cURL’s History
cURL was originally developed in 1997, with its name being coined the following year. It stands for Client URL Request Library or Curl URL Request Library, and it’s distributed as part of the operating system on a huge range of devices.
What is libcurl?
The project, which also includes libcurl, is lead by Swedish developer Daniel Stenberg and run by a large team of volunteers.
Stenberg started off developing for the Commodore 64 and is now part of the Mozilla project, employed to work on the Firefox browser.
libcurl homepage screenshot via WhoIsHostingThis
How Many People Use cURL?
The team behind cURL says that it’s impossible to say how many people are using their tool.
At the last count, in mid-2012, Stenberg estimated that it’s being used by more than 550 million people.
This figure includes users of Debian, users of iOS devices, people who have purchased certain TVs and DVD players, and players of games like Second Life.
What cURL Does
cURL is a file transfer tool with a simple purpose: to access HTTP content from a PHP script or the command-line.
The former is arguably the more common usage of cURL, since it lets a script pull in content or evaluate the content of another file on the web.
cURL: a Command-Line Tool
cURL command-line screenshot via WhoIsHostingThis
cURL downloads or sends data using a URL. It is a command-line only tool, and its developers clearly state that it will never get a graphical user interface.
If used properly, cURL is a very powerful way to pull data into a PHP script.
cURL vs. wget
If you’ve transferred files using the command-line, you’ve probably come across wget. While wget is designed to transfer large numbers of files, cURL is really good at transferring one at a time.
Note that cURL has no recursive mode, which backs up that statement.
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Advanced cURL Features
cURL can also connect to data sources and transfer files using FTP, connect via SSL and send a username and password to gain access to a file that requires a login.
SSL code isn’t built into cURL but requires a compatible library. Support is included for OpenSSL, mbed TLS (formerly known as PolarSSL), axTLS, yassl and more.
How Web Applications Use cURL
The best use case for cURL is grabbing a whole file from a remote server.
Code that handles a file interactively or only needs to examine part of it should use a different approach. Apart from this, cURL is very versatile.
cURL: the File Transfer Swiss Army Knife
The developer will write a callback function which is invoked as the data comes in. It can write the data to a file, forward it to another server, or process it in any way necessary.
Setting up a progress indicator as a file is downloaded is a straightforward programming task.
With appropriate coding, the user of a web application can continue using it for other tasks and get a notification when the file is completely downloaded.
Can I Use cURL to Upload Files?
It’s possible to upload as well as downloading files with cURL, though using it this way is less common.
It can upload by FTP, a POST request, or other ways.
Most servers on the web accept only authenticated uploads, and cURL can handle several authentication methods.
Understanding libcurl
While the cURL application does the actual copying, libcurl is the bundle of instructions that helps it to connect to the data source.
Written in C, libcurl is essentially a protocol library that includes:
There are many other protocols besides these, facilitating practically any type of file transfer.
cURL Library
The library is highly versatile, supporting HTTP POST and GET requests, multiple types of authentication, proxy tunneling, and IPv6 addresses. It can be set up to deal with firewalls.
The libcurl library is cross-platform compatible, so it can be transplanted into any cURL installation on practically any device.
What’s more, libcurl is free and can be used as part of other applications, even if those applications are not open source.
How to Get libcurl
There are several ways to get libcurl:
- Pre-installed from your hosting provider
- Installed from a package manager on a private server
- Compiled from source
- Downloading the source via git
- Installing all the dependencies to build curl and then compiling it.
Calling libcurl
Two ways of calling libcurl are available: East and Multi.
The Easy interface is a straightforward way to get a file with a minimum of code. The Multi interface allows multiple transfers in parallel. Coding is a bit more complicated.
Support for libcurl isn’t limited to PHP. Almost every popular language has an interface for issuing cURL requests.
| Language | Library or interface |
|---|---|
| Java | curl-java (incomplete) |
| .NET | libcurl-net |
| node.js | node-libcurl |
| Perl | WWW-curl, perl6-net-curl |
| Python | pycURL |
| Visual Basic | libcurl-vb |
Working in combination, cURL and libcurl give developers a fast and simple way to pull content into PHP pages.
cURL Hosting Requirements
If you want to install a script like Zen Cart, you will need to ensure your host is running cURL.
Some applications need it to check for updates, and some WordPress plugins need cURL support to function correctly.
- On Linux, cURL is installed in two parts; as a Linux module and an extension for PHP. Your host should be able to install both parts quickly if it’s not already present.
- On Windows, the cURL extension is automatically installed with the rest of the WAMP stack, so your host should not need to do anything more.
If you’re stuck with a host that doesn’t have cURL enabled, ask them — it never hurts to try.
There are alternative ways to achieve the same results, but it may rule out many of your options when you’re developing and expanding your website.
