docs/TheArtOfHttpScripting

Online: http://curl.haxx.se/docs/httpscripting.html
Date: December 9, 2004

 The Art Of Scripting HTTP Requests Using Curl
 =============================================

 This document will assume that you're familiar with HTML and general
 networking.

 The possibility to write scripts is essential to make a good computer
 system. Unix' capability to be extended by shell scripts and various tools to
 run various automated commands and scripts is one reason why it has succeeded
 so well.

 The increasing amount of applications moving to the web has made "HTTP
 Scripting" more frequently requested and wanted. To be able to automatically
 extract information from the web, to fake users, to post or upload data to
 web servers are all important tasks today.

 Curl is a command line tool for doing all sorts of URL manipulations and
 transfers, but this particular document will focus on how to use it when
 doing HTTP requests for fun and profit. I'll assume that you know how to
 invoke 'curl --help' or 'curl --manual' to get basic information about it.

 Curl is not written to do everything for you. It makes the requests, it gets
 the data, it sends data and it retrieves the information. You probably need
 to glue everything together using some kind of script language or repeated
 manual invokes.

1. The HTTP Protocol

 HTTP is the protocol used to fetch data from web servers. It is a very simple
 protocol that is built upon TCP/IP. The protocol also allows information to
 get sent to the server from the client using a few different methods, as will
 be shown here.

 HTTP is plain ASCII text lines being sent by the client to a server to
 request a particular action, and then the server replies a few text lines
 before the actual requested content is sent to the client.

 Using curl's option -v will display what kind of commands curl sends to the
 server, as well as a few other informational texts. -v is the single most
 useful option when it comes to debug or even understand the curl<->server
 interaction.

2. URL

 The Uniform Resource Locator format is how you specify the address of a
 particular resource on the Internet. You know these, you've seen URLs like
 http://curl.haxx.se or https://yourbank.com a million times.

3. GET a page

 The simplest and most common request/operation made using HTTP is to get a
 URL. The URL could itself refer to a web page, an image or a file. The client
 issues a GET request to the server and receives the document it asked for.
 If you issue the command line

 curl http://curl.haxx.se

 you get a web page returned in your terminal window. The entire HTML document
 that that URL holds.

 All HTTP replies contain a set of headers that are normally hidden, use
 curl's -i option to display them as well as the rest of the document. You can
 also ask the remote server for ONLY the headers by using the -I option (which
 will make curl issue a HEAD request).

4. Forms

 Forms are the general way a web site can present a HTML page with fields for
 the user to enter data in, and then press some kind of 'OK' or 'submit'
 button to get that data sent to the server. The server then typically uses
 the posted data to decide how to act. Like using the entered words to search
 in a database, or to add the info in a bug track system, display the entered
 address on a map or using the info as a login-prompt verifying that the user
 is allowed to see what it is about to see.

 Of course there has to be some kind of program in the server end to receive
 the data you send. You cannot just invent something out of the air.

 4.1 GET

 A GET-form uses the method GET, as specified in HTML like:

 <form method="GET" action="junk.cgi">
 <input type=text name="birthyear">
 <input type=submit name=press value="OK">
 </form>

 In your favorite browser, this form will appear with a text box to fill in
 and a press-button labeled "OK". If you fill in '1905' and press the OK
 button, your browser will then create a new URL to get for you. The URL will
 get "junk.cgi?birthyear=1905&press=OK" appended to the path part of the
 previous URL.

 If the original form was seen on the page "www.hotmail.com/when/birth.html",
 the second page you'll get will become
 "www.hotmail.com/when/junk.cgi?birthyear=1905&press=OK".

 Most search engines work this way.

 To make curl do the GET form post for you, just enter the expected created
 URL:

 curl "www.hotmail.com/when/junk.cgi?birthyear=1905&press=OK"

 4.2 POST

 The GET method makes all input field names get displayed in the URL field of
 your browser. That's generally a good thing when you want to be able to
 bookmark that page with your given data, but it is an obvious disadvantage
 if you entered secret information in one of the fields or if there are a
 large amount of fields creating a very long and unreadable URL.

