HTTP Methods

What is the curl command?

The curl command is a command-line tool used to transfer data to or from a server, with the help of any of the supported protocols (HTTP, FTP, IMAP, POP3, SCP, SFTP, SMTP, TFTP, TELNET, LDAP or FILE).

The syntax for the curl command is as follows:

curl [options] [URL...]

You can read more about curl here.

• curl is free and open-source

• It supports various protocols

• You can refer to GitHub for the latest source code of curl

• Please refer to POST Request Using Curl

In this chapter, we will use the curl command to demonstrate the various HTTP methods.

Overview of a URL

HTTP resources are identified and located on the network by Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), using the Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) schemes HTTP and HTTPS.

A sample URL:

https://www.educative.io/explore

Here,

• https – protocol ( Secure HTTP )
• www – subdomain
• educative.io – domain name
• /explore – service end point

HTTP methods

HTTP methods are designed to enable communications between clients and servers. We will discuss the most commonly used HTTP methods in the next few lessons.

• GET
• POST
• PUT
• DELETE