.

connecttimeout<seconds>

Maximumtimeinsecondsthatyouallowcurl'sconnectiontotake.Thisonlylimitsthe
connectionphase,soifcurlconnectswithinthegivenperioditwillcontinueifnotit
willexit.Sinceversion7.32.0,thisoptionacceptsdecimalvalues.

Seealsothem,maxtimeoption.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.
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createdirs

Whenusedinconjunctionwiththeooption,curlwillcreatethenecessarylocal
directoryhierarchyasneeded.Thisoptioncreatesthedirsmentionedwiththeo
option,nothingelse.Iftheofilenameusesnodirorifthedirsitmentionsalready
exist,nodirwillbecreated.

TocreateremotedirectorieswhenusingFTPorSFTP,tryftpcreatedirs.

crlf

ConvertLFtoCRLFinupload.UsefulforMVS(OS/390).

(SMTPaddedin7.40.0)

crlfile<file>

(HTTPS/FTPS)ProvideafileusingPEMformatwithaCertificateRevocationListthat
mayspecifypeercertificatesthataretobeconsideredrevoked.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

(Addedin7.19.7)

d,data<data>

(HTTP)SendsthespecifieddatainaPOSTrequesttotheHTTPserver,inthesame
waythatabrowserdoeswhenauserhasfilledinanHTMLformandpressesthe
submitbutton.Thiswillcausecurltopassthedatatotheserverusingthecontent
typeapplication/xwwwformurlencoded.ComparetoF,form.

d,dataisthesameasdataascii.datarawisalmostthesamebutdoesnothave
[email protected],youshould
insteadusethedatabinaryoption.ToURLencodethevalueofaformfieldyou
mayusedataurlencode.

Ifanyoftheseoptionsisusedmorethanonceonthesamecommandline,thedata
piecesspecifiedwillbemergedtogetherwithaseparating&symbol.Thus,using'd
name=danieldskill=lousy'wouldgenerateapostchunkthatlookslike
'name=daniel&skill=lousy'.

Ifyoustartthedatawiththeletter@,therestshouldbeafilenametoreadthedata
from,orifyouwantcurltoreadthedatafromstdin.Multiplefilescanalsobe
specified.Postingdatafromafilenamed'foobar'wouldthusbedonewithdata
@foobar.Whendataistoldtoreadfromafilelikethat,carriagereturnsand
newlineswillbestrippedout.Ifyoudon'twantthe@charactertohaveaspecial
interpretationusedatarawinstead.

D,dumpheader<file>

Writetheprotocolheaderstothespecifiedfile.

ThisoptionishandytousewhenyouwanttostoretheheadersthatanHTTPsite
sendstoyou.Cookiesfromtheheaderscouldthenbereadinasecondcurl
invocationbyusingtheb,cookieoption!Thec,cookiejaroptionisabetterway
tostorecookies.
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WhenusedinFTP,theFTPserverresponselinesareconsideredbeing"headers"
andthusaresavedthere.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

dataascii<data>

Seed,data.

databinary<data>

(HTTP)Thispostsdataexactlyasspecifiedwithnoextraprocessingwhatsoever.

Ifyoustartthedatawiththeletter@,therestshouldbeafilename.Dataispostedin
asimilarmannerasdataasciidoes,exceptthatnewlinesandcarriagereturnsare
preservedandconversionsareneverdone.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,theonesfollowingthefirstwillappenddataas
describedind,data.

dataraw<data>

(HTTP)Thispostsdatasimilarlytodatabutwithoutthespecialinterpretationofthe
@character.Seed,data.(Addedin7.43.0)

dataurlencode<data>

(HTTP)Thispostsdata,similartotheotherdataoptionswiththeexceptionthatthis
performsURLencoding.(Addedin7.18.0)

TobeCGIcompliant,the<data>partshouldbeginwithanamefollowedbya
separatorandacontentspecification.The<data>partcanbepassedtocurlusing
oneofthefollowingsyntaxes:

content

ThiswillmakecurlURLencodethecontentandpassthaton.Justbecarefulso
thatthecontentdoesn'tcontainany=or@symbols,asthatwillthenmakethe
syntaxmatchoneoftheothercasesbelow!

=content

ThiswillmakecurlURLencodethecontentandpassthaton.Thepreceding=
symbolisnotincludedinthedata.

name=content

ThiswillmakecurlURLencodethecontentpartandpassthaton.Notethatthe
namepartisexpectedtobeURLencodedalready.

@filename

Thiswillmakecurlloaddatafromthegivenfile(includinganynewlines),URL
encodethatdataandpassitoninthePOST.

name@filename

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Thiswillmakecurlloaddatafromthegivenfile(includinganynewlines),URL
encodethatdataandpassitoninthePOST.Thenamepartgetsanequalsign
appended,resultinginname=urlencodedfilecontent.Notethatthenameis
expectedtobeURLencodedalready.

delegationLEVEL

SetLEVELtotelltheserverwhatitisallowedtodelegatewhenitcomestouser
credentials.UsedwithGSS/kerberos.

none

Don'tallowanydelegation.

policy

DelegatesifandonlyiftheOKASDELEGATEflagissetintheKerberosservice
ticket,whichisamatterofrealmpolicy.

always

Unconditionallyallowtheservertodelegate.

digest

(HTTP)EnablesHTTPDigestauthentication.Thisisanauthenticationschemethat
preventsthepasswordfrombeingsentoverthewireincleartext.Usethisin
combinationwiththenormalu,useroptiontosetusernameandpassword.See
alsontlm,negotiateandanyauthforrelatedoptions.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,onlythefirstoneisused.

disableeprt

(FTP)TellcurltodisabletheuseoftheEPRTandLPRTcommandswhendoing
activeFTPtransfers.CurlwillnormallyalwaysfirstattempttouseEPRT,thenLPRT
beforeusingPORT,butwiththisoption,itwillusePORTrightaway.EPRTandLPRT
areextensionstotheoriginalFTPprotocol,andmaynotworkonallservers,butthey
enablemorefunctionalityinabetterwaythanthetraditionalPORTcommand.

eprtcanbeusedtoexplicitlyenableEPRTagainandnoeprtisanaliasfor
disableeprt.

IftheserverisanIPv6host,thisoptionwillhavenoeffectasEPRTisnecessary
then.

DisablingEPRTonlychangestheactivebehavior.Ifyouwanttoswitchtopassive
modeyouneedtonotuseP,ftpportorforceitwithftppasv.

disableepsv

(FTP)TellcurltodisabletheuseoftheEPSVcommandwhendoingpassiveFTP
transfers.CurlwillnormallyalwaysfirstattempttouseEPSVbeforePASV,butwith
thisoption,itwillnottryusingEPSV.

epsvcanbeusedtoexplicitlyenableEPSVagainandnoepsvisanaliasfor
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disableepsv.

IftheserverisanIPv6host,thisoptionwillhavenoeffectasEPSVisnecessary
then.

DisablingEPSVonlychangesthepassivebehavior.Ifyouwanttoswitchtoactive
modeyouneedtouseP,ftpport.

dnsinterface<interface>

TellcurltosendoutgoingDNSrequeststhrough<interface>.Thisoptionisa
counterparttointerface(whichdoesnotaffectDNS).Thesuppliedstringmustbean
interfacename(notanaddress).

Thisoptionrequiresthatlibcurlwasbuiltwitharesolverbackendthatsupportsthis
operation.Thecaresbackendistheonlysuchone.(Addedin7.33.0)

dnsipv4addr<ipaddress>

Tellcurltobindto<ipaddress>whenmakingIPv4DNSrequests,sothattheDNS
requestsoriginatefromthisaddress.TheargumentshouldbeasingleIPv4address.

Thisoptionrequiresthatlibcurlwasbuiltwitharesolverbackendthatsupportsthis
operation.Thecaresbackendistheonlysuchone.(Addedin7.33.0)

dnsipv6addr<ipaddress>

Tellcurltobindto<ipaddress>whenmakingIPv6DNSrequests,sothattheDNS
requestsoriginatefromthisaddress.TheargumentshouldbeasingleIPv6address.

Thisoptionrequiresthatlibcurlwasbuiltwitharesolverbackendthatsupportsthis
operation.Thecaresbackendistheonlysuchone.(Addedin7.33.0)

dnsservers<ipaddress,ipaddress>

SetthelistofDNSserverstobeusedinsteadofthesystemdefault.ThelistofIP
addressesshouldbeseparatedwithcommas.Portnumbersmayalsooptionallybe
givenas:<portnumber>aftereachIPaddress.

Thisoptionrequiresthatlibcurlwasbuiltwitharesolverbackendthatsupportsthis
operation.Thecaresbackendistheonlysuchone.(Addedin7.33.0)

e,referer<URL>

(HTTP)Sendsthe"ReferrerPage"informationtotheHTTPserver.Thiscanalsobe
setwiththeH,headerflagofcourse.WhenusedwithL,locationyoucanappend
"auto"totherefererURLtomakecurlautomaticallysetthepreviousURLwhenit
followsaLocation:header.The"auto"stringcanbeusedalone,evenifyoudon'tset
aninitialreferer.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

E,cert<certificate[:password]>

(SSL)Tellscurltousethespecifiedclientcertificatefilewhengettingafilewith
HTTPS,FTPSoranotherSSLbasedprotocol.ThecertificatemustbeinPKCS#12
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formatifusingSecureTransport,orPEMformatifusinganyotherengine.Ifthe
optionalpasswordisn'tspecified,itwillbequeriedforontheterminal.Notethatthis
optionassumesa"certificate"filethatistheprivatekeyandtheclientcertificate
concatenated!Seecertandkeytospecifythemindependently.

IfcurlisbuiltagainsttheNSSSSLlibrarythenthisoptioncantellcurlthenicknameof
thecertificatetousewithintheNSSdatabasedefinedbytheenvironmentvariable
SSL_DIR(orbydefault/etc/pki/nssdb).IftheNSSPEMPKCS#11module
(libnsspem.so)isavailablethenPEMfilesmaybeloaded.Ifyouwanttouseafile
fromthecurrentdirectory,pleaseprecedeitwith"./"prefix,inordertoavoidconfusion
withanickname.Ifthenicknamecontains":",itneedstobeprecededby"\"sothatit
isnotrecognizedaspassworddelimiter.Ifthenicknamecontains"\",itneedstobe
escapedas"\\"sothatitisnotrecognizedasanescapecharacter.

(iOSandMacOSXonly)IfcurlisbuiltagainstSecureTransport,thenthecertificate
stringcaneitherbethenameofacertificate/privatekeyinthesystemoruser
keychain,orthepathtoaPKCS#12encodedcertificateandprivatekey.Ifyouwant
touseafilefromthecurrentdirectory,pleaseprecedeitwith"./"prefix,inorderto
avoidconfusionwithanickname.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

engine<name>

SelecttheOpenSSLcryptoenginetouseforcipheroperations.Useenginelistto
printalistofbuildtimesupportedengines.Notethatnotall(ornone)oftheengines
maybeavailableatruntime.

environment

(RISCOSONLY)Setsarangeofenvironmentvariables,usingthenamesthew
optionsupports,toalloweasierextractionofusefulinformationafterhavingruncurl.

egdfile<file>

(SSL)SpecifythepathnametotheEntropyGatheringDaemonsocket.Thesocketis
usedtoseedtherandomengineforSSLconnections.Seealsotherandomfile
option.

expect100timeout<seconds>

(HTTP)Maximumtimeinsecondsthatyouallowcurltowaitfora100continue
responsewhencurlemitsanExpects:100continueheaderinitsrequest.Bydefault
curlwillwaitonesecond.Thisoptionacceptsdecimalvalues!Whencurlstops
waiting,itwillcontinueasiftheresponsehasbeenreceived.

