What is the cURL command-line syntax to do a POST request?

Question

How do I make a POST request with cURL command-line tool?

Answer 1

curl -d "param1=value1&param2=value2" http://example.com/resource.cgi

or

curl -F "fileupload=@filename.txt" http://example.com/resource.cgi

For more information see the cURL manual. You might also find the cURL tutorial on emulating a web browser helpful.

With libcurl, you'd use the curl_formadd() function to build your form before submitting it in the usual way. See the libcurl documentation for more information.

Answer 2

For a RESTful HTTP POST containing XML or JSON, use this:

curl -X POST -d @filename http://example.com/path/to/resource

This will read the contents of file named "filename" and send it as the post request.

Answer 3

curl -d "name=Rafael%20Sagula&phone=3320780" http://www.where.com/guest.cgi is the example found in the Curl Example Manual that can be found here : http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/documentation/curl/index.html

Answer 4

curl -v --data-ascii var=value http://example.com

and there are many more options, check curl --help for more information.

Answer 5

If you want to login to a site, do the following:

curl -d "username=admin&password=admin&submit=Login" --dump-header headers http://localhost/Login
curl -L -b headers http://localhost/

The first request saves the session cookie (that is provided upon successful login) in the "headers" file. From now on you can use that cookie to authenticate you to any part of the website that you usually access after logging in with a browser.