How to Use curl for API Testing

curl is a command-line tool for making HTTP requests. It is indispensable for testing REST APIs, downloading files, and debugging web services.

Basic GET Request

curl https://api.example.com/users

POST Request with JSON Body

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/users 
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" 
  -d '{"name": "John", "email": "[email protected]"}'

Set Authorization Header

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" https://api.example.com/me

Save Response to File

curl -o response.json https://api.example.com/data

Show Headers Only

curl -I https://example.com