# Using cURL

> Download and transfer files to your account from the command line with the cURL program, a handy alternative to wget.

Source: https://helpcenter.ruachost.com/developers/linux/using-curl/

You can use the cURL program to transfer files to your account from the command line. The cURL program is often a good substitute for the wget program.

This article describes how to use the cURL program to transfer files from the command line.

### **When to use cURL**

If you need to transfer a file quickly from the command line, the cURL program is often the easiest way to do so. For example, you might need to download a `.zip` file or `.tar.gz` file that contains a code library for a project you are working on. With cURL, you can download the file directly to your account, instead of having to use an FTP client to download and transfer the file to your account.

### **How to use cURL**

To start cURL, log in to your account using SSH, and then type the following command:

```
curl
```

However, this command by itself does not accomplish much. Let's download a page from the example.com test domain:

```
curl -O http://example.com/test.html
```

cURL downloads the page to the current working directory. The `-O` option instructs cURL to download the output and save it in a file name that has the same name as the source document. In this case, it is `test.html`. If you open the `test.html` file on your account, you can see the HTML source page for `example.com/test.html`.

If you want to download a file and assign it a specific filename, use the `-o` option. For example, to download the `example.com/test.html` file to a file on the local account named `download.html`, type the following command:

```
curl -o download.html http://example.com/test.html
```

### **More information**

There are many more options available for the cURL program. To learn about them, type the following command:

```
man curl
```