(Addedin7.47.0)

certtype<type>

(SSL)Tellscurlwhatcertificatetypetheprovidedcertificateisin.PEM,DERand
ENGarerecognizedtypes.Ifnotspecified,PEMisassumed.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

cacert<CAcertificate>
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(SSL)Tellscurltousethespecifiedcertificatefiletoverifythepeer.Thefilemay
containmultipleCAcertificates.Thecertificate(s)mustbeinPEMformat.Normally
curlisbuilttouseadefaultfileforthis,sothisoptionistypicallyusedtoalterthat
defaultfile.

curlrecognizestheenvironmentvariablenamed'CURL_CA_BUNDLE'ifitisset,and
usesthegivenpathasapathtoaCAcertbundle.Thisoptionoverridesthatvariable.

ThewindowsversionofcurlwillautomaticallylookforaCAcertsfilenamedcurlca
bundle.crt,eitherinthesamedirectoryascurl.exe,orintheCurrentWorking
Directory,orinanyfolderalongyourPATH.

IfcurlisbuiltagainsttheNSSSSLlibrary,theNSSPEMPKCS#11module
(libnsspem.so)needstobeavailableforthisoptiontoworkproperly.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

capath<CAcertificatedirectory>

(SSL)Tellscurltousethespecifiedcertificatedirectorytoverifythepeer.Multiple
pathscanbeprovidedbyseparatingthemwith":"(e.g."path1:path2:path3").The
certificatesmustbeinPEMformat,andifcurlisbuiltagainstOpenSSL,thedirectory
musthavebeenprocessedusingthec_rehashutilitysuppliedwithOpenSSL.Using
capathcanallowOpenSSLpoweredcurltomakeSSLconnectionsmuchmore
efficientlythanusingcacertifthecacertfilecontainsmanyCAcertificates.

Ifthisoptionisset,thedefaultcapathvaluewillbeignored,andifitisusedseveral
times,thelastonewillbeused.

pinnedpubkey<pinnedpublickey(hashes)>

(SSL)Tellscurltousethespecifiedpublickeyfile(orhashes)toverifythepeer.This
canbeapathtoafilewhichcontainsasinglepublickeyinPEMorDERformat,or
anynumberofbase64encodedsha256hashesprecededbysha256//and
separatedby

WhennegotiatingaTLSorSSLconnection,theserversendsacertificateindicating
itsidentity.Apublickeyisextractedfromthiscertificateandifitdoesnotexactly
matchthepublickeyprovidedtothisoption,curlwillaborttheconnectionbefore
sendingorreceivinganydata.

PEM/DERsupport:7.39.0:OpenSSL,GnuTLSandGSKit7.43.0:NSSand
wolfSSL/CyaSSL7.47.0:mbedtls7.49.0:PolarSSLsha256support:7.44.0:
OpenSSL,GnuTLS,NSSandwolfSSL/CyaSSL.7.47.0:mbedtls7.49.0:PolarSSL
OtherSSLbackendsnotsupported.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

certstatus

(SSL)TellscurltoverifythestatusoftheservercertificatebyusingtheCertificate
StatusRequest(aka.OCSPstapling)TLSextension.

Ifthisoptionisenabledandtheserversendsaninvalid(e.g.expired)response,ifthe
responsesuggeststhattheservercertificatehasbeenrevoked,ornoresponseatall
isreceived,theverificationfails.
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ThisiscurrentlyonlyimplementedintheOpenSSL,GnuTLSandNSSbackends.
(Addedin7.41.0)

falsestart

(SSL)TellscurltousefalsestartduringtheTLShandshake.Falsestartisamode
whereaTLSclientwillstartsendingapplicationdatabeforeverifyingtheserver's
Finishedmessage,thussavingaroundtripwhenperformingafullhandshake.

ThisiscurrentlyonlyimplementedintheNSSandSecureTransport(oniOS7.0or
later,orOSX10.9orlater)backends.(Addedin7.42.0)

f,fail

(HTTP)Failsilently(nooutputatall)onservererrors.Thisismostlydonetobetter
enablescriptsetctobetterdealwithfailedattempts.InnormalcaseswhenanHTTP
serverfailstodeliveradocument,itreturnsanHTMLdocumentstatingso(which
oftenalsodescribeswhyandmore).Thisflagwillpreventcurlfromoutputtingthat
andreturnerror22.

Thismethodisnotfailsafeandthereareoccasionswherenonsuccessfulresponse
codeswillslipthrough,especiallywhenauthenticationisinvolved(responsecodes
401and407).

F,form<name=content>

(HTTP)Thisletscurlemulateafilledinforminwhichauserhaspressedthesubmit
button.ThiscausescurltoPOSTdatausingtheContentTypemultipart/formdata
accordingtoRFC2388.Thisenablesuploadingofbinaryfilesetc.Toforcethe
'content'parttobeafile,[email protected]
partfromafile,prefixthefilenamewiththesymbol<.Thedifferencebetween@and
<isthenthat@makesafilegetattachedinthepostasafileupload,whilethe<
makesatextfieldandjustgetthecontentsforthattextfieldfromafile.

Example:tosendanimagetoaserver,where'profile'isthenameoftheformfieldto
whichportrait.jpgwillbetheinput:

[email protected]://example.com/upload.cgi

Toreadcontentfromstdininsteadofafile,useasthefilename.Thisgoesforboth
@and<constructs.Unfortunatelyitdoesnotsupportreadingthefilefromanamed
pipeorsimilar,asitneedsthefullsizebeforethetransferstarts.

YoucanalsotellcurlwhatContentTypetousebyusing'type=',inamannersimilar
to:

curlF"[email protected]=text/html"example.com

or

curlF"name=danieltype=text/foo"example.com

Youcanalsoexplicitlychangethenamefieldofafileuploadpartbysetting
filename=,likethis:

curlF"file=@localfilefilename=nameinpost"example.com
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Iffilename/pathcontains','or'',itmustbequotedbydoublequoteslike:

curlF"file=@\"localfile\"filename=\"nameinpost\""example.com

or

curlF'file=@"localfile"filename="nameinpost"'example.com

Notethatifafilename/pathisquotedbydoublequotes,anydoublequoteor
backslashwithinthefilenamemustbeescapedbybackslash.

SeefurtherexamplesanddetailsintheMANUAL.

Thisoptioncanbeusedmultipletimes.

ftpaccount[data]

(FTP)WhenanFTPserverasksfor"accountdata"afterusernameandpassword
hasbeenprovided,thisdataissentoffusingtheACCTcommand.(Addedin7.13.0)

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

ftpalternativetouser<command>

(FTP)IfauthenticatingwiththeUSERandPASScommandsfails,sendthis
command.WhenconnectingtoTumbleweed'sSecureTransportserveroverFTPS
usingaclientcertificate,using"SITEAUTH"willtelltheservertoretrievethe
usernamefromthecertificate.(Addedin7.15.5)

ftpcreatedirs

(FTP/SFTP)WhenanFTPorSFTPURL/operationusesapaththatdoesn'tcurrently
existontheserver,thestandardbehaviorofcurlistofail.Usingthisoption,curlwill
insteadattempttocreatemissingdirectories.

ftpmethod[method]

(FTP)ControlwhatmethodcurlshouldusetoreachafileonanFTP(S)server.The
methodargumentshouldbeoneofthefollowingalternatives:

multicwd

curldoesasingleCWDoperationforeachpathpartinthegivenURL.Fordeep
hierarchiesthismeansverymanycommands.ThisishowRFC1738saysit
shouldbedone.Thisisthedefaultbuttheslowestbehavior.

nocwd

curldoesnoCWDatall.curlwilldoSIZE,RETR,STORetcandgiveafullpath
totheserverforallthesecommands.Thisisthefastestbehavior.

singlecwd

curldoesoneCWDwiththefulltargetdirectoryandthenoperatesonthefile
"normally"(likeinthemulticwdcase).Thisissomewhatmorestandards
compliantthan'nocwd'butwithoutthefullpenaltyof'multicwd'.

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(Addedin7.15.1)

ftppasv

(FTP)Usepassivemodeforthedataconnection.Passiveistheinternaldefault
behavior,butusingthisoptioncanbeusedtooverrideapreviousP/ftpportoption.
(Addedin7.11.0)

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,onlythefirstoneisused.Undoinganenforced
passivereallyisn'tdoablebutyoumusttheninsteadenforcethecorrectP,ftpport
again.

PassivemodemeansthatcurlwilltrytheEPSVcommandfirstandthenPASV,
unlessdisableepsvisused.

ftpskippasvip

(FTP)TellcurltonotusetheIPaddresstheserversuggestsinitsresponsetocurl's
PASVcommandwhencurlconnectsthedataconnection.Insteadcurlwillreusethe
sameIPaddressitalreadyusesforthecontrolconnection.(Addedin7.14.2)

ThisoptionhasnoeffectifPORT,EPRTorEPSVisusedinsteadofPASV.

ftppret

(FTP)TellcurltosendaPRETcommandbeforePASV(andEPSV).CertainFTP
servers,mainlydrftpd,requirethisnonstandardcommandfordirectorylistingsas
wellasupanddownloadsinPASVmode.(Addedin7.20.x)

ftpsslccc

(FTP)UseCCC(ClearCommandChannel)ShutsdowntheSSL/TLSlayerafter
authenticating.Therestofthecontrolchannelcommunicationwillbeunencrypted.
ThisallowsNATrouterstofollowtheFTPtransaction.Thedefaultmodeispassive.
Seeftpsslcccmodeforothermodes.(Addedin7.16.1)

ftpsslcccmode[active/passive]

(FTP)UseCCC(ClearCommandChannel)SetstheCCCmode.Thepassivemode
willnotinitiatetheshutdown,butinsteadwaitfortheservertodoit,andwillnotreply
totheshutdownfromtheserver.Theactivemodeinitiatestheshutdownandwaitsfor
areplyfromtheserver.(Addedin7.16.2)

ftpsslcontrol

(FTP)RequireSSL/TLSfortheFTPlogin,clearfortransfer.Allowssecure
authentication,butnonencrypteddatatransfersforefficiency.Failsthetransferifthe
serverdoesn'tsupportSSL/TLS.(Addedin7.16.0)thatcanstillbeusedbutwillbe
removedinafutureversion.

ftpssl

(FTP)Thisdeprecatedoptionisnowknownasssl.

ftpsslreqd

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(FTP)Thisdeprecatedoptionisnowknownassslreqd.

formstring<name=string>

(HTTP)Similartoformexceptthatthevaluestringforthenamedparameterisused
literally.Leading'@'and'<'characters,andthe'type='stringinthevaluehaveno
specialmeaning.Usethisinpreferencetoformifthere'sanypossibilitythatthe
stringvaluemayaccidentallytriggerthe'@'or'<'featuresofform.

g,globoff

Thisoptionswitchesoffthe"URLglobbingparser".Whenyousetthisoption,youcan
specifyURLsthatcontaintheletters{}[]withouthavingthembeinginterpretedbycurl
itself.NotethattheselettersarenotnormallegalURLcontentsbuttheyshouldbe
encodedaccordingtotheURIstandard.

G,get

Whenused,thisoptionwillmakealldataspecifiedwithd,data,databinaryor
dataurlencodetobeusedinanHTTPGETrequestinsteadofthePOSTrequestthat
otherwisewouldbeused.ThedatawillbeappendedtotheURLwitha'?'separator.

IfusedincombinationwithI,thePOSTdatawillinsteadbeappendedtotheURL
withaHEADrequest.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,onlythefirstoneisused.Thisisbecauseundoing
aGETdoesn'tmakesense,butyoushouldtheninsteadenforcethealternative
methodyouprefer.

