How to Make POST Request with cURL

cURL is a useful utility that allows you to make requests and download files & folders. It allows you to make both GET as well as POST requests. In this article, we will look at how to make POST request with cURL. This can be used to test your website/application URLs. It is also useful to test API functionality.

How to Make POST Request with cURL

It is very easy to send POST request with cURL. We will look at different use cases to help you make POST requests easily. Let us say you want to send request to URL http://localhost/api/test

Make POST request without data

Here is a simple POST request without data.

$ sudo curl -X POST http://localhost/apu/test

Please note, you need to add -X POST option to send POST request via cURL.

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POST request with data

Here is an example to send POST request with data.

$ sudo curl -X POST -d "username=test_user&password=abc" http://localhost/api/test/

You need to use -d option to send data. The data needs to be in the format of parameter=value. If you want to send multiple parameters, you need to concatenate each parameter=value with ‘&’, for example parameter1=value1&parameter2=value2…

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Upload File via cURL

Here is the command to upload file via cURL command.

$ sudo curl -X POST -F file=@"path/to/file" http://localhost/api/test

You need to use to -F option to enter field values, and use file parameter to enter file path.

Multi data form

If you want to simulate a multi-data form submission, you can use -F option separately, for each data item, to enter different form data.

$ sudo curl -F name="john" -F password="abc" -F files=@"path/to/file" -F http://localhost/api/test

In the above request, we provide name, password and a file path as POST data. We have used -F option for each data item. Please remember to provide absolute file path, else cURL will look for the file in your present working directory.

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Make POST request with JSON data

Sometimes you may need to send JSON data in POST request, as is done in most web applications. In such cases, use the -H “Content-Type: application/json” option to specify the type of data you are sending. Please remember to escape double quotes while using cURL in windows.

For Windows

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d {\"username\":\"test\",\"password\":\"abc\"} http://localhost/api/test

For Linux/Max

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"username":"test","password":"abc"}' http://localhost/api/test

That’s it. We have learnt how to send POST request using cURL. We have also looked at a few common use cases to make POST requests.

Also read : How to Run Multiple cURL Requests in Parallel