The curl and wget commands are for retrieving files from the internet. Both use HTTP, HTTPS, FTPS, and FTP internet protocols. The curl and wget commands provide many functionalities for the users to help with the data transfer through the terminal. The curl command may look similar to wget, but they have a few differences.
This guide sheds light on how the curl command is different from the wget command:
- The curl Command
- The wget Command
- Differences Between curl and wget Commands
- curl Instead of wget
- wget Instead of curl
What is the curl Command in Linux?
Client URL or curl is a command-line tool of Linux mainly used for data transferring over networks. The curl command has many flags/options and multiple HTTP headers for sharing additional data.
Other uses include the following:
- Error logging by storing all the output in a temporary file.
- End-point testing to see if the end-points at both sides (Client and server) are working.
- Debugging by activating the “-v” or the verbose option to get more information on the HTTP request and its response.
- Downloading data from the internet.
Syntax:
The general syntax of using the curl command is:
$ curl Options [URL]
The curl command has an extensive set of options details of which can be read here on official documentation. To learn the curl command through examples, follow this detailed guide.
How to Install curl on Linux?
Although it is pre-installed in most distributions of Linux, use these commands if it is not:
$ sudo apt install curl #For Ubuntu/Debian
$ sudo pacman -Sy curl #For Arch Linux
$ sudo yum install curl #For RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
$ sudo zypper install curl #For OpenSUSE
The command-line utility curl is now installed on the system.
Note: If you are facing the “curl command not found error” error at your end, follow this guide to fix it.
What is the wget Command in Linux?
The wget command is one of the leading command-line utilities that can handle almost every aspect of downloading using features such as recursive downloads, limiting download speed, background downloads, resuming aborted downloads, and much more.
Syntax:
The general syntax of the wget command is as follows:
$ wget [options]... [URL]
The wget command has many options whose details can be read on the official documentation.
How to Install wget on Linux?
Although it is pre-installed in most distributions of Linux, use these commands if it is not:
$ sudo apt install wget #For Ubuntu/Debian
$ sudo yum install wget #For RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
$ sudo zypper install wget #For OpenSUSE
$ sudo pacman -Sy wget #For Arch Linux
The wget command is now installed on the system.
How curl Command Differs From wget Command?
Before moving to the differences, let’s see the options of both commands:
To view the options of the curl command, use this help command:
$ curl --help all
To view the options of the wget command, use this help command:
$ wget --help all
The key difference between the curl and wget commands include the following:
| curl Command | wget Command |
|---|---|
| Uses libcurl that comes with a stable API that everyone can use and contribute. This library also makes it cross-platform (Winner). | No library but just a command-line utility which is why it is not cross-platform. |
| No recursive downloading. | Support for recursive downloading (Winner). |
| More supported protocols (Winner). | Doesn’t support as many protocols as the curl command. |
| HTTP proxy supported (Winner). | No HTTP proxy is supported. |
| More HTTP authentication methods (Winner). | Less HTTP authentication methods. |
| Capabilities of both uploading and sending (Winner). | Only supports HTTP Post. |
| Support for multiple transfers in parallel (Winner). | No multi-transfers in parallel. |
| Support transfer-encoded HTTP decompressions (Winner). | No support for transfer-encoded HTTP decompressions. |
| Cookies, timestamps, and redirect-following from a remote source are enabled by default (Winner). | Cookies, timestamps, and redirect-following from a remote source are not enabled by default. |
| Pre-installed on macOS and Windows 10 (Winner). | Not pre-installed on macOS and Windows 10. |
| Requires no extra options even to download a simple remote URL (Winner). | Requires additional options even to download a simple remote URL (-o or -O). |
Can I Use curl Instead of wget?
Yes, you should use the curl command because of its advantages, such as parallel file transfers, better HTTP authentication protocols, support for HTTP proxy, and many more explained above.
Can I Use wget Instead of curl?
The only advantage of the wget command over the curl command is recursive downloading, in which users can download all the linked documents to the document they are downloading. It works from depth 1 to depth 2 and the last depth.
Conclusion
In Linux, both the curl and wget commands are widely in use for retrieving files from a terminal or command-line interface. Both of them have differences and similarities that are discussed above. Looking at the above comparison, it is to conclude that the curl command is better than wget in almost all aspects except for the recursive.
This guide explained the differences and similarities between Linux’s curl and wget commands.
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