Summary of cURL features:
- Simple, widely supported way to transfer remote files programmatically
- Supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and other protocols
- Support for authentication
The Top cURL Hosts
While cURL support is widespread because it’s open source, there are several web hosts that stand out to us if you’re looking to build an application on cURL.
SiteGround
SiteGround for cURL
SiteGround has good all-around support for custom web applications, including cURL on all its servers. Four different versions of PHP are available along with SSH access.
Many PHP modules are available with the hosting plans, and customers are encouraged to ask if they need others. Even inexpensive plans include these features. With 24/7 support, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and international datacenters, it’s well suited to hosting highly customized websites.
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting for cURL
A2 Hosting supports command-line cURL as well as including cURL in its PHP support. This includes all the versions of PHP5 and PHP7 which it offers. Customers can quickly switch between PHP versions as needed.
In addition to making it available in its standard plans, it offers extra speed on its Turbo servers, with all the features. Around-the-clock support, datacenters in three countries, and 99.9% uptime add to its attractions.
000webhost
000webhost for cURL
With 000webhost, it’s even possible to use PHP with cURL for free. Don’t expect support from the company or SSL security, but you won’t be stuck with ads on your site.
You can upgrade to inexpensive paid hosting on Hostinger when you’re ready.
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Other features in Technologies
cURL Frequently Asked Questions
- How can I use cURL in my favorite programming language?
Numerous interfaces are available for more than 40 languages, including: Ada95, Basic, C, C++, Ch, Cocoa, D, Dylan, Eiffel, Euphoria, Ferite, Gambas, glib/GTK+, Haskell, ILE/RPG, Java, Lisp, Lua, Mono, .NET, Object-Pascal, O’Caml, Pascal, Perl, PHP, PostgreSQL, Python, R, Rexx, Ruby, Scheme, S-Lang, Smalltalk, SP-Forth, SPL, Tcl, Visual Basic, Visual FoxPro, Q, wxwidgets and XBLite and more. There are also custom bindings to the libcurl library made by other projects and people, outside of the cURL project.
- What about platform support for cURL?
cURL is highly portable, it builds and works on many different platforms, including Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Darwin, HPUX, IRIX, AIX, Tru64, Linux, UnixWare, HURD, Windows, Amiga, OS/2, BeOs, Mac OS X, Ultrix, QNX, OpenVMS, RISC OS, Novell NetWare, and DOS.
- What are the hosting requirements for cURL?
On Windows hosting, cURL is automatically installed with the WAMP software stack. Linux hosting installs cURL in two parts, as a module within Apache and an extension for PHP. Most hosting providers today already have cURL installed on their servers. If not, your host should be able to install cURL quickly.
- Can You limit cURL bandwidth usage?
Yes, cURL allows you to limit the transfer rate. You can specify the maximum transfer rate for cURL which is useful if you do not want your transfers to use up your entire bandwidth allocation. The specified limit affects both downloads and uploads from cURL.
- Are there any compatibility issues I should be aware of?
Not really, at least not with the latest version of cURL. There was an issue with PayPal when it discontinued support for SSL 3.0 in December 2014, but that was only the case with outdated version of cURL.
- Are ASP, XML, or XHTML supported by cURL?
Yes, they are all supported, it does not matter how the page was generated. cURL does not even know which language or technology is used to generate a page.
- What are the most common hosting problems associated with cURL?
If you simply try to access an HTTPS resource (SSL or TLS-protected resource) in PHP using cURL, you’re likely to run into some difficulties. The problem is that cURL has not been configured to trust the server’s HTTPS certificate, and by default, cURL is set-up to not trust any certification authorities (CA).
There are two ways around this problem. First, you can simply configure cURL to accept any server (peer) certificate. This isn’t optimal from a security point of view, but if you’re not passing sensitive information back and forth, this is probably okay. The second option involves setting the CURLOPT_CAINFO parameter. This is used to point towards a CA certificate that cURL should trust.
- Is cURL free? Will it add to my hosting bill?
Both cURL and libcurl are open-source and are published under the MIT/X derivate license. It means that you are free to modify and redistribute all contents of cURL distributed archives. You may also freely use cURL and libcurl in your commercial projects. Using cURL should not cause any additional hosting costs.
- What about Keep-Alive or persistent connections?
cURL and libcurl both support persistent connections while transferring multiple files from the same server. cURL will attempt to reuse the connection for all URLs specified in the command.
- I am concerned about security. Will using cURL cause security issues?
No, cURL is configured by default to use secure requests over SSL/TLS. Configuring the location of an up-to-date, trusted certificate bundle is essential in keeping cURL transfers safe.
- How important are cURL updates?
Like all vital software components, it is always a good idea to choose a host that offers timely updates. In this respect, cURL is no exception.
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