 The HTTP protocol then offers the POST method. This way the client sends the
 data separated from the URL and thus you won't see any of it in the URL
 address field.

 The form would look very similar to the previous one:

 <form method="POST" action="junk.cgi">
 <input type=text name="birthyear">
 <input type=submit name=press value=" OK ">
 </form>

 And to use curl to post this form with the same data filled in as before, we
 could do it like:

 curl -d "birthyear=1905&press=%20OK%20" www.hotmail.com/when/junk.cgi

 This kind of POST will use the Content-Type
 application/x-www-form-urlencoded and is the most widely used POST kind.

 The data you send to the server MUST already be properly encoded, curl will
 not do that for you. For example, if you want the data to contain a space,
 you need to replace that space with %20 etc. Failing to comply with this
 will most likely cause your data to be received wrongly and messed up.

 4.3 File Upload POST

 Back in late 1995 they defined an additional way to post data over HTTP. It
 is documented in the RFC 1867, why this method sometimes is referred to as
 RFC1867-posting.

 This method is mainly designed to better support file uploads. A form that
 allows a user to upload a file could be written like this in HTML:

 <form method="POST" enctype='multipart/form-data' action="upload.cgi">
 <input type=file name=upload>
 <input type=submit name=press value="OK">
 </form>

 This clearly shows that the Content-Type about to be sent is
 multipart/form-data.

 To post to a form like this with curl, you enter a command line like:

 curl -F upload=@localfilename -F press=OK [URL]

 4.4 Hidden Fields

 A very common way for HTML based application to pass state information
 between pages is to add hidden fields to the forms. Hidden fields are
 already filled in, they aren't displayed to the user and they get passed
 along just as all the other fields.

 A similar example form with one visible field, one hidden field and one
 submit button could look like:

 <form method="POST" action="foobar.cgi">
 <input type=text name="birthyear">
 <input type=hidden name="person" value="daniel">
 <input type=submit name="press" value="OK">
 </form>

 To post this with curl, you won't have to think about if the fields are
 hidden or not. To curl they're all the same:

 curl -d "birthyear=1905&press=OK&person=daniel" [URL]

 4.5 Figure Out What A POST Looks Like

 When you're about fill in a form and send to a server by using curl instead
 of a browser, you're of course very interested in sending a POST exactly the
 way your browser does.

 An easy way to get to see this, is to save the HTML page with the form on
 your local disk, modify the 'method' to a GET, and press the submit button
 (you could also change the action URL if you want to).

 You will then clearly see the data get appended to the URL, separated with a
 '?'-letter as GET forms are supposed to.

5. PUT

 The perhaps best way to upload data to a HTTP server is to use PUT. Then
 again, this of course requires that someone put a program or script on the
 server end that knows how to receive a HTTP PUT stream.

 Put a file to a HTTP server with curl:

 curl -T uploadfile www.uploadhttp.com/receive.cgi

6. Authentication

 Authentication is the ability to tell the server your username and password
 so that it can verify that you're allowed to do the request you're doing. The
 Basic authentication used in HTTP (which is the type curl uses by default) is
 *plain* *text* based, which means it sends username and password only
 slightly obfuscated, but still fully readable by anyone that sniffs on the
 network between you and the remote server.

 To tell curl to use a user and password for authentication:

 curl -u name:password www.secrets.com

 The site might require a different authentication method (check the headers
 returned by the server), and then --ntlm, --digest, --negotiate or even
 --anyauth might be options that suit you.
 
 Sometimes your HTTP access is only available through the use of a HTTP
 proxy. This seems to be especially common at various companies. A HTTP proxy
 may require its own user and password to allow the client to get through to
 the Internet. To specify those with curl, run something like:

 curl -U proxyuser:proxypassword curl.haxx.se

 If your proxy requires the authentication to be done using the NTLM method,
 use --proxy-ntlm, if it requires Digest use --proxy-digest.

