Getting started with cURL

I was introduced to cURL when a senior at the office used it to fetch some data from a url. I noticed it was used with an url and the keyword used was curl itself in the terminal.

A server is a computer that shares information with other computers on the network. curl can be used to transfer data to and from the server, like a messenger, and it is multi-platform and supports most of the protocols, but for the sake of the article, it supports HTTP and HTTPS.

I saw the curl request when the senior executed it was fast, precise and ran inside the terminal share the response within the terminal. It was faster than going to api-docs, finding the api and then running it.

My first curl request to curl https://wttr.in/gurgaon

The basic flow of the curl request from the terminal and the response from the server after processing the request appropriately within the terminal itself.

I can see the response within the terminal without opening any webpage or anything extra, right in front of the terminal, and everything makes sense. What else do I need from a server response? Everything is contained within a single terminal tab. No doubt programmers love it, it is fast, right there without any navigation and simple and easy to read.

It’s just like git once you are used you can’t live without it. It’s a tool for the programmers’ arsenal.