PowerShell equivalent of curl

Question

Is there an equivalent of curl in PowerShell? Does it have some similar built-in capability or is there a 3^rd party cmdlet?

Closed? How about closing http://superuser.com/questions/34492/powershell-equivalent-to-unix-which-command, http://superuser.com/questions/295021/windows-powershell-equivalent-to-unix-linux-pwd, http://superuser.com/questions/71446/equivalent-of-bashs-source-command-in-powershell and host of others? — Borek Bernard, Oct 10 '11 at 12:39
Actually this question looks fair enough to me? But there's an old answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/340553/what-is-the-best-way-to-send-http-requests-from-windows-powershell — Rup, Oct 10 '11 at 12:49
Check out this article about using curl in PowerShell: http://thesociablegeek.com/azure/using-curl-in-powershell/ — SDsolar, Oct 16 '17 at 03:12

score 146 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 31 '18 at 21:07

146

PowerShell 3.0 has the new command Invoke-RestMethod:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849971.aspx

more detail:

https://discoposse.com/2012/06/30/powershell-invoke-restmethod-putting-the-curl-in-your-shell/

edited Jul 31 '18 at 21:07

slugster

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answered May 04 '13 at 00:18

Michael Kelley

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You may want the Invoke-WebRequest command instead, depending on what you are trying to accomplish. – Timothy Lee Russell Jun 10 '14 at 16:32
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It's also aliased as `curl` or `wget` in Powershell now. – CMCDragonkai Jun 12 '14 at 05:49
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Yeah it's bizarre that they'd alias them, as the syntax is entirely different. If MS doesn't want to ship a package manager and make it easy to get common, basic tools, hiding it behind a fake alias isn't gonna make the situation better. – MichaelGG Nov 07 '14 at 20:08
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The biggest problem with Invoke-WebRequest is that it does not work if IE is not 'initialized'; so when writing pipeline or DSC scripts you have to do some extra legwork first or you can use Invoke-RestMethod. – LimpingNinja May 22 '17 at 15:27
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@LimpingNinja, do you have a source for this? Maybe the problem you experienced was due to this: "-UseBasicParsing Uses the response object for HTML content without Document Object Model (DOM) parsing. This parameter is required when Internet Explorer is not installed on the computers, such as on a Server Core installation of a Windows Server operating system." from https://msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/reference/3.0/microsoft.powershell.utility/Invoke-WebRequest – Michael Kelley May 22 '17 at 19:24

John Bentley · Answer 2 · 2019-09-18T14:24:04.563

As of Powershell 5.0, if not before, curl is an alias for Invoke-WebRequest.

PS> Get-Alias -Definition Invoke-WebRequest | Format-Table -AutoSize

CommandType Name                      Version Source
----------- ----                      ------- ------
Alias       curl -> Invoke-WebRequest
Alias       iwr -> Invoke-WebRequest
Alias       wget -> Invoke-WebRequest

To use the unaliased command ...

PS> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://localhost:443/
PS> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://www.google.com

So return several properties of the request as follows ...

PS> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://www.google.com

StatusCode        : 200
StatusDescription : OK
Content           : <!doctype html><html itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/WebPage" lang="en-AU"><head><meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"
                    http-equiv="Content-Type"><meta content="/images/branding/googleg/1x/...
RawContent        : HTTP/1.1 200 OK
                    X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
                    X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
                    Vary: Accept-Encoding

... or just the content ...

PS> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://www.google.com | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Content

<!doctype html><html itemscope="" itemtype="http://schem[etc ...]

The equivalent aliased commands are ...

PS> curl -Uri https://www.google.com
PS> curl -Uri https://www.google.com | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Content

Leveraging Powershell defaults and other aliases you could shorten the commands to

PS> curl https://www.google.com 
ps> curl https://www.google.com | Select -ExpandProperty Content

... but I wouldn't recommend it. Verbose commands help others when reading your code.

Update:

Powershell 6.x

Use of Aliases discouraged

As of Powershell 6.x "Core" curl is no longer an alias for Invoke-WebRequest (the alias wget is also removed) . Instead use Invoke-WebRequest directly.