H,header<header>

(HTTP)ExtraheadertoincludeintherequestwhensendingHTTPtoaserver.You
mayspecifyanynumberofextraheaders.Notethatifyoushouldaddacustom
headerthathasthesamenameasoneoftheinternalonescurlwoulduse,your
externallysetheaderwillbeusedinsteadoftheinternalone.Thisallowsyoutomake
eventrickierstuffthancurlwouldnormallydo.Youshouldnotreplaceinternallyset
headerswithoutknowingperfectlywellwhatyou'redoing.Removeaninternalheader
bygivingareplacementwithoutcontentontherightsideofthecolon,asin:H
"Host:".Ifyousendthecustomheaderwithnovaluethenitsheadermustbe
terminatedwithasemicolon,suchasH"XCustomHeader"tosend"XCustom
Header:".

curlwillmakesurethateachheaderyouadd/replaceissentwiththeproperendof
linemarker,youshouldthusnotaddthatasapartoftheheadercontent:donotadd
newlinesorcarriagereturns,theywillonlymessthingsupforyou.

SeealsotheA,useragentande,refereroptions.

Startingin7.37.0,youneedproxyheadertosendcustomheadersintendedfora
proxy.

Example:

#curlH"XFirstName:Joe"http://example.com/

WARNING:headerssetwiththisoptionwillbesetinallrequestsevenafter
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redirectsarefollowed,likewhentoldwithL,location.Thiscanleadtotheheader
beingsenttootherhoststhantheoriginalhost,sosensitiveheadersshouldbeused
withcautioncombinedwithfollowingredirects.

Thisoptioncanbeusedmultipletimestoadd/replace/removemultipleheaders.

hostpubmd5<md5>

(SCP/SFTP)Passastringcontaining32hexadecimaldigits.Thestringshouldbethe
128bitMD5checksumoftheremotehost'spublickey,curlwillrefusetheconnection
withthehostunlessthemd5sumsmatch.(Addedin7.17.1)

ignorecontentlength

ForHTTP,IgnoretheContentLengthheader.Thisisparticularlyusefulforservers
runningApache1.x,whichwillreportincorrectContentLengthforfileslargerthan2
gigabytes.

ForFTP(since7.46.0),skiptheRETRcommandtofigureoutthesizebefore
downloadingafile.

i,include

(HTTP)IncludetheHTTPheaderintheoutput.TheHTTPheaderincludesthingslike
servername,dateofthedocument,HTTPversionandmore...

I,head

(HTTP/FTP/FILE)FetchtheHTTPheaderonly!HTTPserversfeaturethecommand
HEADwhichthisusestogetnothingbuttheheaderofadocument.Whenusedonan
FTPorFILEfile,curldisplaysthefilesizeandlastmodificationtimeonly.

interface<name>

Performanoperationusingaspecifiedinterface.Youcanenterinterfacename,IP
addressorhostname.Anexamplecouldlooklike:

curlinterfaceeth0:1https://www.example.com/

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

j,junksessioncookies

(HTTP)Whencurlistoldtoreadcookiesfromagivenfile,thisoptionwillmakeit
discardall"sessioncookies".Thiswillbasicallyhavethesameeffectasifanew
sessionisstarted.Typicalbrowsersalwaysdiscardsessioncookieswhenthey're
closeddown.

J,remoteheadername

(HTTP)ThisoptiontellstheO,remotenameoptiontousetheserverspecified
ContentDispositionfilenameinsteadofextractingafilenamefromtheURL.

Iftheserverspecifiesafilenameandafilewiththatnamealreadyexistsinthe
currentworkingdirectoryitwillnotbeoverwrittenandanerrorwilloccur.Iftheserver
doesn'tspecifyafilenamethenthisoptionhasnoeffect.
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There'snoattempttodecode%sequences(yet)intheprovidedfilename,sothis
optionmayprovideyouwithratherunexpectedfilenames.

WARNING:Exercisejudicioususeofthisoption,especiallyonWindows.Arogue
servercouldsendyouthenameofaDLLorotherfilethatcouldpossiblybeloaded
automaticallybyWindowsorsomethirdpartysoftware.

k,insecure

(SSL)Thisoptionexplicitlyallowscurltoperform"insecure"SSLconnectionsand
transfers.AllSSLconnectionsareattemptedtobemadesecurebyusingtheCA
certificatebundleinstalledbydefault.Thismakesallconnectionsconsidered
"insecure"failunlessk,insecureisused.

Seethisonlineresourceforfurtherdetails:https://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html

K,config<configfile>

Specifywhichconfigfiletoreadcurlargumentsfrom.Theconfigfileisatextfilein
whichcommandlineargumentscanbewrittenwhichthenwillbeusedasiftheywere
writtenontheactualcommandline.

Optionsandtheirparametersmustbespecifiedonthesameconfigfileline,
separatedbywhitespace,colon,ortheequalssign.Longoptionnamescanoptionally
begivenintheconfigfilewithouttheinitialdoubledashesandifso,thecolonor
equalscharacterscanbeusedasseparators.Iftheoptionisspecifiedwithoneortwo
dashes,therecanbenocolonorequalscharacterbetweentheoptionandits
parameter.

Iftheparameteristocontainwhitespace,theparametermustbeenclosedwithin
quotes.Withindoublequotes,thefollowingescapesequencesareavailable:\\,\",\t,
\n,\rand\v.Abackslashprecedinganyotherletterisignored.Ifthefirstcolumnofa
configlineisa'#'character,therestofthelinewillbetreatedasacomment.Only
writeoneoptionperphysicallineintheconfigfile.

SpecifythefilenametoK,configas''tomakecurlreadthefilefromstdin.

NotethattobeabletospecifyaURLintheconfigfile,youneedtospecifyitusingthe
urloption,andnotbysimplywritingtheURLonitsownline.So,itcouldlooksimilar
tothis:

url="https://curl.haxx.se/docs/"

Whencurlisinvoked,italways(unlessqisused)checksforadefaultconfigfileand
usesitiffound.Thedefaultconfigfileischeckedforinthefollowingplacesinthis
order:

1)curltriestofindthe"homedir":ItfirstchecksfortheCURL_HOMEandthenthe
HOMEenvironmentvariables.Failingthat,itusesgetpwuid()onUnixlikesystems
(whichreturnsthehomedirgiventhecurrentuserinyoursystem).OnWindows,it
thenchecksfortheAPPDATAvariable,orasalastresortthe
'%USERPROFILE%\ApplicationData'.

2)Onwindows,ifthereisno_curlrcfileinthehomedir,itchecksforoneinthesame
dirthecurlexecutableisplaced.OnUnixlikesystems,itwillsimplytrytoload.curlrc
fromthedeterminedhomedir.
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#Examplefile
#thisisacomment
url="example.com"
output="curlhere.html"
useragent="superagent/1.0"

#andfetchanotherURLtoo
url="example.com/docs/manpage.html"
O
referer="http://nowhereatall.example.com/"
#Endofexamplefile

Thisoptioncanbeusedmultipletimestoloadmultipleconfigfiles.

keepalivetime<seconds>

Thisoptionsetsthetimeaconnectionneedstoremainidlebeforesendingkeepalive
probesandthetimebetweenindividualkeepaliveprobes.Itiscurrentlyeffectiveon
operatingsystemsofferingtheTCP_KEEPIDLEandTCP_KEEPINTVLsocket
options(meaningLinux,recentAIX,HPUXandmore).Thisoptionhasnoeffectif
nokeepaliveisused.(Addedin7.18.0)

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.Ifunspecified,theoption
defaultsto60seconds.

key<key>

(SSL/SSH)Privatekeyfilename.Allowsyoutoprovideyourprivatekeyinthis
separatefile.ForSSH,ifnotspecified,curltriesthefollowingcandidatesinorder:
'~/.ssh/id_rsa','~/.ssh/id_dsa','./id_rsa','./id_dsa'.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

keytype<type>

(SSL)Privatekeyfiletype.Specifywhichtypeyourkeyprovidedprivatekeyis.
DER,PEM,andENGaresupported.Ifnotspecified,PEMisassumed.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

krb<level>

(FTP)EnableKerberosauthenticationanduse.Thelevelmustbeenteredandshould
beoneof'clear','safe','confidential',or'private'.Shouldyouusealevelthatisnot
oneofthese,'private'willinsteadbeused.

Thisoptionrequiresalibrarybuiltwithkerberos4support.Thisisnotverycommon.
UseV,versiontoseeifyourcurlsupportsit.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

krb4<level>

(FTP)Thisistheformernameforkrb.Donotuse.

l,listonly

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(FTP)WhenlistinganFTPdirectory,thisswitchforcesanameonlyview.Thisis
especiallyusefuliftheuserwantstomachineparsethecontentsofanFTPdirectory
sincethenormaldirectoryviewdoesn'tuseastandardlookorformat.Whenusedlike
this,theoptioncausesaNLSTcommandtobesenttotheserverinsteadofLIST.

Note:SomeFTPserverslistonlyfilesintheirresponsetoNLSTtheydonotinclude
subdirectoriesandsymboliclinks.

(POP3)WhenretrievingaspecificemailfromPOP3,thisswitchforcesaLIST
commandtobeperformedinsteadofRETR.Thisisparticularlyusefuliftheuser
wantstoseeifaspecificmessageidexistsontheserverandwhatsizeitis.

Note:WhencombinedwithX,request<command>,thisoptioncanbeusedtosend
anUIDLcommandinstead,sotheusermayusetheemail'suniqueidentifierrather
thanit'smessageidtomaketherequest.(Addedin7.21.5)

L,location

(HTTP/HTTPS)Iftheserverreportsthattherequestedpagehasmovedtoadifferent
location(indicatedwithaLocation:headeranda3XXresponsecode),thisoptionwill
makecurlredotherequestonthenewplace.Ifusedtogetherwithi,includeorI,
head,headersfromallrequestedpageswillbeshown.Whenauthenticationisused,
curlonlysendsitscredentialstotheinitialhost.Ifaredirecttakescurltoadifferent
host,itwon'tbeabletointercepttheuser+password.Seealsolocationtrustedon
howtochangethis.Youcanlimittheamountofredirectstofollowbyusingthemax
redirsoption.

WhencurlfollowsaredirectandtherequestisnotaplainGET(forexamplePOSTor
PUT),itwilldothefollowingrequestwithaGETiftheHTTPresponsewas301,302,
or303.Iftheresponsecodewasanyother3xxcode,curlwillresendthefollowing
requestusingthesameunmodifiedmethod.

YoucantellcurltonotchangethenonGETrequestmethodtoGETaftera30x
responsebyusingthededicatedoptionsforthat:post301,post302andpost303.

libcurl<file>

Appendthisoptiontoanyordinarycurlcommandline,andyouwillgetalibcurlusing
Csourcecodewrittentothefilethatdoestheequivalentofwhatyourcommandline
operationdoes!

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastgivenfilenamewillbeused.(Addedin
7.16.1)

limitrate<speed>

Specifythemaximumtransferrateyouwantcurltouseforbothdownloadsand
uploads.Thisfeatureisusefulifyouhavealimitedpipeandyou'dlikeyourtransfer
nottouseyourentirebandwidth.Tomakeitslowerthanitotherwisewouldbe.

Thegivenspeedismeasuredinbytes/second,unlessasuffixisappended.
Appending'k'or'K'willcountthenumberaskilobytes,'m'orM'makesitmegabytes,
while'g'or'G'makesitgigabytes.Examples:200K,3mand1G.

Thegivenrateistheaveragespeedcountedduringtheentiretransfer.Itmeansthat
curlmightusehighertransferspeedsinshortbursts,butovertimeitusesnomore
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thanthegivenrate.

