
wget and curl are the commands that are used to HTTP requests without any GUI or software, rather we use the Terminal in Linux that provides the respective output or message. The commands are very useful for web crawling, web scraping, testing RESTful APIs, etc. Curl
What is the difference between Curl command and WGET command?
Whereas the wget command downloads the data as a file. This is the major difference between the two commands. If you don’t have wget or curl on your system you can download by following the steps given below.
How to install WGET on your system?
To install Wget on your system use the command : Let’s see how the outputs of two commands differ when we use them. To see what the output of curl command looks like, try running curl on a few websites. We can see that curl displays data from the website on the terminal itself. We can also save the output to a file.
What is the use of curl in Linux?
As mentioned, the curl command allows you to transfer data from a network server, but it also enables you to move data to a network server. In addition to HTTP, you can use other protocols, including HTTPS, FTP, POP3, SMTP, and Telnet.
What is the--verbose option with Curl used for?
The --verbose option with curl is useful for debugging and displaying what is going on during the call to the URL. Unlike curl, the wget command is solely for the retrieval of information from a remote server. By default, the information received is saved with the same name as in the provided URL. Here is an example of the basic wget syntax:

What is wget or curl?
Wget is a simple transfer utility, while curl offers so much more. Curl provides the libcurl library, which can be expanded into GUI applications. Wget, on the other hand, is a simple command-line utility. Wget supports fewer protocols compared to cURL. Recursive downloads are not supported in curl.
What is curl used for?
curl (short for "Client URL") is a command line tool that enables data transfer over various network protocols. It communicates with a web or application server by specifying a relevant URL and the data that need to be sent or received. curl is powered by libcurl, a portable client-side URL transfer library.
Is wget or curl more powerful?
The differences between cURL and Wget are mentioned below: cURL is more powerful and can perform more tasks than Wget, which is just a simple tool. cURL works on many more protocols such as IMAP, POP3, RTMP, RTSP, which Wget doesn't. With Wget, you can download content recursively.
Why curl is faster than wget?
wget 's major strong side compared to curl is its ability to download recursively. wget is command line only. There's no lib or anything, but curl 's features are powered by libcurl. curl supports FTP , FTPS , HTTP , HTTPS , SCP , SFTP , TFTP , TELNET , DICT , LDAP , LDAPS , FILE , POP3 , IMAP , SMTP , RTMP and RTSP .
How does wget command work?
Wget is the non-interactive network downloader which is used to download files from the server even when the user has not logged on to the system and it can work in the background without hindering the current process.
Is curl an application?
cURL (pronounced like "curl", UK: /kəːl/, US: /kɝl/) is a computer software project providing a library (libcurl) and command-line tool (curl) for transferring data using various network protocols.
What does wget stand for?
World Wide WebGNU Wget (or just Wget, formerly Geturl, also written as its package name, wget) is a computer program that retrieves content from web servers. It is part of the GNU Project. Its name derives from "World Wide Web" and "get." It supports downloading via HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP.
How do I curl a file?
Grab file with curl run: $ curl https://your-domain/file.pdf. Get file using ftp or sftp protocol: $ curl ftp://ftp-your-domain-name/file.tar.gz. You can set the output file name while downloading file with the curl, execute: $ curl -o file.
What is the opposite of wget?
wsend: the opposite of wget.
What can I use instead of wget?
The best alternative is aria2, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Wget are uGet, cURL, ArchiveBox and HTTPie for Terminal. Wget alternatives are mainly Download Managers but may also be Website Downloaders or HTTP Clients.
How do you curl a website?
The syntax for the curl command is as follows: curl [options] [URL...] In its simplest form, when invoked without any option, curl displays the specified resource to the standard output. The command will print the source code of the example.com homepage in your terminal window.
What port does wget use?
By default, wget uses HTTP to retrieve files. Which means wget uses TCP/80... unless you specify HTTPS, in which case it uses TCP/443. Or the URL explicitly includes the url, but yes, it's always TCP.
What is difference between curl and REST API?
cURL is a command line tool for transfering data via URLs. When it comes to REST APIs, we can use Postman as a GUI (graphical user interface) and cURL as a CLI (command line interface) to do the same tasks.
What coding language uses curl?
Curl attempts to provide a unified model through which applications belonging to different platforms and languages can communicate. The simple content layout uses HTML tags, the scripting features of JavaScript and the object oriented features of C, C++ and Java, which are merged in a common framework defined by Curl.
What is curl physics?
In vector calculus, the curl is a vector operator that describes the infinitesimal circulation of a vector field in three-dimensional Euclidean space. The curl at a point in the field is represented by a vector whose length and direction denote the magnitude and axis of the maximum circulation.
Can I use curl in Python?
In Python, cURL transfers requests and data to and from servers using PycURL. PycURL functions as an interface for the libcURL library within Python. Almost every programming language can use REST APIs to access an endpoint hosted on a web server.
What are curl and wget?
curl and Wget are the two most common utilities for making requests to servers from the Linux command line.