PS> Get-Alias -Definition Invoke-WebRequest | Format-Table -AutoSize

CommandType Name                     Version Source
----------- ----                     ------- ------
Alias       iwr -> Invoke-WebRequest

Curl is no longer an alias for Invoke-WebRequest (tested on Powershell 6.2.3), despite an apparent rejection of a motion in an RFC "to to remove the aliases curl and wget from Windows PowerShell".

That RFC notes "The wget/curl aliases were already removed from PowerShell Core so the problem [of having those aliases] was limited to Windows PowerShell."

In the conclusion the Powershell team also encourages users "to not rely on aliases in scripts".

As @v6ak has noted in the comments using curl and wget in PowerShell (5.0 or lower) can be a problem in: unintentionally invoking the real curl or wget if installed side-by-side; and, in any case, causes confusion.

New Encoding

It is recommended you upgrade Powershell "core" (6.x or above) in order to take advantage of the default encoding utf8NoBOM, when using Invoke-WebRequest (and many other text outputting commands). If one was doing this explicitly you could do something like:

Invoke-WebRequest ` 
-Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fancyapps/fancybox/master/dist/jquery.fancybox.min.js `
| Select-Object -ExpandProperty Content `
| Out-File jquery.fancybox.min.js `
-Encoding utf8NoBOM

However, even when using a shorter, implicit, command ...

Invoke-WebRequest `
-Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fancyapps/fancybox/master/dist/jquery.fancybox.min.js `
-OutFile jquery.fancybox.min.js

... encoding with utf8NoBOM will be done (you can verify this, for example, by opening the saved file in Visual Studio Code and observing "UTF-8" in the status bar).

Files saved with utf8NoBOM tend to cause fewer problems when traveling through various ecosystems. Of course, if you need some other encoding you can set some alternative explicitly.

In Powershell 5.0 and lower the utf8NoBOM encoding was not available, let alone the default.

Details:

What's the -Uri flag doing... I get same results with or without it for 'curl -Uri https://api.github.com/rate_limit'. I've searched for this, but still not sure — Drenai, Jul 28 '17 at 08:35
In powershell some parameter names can be implicitly derived from the order of the parameter values. You can see this through looking at `get-help curl`. You'll see `Invoke-WebRequest [-Uri] ...`, with the brackets `[]` indicating `-Uri` can be left out (and therefore implicitly invoked). As I mentioned in the main post: in general you ought be explicit (where you or others are going to read your code in the future). — John Bentley, Jul 30 '17 at 22:59
Ah - thanks. So I'm leaving it out, but it's still being invoked, didn't know that's what the ```[]``` did — Drenai, Jul 31 '17 at 10:22
You are welcome. You've got it. The syntax descriptions for powershell commands that you find in `get-help` is given in some version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Backus%E2%80%93Naur_form. You'll do well to read/skim that because some version of Extended Backus Naur Form is likely used to describe the syntax of many languages you'll come across. You'll notice that at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Backus%E2%80%93Naur_form#Table_of_symbols brackets `[ ...]` designate syntax that is optional. — John Bentley, Aug 01 '17 at 10:55
It is, but I suggest not using it, as it is confusing. On PowerShell Core 6.1.3 for Linux, neither curl nor wget are the aliases. They refer to the original curl and wget (if they are present in the system). Since they are different, usage of those aliases is a potential source of confusion and non-multiplatform scripts. — v6ak, Mar 07 '19 at 16:04
@v6ak. On Powershell Core 6.1.3 for Linux are the problems you mention avoided if you use the non-aliased command `Invoke-WebRequest`? — John Bentley, Mar 11 '19 at 01:49
@JohnBentley Yes, Invoke-WebRequest and alias iwr are there. — v6ak, Mar 11 '19 at 06:13
My question was not whether `Invoke-WebRequest` exists on Powershell Core 6.1.3 but whether, on that platform, it avoids the problems you mention. That is, on Powershell Core 6.1.3 does `Invoke-WebRequest` avoid using the original curl if present on the system? — John Bentley, Mar 11 '19 at 23:00
@JohnBentley Yes, Invoke-WebRequest (and alias iwr) are there and seem to behave the same as on Windows. The curl and wget seem to be skipped completely (Get-Alias does not show them, so, they are likely not shaded by /usr/bin/{curl,wget}). Maybe it is some tradeoff for request for complete removal of those aliases: https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/pull/1901 . — v6ak, Mar 12 '19 at 16:01
The PR you link to ultimately led to [the decision to reject the removal of curl and wget aliases in Powershell](https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell-RFC/blob/master/X-Rejected/RFC0007-Weak-Aliases.md#powershell-committee-decision). So the workaround seems to be: if you have curl separately installed on your system use (the non aliased) Invoke-WebRequest if you want to invoke that Powershell installation/implementation and use `curl` if you want to invoke your curl installation/implementation The decision includes the general recommendation to not rely on aliases. — John Bentley, Mar 14 '19 at 03:09
@JohnBentley Yes, the PR itself has been rejected. But it looks like the change has been done for PS Core, at least on Linux. So, there might have been some followup discussion on it. (BTW, without @-mention, I don't get notifications about your reply.) — v6ak, Mar 31 '19 at 11:02
@v6ak. Yes, it looks like an ongoing issue. Thanks for flagging the @-mention to me. — John Bentley, Apr 03 '19 at 01:01

