cmdline-docs: extended, clarified, refreshed
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| @@ -16,6 +16,6 @@ Example: | |
| # `--abstract-unix-socket` | |
| - | Connect through an abstract Unix domain socket, instead of using the network. |
| - | Note: netstat shows the path of an abstract socket prefixed with `@`, however |
| - | the \<path\> argument should not have this leading character. |
| + | Connect to the server through an abstract Unix domain socket, instead of using |
| + | the network. Note: netstat shows the path of an abstract socket prefixed with |
| + | `@`, however the \<path\> argument should not have this leading character. |
| @@ -16,4 +16,5 @@ Example: | |
| # `--compressed-ssh` | |
| Enable SSH compression. This is a request, not an order; the server may or may | |
| - | not do it. |
| + | not do it. This allows the data to be sent compressed over the wire, and |
| + | automatically decompressed in the receiving end, to save bandwidth. |
| @@ -16,3 +16,6 @@ Example: | |
| Exit with error if passed a URL containing a username. Probably most useful | |
| when the URL is being provided at runtime or similar. | |
| + | |
| + | Accepting and using credentials in a URL is normally considered a security |
| + | hazard as they are easily leaked that way. |
| @@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ Example: | |
| # `--engine` | |
| - | Select the OpenSSL crypto engine to use for cipher operations. Use --engine |
| - | list to print a list of build-time supported engines. Note that not all (and |
| + | Select the OpenSSL crypto engine to use for cipher operations. Use `--engine |
| + | list` to print a list of build-time supported engines. Note that not all (and |
| possibly none) of the engines may be available at runtime. | |
| + | |
| + | The OpenSSL concept "engines" has been superseded by "providers" in OpenSSL 3, |
| + | and this option should work fine to specify such as well. |
| @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ Multi: boolean | |
| See-also: | |
| - request | |
| - location | |
| + | - proto-redir |
| + | - max-redirs |
| Example: | |
| - -X POST --follow $URL | |
| --- | |
| @@ -23,3 +25,5 @@ status codes 307 or 308, but may be reset to GET for 301, 302 and 303. | |
| This is subtly different than --location, as that option always set the custom | |
| method in all subsequent requests independent of response code. | |
| + | |
| + | Restrict which protocols a redirect is accepted to follow with --proto-redir. |
| @@ -20,3 +20,6 @@ Switch off the URL globbing function. When you set this option, you can | |
| specify URLs that contain the letters {}[] without having curl itself | |
| interpret them. Note that these letters are not normal legal URL contents but | |
| they should be encoded according to the URI standard. | |
| + | |
| + | curl detects numerical IPv6 addresses when used in URLs and excludes them from |
| + | the treatment, so they can still be used without having to disable globbing. |
| @@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ See-also: | |
| - http1.1 | |
| - http3 | |
| - no-alpn | |
| + | - proxy-http2 |
| Example: | |
| - --http2 $URL | |
| --- | |
| @@ -33,3 +33,5 @@ still tries to proceed with an older HTTP version. The fallback performs the | |
| regular negotiation between HTTP/1 and HTTP/2. | |
| Use --http3-only for similar functionality *without* a fallback. | |
| + | |
| + | curl cannot do HTTP/3 over any proxy. |
| @@ -18,5 +18,8 @@ Example: | |
| # `--junk-session-cookies` | |
| When curl is told to read cookies from a given file, this option makes it | |
| - | discard all "session cookies". This has the same effect as if a new session is |
| + | discard all session cookies. This has the same effect as if a new session is |
| started. Typical browsers discard session cookies when they are closed down. | |
| + | |
| + | Session cookies are cookies without a set expiry time. They are meant to only |
| + | last for "a session". |
| @@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ See-also: | |
| - resolve | |
| - alt-svc | |
| - follow | |
| + | - proto-redir |
| + | - max-redirs |
| Example: | |
| - -L $URL | |
| --- | |
| @@ -40,3 +42,5 @@ using the dedicated options for that: --post301, --post302 and --post303. | |
| The method set with --request overrides the method curl would otherwise select | |
| to use. | |
| + | |
| + | Restrict which protocols a redirect is accepted to follow with --proto-redir. |
| @@ -10,12 +10,14 @@ Added: 7.5 | |
| Multi: single | |
| See-also: | |
| - location | |
| + | - follow |
| Example: | |
| - --max-redirs 3 --location $URL | |
| --- | |
| # `--max-redirs` | |
| - | Set the maximum number of redirections to follow. When --location is used, to |
| - | prevent curl from following too many redirects, by default, the limit is |
| - | set to 50 redirects. Set this option to -1 to make it unlimited. |
| + | Set the maximum number of redirections to follow. When --location or --follow |
| + | are used, this option prevents curl from following too many redirects. By |
| + | default the limit is set to 50 redirects. Set this option to -1 to make it |
| + | unlimited. |
| @@ -9,8 +9,9 @@ Category: connection curl | |
| Multi: single | |
| See-also: | |
| - proto | |
| + | - follow |
| Example: | |
| - | - --proto-redir =http,https $URL |
| + | - --proto-redir =http,https --follow $URL |
| --- | |
| # `--proto-redir` | |
| @@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ not overridden by this option. See --proto for how protocols are represented. | |
| Example, allow only HTTP and HTTPS on redirect: | |
