Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Name

curl

Synopsis

curl [options] [URL...]

Transfers files to and from servers using one or more URLs. curl supports several common protocols specified in URL: HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, GOPHER, DICT, TELNET, LDAP, and FILE. The following descriptions and examples cover curl’s basic operation; for a complete description, refer to curl’s manpage.

The version of curl included with versions of Mac OS X at least up 10.2.1 can cause curl to display a “malloc” error after transfers finish. This error does not affect the success of the transfers, however, and in most cases can be ignored.

URL expressions

{ a, b, c, ... }

Form multiple URLs, each using one of the alternate variables specified within the braces as part of its string. For example, this string will expand into three different URLs: http://www.somesite.com/~ { jonny,andy,miho }.

[ n1-n2 ]

Form multiple URLs, each using one of the letters or numbers in the range specified within the brackets as part of its string. For example, this string will expand into five different URLs: http://www [ 1-5 ] .somesite.com/. Note that brackets need to be escaped from the shell (i.e., preceded with a backslash or surrounded in quotes).

Selected options

-C offset, --continue-at offset

Resume transfer after skipping the first offset bytes of the source file, for cases when the previous transfer attempt was interrupted.

-M, --manual

Display a detailed usage manual.

-o filename, --output filename

Save downloaded data to filename instead of standard output. ...