curl and libcurl
HTTP, APIs, and Data Transfer from the Command Line.
Planned
curl speaks the protocols the web runs on, and libcurl puts the same transfer engine inside programs. This book will cover both: how a request is built and sent, how HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 change the transfer, how TLS verifies the other end, and how the library's easy and multi interfaces drive transfers from your own code.
Status: planned title. Writing has not started. The repository and the cover exist; the scope below is the plan.
The first edition will ship DRM-free as PDF and EPUB, with free updates.
From one request to libcurl.
No chapters are written yet. This is the plan: the areas the book will cover, from a single request out to libcurl in your own programs. It targets curl 8 and current libcurl.
- The request model Methods, headers, query strings, and bodies, and how curl assembles a request.
- Protocols HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3, along with the other transfer protocols curl speaks.
- TLS and trust Certificates, verification, client certificates, and pinning.
- Authentication Basic, bearer tokens, and the other schemes APIs expect.
- libcurl The library behind the tool, its easy and multi interfaces, and embedding transfers in programs.
- Automation and debugging Config files, retries, and reading verbose and trace output.
For people who live between a shell and an API.
This book is for engineers who reach for curl every day and want to know what each option really does. It assumes HTTP basics and explains the transfer, the protocols, and the library underneath.
- Engineers who test and automate HTTP APIs from the shell and want curl's flags to do exactly what they mean.
- Developers embedding transfers in their own programs through libcurl's easy and multi interfaces.
- Operators debugging TLS, redirects, and proxies who want to read curl's verbose output with confidence.
Planned.
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