IfyoualsousetheY,speedlimitoption,thatoptionwilltakeprecedenceandmight
crippletheratelimitingslightly,tohelpkeepingthespeedlimitlogicworking.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

localport<num>[num]

Setapreferrednumberorrangeoflocalportnumberstousefortheconnection(s).
Notethatportnumbersbynatureareascarceresourcethatwillbebusyattimesso
settingthisrangetosomethingtoonarrowmightcauseunnecessaryconnection
setupfailures.(Addedin7.15.2)

locationtrusted

(HTTP/HTTPS)LikeL,location,butwillallowsendingthename+passwordtoall
hoststhatthesitemayredirectto.Thismayormaynotintroduceasecuritybreachif
thesiteredirectsyoutoasitetowhichyou'llsendyourauthenticationinfo(whichis
plaintextinthecaseofHTTPBasicauthentication).

m,maxtime<seconds>

Maximumtimeinsecondsthatyouallowthewholeoperationtotake.Thisisuseful
forpreventingyourbatchjobsfromhangingforhoursduetoslownetworksorlinks
goingdown.Since7.32.0,thisoptionacceptsdecimalvalues,buttheactualtimeout
willdecreaseinaccuracyasthespecifiedtimeoutincreasesindecimalprecision.See
alsotheconnecttimeoutoption.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

loginoptions<options>

Specifytheloginoptionstouseduringserverauthentication.

Youcanusetheloginoptionstospecifyprotocolspecificoptionsthatmaybeused
duringauthentication.AtpresentonlyIMAP,POP3andSMTPsupportloginoptions.
FormoreinformationabouttheloginoptionspleaseseeRFC2384,RFC5092and
IETFdraftdraftearharturlsmtp00.txt(Addedin7.34.0).

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

mailauth<address>

(SMTP)Specifyasingleaddress.Thiswillbeusedtospecifytheauthentication
address(identity)ofasubmittedmessagethatisbeingrelayedtoanotherserver.

(Addedin7.25.0)

mailfrom<address>

(SMTP)Specifyasingleaddressthatthegivenmailshouldgetsentfrom.

(Addedin7.20.0)

maxfilesize<bytes>
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Specifythemaximumsize(inbytes)ofafiletodownload.Ifthefilerequestedis
largerthanthisvalue,thetransferwillnotstartandcurlwillreturnwithexitcode63.

NOTE:Thefilesizeisnotalwaysknownpriortodownload,andforsuchfilesthis
optionhasnoeffectevenifthefiletransferendsupbeinglargerthanthisgivenlimit.
ThisconcernsbothFTPandHTTPtransfers.

mailrcpt<address>

(SMTP)Specifyasingleaddress,usernameormailinglistname.

Whenperformingamailtransfer,therecipientshouldspecifyavalidemailaddressto
sendthemailto.(Addedin7.20.0)

Whenperforminganaddressverification(VRFYcommand),therecipientshouldbe
specifiedastheusernameorusernameanddomain(asperSection3.5ofRFC
5321).(Addedin7.34.0)

Whenperformingamailinglistexpand(EXPNcommand),therecipientshouldbe
specifiedusingthemailinglistname,suchas"Friends"or"LondonOffice".(Addedin
7.34.0)

maxredirs<num>

Setmaximumnumberofredirectionfollowingsallowed.IfL,locationisused,this
optioncanbeusedtopreventcurlfromfollowingredirections"inabsurdum".By
default,thelimitissetto50redirections.Setthisoptionto1tomakeitlimitless.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

metalink

ThisoptioncantellcurltoparseandprocessagivenURIasMetalinkfile(both
version3and4(RFC5854)aresupported)andmakeuseofthemirrorslistedwithin
forfailoverifthereareerrors(suchasthefileorservernotbeingavailable).Itwillalso
verifythehashofthefileafterthedownloadcompletes.TheMetalinkfileitselfis
downloadedandprocessedinmemoryandnotstoredinthelocalfilesystem.

ExampletousearemoteMetalinkfile:

curlmetalinkhttp://www.example.com/example.metalink

TouseaMetalinkfileinthelocalfilesystem,useFILEprotocol(file://):

curlmetalinkfile://example.metalink

PleasenotethatifFILEprotocolisdisabled,thereisnowaytousealocalMetalink
fileatthetimeofthiswriting.Alsonotethatifmetalinkandincludeareused
together,includewillbeignored.Thisisbecauseincludingheadersintheresponse
willbreakMetalinkparserandiftheheadersareincludedinthefiledescribedin
Metalinkfile,hashcheckwillfail.

(Addedin7.27.0,ifbuiltagainstthelibmetalinklibrary.)

n,netrc

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Makescurlscanthe.netrc(_netrconWindows)fileintheuser'shomedirectoryfor
loginnameandpassword.ThisistypicallyusedforFTPonUnix.IfusedwithHTTP,
curlwillenableuserauthentication.Seenetrc(5)ftp(1)fordetailsonthefileformat.
Curlwillnotcomplainifthatfiledoesn'thavetherightpermissions(itshouldnotbe
eitherworldorgroupreadable).Theenvironmentvariable"HOME"isusedtofindthe
homedirectory.

Aquickandverysimpleexampleofhowtosetupa.netrctoallowcurltoFTPtothe
machinehost.domain.comwithusername'myself'andpassword'secret'shouldlook
similarto:

machinehost.domain.comloginmyselfpasswordsecret

N,nobuffer

Disablesthebufferingoftheoutputstream.Innormalworksituations,curlwillusea
standardbufferedoutputstreamthatwillhavetheeffectthatitwilloutputthedatain
chunks,notnecessarilyexactlywhenthedataarrives.Usingthisoptionwilldisable
thatbuffering.

Notethatthisisthenegatedoptionnamedocumented.Youcanthususebufferto
enforcethebuffering.

netrcfile

Thisoptionissimilartonetrc,exceptthatyouprovidethepath(absoluteorrelative)
tothenetrcfilethatCurlshoulduse.Youcanonlyspecifyonenetrcfileper
invocation.Ifseveralnetrcfileoptionsareprovided,onlythelastonewillbeused.
(Addedin7.21.5)

Thisoptionoverridesanyuseofnetrcastheyaremutuallyexclusive.Itwillalso
abidebynetrcoptionalifspecified.

netrcoptional

Verysimilartonetrc,butthisoptionmakesthe.netrcusageoptionalandnot
mandatoryasthenetrcoptiondoes.

negotiate

(HTTP)EnablesNegotiate(SPNEGO)authentication.

IfyouwanttoenableNegotiate(SPNEGO)forproxyauthentication,thenuseproxy
negotiate.

ThisoptionrequiresalibrarybuiltwithGSSAPIorSSPIsupport.UseV,versionto
seeifyourcurlsupportsGSSAPI/SSPIandSPNEGO.

Whenusingthisoption,youmustalsoprovideafakeu,useroptiontoactivatethe
authenticationcodeproperly.Sendinga'u:'isenoughastheusernameand
passwordfromtheuoptionaren'tactuallyused.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,onlythefirstoneisused.

nokeepalive

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DisablestheuseofkeepalivemessagesontheTCPconnection,asbydefaultcurl
enablesthem.

Notethatthisisthenegatedoptionnamedocumented.Youcanthususekeepalive
toenforcekeepalive.

nosessionid

(SSL)Disablecurl'suseofSSLsessionIDcaching.Bydefaultalltransfersaredone
usingthecache.Notethatwhilenothingshouldevergethurtbyattemptingtoreuse
SSLsessionIDs,thereseemtobebrokenSSLimplementationsinthewildthatmay
requireyoutodisablethisinorderforyoutosucceed.(Addedin7.16.0)

Notethatthisisthenegatedoptionnamedocumented.Youcanthususesessionid
toenforcesessionIDcaching.

noproxy<noproxylist>

Commaseparatedlistofhostswhichdonotuseaproxy,ifoneisspecified.Theonly
wildcardisasingle*character,whichmatchesallhosts,andeffectivelydisablesthe
proxy.Eachnameinthislistismatchedaseitheradomainwhichcontainsthe
hostname,orthehostnameitself.Forexample,local.comwouldmatchlocal.com,
local.com:80,andwww.local.com,butnotwww.notlocal.com.(Addedin7.19.4).

connectto<host:port:connecttohost:connecttoport>

Forarequesttothegiven"host:port"pair,connectto"connecttohost:connectto
port"instead.Thisissuitabletodirecttherequestataspecificserver,e.g.ata
specificclusternodeinaclusterofservers.Thisoptionisonlyusedtoestablishthe
networkconnection.ItdoesNOTaffectthehostname/portthatisusedforTLS/SSL
(e.g.SNI,certificateverification)orfortheapplicationprotocols."host"and"port"may
betheemptystring,meaning"anyhost/port"."connecttohost"and"connecttoport"
mayalsobetheemptystring,meaning"usetherequest'soriginalhost/port".This
optioncanbeusedmanytimestoaddmanyconnectrules.(Addedin7.49.0).

ntlm

(HTTP)EnablesNTLMauthentication.TheNTLMauthenticationmethodwas
designedbyMicrosoftandisusedbyIISwebservers.Itisaproprietaryprotocol,
reverseengineeredbycleverpeopleandimplementedincurlbasedontheirefforts.
Thiskindofbehaviorshouldnotbeendorsed,youshouldencourageeveryonewho
usesNTLMtoswitchtoapublicanddocumentedauthenticationmethodinstead,
suchasDigest.

IfyouwanttoenableNTLMforyourproxyauthentication,thenuseproxyntlm.

ThisoptionrequiresalibrarybuiltwithSSLsupport.UseV,versiontoseeifyour
curlsupportsNTLM.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,onlythefirstoneisused.

ntlmwb

(HTTP)EnablesNTLMmuchinthestylentlmdoes,buthandoverthe
authenticationtotheseparatebinaryntlmauthapplicationthatisexecutedwhen
needed.
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o,output<file>

Writeoutputto<file>insteadofstdout.Ifyouareusing{}or[]tofetchmultiple
documents,youcanuse'#'followedbyanumberinthe<file>specifier.Thatvariable
willbereplacedwiththecurrentstringfortheURLbeingfetched.Likein:

curlhttp://{one,two}.example.como"file_#1.txt"

oruseseveralvariableslike:

curlhttp://{site,host}.host[15].como"#1_#2"

YoumayusethisoptionasmanytimesasthenumberofURLsyouhave.

Seealsothecreatedirsoptiontocreatethelocaldirectoriesdynamically.Specifying
theoutputas''(asingledash)willforcetheoutputtobedonetostdout.

O,remotename

Writeoutputtoalocalfilenamedliketheremotefileweget.(Onlythefilepartofthe
remotefileisused,thepathiscutoff.)

Thefilewillbesavedinthecurrentworkingdirectory.Ifyouwantthefilesavedina
differentdirectory,makesureyouchangethecurrentworkingdirectorybefore
invokingcurlwiththisoption.

TheremotefilenametouseforsavingisextractedfromthegivenURL,nothingelse,
andifitalreadyexistsitwillbeoverwritten.Ifyouwanttheservertobeabletochoose
thefilenamerefertoJ,remoteheadernamewhichcanbeusedinadditiontothis
option.Iftheserverchoosesafilenameandthatnamealreadyexistsitwillnotbe
overwritten.

ThereisnoURLdecodingdoneonthefilename.Ifithas%20orotherURLencoded
partsofthename,theywillendupasisasfilename.

YoumayusethisoptionasmanytimesasthenumberofURLsyouhave.

oauth2bearer

(IMAP,POP3,SMTP)SpecifytheBearerTokenforOAUTH2.0serverauthentication.
TheBearerTokenisusedinconjunctionwiththeusernamewhichcanbespecified
aspartoftheurloru,useroptions.

TheBearerTokenandusernameareformattedaccordingtoRFC6750.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

proxyheader<header>

(HTTP)ExtraheadertoincludeintherequestwhensendingHTTPtoaproxy.You
mayspecifyanynumberofextraheaders.ThisistheequivalentoptiontoH,
headerbutisforproxycommunicationonlylikeinCONNECTrequestswhenyou
wantaseparateheadersenttotheproxytowhatissenttotheactualremotehost.

curlwillmakesurethateachheaderyouadd/replaceissentwiththeproperendof
linemarker,youshouldthusnotaddthatasapartoftheheadercontent:donotadd
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newlinesorcarriagereturns,theywillonlymessthingsupforyou.

Headersspecifiedwiththisoptionwillnotbeincludedinrequeststhatcurlknowswill
notbesenttoaproxy.

Thisoptioncanbeusedmultipletimestoadd/replace/removemultipleheaders.

(Addedin7.37.0)

p,proxytunnel

WhenanHTTPproxyisused(x,proxy),thisoptionwillcausenonHTTPprotocols
toattempttotunnelthroughtheproxyinsteadofmerelyusingittodoHTTPlike
operations.ThetunnelapproachismadewiththeHTTPproxyCONNECTrequest
andrequiresthattheproxyallowsdirectconnecttotheremoteportnumbercurl
wantstotunnelthroughto.

P,ftpport<address>

(FTP)Reversesthedefaultinitiator/listenerroleswhenconnectingwithFTP.This
switchmakescurluseactivemode.Inpractice,curlthentellstheservertoconnect
backtotheclient'sspecifiedaddressandport,whilepassivemodeaskstheserverto
setupanIPaddressandportforittoconnectto.<address>shouldbeoneof:

interface

i.e"eth0"tospecifywhichinterface'sIPaddressyouwanttouse(Unixonly)

IPaddress

i.e"192.168.10.1"tospecifytheexactIPaddress

hostname

i.e"my.host.domain"tospecifythemachine

makecurlpickthesameIPaddressthatisalreadyusedforthecontrol
connection

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.DisabletheuseofPORT
withftppasv.DisabletheattempttousetheEPRTcommandinsteadofPORTby
usingdisableeprt.EPRTisreallyPORT++.

Startingin7.19.5,youcanappend":[start][end]"totherightoftheaddress,totellcurl
whatTCPportrangetouse.Thatmeansyouspecifyaportrange,fromalowertoa
highernumber.Asinglenumberworksaswell,butdonotethatitincreasestheriskof
failuresincetheportmaynotbeavailable.

pass<phrase>

(SSL/SSH)Passphrasefortheprivatekey

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

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pathasis

Tellcurltonothandlesequencesof/../or/./inthegivenURLpath.Normallycurlwill
squashormergethemaccordingtostandardsbutwiththisoptionsetyoutellitnotto
dothat.

(Addedin7.42.0)

post301

(HTTP)TellscurltorespectRFC7230/6.4.2andnotconvertPOSTrequestsinto
GETrequestswhenfollowinga301redirection.ThenonRFCbehaviourisubiquitous
inwebbrowsers,socurldoestheconversionbydefaulttomaintainconsistency.
However,aservermayrequireaPOSTtoremainaPOSTaftersucharedirection.
ThisoptionismeaningfulonlywhenusingL,location(Addedin7.17.1)

post302

(HTTP)TellscurltorespectRFC7230/6.4.3andnotconvertPOSTrequestsinto
GETrequestswhenfollowinga302redirection.ThenonRFCbehaviourisubiquitous
inwebbrowsers,socurldoestheconversionbydefaulttomaintainconsistency.
However,aservermayrequireaPOSTtoremainaPOSTaftersucharedirection.
ThisoptionismeaningfulonlywhenusingL,location(Addedin7.19.1)

post303

(HTTP)TellscurltorespectRFC7230/6.4.4andnotconvertPOSTrequestsinto
GETrequestswhenfollowinga303redirection.ThenonRFCbehaviourisubiquitous
inwebbrowsers,socurldoestheconversionbydefaulttomaintainconsistency.
However,aservermayrequireaPOSTtoremainaPOSTaftersucharedirection.
ThisoptionismeaningfulonlywhenusingL,location(Addedin7.26.0)

proto<protocols>

Tellscurltousethelistedprotocolsforitsinitialretrieval.Protocolsareevaluatedleft
toright,arecommaseparated,andareeachaprotocolnameor'all',optionally
prefixedbyzeroormoremodifiers.Availablemodifiersare:

+Permitthisprotocolinadditiontoprotocolsalreadypermitted(thisisthedefault
ifnomodifierisused).

Denythisprotocol,removingitfromthelistofprotocolsalreadypermitted.

=Permitonlythisprotocol(ignoringthelistalreadypermitted),thoughsubjectto
latermodificationbysubsequententriesinthecommaseparatedlist.

Forexample:

protoftpsusesthedefaultprotocols,butdisablesftps

protoall,https,+httponlyenableshttpandhttps

proto=http,httpsalsoonlyenableshttpandhttps

Unknownprotocolsproduceawarning.Thisallowsscriptstosafelyrelyonbeingable
todisablepotentiallydangerousprotocols,withoutrelyinguponsupportforthat
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protocolbeingbuiltintocurltoavoidanerror.

Thisoptioncanbeusedmultipletimes,inwhichcasetheeffectisthesameas
concatenatingtheprotocolsintooneinstanceoftheoption.

(Addedin7.20.2)

protodefault<protocol>

TellscurltouseprotocolforanyURLmissingaschemename.

Example:

protodefaulthttpsftp.mozilla.org

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Anunknownorunsupportedprotocolcauseserror
CURLE_UNSUPPORTED_PROTOCOL.

Thisoptiondoesnotchangethedefaultproxyprotocol(http).

Withoutthisoptioncurlwouldmakeaguessbasedonthehost,seeurlfordetails.

(Addedin7.45.0)

protoredir<protocols>

Tellscurltousethelistedprotocolsonredirect.Seeprotoforhowprotocolsare
represented.

Example:

protoredirall,http,https

AllowonlyHTTPandHTTPSonredirect.

Bydefaultcurlwillallowallprotocolsonredirectexceptseveraldisabledforsecurity
reasons:Since7.19.4FILEandSCParedisabled,andsince7.40.0SMBandSMBS
arealsodisabled.Specifyingallor+allenablesallprotocolsonredirect,including
thosedisabledforsecurity.

(Addedin7.20.2)

proxyanyauth

Tellscurltopickasuitableauthenticationmethodwhencommunicatingwiththegiven
proxy.Thismightcauseanextrarequest/responseroundtrip.(Addedin7.13.2)

proxybasic

TellscurltouseHTTPBasicauthenticationwhencommunicatingwiththegiven
proxy.UsebasicforenablingHTTPBasicwitharemotehost.Basicisthedefault
authenticationmethodcurluseswithproxies.

proxydigest

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TellscurltouseHTTPDigestauthenticationwhencommunicatingwiththegiven
proxy.UsedigestforenablingHTTPDigestwitharemotehost.

proxynegotiate

TellscurltouseHTTPNegotiate(SPNEGO)authenticationwhencommunicatingwith
thegivenproxy.UsenegotiateforenablingHTTPNegotiate(SPNEGO)witha
remotehost.(Addedin7.17.1)

proxyntlm

TellscurltouseHTTPNTLMauthenticationwhencommunicatingwiththegiven
proxy.UsentlmforenablingNTLMwitharemotehost.

proxyservicename<servicename>

Thisoptionallowsyoutochangetheservicenameforproxynegotiation.

Examples:proxynegotiateproxynameproxyservicenamesockdwoulduse
sockd/proxyname.(Addedin7.43.0).

proxy1.0<proxyhost[:port]>

UsethespecifiedHTTP1.0proxy.Iftheportnumberisnotspecified,itisassumedat
port1080.

TheonlydifferencebetweenthisandtheHTTPproxyoption(x,proxy),isthat
attemptstouseCONNECTthroughtheproxywillspecifyanHTTP1.0protocol
insteadofthedefaultHTTP1.1.

pubkey<key>

(SSH)Publickeyfilename.Allowsyoutoprovideyourpublickeyinthisseparatefile.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

(Asof7.39.0,curlattemptstoautomaticallyextractthepublickeyfromtheprivatekey
file,sopassingthisoptionisgenerallynotrequired.Notethatthispublickey
extractionrequireslibcurltobelinkedagainstacopyoflibssh21.2.8orhigherthatis
itselflinkedagainstOpenSSL.)

q,disable

Ifusedasthefirstparameteronthecommandline,thecurlrcconfigfilewillnotbe
readandused.SeetheK,configfordetailsonthedefaultconfigfilesearchpath.

Q,quote<command>

(FTP/SFTP)SendanarbitrarycommandtotheremoteFTPorSFTPserver.Quote
commandsaresentBEFOREthetransfertakesplace(justaftertheinitialPWD
commandinanFTPtransfer,tobeexact).Tomakecommandstakeplaceaftera
successfultransfer,prefixthemwithadash''.Tomakecommandsbesentaftercurl
haschangedtheworkingdirectory,justbeforethetransfercommand(s),prefixthe
commandwitha'+'(thisisonlysupportedforFTP).Youmayspecifyanynumberof
commands.Iftheserverreturnsfailureforoneofthecommands,theentireoperation
willbeaborted.YoumustsendsyntacticallycorrectFTPcommandsasRFC959
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definestoFTPservers,oroneofthecommandslistedbelowtoSFTPservers.This
optioncanbeusedmultipletimes.WhenspeakingtoanFTPserver,prefixthe
commandwithanasterisk(*)tomakecurlcontinueevenifthecommandfailsasby
defaultcurlwillstopatfirstfailure.

SFTPisabinaryprotocol.UnlikeforFTP,curlinterpretsSFTPquotecommandsitself
beforesendingthemtotheserver.Filenamesmaybequotedshellstyletoembed
spacesorspecialcharacters.FollowingisthelistofallsupportedSFTPquote
commands:

chgrpgroupfile

ThechgrpcommandsetsthegroupIDofthefilenamedbythefileoperandtothe
groupIDspecifiedbythegroupoperand.Thegroupoperandisadecimalinteger
groupID.

chmodmodefile

Thechmodcommandmodifiesthefilemodebitsofthespecifiedfile.Themode
operandisanoctalintegermodenumber.

chownuserfile

Thechowncommandsetstheownerofthefilenamedbythefileoperandtothe
userIDspecifiedbytheuseroperand.Theuseroperandisadecimalinteger
userID.

lnsource_filetarget_file

Thelnandsymlinkcommandscreateasymboliclinkatthetarget_filelocation
pointingtothesource_filelocation.

mkdirdirectory_name

Themkdircommandcreatesthedirectorynamedbythedirectory_name
operand.

pwd

Thepwdcommandreturnstheabsolutepathnameofthecurrentworking
directory.

renamesourcetarget

Therenamecommandrenamesthefileordirectorynamedbythesource
operandtothedestinationpathnamedbythetargetoperand.

rmfile

Thermcommandremovesthefilespecifiedbythefileoperand.

rmdirdirectory

Thermdircommandremovesthedirectoryentryspecifiedbythedirectory
operand,provideditisempty.

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symlinksource_filetarget_file

Seeln.

r,range<range>

(HTTP/FTP/SFTP/FILE)Retrieveabyterange(i.eapartialdocument)froma
HTTP/1.1,FTPorSFTPserveroralocalFILE.Rangescanbespecifiedinanumber
ofways.

0499specifiesthefirst500bytes

500999specifiesthesecond500bytes

500specifiesthelast500bytes

9500specifiesthebytesfromoffset9500andforward

00,1specifiesthefirstandlastbyteonly(*)(HTTP)

100199,500599specifiestwoseparate100byteranges(*)(HTTP)

(*)=NOTEthatthiswillcausetheservertoreplywithamultipartresponse!