What is the difference between curl and wget?
The single most visible difference curl and Wget is that by default Wget saves the queried webpage to the system, whereas curl displays it in the terminal output but doesn't save it.
Who created curl vs wget?
Want a more full run-down between the two? Check out the curl vs Wget article by Daniel Stenberg (creator of curl), which goes into a bunch of more-advanced stuff that differs between the two tools.
Is curl more used than wget?
curl is much more utilized than Wget, being used in environments like mobile phones, your computer (including OSs such as Windows and macOS), and even internet-of-things devices such as smartwatches, smart fridges, and other similar items.
What is the difference between curl and wget?
Wget is a simple tool designed to perform quick downloads. Curl on the other hand is a much more powerful tool. It can achieve a lot more as compared to Wget. Wget is command line only. Curl is powered by libcurl. Wget supports only HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP protocols.
Can curl save output to a file?
We can see that curl displays data from the website on the terminal itself. We can also save the output to a file.
Is Curl a command line tool?
Both Curl and Wget support HTTP and its secure version, HTTPS. Both are command-line tools. Both support HTTP cookies. Both are capable of making HTTP post requests. Both are completely open-source and free software. You might be wondering then what’s the difference between the two. Let’s look at the difference next.
Does Wget store output?
We can see that Wget stores the output in a file by default. It also shows a progress bar in the output.
How to Install cURL and Wget?
cURL and wget are popular tools readily available in major Linux distributions; if you do not have either tool installed, you use the commands below to install:
How to Use cURL and Wget (Example Use Cases)?
To ensure that you understand the similarities and differences between cURL and wget, it’s good to look at a few examples:
What does cURL print?
By default, cURL will print the contents of the web resource in the terminal. We use the -o flag to redirect the output to a file.
What is cURL used for?
cURL also provides proxies, resume transfers, user authentication, SSL certificates, and so much more.
What is a curl?
cURL is a free and open-source command-line utility that allows users to transfer data from one remote machine to another with minimal or no user interaction . CURL use is prevalent in devices like routers, printers, phones, tablets, media players, and more.
Does CURL support FTP?
Both cURL and wget support downloads on FTP protocols. However, cURL supports uploading to ftp.
Does CURL support recursive downloads?
NOTE: Although cURL supports a wide variety of protocols, it does not provide recursive downloads. On the other hand, Wget supports recursive downloads using the –recursive option as both HTTP/HTTPS and FTP/FTPS protocols offer, such functionality.
What is curl in contrast to wget?
Curl in contrast to wget lets you build the request as you wish. Combine that with the plethora of protocols supported - FTP, FTPS, Gopher, HTTP, HTTPS, SCP, SFTP, TFTP, Telnet, DICT, LDAP, LDAPS, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, RTSP and URI - and you get an amazing debugging tool (for testing protocols, testing server configurations, etc.).
What is a WGET file?
Wget solely lets you download files from an HTTP / HTTPS or FTP server. You give it a link and it automatically downloads the file where the link points to. It builds the request automatically.
Can you download a file with curl?
True, but that is just an "extra". In practice, use CURL when you want to download a file via a protocol that wget doesn't support.
Is Curl copyrighted?
It's obvious that the author of cURL is the copyright owner of it. It's obvious that the author of wget is the copyright owner of it. But both are free as in freedom software. You can say instead that wget is under a copyleft license, and cURL under a permissive license. – Valerio BozzApr 11 '18 at 11:59.
Can curl be used with wget?
Another interesting feature of curl not possible with wget is communicating with UNIX sockets ( i.e., communication even without a network ). For instance we can use curl to talk to Docker Engine using its socket in /var/run/docker.sock to get a list of all pulled docker images in JSON format (useful for "programming", in contrast to the docker images CLI command which is good for "readability"):
What is the purpose of curl and wget?
The *nix commands curl and wget are useful for accessing URLs without resorting to a browser. Both commands allow you to transfer data from a network server, with curl being the more robust of the two. You could use either of them to automate downloads from various servers.
What is the curl command?
The curl command. As mentioned, the curl command allows you to transfer data from a network server, but it also enables you to move data to a network server. In addition to HTTP, you can use other protocols, including HTTPS, FTP, POP3, SMTP, and Telnet.
What is curl timeout?
The --connect-timeout option sets the maximum time in seconds that curl can use to make its connection to the remote server. This option is handy to prevent the connection from terminating too quickly, and to minimize the amount of time you want the command to attempt the connection.
What is curl verbose?
The --verbose option with curl is useful for debugging and displaying what is going on during the call to the URL.
What protocol does curl use?
You can specifically tell curl to use the http3 protocol to connect to the host and port provided with a https URL. --http2 and --http1.1 function in the same way and can be used to verify a webserver.
Can you supply options to wget?
Like curl, you can supply various options to your wget command syntax:
Is curl a straight forward syntax?
The syntax for curl is fairly straight-forward at first glance. Here is an example:
