URLs - Everything curl

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URLs
curl is called curl because a substring in its name is URL (Uniform Resource Locator). It operates on URLs. URL is the name we casually use for the web address strings, like the ones we usually see prefixed with HTTP:// or starting with www.
URL is, strictly speaking, the former name for these. URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) is the more modern and correct name for them. The syntax is defined in RFC 3986.
Where curl accepts a “URL” as input, it is then really a “URI”. Most of the protocols curl understands also have a corresponding URI syntax document that describes how that particular URI format works.
curl assumes that you give it a valid URL and it only does limited checks of the format in order to extract the information it deems necessary to perform its operation. You can, for example, most probably pass in illegal characters in the URL without curl noticing or caring and it will just pass them on.
​Scheme​
​Name and password​
​Host​
​Port number​
​Path​
​FTP type​
​Fragment​
​Browsers' address bar​
​Many options and URLs​
​Connection reuse​
​Parallel transfers​
Options depend on version
Scheme
Last modified 3mo ago
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