Onlydigitcharacters(09)arevalidinthe'start'and'stop'fieldsofthe'startstop'
rangesyntax.Ifanondigitcharacterisgivenintherange,theserver'sresponsewill
beunspecified,dependingontheserver'sconfiguration.

YoushouldalsobeawarethatmanyHTTP/1.1serversdonothavethisfeature
enabled,sothatwhenyouattempttogetarange,you'llinsteadgetthewhole
document.

FTPandSFTPrangedownloadsonlysupportthesimple'startstop'syntax(optionally
withoneofthenumbersomitted).FTPusedependsontheextendedFTPcommand
SIZE.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

R,remotetime

Whenused,thiswillmakecurlattempttofigureoutthetimestampoftheremotefile,
andifthatisavailablemakethelocalfilegetthatsametimestamp.

randomfile<file>

(SSL)Specifythepathnametofilecontainingwhatwillbeconsideredasrandom
data.ThedataisusedtoseedtherandomengineforSSLconnections.Seealsothe
egdfileoption.

raw

(HTTP)Whenused,itdisablesallinternalHTTPdecodingofcontentortransfer
encodingsandinsteadmakesthempassedonunaltered,raw.(Addedin7.16.2)

remotenameall

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ThisoptionchangesthedefaultactionforallgivenURLstobedealtwithasifO,
remotenamewereusedforeachone.Soifyouwanttodisablethatforaspecific
URLafterremotenameallhasbeenused,youmustuse"o"ornoremote
name.(Addedin7.19.0)

resolve<host:port:address>

Provideacustomaddressforaspecifichostandportpair.Usingthis,youcanmake
thecurlrequests(s)useaspecifiedaddressandpreventtheotherwisenormally
resolvedaddresstobeused.Consideritasortof/etc/hostsalternativeprovidedon
thecommandline.Theportnumbershouldbethenumberusedforthespecific
protocolthehostwillbeusedfor.Itmeansyouneedseveralentriesifyouwantto
provideaddressforthesamehostbutdifferentports.

Thisoptioncanbeusedmanytimestoaddmanyhostnamestoresolve.

(Addedin7.21.3)

retry<num>

Ifatransienterrorisreturnedwhencurltriestoperformatransfer,itwillretrythis
numberoftimesbeforegivingup.Settingthenumberto0makescurldonoretries
(whichisthedefault).Transienterrormeanseither:atimeout,anFTP4xxresponse
codeoranHTTP5xxresponsecode.

Whencurlisabouttoretryatransfer,itwillfirstwaitonesecondandthenforall
forthcomingretriesitwilldoublethewaitingtimeuntilitreaches10minuteswhich
thenwillbethedelaybetweentherestoftheretries.Byusingretrydelayyou
disablethisexponentialbackoffalgorithm.Seealsoretrymaxtimetolimitthetotal
timeallowedforretries.(Addedin7.12.3)

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

retrydelay<seconds>

Makecurlsleepthisamountoftimebeforeeachretrywhenatransferhasfailedwith
atransienterror(itchangesthedefaultbackofftimealgorithmbetweenretries).This
optionisonlyinterestingifretryisalsoused.Settingthisdelaytozerowillmakecurl
usethedefaultbackofftime.(Addedin7.12.3)

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

retrymaxtime<seconds>

Theretrytimerisresetbeforethefirsttransferattempt.Retrieswillbedoneasusual
(seeretry)aslongasthetimerhasn'treachedthisgivenlimit.Noticethatifthetimer
hasn'treachedthelimit,therequestwillbemadeandwhileperforming,itmaytake
longerthanthisgiventimeperiod.Tolimitasinglerequestsmaximumtime,usem,
maxtime.Setthisoptiontozerotonottimeoutretries.(Addedin7.12.3)

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

s,silent

Silentorquietmode.Don'tshowprogressmeterorerrormessages.MakesCurl
mute.Itwillstilloutputthedatayouaskfor,potentiallyeventotheterminal/stdout
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unlessyouredirectit.

saslir

EnableinitialresponseinSASLauthentication.(Addedin7.31.0)

servicename<servicename>

ThisoptionallowsyoutochangetheservicenameforSPNEGO.

Examples:negotiateservicenamesockdwouldusesockd/servername.(Addedin
7.43.0).

S,showerror

Whenusedwithsitmakescurlshowanerrormessageifitfails.

ssl

(FTP,POP3,IMAP,SMTP)TrytouseSSL/TLSfortheconnection.Revertstoanon
secureconnectioniftheserverdoesn'tsupportSSL/TLS.Seealsoftpsslcontrol
andsslreqdfordifferentlevelsofencryptionrequired.(Addedin7.20.0)

Thisoptionwasformerlyknownasftpssl(Addedin7.11.0).Thatoptionnamecan
stillbeusedbutwillberemovedinafutureversion.

sslreqd

(FTP,POP3,IMAP,SMTP)RequireSSL/TLSfortheconnection.Terminatesthe
connectioniftheserverdoesn'tsupportSSL/TLS.(Addedin7.20.0)

Thisoptionwasformerlyknownasftpsslreqd.

sslallowbeast

(SSL)ThisoptiontellscurltonotworkaroundasecurityflawintheSSL3andTLS1.0
protocolsknownasBEAST.Ifthisoptionisn'tused,theSSLlayermayuse
workaroundsknowntocauseinteroperabilityproblemswithsomeolderSSL
implementations.WARNING:thisoptionloosenstheSSLsecurity,andbyusingthis
flagyouaskforexactlythat.(Addedin7.25.0)

sslnorevoke

(WinSSL)Thisoptiontellscurltodisablecertificaterevocationchecks.WARNING:
thisoptionloosenstheSSLsecurity,andbyusingthisflagyouaskforexactlythat.
(Addedin7.44.0)

socks4<host[:port]>

UsethespecifiedSOCKS4proxy.Iftheportnumberisnotspecified,itisassumedat
port1080.(Addedin7.15.2)

Thisoptionoverridesanyprevioususeofx,proxy,astheyaremutuallyexclusive.

Since7.21.7,thisoptionissuperfluoussinceyoucanspecifyasocks4proxywithx,
proxyusingasocks4://protocolprefix.

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Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

socks4a<host[:port]>

UsethespecifiedSOCKS4aproxy.Iftheportnumberisnotspecified,itisassumed
atport1080.(Addedin7.18.0)

Thisoptionoverridesanyprevioususeofx,proxy,astheyaremutuallyexclusive.

Since7.21.7,thisoptionissuperfluoussinceyoucanspecifyasocks4aproxywithx,
proxyusingasocks4a://protocolprefix.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

socks5hostname<host[:port]>

UsethespecifiedSOCKS5proxy(andlettheproxyresolvethehostname).Iftheport
numberisnotspecified,itisassumedatport1080.(Addedin7.18.0)

Thisoptionoverridesanyprevioususeofx,proxy,astheyaremutuallyexclusive.

Since7.21.7,thisoptionissuperfluoussinceyoucanspecifyasocks5hostname
proxywithx,proxyusingasocks5h://protocolprefix.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.(Thisoptionwas
previouslywronglydocumentedandusedassockswithoutthenumberappended.)

socks5<host[:port]>

UsethespecifiedSOCKS5proxybutresolvethehostnamelocally.Iftheport
numberisnotspecified,itisassumedatport1080.

Thisoptionoverridesanyprevioususeofx,proxy,astheyaremutuallyexclusive.

Since7.21.7,thisoptionissuperfluoussinceyoucanspecifyasocks5proxywithx,
proxyusingasocks5://protocolprefix.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.(Thisoptionwas
previouslywronglydocumentedandusedassockswithoutthenumberappended.)

Thisoption(aswellassocks4)doesnotworkwithIPV6,FTPSorLDAP.

socks5gssapiservice<servicename>

Thedefaultservicenameforasocksserverisrcmd/serverfqdn.Thisoptionallows
youtochangeit.

Examples:socks5proxynamesocks5gssapiservicesockdwoulduse
sockd/proxynamesocks5proxynamesocks5gssapiservicesockd/realname
wouldusesockd/realnameforcaseswheretheproxynamedoesnotmatchthe
principalname.(Addedin7.19.4).

socks5gssapinec

AspartoftheGSSAPInegotiationaprotectionmodeisnegotiated.RFC1961says
insection4.3/4.4itshouldbeprotected,buttheNECreferenceimplementationdoes

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not.Theoptionsocks5gssapinecallowstheunprotectedexchangeofthe
protectionmodenegotiation.(Addedin7.19.4).

stderr<file>

Redirectallwritestostderrtothespecifiedfileinstead.Ifthefilenameisaplain'',it
isinsteadwrittentostdout.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

t,telnetoption<OPT=val>

Passoptionstothetelnetprotocol.Supportedoptionsare:

TTYPE=<term>Setstheterminaltype.

XDISPLOC=<Xdisplay>SetstheXdisplaylocation.

NEW_ENV=<var,val>Setsanenvironmentvariable.

T,uploadfile<file>

ThistransfersthespecifiedlocalfiletotheremoteURL.Ifthereisnofilepartinthe
specifiedURL,Curlwillappendthelocalfilename.NOTEthatyoumustuseatrailing
/onthelastdirectorytoreallyprovetoCurlthatthereisnofilenameorcurlwillthink
thatyourlastdirectorynameistheremotefilenametouse.Thatwillmostlikely
causetheuploadoperationtofail.IfthisisusedonanHTTP(S)server,thePUT
commandwillbeused.

Usethefilename""(asingledash)tousestdininsteadofagivenfile.Alternately,
thefilename"."(asingleperiod)maybespecifiedinsteadof""tousestdininnon
blockingmodetoallowreadingserveroutputwhilestdinisbeinguploaded.

YoucanspecifyoneTforeachURLonthecommandline.EachT+URLpair
specifieswhattouploadandtowhere.curlalsosupports"globbing"oftheT
argument,meaningthatyoucanuploadmultiplefilestoasingleURLbyusingthe
sameURLglobbingstylesupportedintheURL,likethis:

curlT"{file1,file2}"http://www.example.com

oreven

curlT"img[11000].png"ftp://ftp.example.com/upload/

tcpnodelay

TurnontheTCP_NODELAYoption.Seethecurl_easy_setopt(3)manpagefor
detailsaboutthisoption.(Addedin7.11.2)

tcpfastopen

EnableuseofTCPFastOpen(RFC7413).(Addedin7.49.0)

tftpblksize<value>

(TFTP)SetTFTPBLKSIZEoption(mustbe>512).Thisistheblocksizethatcurlwill

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trytousewhentransferringdatatoorfromaTFTPserver.Bydefault512byteswill
beused.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

(Addedin7.20.0)

tftpnooptions

(TFTP)TellscurlnottosendTFTPoptionsrequests.

Thisoptionimprovesinteropwithsomelegacyserversthatdonotacknowledgeor
properlyimplementTFTPoptions.Whenthisoptionisusedtftpblksizeisignored.

(Addedin7.48.0)

tlsauthtype<authtype>

SetTLSauthenticationtype.Currently,theonlysupportedoptionis"SRP",forTLS
SRP(RFC5054).Iftlsuserandtlspasswordarespecifiedbuttlsauthtypeisnot,
thenthisoptiondefaultsto"SRP".(Addedin7.21.4)

tlspassword<password>

SetpasswordforusewiththeTLSauthenticationmethodspecifiedwithtlsauthtype.
Requiresthattlsuseralsobeset.(Addedin7.21.4)

tlsuser<user>

SetusernameforusewiththeTLSauthenticationmethodspecifiedwithtlsauthtype.
Requiresthattlspasswordalsobeset.(Addedin7.21.4)

tlsv1.0

(SSL)ForcescurltouseTLSversion1.0whennegotiatingwitharemoteTLSserver.
(Addedin7.34.0)

tlsv1.1

(SSL)ForcescurltouseTLSversion1.1whennegotiatingwitharemoteTLSserver.
(Addedin7.34.0)

tlsv1.2

(SSL)ForcescurltouseTLSversion1.2whennegotiatingwitharemoteTLSserver.
(Addedin7.34.0)

trencoding

(HTTP)RequestacompressedTransferEncodingresponseusingoneofthe
algorithmscurlsupports,anduncompressthedatawhilereceivingit.

