## Common Options

`-#, --progress-bar`
Make curl display a simple progress bar instead of the more informational standard meter.

`-b, --cookie <name=data>`
Supply cookie with request. If no `=`, then specifies the cookie file to use (see `-c`).

`-c, --cookie-jar <file name>`
File to save response cookies to.

`-d, --data <data>`
Send specified data in POST request. Details provided below.

`-f, --fail`
Fail silently (don't output HTML error form if returned).

`-F, --form <name=content>`
Submit form data.

`-H, --header <header>`
Headers to supply with request.

`-i, --include`
Include HTTP headers in the output.

`-I, --head`
Fetch headers only.

`-k, --insecure`
Allow insecure connections to succeed.

`-L, --location`
Follow redirects.

`-o, --output <file>`
Write output to <file>. Can use `--create-dirs` in conjunction with this to create any directories
specified in the `-o` path.

`-O, --remote-name`
Write output to file named like the remote file (only writes to current directory).

`-s, --silent`
Silent (quiet) mode. Use with `-S` to force it to show errors.

`-v, --verbose`
Provide more information (useful for debugging).

`-w, --write-out <format>`
Make curl display information on stdout after a completed transfer. See man page for more details on
available variables. Convenient way to force curl to append a newline to output: `-w "\n"` (can add
to `~/.curlrc`).

`-X, --request`
The request method to use.

## POST

When sending data via a POST or PUT request, two common formats (specified via the `Content-Type` header) are:
* `application/json`
* `application/x-www-form-urlencoded`

Many APIs will accept both formats, so if you're using `curl` at the command line, it can be a bit easier to use the form urlencoded format instead of json because
* the json format requires a bunch of extra quoting
* curl will send form urlencoded by default, so for json the `Content-Type` header must be explicitly set

This gist provides examples for using both formats, including how to use sample data files in either format with your `curl` requests.

## curl usage

For sending data with POST and PUT requests, these are common `curl` options:

* request type
* `-X POST`
* `-X PUT`

* content type header
* `-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded"`
* `-H "Content-Type: application/json"`

* data
* form urlencoded: `-d "param1=value1&param2=value2"` or `-d @data.txt`
* json: `-d '{"key1":"value1", "key2":"value2"}'` or `-d @data.json`

## Examples

### POST application/x-www-form-urlencoded

`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` is the default:

curl -d "param1=value1&param2=value2" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data

explicit:

curl -d "param1=value1&param2=value2" -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data

with a data file

curl -d "@data.txt" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data

### POST application/json

curl -d '{"key1":"value1", "key2":"value2"}' -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data

with a data file

curl -d "@data.json" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data