 If you use any one these user+password options but leave out the password
 part, curl will prompt for the password interactively.

 Do note that when a program is run, its parameters might be possible to see
 when listing the running processes of the system. Thus, other users may be
 able to watch your passwords if you pass them as plain command line
 options. There are ways to circumvent this.

7. Referer

 A HTTP request may include a 'referer' field (yes it is misspelled), which
 can be used to tell from which URL the client got to this particular
 resource. Some programs/scripts check the referer field of requests to verify
 that this wasn't arriving from an external site or an unknown page. While
 this is a stupid way to check something so easily forged, many scripts still
 do it. Using curl, you can put anything you want in the referer-field and
 thus more easily be able to fool the server into serving your request.

 Use curl to set the referer field with:

 curl -e http://curl.haxx.se daniel.haxx.se

8. User Agent

 Very similar to the referer field, all HTTP requests may set the User-Agent
 field. It names what user agent (client) that is being used. Many
 applications use this information to decide how to display pages. Silly web
 programmers try to make different pages for users of different browsers to
 make them look the best possible for their particular browsers. They usually
 also do different kinds of javascript, vbscript etc.

 At times, you will see that getting a page with curl will not return the same
 page that you see when getting the page with your browser. Then you know it
 is time to set the User Agent field to fool the server into thinking you're
 one of those browsers.

 To make curl look like Internet Explorer on a Windows 2000 box:

 curl -A "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)" [URL]

 Or why not look like you're using Netscape 4.73 on a Linux (PIII) box:

 curl -A "Mozilla/4.73 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.15 i686)" [URL]

9. Redirects

 When a resource is requested from a server, the reply from the server may
 include a hint about where the browser should go next to find this page, or a
 new page keeping newly generated output. The header that tells the browser
 to redirect is Location:.

 Curl does not follow Location: headers by default, but will simply display
 such pages in the same manner it display all HTTP replies. It does however
 feature an option that will make it attempt to follow the Location: pointers.

 To tell curl to follow a Location: 
 
 curl -L www.sitethatredirects.com

 If you use curl to POST to a site that immediately redirects you to another
 page, you can safely use -L and -d/-F together. Curl will only use POST in
 the first request, and then revert to GET in the following operations.

10. Cookies

 The way the web browsers do "client side state control" is by using
 cookies. Cookies are just names with associated contents. The cookies are
 sent to the client by the server. The server tells the client for what path
 and host name it wants the cookie sent back, and it also sends an expiration
 date and a few more properties.

 When a client communicates with a server with a name and path as previously
 specified in a received cookie, the client sends back the cookies and their
 contents to the server, unless of course they are expired.

 Many applications and servers use this method to connect a series of requests
 into a single logical session. To be able to use curl in such occasions, we
 must be able to record and send back cookies the way the web application
 expects them. The same way browsers deal with them.

 The simplest way to send a few cookies to the server when getting a page with
 curl is to add them on the command line like:

 curl -b "name=Daniel" www.cookiesite.com

 Cookies are sent as common HTTP headers. This is practical as it allows curl
 to record cookies simply by recording headers. Record cookies with curl by
 using the -D option like:

 curl -D headers_and_cookies www.cookiesite.com

 (Take note that the -c option described below is a better way to store
 cookies.)