(Addedin7.21.6)

trace<file>

Enablesafulltracedumpofallincomingandoutgoingdata,includingdescriptive
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information,tothegivenoutputfile.Use""asfilenametohavetheoutputsentto
stdout.

Thisoptionoverridesprevioususesofv,verboseortraceascii.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

traceascii<file>

Enablesafulltracedumpofallincomingandoutgoingdata,includingdescriptive
information,tothegivenoutputfile.Use""asfilenametohavetheoutputsentto
stdout.

Thisisverysimilartotrace,butleavesoutthehexpartandonlyshowstheASCII
partofthedump.Itmakessmalleroutputthatmightbeeasiertoreadforuntrained
humans.

Thisoptionoverridesprevioususesofv,verboseortrace.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

tracetime

Prependsatimestamptoeachtraceorverboselinethatcurldisplays.(Addedin
7.14.0)

unixsocket<path>

(HTTP)ConnectthroughthisUnixdomainsocket,insteadofusingthenetwork.
(Addedin7.40.0)

u,user<user:password>

Specifytheusernameandpasswordtouseforserverauthentication.Overridesn,
netrcandnetrcoptional.

Ifyousimplyspecifytheusername,curlwillpromptforapassword.

Theusernameandpasswordsaresplituponthefirstcolon,whichmakesit
impossibletouseacolonintheusernamewiththisoption.Thepasswordcan,still.

WhenusingKerberosV5withaWindowsbasedserveryoushouldincludethe
Windowsdomainnameintheusername,inorderfortheservertosuccessfullyobtain
aKerberosTicket.Ifyoudon'tthentheinitialauthenticationhandshakemayfail.

WhenusingNTLM,theusernamecanbespecifiedsimplyastheusername,without
thedomain,ifthereisasingledomainandforestinyoursetupforexample.

TospecifythedomainnameuseeitherDownLevelLogonNameorUPN(User
PrincipalName)formats.Forexample,EXAMPLE\[email protected]
respectively.

IfyouuseaWindowsSSPIenabledcurlbinaryandperformKerberosV5,Negotiate,
NTLMorDigestauthenticationthenyoucantellcurltoselecttheusernameand
passwordfromyourenvironmentbyspecifyingasinglecolonwiththisoption:"u:".

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Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

U,proxyuser<user:password>

Specifytheusernameandpasswordtouseforproxyauthentication.

IfyouuseaWindowsSSPIenabledcurlbinaryanddoeitherNegotiateorNTLM
authenticationthenyoucantellcurltoselecttheusernameandpasswordfromyour
environmentbyspecifyingasinglecolonwiththisoption:"U:".

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

url<URL>

SpecifyaURLtofetch.ThisoptionismostlyhandywhenyouwanttospecifyURL(s)
inaconfigfile.

IfthegivenURLismissingaschemename(suchas"http://"or"ftp://"etc)thencurl
willmakeaguessbasedonthehost.Iftheoutermostsubdomainnamematches
DICT,FTP,IMAP,LDAP,POP3orSMTPthenthatprotocolwillbeused,otherwise
HTTPwillbeused.Since7.45.0guessingcanbedisabledbysettingadefault
protocol,seeprotodefaultfordetails.

Thisoptionmaybeusedanynumberoftimes.TocontrolwherethisURLiswritten,
usetheo,outputortheO,remotenameoptions.

v,verbose

Bemoreverbose/talkativeduringtheoperation.Usefulfordebuggingandseeing
what'sgoingon"underthehood".Alinestartingwith'>'means"headerdata"sentby
curl,'<'means"headerdata"receivedbycurlthatishiddeninnormalcases,anda
linestartingwith'*'meansadditionalinfoprovidedbycurl.

NotethatifyouonlywantHTTPheadersintheoutput,i,includemightbethe
optionyou'relookingfor.

Ifyouthinkthisoptionstilldoesn'tgiveyouenoughdetails,considerusingtraceor
traceasciiinstead.

Thisoptionoverridesprevioususesoftraceasciiortrace.

Uses,silenttomakecurlquiet.

w,writeout<format>

Makecurldisplayinformationonstdoutafteracompletedtransfer.Theformatisa
stringthatmaycontainplaintextmixedwithanynumberofvariables.Theformatcan
bespecifiedasaliteral"string",oryoucanhavecurlreadtheformatfromafilewith
"@filename"andtotellcurltoreadtheformatfromstdinyouwrite"@".

Thevariablespresentintheoutputformatwillbesubstitutedbythevalueortextthat
curlthinksfit,asdescribedbelow.Allvariablesarespecifiedas%{variable_name}
andtooutputanormal%youjustwritethemas%%.Youcanoutputanewlineby
using\n,acarriagereturnwith\randatabspacewith\t.

NOTE:The%symbolisaspecialsymbolinthewin32environment,whereall
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occurrencesof%mustbedoubledwhenusingthisoption.

Thevariablesavailableare:

content_typeTheContentTypeoftherequesteddocument,iftherewasany.

filename_effectiveTheultimatefilenamethatcurlwritesoutto.Thisisonly
meaningfulifcurlistoldtowritetoafilewiththeremotenameoroutput
option.It'smostusefulincombinationwiththeremoteheadernameoption.
(Addedin7.26.0)

ftp_entry_pathTheinitialpathcurlendedupinwhenloggingontotheremote
FTPserver.(Addedin7.15.4)

http_codeThenumericalresponsecodethatwasfoundinthelastretrieved
HTTP(S)orFTP(s)transfer.In7.18.2thealiasresponse_codewasaddedto
showthesameinfo.

http_connectThenumericalcodethatwasfoundinthelastresponse(froma
proxy)toacurlCONNECTrequest.(Addedin7.12.4)

local_ipTheIPaddressofthelocalendofthemostrecentlydoneconnection
canbeeitherIPv4orIPv6(Addedin7.29.0)

local_portThelocalportnumberofthemostrecentlydoneconnection(Addedin
7.29.0)

num_connectsNumberofnewconnectsmadeintherecenttransfer.(Addedin
7.12.3)

num_redirectsNumberofredirectsthatwerefollowedintherequest.(Addedin
7.12.3)

redirect_urlWhenanHTTPrequestwasmadewithoutLtofollowredirects,this
variablewillshowtheactualURLaredirectwouldtakeyouto.(Addedin7.18.2)

remote_ipTheremoteIPaddressofthemostrecentlydoneconnectioncanbe
eitherIPv4orIPv6(Addedin7.29.0)

remote_portTheremoteportnumberofthemostrecentlydoneconnection
(Addedin7.29.0)

size_downloadThetotalamountofbytesthatweredownloaded.

size_headerThetotalamountofbytesofthedownloadedheaders.

size_requestThetotalamountofbytesthatweresentintheHTTPrequest.

size_uploadThetotalamountofbytesthatwereuploaded.

speed_downloadTheaveragedownloadspeedthatcurlmeasuredforthe
completedownload.Bytespersecond.

speed_uploadTheaverageuploadspeedthatcurlmeasuredforthecomplete
upload.Bytespersecond.

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ssl_verify_resultTheresultoftheSSLpeercertificateverificationthatwas
requested.0meanstheverificationwassuccessful.(Addedin7.19.0)

time_appconnectThetime,inseconds,ittookfromthestartuntilthe
SSL/SSH/etcconnect/handshaketotheremotehostwascompleted.(Addedin
7.19.0)

time_connectThetime,inseconds,ittookfromthestartuntiltheTCPconnect
totheremotehost(orproxy)wascompleted.

time_namelookupThetime,inseconds,ittookfromthestartuntilthename
resolvingwascompleted.

time_pretransferThetime,inseconds,ittookfromthestartuntilthefiletransfer
wasjustabouttobegin.Thisincludesallpretransfercommandsand
negotiationsthatarespecifictotheparticularprotocol(s)involved.

time_redirectThetime,inseconds,ittookforallredirectionstepsincludename
lookup,connect,pretransferandtransferbeforethefinaltransactionwasstarted.
time_redirectshowsthecompleteexecutiontimeformultipleredirections.(Added
in7.12.3)

time_starttransferThetime,inseconds,ittookfromthestartuntilthefirstbyte
wasjustabouttobetransferred.Thisincludestime_pretransferandalsothetime
theserverneededtocalculatetheresult.

time_totalThetotaltime,inseconds,thatthefulloperationlasted.Thetimewill
bedisplayedwithmillisecondresolution.

url_effectiveTheURLthatwasfetchedlast.Thisismostmeaningfulifyou've
toldcurltofollowlocation:headers.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

x,proxy<[protocol://][user:password@]proxyhost[:port]>

Usethespecifiedproxy.

Theproxystringcanbespecifiedwithaprotocol://prefixtospecifyalternativeproxy
protocols.Usesocks4://,socks4a://,socks5://orsocks5h://torequestthespecific
SOCKSversiontobeused.Noprotocolspecified,http://andallotherswillbetreated
asHTTPproxies.(Theprotocolsupportwasaddedincurl7.21.7)

Iftheportnumberisnotspecifiedintheproxystring,itisassumedtobe1080.

Thisoptionoverridesexistingenvironmentvariablesthatsettheproxytouse.If
there'sanenvironmentvariablesettingaproxy,youcansetproxyto""tooverrideit.

AlloperationsthatareperformedoveranHTTPproxywilltransparentlybeconverted
toHTTP.Itmeansthatcertainprotocolspecificoperationsmightnotbeavailable.
Thisisnotthecaseifyoucantunnelthroughtheproxy,asonewiththep,
proxytunneloption.

UserandpasswordthatmightbeprovidedintheproxystringareURLdecodedby
curl.Thisallowsyoutopassinspecialcharacterssuchas@byusing%40orpassin
acolonwith%3a.
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Theproxyhostcanbespecifiedtheexactsamewayastheproxyenvironment
variables,includingtheprotocolprefix(http://)andtheembeddeduser+password.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

X,request<command>

(HTTP)Specifiesacustomrequestmethodtousewhencommunicatingwiththe
HTTPserver.Thespecifiedrequestmethodwillbeusedinsteadofthemethod
otherwiseused(whichdefaultstoGET).ReadtheHTTP1.1specificationfordetails
andexplanations.CommonadditionalHTTPrequestsincludePUTandDELETE,but
relatedtechnologieslikeWebDAVoffersPROPFIND,COPY,MOVEandmore.

Normallyyoudon'tneedthisoption.AllsortsofGET,HEAD,POSTandPUT
requestsareratherinvokedbyusingdedicatedcommandlineoptions.

ThisoptiononlychangestheactualwordusedintheHTTPrequest,itdoesnotalter
thewaycurlbehaves.SoforexampleifyouwanttomakeaproperHEADrequest,
usingXHEADwillnotsuffice.YouneedtousetheI,headoption.

ThemethodstringyousetwithXwillbeusedforallrequests,whichifyoufor
exampleuseL,locationmaycauseunintendedsideeffectswhencurldoesn't
changerequestmethodaccordingtotheHTTP30xresponsecodesandsimilar.

(FTP)SpecifiesacustomFTPcommandtouseinsteadofLISTwhendoingfilelists
withFTP.

