143 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
143 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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c: Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
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SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
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Long: form
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Short: F
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Arg: <name=content>
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Help: Specify multipart MIME data
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Protocols: HTTP SMTP IMAP
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Mutexed: data head upload-file
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Category: http upload
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Added: 5.0
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Multi: append
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See-also:
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- data
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- form-string
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- form-escape
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Example:
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- --form "name=curl" --form "file=@loadthis" $URL
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---
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# `--form`
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For the HTTP protocol family, emulate a filled-in form in which a user has
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pressed the submit button. This makes curl POST data using the Content-Type
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multipart/form-data according to RFC 2388.
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For SMTP and IMAP protocols, this composes a multipart mail message to
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transmit.
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This enables uploading of binary files etc. To force the 'content' part to be
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a file, prefix the filename with an @ sign. To just get the content part from
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a file, prefix the filename with the symbol \<. The difference between @ and
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\< is then that @ makes a file get attached in the post as a file upload,
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while the \< makes a text field and just get the contents for that text field
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from a file.
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Read content from stdin instead of a file by using a single "-" as filename.
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This goes for both @ and \< constructs. When stdin is used, the contents is
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buffered in memory first by curl to determine its size and allow a possible
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resend. Defining a part's data from a named non-regular file (such as a named
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pipe or similar) is not subject to buffering and is instead read at
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transmission time; since the full size is unknown before the transfer starts,
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such data is sent as chunks by HTTP and rejected by IMAP.
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Example: send an image to an HTTP server, where 'profile' is the name of the
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form-field to which the file **portrait.jpg** is the input:
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curl -F profile=@portrait.jpg https://example.com/upload.cgi
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Example: send your name and shoe size in two text fields to the server:
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curl -F name=John -F shoesize=11 https://example.com/
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Example: send your essay in a text field to the server. Send it as a plain
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text field, but get the contents for it from a local file:
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curl -F "story=<hugefile.txt" https://example.com/
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You can also instruct curl what Content-Type to use by using `type=`, in a
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manner similar to:
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curl -F "web=@index.html;type=text/html" example.com
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or
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curl -F "name=daniel;type=text/foo" example.com
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You can also explicitly change the name field of a file upload part by setting
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filename=, like this:
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curl -F "file=@localfile;filename=nameinpost" example.com
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If filename/path contains ',' or ';', it must be quoted by double-quotes like:
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curl -F "file=@\"local,file\";filename=\"name;in;post\"" example.com
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or
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curl -F 'file=@"local,file";filename="name;in;post"' example.com
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Note that if a filename/path is quoted by double-quotes, any double-quote
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or backslash within the filename must be escaped by backslash.
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Quoting must also be applied to non-file data if it contains semicolons,
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leading/trailing spaces or leading double quotes:
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curl -F 'colors="red; green; blue";type=text/x-myapp' example.com
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You can add custom headers to the field by setting headers=, like
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curl -F "submit=OK;headers=\"X-submit-type: OK\"" example.com
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or
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curl -F "submit=OK;headers=@headerfile" example.com
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The headers= keyword may appear more that once and above notes about quoting
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apply. When headers are read from a file, Empty lines and lines starting
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with '#' are comments and ignored; each header can be folded by splitting
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between two words and starting the continuation line with a space; embedded
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carriage-returns and trailing spaces are stripped.
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Here is an example of a header file contents:
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# This file contain two headers.
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X-header-1: this is a header
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# The following header is folded.
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X-header-2: this is
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another header
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To support sending multipart mail messages, the syntax is extended as follows:
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- name can be omitted: the equal sign is the first character of the argument,
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- if data starts with '(', this signals to start a new multipart: it can be
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followed by a content type specification.
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- a multipart can be terminated with a '=)' argument.
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Example: the following command sends an SMTP mime email consisting in an
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inline part in two alternative formats: plain text and HTML. It attaches a
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text file:
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curl -F '=(;type=multipart/alternative' \
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-F '=plain text message' \
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-F '= <body>HTML message</body>;type=text/html' \
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-F '=)' -F '=@textfile.txt' ... smtp://example.com
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Data can be encoded for transfer using encoder=. Available encodings are
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*binary* and *8bit* that do nothing else than adding the corresponding
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Content-Transfer-Encoding header, *7bit* that only rejects 8-bit characters
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with a transfer error, *quoted-printable* and *base64* that encodes data
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according to the corresponding schemes, limiting lines length to 76
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characters.
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Example: send multipart mail with a quoted-printable text message and a
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base64 attached file:
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curl -F '=text message;encoder=quoted-printable' \
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-F '=@localfile;encoder=base64' ... smtp://example.com
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See further examples and details in the MANUAL.
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