 Curl has a full blown cookie parsing engine built-in that comes to use if you
 want to reconnect to a server and use cookies that were stored from a
 previous connection (or handicrafted manually to fool the server into
 believing you had a previous connection). To use previously stored cookies,
 you run curl like:

 curl -b stored_cookies_in_file www.cookiesite.com

 Curl's "cookie engine" gets enabled when you use the -b option. If you only
 want curl to understand received cookies, use -b with a file that doesn't
 exist. Example, if you want to let curl understand cookies from a page and
 follow a location (and thus possibly send back cookies it received), you can
 invoke it like:

 curl -b nada -L www.cookiesite.com

 Curl has the ability to read and write cookie files that use the same file
 format that Netscape and Mozilla do. It is a convenient way to share cookies
 between browsers and automatic scripts. The -b switch automatically detects
 if a given file is such a cookie file and parses it, and by using the
 -c/--cookie-jar option you'll make curl write a new cookie file at the end of
 an operation:

 curl -b cookies.txt -c newcookies.txt www.cookiesite.com

11. HTTPS

 There are a few ways to do secure HTTP transfers. The by far most common
 protocol for doing this is what is generally known as HTTPS, HTTP over
 SSL. SSL encrypts all the data that is sent and received over the network and
 thus makes it harder for attackers to spy on sensitive information.

 SSL (or TLS as the latest version of the standard is called) offers a
 truckload of advanced features to allow all those encryptions and key
 infrastructure mechanisms encrypted HTTP requires.

 Curl supports encrypted fetches thanks to the freely available OpenSSL
 libraries. To get a page from a HTTPS server, simply run curl like:

 curl https://that.secure.server.com

 11.1 Certificates

 In the HTTPS world, you use certificates to validate that you are the one
 you you claim to be, as an addition to normal passwords. Curl supports
 client-side certificates. All certificates are locked with a pass phrase,
 which you need to enter before the certificate can be used by curl. The pass
 phrase can be specified on the command line or if not, entered interactively
 when curl queries for it. Use a certificate with curl on a HTTPS server
 like:

 curl -E mycert.pem https://that.secure.server.com

 curl also tries to verify that the server is who it claims to be, by
 verifying the server's certificate against a locally stored CA cert
 bundle. Failing the verification will cause curl to deny the connection. You
 must then use -k in case you want to tell curl to ignore that the server
 can't be verified.

 More about server certificate verification and ca cert bundles can be read
 in the SSLCERTS document, available online here:

 http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html

12. Custom Request Elements

 Doing fancy stuff, you may need to add or change elements of a single curl
 request.

 For example, you can change the POST request to a PROPFIND and send the data
 as "Content-Type: text/xml" (instead of the default Content-Type) like this:

 curl -d "<xml>" -H "Content-Type: text/xml" -X PROPFIND url.com

 You can delete a default header by providing one without content. Like you
 can ruin the request by chopping off the Host: header:

 curl -H "Host:" http://mysite.com

 You can add headers the same way. Your server may want a "Destination:"
 header, and you can add it:

 curl -H "Destination: http://moo.com/nowhere" http://url.com

13. Debug

 Many times when you run curl on a site, you'll notice that the site doesn't
 seem to respond the same way to your curl requests as it does to your
 browser's.

 Then you need to start making your curl requests more similar to your
 browser's requests:

 * Use the --trace-ascii option to store fully detailed logs of the requests
 for easier analyzing and better understanding

 * Make sure you check for and use cookies when needed (both reading with -b
 and writing with -c)

 * Set user-agent to one like a recent popular browser does

 * Set referer like it is set by the browser

 * If you use POST, make sure you send all the fields and in the same order as
 the browser does it. (See chapter 4.5 above)

 A very good helper to make sure you do this right, is the LiveHTTPHeader tool
 that lets you view all headers you send and receive with Mozilla/Firefox
 (even when using HTTPS).

 A more raw approach is to capture the HTTP traffic on the network with tools
 such as ethereal or tcpdump and check what headers that were sent and
 received by the browser. (HTTPS makes this technique inefficient.)

14. References

 RFC 2616 is a must to read if you want in-depth understanding of the HTTP
 protocol.

 RFC 2396 explains the URL syntax.

 RFC 2109 defines how cookies are supposed to work.

 RFC 1867 defines the HTTP post upload format.

 http://www.openssl.org is the home of the OpenSSL project

 http://curl.haxx.se is the home of the cURL project