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@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
Online: http://curl.haxx.se/docs/httpscripting.shtml
Author: Daniel Stenberg <daniel@haxx.se>
-Date: October 31, 2001
-Version: 0.5
+Date: November 6, 2001
+Version: 0.6
The Art Of Scripting HTTP Requests Using Curl
=============================================
@@ -65,7 +65,8 @@ Version: 0.5
All HTTP replies contain a set of headers that are normally hidden, use
curl's -i option to display them as well as the rest of the document. You can
- also ask the remote server for ONLY the headers by using the -I option.
+ also ask the remote server for ONLY the headers by using the -I option (which
+ will make curl issue a HEAD request).
4. Forms
@@ -122,17 +123,22 @@ Version: 0.5
<form method="POST" action="junk.cgi">
<input type=text name="birthyear">
- <input type=submit name=press value="OK">
+ <input type=submit name=press value=" OK ">
</form>
And to use curl to post this form with the same data filled in as before, we
could do it like:
- curl -d "birthyear=1905&press=OK" www.hotmail.com/when/junk.cgi
+ curl -d "birthyear=1905&press=%20OK%20" www.hotmail.com/when/junk.cgi
This kind of POST will use the Content-Type
application/x-www-form-urlencoded and is the most widely used POST kind.
+ The data you send to the server MUST already be properly encoded, curl will
+ not do that for you. For example, if you want the data to contain a space,
+ you need to replace that space with %20 etc. Failing to comply with this
+ will most likely cause your data to be received wrongly and messed up.
+
4.3 FILE UPLOAD POST
Back in late 1995 they defined a new way to post data over HTTP. It was
@@ -202,14 +208,18 @@ Version: 0.5
Authentication is the ability to tell the server your username and password
so that it can verify that you're allowed to do the request you're doing. The
- basic authentication used in HTTP is *plain* *text* based, which means it
- sends username and password only slightly obfuscated, but still fully
- readable by anyone that sniffs on the network between you and the remote
- server.
+ Basic authentication used in HTTP (which is the type curl uses by default) is
+ *plain* *text* based, which means it sends username and password only
+ slightly obfuscated, but still fully readable by anyone that sniffs on the
+ network between you and the remote server.
To tell curl to use a user and password for authentication:
curl -u name:password www.secrets.com
+
+ The site might require a different authentication method (check the headers
+ returned by the server), and then --ntlm, --digest, --negotiate or even
+ --anyauth might be options that suit you.
Sometimes your HTTP access is only available through the use of a HTTP
proxy. This seems to be especially common at various companies. A HTTP proxy
@@ -218,6 +228,9 @@ Version: 0.5
curl -U proxyuser:proxypassword curl.haxx.se
+ If your proxy requires the authentication to be done using the NTLM method,
+ use --proxy-ntlm.
+
If you use any one these user+password options but leave out the password
part, curl will prompt for the password interactively.
@@ -309,6 +322,9 @@ Version: 0.5
curl -D headers_and_cookies www.cookiesite.com
+ (Take note that the -c option described below is a better way to store
+ cookies.)
+
Curl has a full blown cookie parsing engine built-in that comes to use if you
want to reconnect to a server and use cookies that were stored from a
previous connection (or handicrafted manually to fool the server into
@@ -362,6 +378,11 @@ Version: 0.5
curl -E mycert.pem https://that.secure.server.com
+ curl also tries to verify that the server is who it claims to be, by
+ verifying the server's certificate against a CA cert bundle. Failing the
+ verification will cause curl to deny the connection. You must then use -k in
+ case you want to tell curl to ignore that the server can't be verified.
+
12. REFERENCES
RFC 2616 is a must to read if you want in-depth understanding of the HTTP