curl Cheat Sheet - Martkos IT

Basic Options

curl URLSimple GET
-X METHODHTTP method
-vVerbose output
-sSilent mode
-iInclude headers
-IHeaders only
-LFollow redirects

HTTP Methods

-X GETGET (default)
-X POSTPOST request
-X PUTPUT request
-X PATCHPATCH request
-X DELETEDELETE request
-X HEADHEAD request

Headers

-H "Key: Value"Add header
-H "Content-Type: ..."Content type
-H "Accept: ..."Accept type
-A "User-Agent"User agent
-e "Referer"Referer header

Authentication

-u user:passBasic auth
-H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN"Bearer token
--digestDigest auth
--ntlmNTLM auth
-nUse .netrc

Sending Data

# POST with form data
curl -X POST -d "name=John&age=30" http://api.example.com/users

# POST with JSON
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"name":"John","age":30}' http://api.example.com/users

# POST JSON from file
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d @data.json http://api.example.com/users

# Upload file (multipart)
curl -X POST -F "file=@photo.jpg" -F "name=profile" http://api.com/upload
          

Output Options

# Save to file
curl -o output.html http://example.com
curl -O http://example.com/file.zip  # Use remote filename

# Show only status code
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" http://example.com

# Show timing info
curl -w "Time: %{time_total}s\n" http://example.com

# Pretty print JSON (with jq)
curl -s http://api.com/data | jq .
          

SSL/TLS Options

-kSkip SSL verify
--cacert fileCA certificate
--cert fileClient cert
--key filePrivate key
--tlsv1.2Force TLS 1.2

Timeouts & Retry

--connect-timeout 10Connect timeout
-m 30Max time (total)
--retry 3Retry count
--retry-delay 5Retry delay (sec)

Common Examples

# GET with auth header
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" http://api.example.com/users

# POST JSON with verbose
curl -v -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"key":"value"}' http://api.com/endpoint

# Download with progress bar
curl -# -O http://example.com/largefile.zip

# Test API endpoint
curl -s -w "\nHTTP: %{http_code} | Time: %{time_total}s\n" http://api.com/health
          

Cookies

-b "name=value"Send cookie
-b cookies.txtRead cookies
-c cookies.txtSave cookies
-b "" -c ""Cookie jar

Proxy Options

-x proxy:portUse proxy
-U user:passProxy auth
--socks5 host:portSOCKS5 proxy
--noproxy "*"Bypass proxy