When you’re just getting started with the command line, it can feel like there’s a wall between the local space you’re messing around with and the wider Internet. You have commands and files on your side, and on the other side of the wall are servers, images, APIs, web pages, and other useful, ever-changing data. One of the most popular ways to overcome that barrier is cURL (“Client URL”), which celebrates his 25th anniversary this month.
The cURL tool began as a way for programmer Daniel Stenberg to allow Internet Chat Relay users to quickly retrieve currency exchange rates while inside the chat window. As detailed in the archived history of the project, it was originally built from the existing command line tool httpget built by Rafael Sagula. The 1.0 version was released in his 1997, adding to GOPHER, FTP, and other protocols, so by 2.0 it was renamed to his urlget. By 1998, version 4.0 was named his cURL because the tool could not only download, but also upload.
Over the next few years, cURL embraced nearly every Internet protocol, handled certificates and encryption, offered bindings for over 50 languages, and was included in most Linux distributions and other systems. became. The cURL project now contains both the command line command itself and the libcurl library. In 2020, it is estimated that the commands and libraries were installed on over 10 billion instances worldwide, based on project history.
How will you celebrate the 25th anniversary of the integral Internet architecture? Stenberg will be hosting a “Zoom Birthday Party” on March 20th at 17:00 UTC. Please double check that time in your area. [when] The US has switched to Daylight Saving Time, but Europe has not yet,” Stenberg wrote on his blog. Stenberg will be sipping his 25-year-old Bowmore Islay single malt his scotch and asking questions while explaining the project’s history and future plans. (A link to the Zoom call will be added to his Stenberg blog post near March 20.)
Due to its near-universal compatibility and availability, cURL is an important tool for retrieving web page content, suggesting APIs, and testing site availability and response times. continue. Data has been moving since Tom Holland was born. It certainly deserves a small party.
