Example usage of curl

curl is convenient for testing web services.
Note: You may also be interested in:

• HTTPie - a command line HTTP client

Examples:

curl -i --data @sample-input.xml \
--header Content-type:application/xml \
https://goyun.info

curl -i --data @sample-input.json \
--header Content-type:application/json \
https://goyun.info

curl -i -X GET https://goyun.info

curl -i --header Accept:application/json
     -X GET https://goyun.info

curl -v -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"user":{"firstName":"Foo","lastName":"Bar","emailAddress":"<your email address here>"}, "password":"password"}' https://goyun.info/rest/user

Common parameters are:

-i, --include
              (HTTP) Include the HTTP-header in the  output.  The  HTTP-header
              includes  things  like  server-name, date of the document, HTTP-
              version and more...

 -X, --request <command>
              (HTTP) Specifies a custom request method to use when communicat‐
              ing with the HTTP server.  The specified request  will  be  used
              instead  of  the  method otherwise used (which defaults to GET).
              Read the HTTP 1.1 specification for  details  and  explanations.
              Common  additional  HTTP  requests  include  PUT and DELETE, but
              related technologies like WebDAV offers PROPFIND, COPY, MOVE and
              more.

              Normally  you  don't  need  this option. All sorts of GET, HEAD,
              POST and PUT requests are rather invoked by using dedicated com‐
              mand line options.

              This  option  only  changes  the  actual  word  used in the HTTP
              request, it does not alter the way curl behaves. So for  example
              if  you  want  to make a proper HEAD request, using -X HEAD will
              not suffice. You need to use the -I, --head option.

              (FTP) Specifies a custom FTP command to use instead of LIST when
              doing file lists with FTP.

              If this option is used several times, the last one will be used.

-d, --data <data>

              (HTTP)  Sends  the  specified data in a POST request to the HTTP

              server, in the same way that a browser  does  when  a  user  has

              filled  in an HTML form and presses the submit button. This will

              cause curl to pass the data to the server using the content-type

              application/x-www-form-urlencoded.  Compare to -F, --form.

              -d,  --data  is  the  same  as --data-ascii. To post data purely

              binary, you should instead use the --data-binary option. To URL-

              encode the value of a form field you may use --data-urlencode.

              If  any of these options is used more than once on the same com‐

              mand line, the data pieces specified  will  be  merged  together

              with  a  separating  &-symbol.  Thus,  using  '-d name=daniel -d

              skill=lousy'  would  generate  a  post  chunk  that  looks  like

              'name=daniel&skill=lousy'.

              If  you  start  the data with the letter @, the rest should be a

              file name to read the data from, or - if you want curl  to  read

              the  data  from stdin.  The contents of the file must already be

              URL-encoded. Multiple files can also be specified. Posting  data

              from  a file named 'foobar' would thus be done with --data @foo‐

              bar.