How to Download a File with curl in Linux

Download files with curl while preserving the remote filename and handling redirects.

Short answer

$ curl -LO https://example.com/file.zip

The -L follows redirects and -O saves using the remote filename.

curl is a flexible HTTP client as well as a download tool. For a simple file download, `-L` and `-O` solve the two common problems: redirects and choosing an output filename.

Step by step

1 Download using the remote filename

$ curl -LO https://example.com/file.zip

Follows redirects and writes file.zip in the current directory.

2 Choose the output filename

$ curl -L https://example.com/file.zip -o release.zip

The lowercase -o option lets you choose the local path.

3 Resume a partial download

$ curl -L -C - -o release.zip https://example.com/file.zip

The -C - option asks curl to resume from the existing local file size when the server supports it.

4 Inspect headers only

$ curl -I https://example.com/file.zip

A HEAD request can reveal redirects, content type and other response headers without downloading the body.

Tips worth knowing

Use `curl -fL` in scripts when HTTP errors should produce a non-zero exit status.
Quote URLs containing shell metacharacters.
Verify checksums when downloading software or release artifacts.