How to Install Curl on Linux

Curl is a powerful command-line tool used for transferring data over various protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, SCP, SFTP, TFTP, and more. It's an essential tool for downloading files from the internet. In this article, we will discuss how to install curl on Linux and some of its useful commands.

Before diving into the usage of curl, let's first check if it's already installed on your system. You can do this by opening a terminal window and typing:

```

curl --version

```

If you see the version number displayed in your terminal, then curl is already installed on your system. If not, don't worry! We'll guide you through the installation process.

Installing Curl

Curl is available in the default repositories of most Linux distributions. You can install it using the package manager of your distribution. Here are some examples of how to install curl on different Linux distributions:

* On Ubuntu and Debian-based systems:

```

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install curl

```

* On Red Hat and CentOS-based systems:

```

sudo yum install curl

```

* On Fedora:

```

sudo dnf install curl

```

Once the installation is complete, you can verify that curl is installed correctly by typing:

```

curl --version

```

Basic Curl Commands

Curl provides several options to customize its behavior. Here are some basic curl commands to get you started:

* To download a file using curl, you can use the following command:

```

curl -O

```

Replace `` with the URL of the resource you want to download.

* The `-O` option saves the file in its original name in the current working directory.

* You can also specify a different filename by adding it after the `-O` option. For example:

```

curl -O -o filename.txt

```

This will save the downloaded file as `filename.txt`.

* To display the source code of a webpage, simply type:

```

curl

```

Curl also provides several options to customize its behavior. Here are some examples:

* `-b` option: Sets the cookie specified by the string.

* `-c` option: Specifies the file to which the contents should be written instead of stdout.

* `-H` option: Adds a header line to the request, like `Content-Type: application/json`.

* `-i` option: Include protocol headers in the output.

Downloading Multiple Files with Curl

Curl also provides an option to download multiple files at once. You can do this by specifying multiple URLs separated by spaces:

```

curl -O

```

This will download all the specified files and save them in their original names in the current working directory.

Curl is a powerful command-line tool that provides several options to customize its behavior. In this article, we have discussed how to install curl on Linux and some of its basic commands. With curl, you can easily download files from the internet and customize your downloads with various options.

How to install curl on lunix