(POP3)SpecifiesacustomPOP3commandtouseinsteadofLISTorRETR.(Added
in7.26.0)

(IMAP)SpecifiesacustomIMAPcommandtouseinsteadofLIST.(Addedin7.30.0)

(SMTP)SpecifiesacustomSMTPcommandtouseinsteadofHELPorVRFY.
(Addedin7.34.0)

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

xattr

Whensavingoutputtoafile,thisoptiontellscurltostorecertainfilemetadatain
extendedfileattributes.Currently,theURLisstoredinthexdg.origin.urlattributeand,
forHTTP,thecontenttypeisstoredinthemime_typeattribute.Ifthefilesystemdoes
notsupportextendedattributes,awarningisissued.

y,speedtime<time>

Ifadownloadisslowerthanspeedlimitbytespersecondduringaspeedtimeperiod,
thedownloadgetsaborted.Ifspeedtimeisused,thedefaultspeedlimitwillbe1
unlesssetwithY.

Thisoptioncontrolstransfersandthuswillnotaffectslowconnectsetc.Ifthisisa
concernforyou,trytheconnecttimeoutoption.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

Y,speedlimit<speed>
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Ifadownloadisslowerthanthisgivenspeed(inbytespersecond)forspeedtime
secondsitgetsaborted.speedtimeissetwithyandis30ifnotset.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

z,timecond<dateexpression>|<file>

(HTTP/FTP)Requestafilethathasbeenmodifiedlaterthanthegiventimeanddate,
oronethathasbeenmodifiedbeforethattime.The<dateexpression>canbeall
sortsofdatestringsorifitdoesn'tmatchanyinternalones,itistakenasafilename
andtriestogetthemodificationdate(mtime)from<file>instead.Seethe
curl_getdate(3)manpagesfordateexpressiondetails.

Startthedateexpressionwithadash()tomakeitrequestforadocumentthatis
olderthanthegivendate/time,defaultisadocumentthatisnewerthanthespecified
date/time.

Ifthisoptionisusedseveraltimes,thelastonewillbeused.

h,help

Usagehelp.Thislistsallcurrentcommandlineoptionswithashortdescription.

M,manual

Manual.Displaythehugehelptext.

V,version

Displaysinformationaboutcurlandthelibcurlversionituses.

Thefirstlineincludesthefullversionofcurl,libcurlandother3rdpartylibrarieslinked
withtheexecutable.

Thesecondline(startswith"Protocols:")showsallprotocolsthatlibcurlreportsto
support.

Thethirdline(startswith"Features:")showsspecificfeatureslibcurlreportstooffer.
Availablefeaturesinclude:

IPv6

YoucanuseIPv6withthis.

krb4

Krb4forFTPissupported.

SSL

SSLversionsofvariousprotocolsaresupported,suchasHTTPS,FTPS,POP3S
andsoon.

libz

AutomaticdecompressionofcompressedfilesoverHTTPissupported.

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NTLM

NTLMauthenticationissupported.

Debug

ThiscurlusesalibcurlbuiltwithDebug.Thisenablesmoreerrortrackingand
memorydebuggingetc.Forcurldevelopersonly!

AsynchDNS

Thiscurlusesasynchronousnameresolves.Asynchronousnameresolvescan
bedoneusingeitherthecaresorthethreadedresolverbackends.

SPNEGO

SPNEGOauthenticationissupported.

Largefile

Thiscurlsupportstransfersoflargefiles,fileslargerthan2GB.

IDN

ThiscurlsupportsIDNinternationaldomainnames.

GSSAPI

GSSAPIissupported.

SSPI

SSPIissupported.

TLSSRP

SRP(SecureRemotePassword)authenticationissupportedforTLS.

HTTP2

HTTP/2supporthasbeenbuiltin.

Metalink

ThiscurlsupportsMetalink(bothversion3and4(RFC5854)),whichdescribes
mirrorsandhashes.curlwillusemirrorsforfailoverifthereareerrors(suchas
thefileorservernotbeingavailable).

FILES
~/.curlrc

Defaultconfigfile,seeK,configfordetails.

ENVIRONMENT
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Theenvironmentvariablescanbespecifiedinlowercaseoruppercase.Thelowercase
versionhasprecedence.http_proxyisanexceptionasitisonlyavailableinlowercase.

Usinganenvironmentvariabletosettheproxyhasthesameeffectasusingtheproxy
option.

http_proxy[protocol://]<host>[:port]

SetstheproxyservertouseforHTTP.

HTTPS_PROXY[protocol://]<host>[:port]

SetstheproxyservertouseforHTTPS.

[urlprotocol]_PROXY[protocol://]<host>[:port]

Setstheproxyservertousefor[urlprotocol],wheretheprotocolisaprotocolthatcurl
supportsandasspecifiedinaURL.FTP,FTPS,POP3,IMAP,SMTP,LDAPetc.

ALL_PROXY[protocol://]<host>[:port]

Setstheproxyservertouseifnoprotocolspecificproxyisset.

NO_PROXY<commaseparatedlistofhosts>

listofhostnamesthatshouldn'tgothroughanyproxy.Ifsettoaasterisk'*'only,it
matchesallhosts.

PROXYPROTOCOLPREFIXES
Sincecurlversion7.21.7,theproxystringmaybespecifiedwithaprotocol://prefixto
specifyalternativeproxyprotocols.

Ifnoprotocolisspecifiedintheproxystringorifthestringdoesn'tmatchasupportedone,
theproxywillbetreatedasanHTTPproxy.

Thesupportedproxyprotocolprefixesareasfollows:

socks4://

Makesittheequivalentofsocks4

socks4a://

Makesittheequivalentofsocks4a

socks5://

Makesittheequivalentofsocks5

socks5h://

Makesittheequivalentofsocks5hostname

EXITCODES
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Thereareabunchofdifferenterrorcodesandtheircorrespondingerrormessagesthat
mayappearduringbadconditions.Atthetimeofthiswriting,theexitcodesare:

Unsupportedprotocol.Thisbuildofcurlhasnosupportforthisprotocol.

Failedtoinitialize.

URLmalformed.Thesyntaxwasnotcorrect.

Afeatureoroptionthatwasneededtoperformthedesiredrequestwasnotenabled
orwasexplicitlydisabledatbuildtime.Tomakecurlabletodothis,youprobably
needanotherbuildoflibcurl!

Couldn'tresolveproxy.Thegivenproxyhostcouldnotberesolved.

Couldn'tresolvehost.Thegivenremotehostwasnotresolved.

Failedtoconnecttohost.

FTPweirdserverreply.Theserversentdatacurlcouldn'tparse.

FTPaccessdenied.Theserverdeniedloginordeniedaccesstotheparticular
resourceordirectoryyouwantedtoreach.Mostoftenyoutriedtochangetoa
directorythatdoesn'texistontheserver.

11

FTPweirdPASSreply.Curlcouldn'tparsethereplysenttothePASSrequest.

13

FTPweirdPASVreply,Curlcouldn'tparsethereplysenttothePASVrequest.

14

FTPweird227format.Curlcouldn'tparsethe227linetheserversent.

15

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FTPcan'tgethost.Couldn'tresolvethehostIPwegotinthe227line.

17

FTPcouldn'tsetbinary.Couldn'tchangetransfermethodtobinary.

18

Partialfile.Onlyapartofthefilewastransferred.

19

FTPcouldn'tdownload/accessthegivenfile,theRETR(orsimilar)commandfailed.

21

FTPquoteerror.Aquotecommandreturnederrorfromtheserver.

22

HTTPpagenotretrieved.Therequestedurlwasnotfoundorreturnedanothererror
withtheHTTPerrorcodebeing400orabove.Thisreturncodeonlyappearsiff,fail
isused.

23

Writeerror.Curlcouldn'twritedatatoalocalfilesystemorsimilar.

25

FTPcouldn'tSTORfile.TheserverdeniedtheSTORoperation,usedforFTP
uploading.

26

Readerror.Variousreadingproblems.

27

Outofmemory.Amemoryallocationrequestfailed.

28

Operationtimeout.Thespecifiedtimeoutperiodwasreachedaccordingtothe
conditions.

30

FTPPORTfailed.ThePORTcommandfailed.NotallFTPserverssupportthePORT
command,trydoingatransferusingPASVinstead!

31

FTPcouldn'tuseREST.TheRESTcommandfailed.Thiscommandisusedfor
resumedFTPtransfers.

33
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HTTPrangeerror.Therange"command"didn'twork.

34

HTTPposterror.Internalpostrequestgenerationerror.

35

SSLconnecterror.TheSSLhandshakingfailed.

36

FTPbaddownloadresume.Couldn'tcontinueanearlieraborteddownload.

37

FILEcouldn'treadfile.Failedtoopenthefile.Permissions?

38

LDAPcannotbind.LDAPbindoperationfailed.

39

LDAPsearchfailed.

41

Functionnotfound.ArequiredLDAPfunctionwasnotfound.

42

Abortedbycallback.Anapplicationtoldcurltoaborttheoperation.

43

Internalerror.Afunctionwascalledwithabadparameter.

45

Interfaceerror.Aspecifiedoutgoinginterfacecouldnotbeused.

47

Toomanyredirects.Whenfollowingredirects,curlhitthemaximumamount.

48

Unknownoptionspecifiedtolibcurl.Thisindicatesthatyoupassedaweirdoptionto
curlthatwaspassedontolibcurlandrejected.Readupinthemanual!

49

Malformedtelnetoption.

51

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Thepeer'sSSLcertificateorSSHMD5fingerprintwasnotOK.

52

Theserverdidn'treplyanything,whichhereisconsideredanerror.

53

SSLcryptoenginenotfound.

54

CannotsetSSLcryptoengineasdefault.

55

Failedsendingnetworkdata.

56

Failureinreceivingnetworkdata.

58

Problemwiththelocalcertificate.

59

Couldn'tusespecifiedSSLcipher.

60

PeercertificatecannotbeauthenticatedwithknownCAcertificates.

61

Unrecognizedtransferencoding.

62

InvalidLDAPURL.

63

Maximumfilesizeexceeded.

64

RequestedFTPSSLlevelfailed.

65

Sendingthedatarequiresarewindthatfailed.

66

FailedtoinitialiseSSLEngine.
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67

Theusername,password,orsimilarwasnotacceptedandcurlfailedtologin.

68

FilenotfoundonTFTPserver.

69

PermissionproblemonTFTPserver.

70

OutofdiskspaceonTFTPserver.

71

IllegalTFTPoperation.

72

UnknownTFTPtransferID.

73

Filealreadyexists(TFTP).

74

Nosuchuser(TFTP).

75

Characterconversionfailed.

76

Characterconversionfunctionsrequired.

77

ProblemwithreadingtheSSLCAcert(path?accessrights?).

78

TheresourcereferencedintheURLdoesnotexist.

79

AnunspecifiederroroccurredduringtheSSHsession.

80

FailedtoshutdowntheSSLconnection.

82
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CouldnotloadCRLfile,missingorwrongformat(addedin7.19.0).

83

Issuercheckfailed(addedin7.19.0).

84

TheFTPPRETcommandfailed

85

RTSP:mismatchofCSeqnumbers

86

RTSP:mismatchofSessionIdentifiers

87

unabletoparseFTPfilelist

88

FTPchunkcallbackreportederror

89

Noconnectionavailable,thesessionwillbequeued

90

SSLpublickeydoesnotmatchedpinnedpublickey

XX

Moreerrorcodeswillappearhereinfuturereleases.Theexistingonesaremeantto
neverchange.

AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS
DanielStenbergisthemainauthor,butthewholelistofcontributorsisfoundinthe
separateTHANKSfile.

WWW
https://curl.haxx.se

FTP
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/www/utilities/curl/

SEEALSO
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ftp(1),wget(1)
ThisHTMLpagewasmadewithroffit.

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