How to send HTTP requests using cURL

• Reading a URL via GET:

  Copycurl http://example.com/
  

• Defining any HTTP method (like POST or PUT):

  Copycurl http://example.com/users/1 -XPUT
  

• Sending data with a request:

  Copycurl http://example.com/users -d"first_name=Bruce&last_name=Wayne"
  

  If you use -d and do not set an HTTP request method it automatically defaults to POST.

• Performing basic authentication:

  Copycurl http://user:password@example.com/users/1
  

• All together now:

  Copycurl http://user:password@example.com/users/1 -XPUT -d"screen_name=batman"
  

Check the man page Show archive.org snapshot for more features.

Read more

• You can also use Cookies with cURL.
• For easily making HTTP requests in an IRB or Rails console, take a look at the HTTP Show archive.org snapshot gem.
• If you prefer a GUI, take a look at the Chrome extension Postman Show archive.org snapshot .
• In the Network tab of Chrome Dev tools you can right-click a request and choose Copy / Copy as cURL. This copies an cURL CLI line into your clipboard that corresponds to the request.