| - | curl --proto-redir -all,http,https http://example.com |
| + | curl --proto-redir -all,http,https --follow http://example.com |
| By default curl only allows HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS on redirects | |
| (added in 7.65.2). Specifying *all* or *+all* enables all protocols on | |
| @@ -31,8 +31,7 @@ HTTPS proxy support works with the https:// protocol prefix for OpenSSL and | |
| GnuTLS (added in 7.52.0). It also works for mbedTLS, Rustls, Schannel and | |
| wolfSSL (added in 7.87.0). | |
| - | Unrecognized and unsupported proxy protocols cause an error (added in 7.52.0). |
| - | Ancient curl versions ignored unknown schemes and used http:// instead. |
| + | Unrecognized and unsupported proxy protocol schemes cause an error. |
| If the port number is not specified in the proxy string, it is assumed to be | |
| 1080. | |
| @@ -10,8 +10,9 @@ Added: 6.0 | |
| Multi: single | |
| See-also: | |
| - request-target | |
| + | - follow |
| Example: | |
| - | - -X "DELETE" $URL |
| + | - --request "DELETE" $URL |
| - -X NLST ftp://example.com/ | |
| --- | |
| @@ -37,10 +38,10 @@ This option only changes the actual word used in the HTTP request, it does not | |
| alter the way curl behaves. For example if you want to make a proper HEAD | |
| request, using -X HEAD does not suffice. You need to use the --head option. | |
| - | The method string you set with --request is used for all requests, which |
| - | if you for example use --location may cause unintended side-effects when curl |
| - | does not change request method according to the HTTP 30x response codes - and |
| - | similar. |
| + | If --location is used, the method string you set with --request is used for |
| + | all requests, which may cause unintended side-effects when curl does not |
| + | change request method according to the HTTP 30x response codes - and similar. |
| + | Consider using --follow instead in combination with --request. |
| ## FTP | |
| Specifies a custom FTP command to use instead of *LIST* when doing file lists | |
| @@ -15,5 +15,7 @@ Example: | |
| # `--retry-connrefused` | |
| - | In addition to the other conditions, consider ECONNREFUSED as a transient |
| - | error too for --retry. This option is used together with --retry. |
| + | In addition to the other conditions, also consider ECONNREFUSED as a transient |
| + | error for --retry. This option is used together with --retry. Normally, a |
| + | confused connection is not considered a transient error and therefore thus not |
| + | otherwise trigger a retry. |
| @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ Category: curl | |
| Multi: single | |
| See-also: | |
| - retry-max-time | |
| + | - retry-connrefused |
| + | - retry-delay |
| Example: | |
| - --retry 7 $URL | |
| --- | |
| @@ -16,16 +18,17 @@ Example: | |
| # `--retry` | |
| If a transient error is returned when curl tries to perform a transfer, it | |
| - | retries this number of times before giving up. Setting the number to 0 |
| - | makes curl do no retries (which is the default). Transient error means either: |
| - | a timeout, an FTP 4xx response code or an HTTP 408, 429, 500, 502, 503 or 504 |
| + | retries this number of times before giving up. Setting the number to 0 makes |
| + | curl do no retries (which is the default). Transient error means either: a |
| + | timeout, an FTP 4xx response code or an HTTP 408, 429, 500, 502, 503 or 504 |
| response code. | |
| When curl is about to retry a transfer, it first waits one second and then for | |
| all forthcoming retries it doubles the waiting time until it reaches 10 | |
| minutes, which then remains the set fixed delay time between the rest of the | |
| - | retries. By using --retry-delay you disable this exponential backoff algorithm. |
| - | See also --retry-max-time to limit the total time allowed for retries. |
| + | retries. By using --retry-delay you disable this exponential backoff |
| + | algorithm. See also --retry-max-time to limit the total time allowed for |
| + | retries. |
| curl complies with the Retry-After: response header if one was present to know | |
| when to issue the next retry (added in 7.66.0). | |
| @@ -14,4 +14,6 @@ Example: | |
| # `--sasl-ir` | |
| - | Enable initial response in SASL authentication. |
| + | Enable initial response in SASL authentication. Such an "initial response" is |
| + | a message sent by the client to the server after the client selects an |
| + | authentication mechanism. |
| @@ -17,3 +17,8 @@ Example: | |
| Request a compressed Transfer-Encoding response using one of the algorithms | |
| curl supports, and uncompress the data while receiving it. | |
| + | |
| + | This method was once intended to be the way to do automatic data compression |
| + | for HTTP but for all practical purposes using Content-Encoding as done with |
| + | --compressed has superseded transfer encoding. The --tr-encoding option is |
| + | therefore often not be one you want. |
| @@ -18,3 +18,7 @@ Example: | |
| Prepend the transfer and connection identifiers to each trace or verbose line | |
| that curl displays. | |
| + | |
| + | The identifiers are unique numbers assigned to each connection and transfer to |
| + | allow a user to better understand which transfer and connection each verbose |
| + | output line refers to. |
| @@ -16,4 +16,7 @@ Example: | |
| # `--unix-socket` | |
| - | Connect through this Unix domain socket, instead of using the network. |
| + | Connect to the server through this Unix domain socket, instead of using the |
| + | network. |
| + | |
| + | To connect to a proxy over Unix domain socket, see --proxy. |