score 33 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 20 '14 at 01:17

33

The excellent Command Line Kung Fu blog has a post where they compare curl, wget and the related PowerShell commands

In a nutshell:

(New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString("http://www.example.com/hello-world.html","C:\hello-world.html")

Or, if your version of Powershell/.Net doesn't accept 2 parameters for DownloadString:

(New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString("http://www.example.com/hello-world.html") > "C:\hello-world.html"

edited Mar 20 '14 at 01:17

Thomas BDX

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answered Oct 10 '11 at 11:26

ipr101

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[This answer](http://superuser.com/q/25538/294830) mentions the `DownloadFile` function which works well too. – Paul Hicks May 19 '16 at 22:36

score 15 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 22 '13 at 15:07

15

You can install cURL with Chocolatey and have curl available in PowerShell CLI or cmd.

answered Jan 22 '13 at 15:07

Spoike

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Then go vote for this https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedbackdetail/view/1089296/remove-curl-and-wget-aliases-for-invoke-webrequest – MotoWilliams Jan 15 '15 at 23:46

score 15 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 04 '13 at 05:23

15

You can also install Git for Windows, and then put the Git bin folder in your path. The Git install includes, among other things, curl.exe. After installing, just put %programfiles(x86)%\git\bin in your PATH. Then you'll be able to use the curl command from the Windows Command Prompt or PowerShell console.

edited Apr 04 '13 at 05:23

Indrek

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answered Apr 04 '13 at 01:20

Jamie

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score 4 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 13:48

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If you use insider preview build 17063 or release version 1803 and up then there's already curl.exe that you can run directly

If you’re one of these people – HAPPY NEW YEAR! Windows 10 Insider build 17063 and later now include the real-deal curl and tar executables that you can execute directly from Cmd or PowerShell.

Tar and Curl Come to Windows!

On PowerShell you need to run explicitly curl.exe if curl is an existing alias

edited Jun 12 '20 at 13:48

Community

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answered Apr 19 '20 at 03:45

phuclv

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That worked for me! – Alma Z Feb 23 '22 at 05:29

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 04 '19 at 03:10

curl

cmd, bash

curl -H "Host: whoami.local" 192.168.4.4

powershell

Invoke-WebRequest -H @{"Host"="whoami.local"} -UseBasicParsing 192.168.4.4

# or 
# $(Get-Command curl) return  "curl -> Invoke-WebRequest"
curl -H @{"Host"="whoami.local"} -UseBasicParsing 192.168.4.4

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 11 '11 at 16:38

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the closest thing to wget or curl on windows is bits (Background Intelligent Transfer Service), which has some snippets ready for powershell.

answered Dec 11 '11 at 16:38

akira

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I think BITS solves a different problem than wget or curl. – Donald Byrd Jul 07 '12 at 01:08
Fetching things from a Http-Server? – akira Jul 07 '12 at 19:03
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No :), the background intelligence part of it. – Donald Byrd Jul 07 '12 at 20:03

kenorb · Answer 9 · 2018-02-13T12:13:27.100

0

This command should work:

Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing -Uri http://example.com/

It's part of Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility since PowerShell 3.0.

See also: Get $webclient.downloadstring to write to text file in Powershell.

edited Feb 13 '18 at 12:13

answered Feb 13 '18 at 12:01

kenorb

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