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In the browser, navigating to this URL initiates a 302 (moved temporarily) request which in turn downloads a file.
http://www.targetsite.com/target.php/?event=download&task_id=123
When I view what is actually happening via Chrome network tools I see that the redirect is going to a dynamically generated path that cancels itself immediately after download. In other words, even if I know that full path I will not have time to manually call it.
So, how in using the command line can I mimic the browser actions?
I tried
curl --cookies bin/cookies.txt -O -L "http://www.targetsite.com/target.php/?event=download&task_id=123" --compressed
but this just returns gibberish. The goal of this is to programmatically download this file without having to navigate to the site. Unfortunately I cannot share the site here as it is behind a log-in.
475
To follow redirect with Curl, use the -L or --location command-line option. This flag tells Curl to resend the request to the new address. When you send a POST request, and the server responds with one of the codes 301, 302, or 303, Curl will make the subsequent request using the GET method.
How to fix it? You should only use 302 redirects where the redirection is temporary and content will come back to the original URL soon. Check the reported URLs. Where the redirection is permanent, change the redirection to 301 (Moved Permanently).
In curl's tradition of only doing the basics unless you tell it differently, it does not follow HTTP redirects by default. Use the -L, --location option to tell it to do that. When following redirects is enabled, curl will follow up to 50 redirects by default.
Does a 302 automatically redirect? Yes. Since the browser is handling the communication between the server and you, it will automatically redirect to the new resource location. However, the same communication will occur with the new resource, too.
You need to supply the -L or --location option in order to enable curl to follow HTTP redirects.
Quoting from man curl:
-L, --location (HTTP/HTTPS) If the server reports that the requested page has moved to a different location (indicated with a Location: header and a 3XX response code), this option will make curl redo the request on the new place. If used together with -i, --include or -I, --head, headers from all requested pages will be shown. When authentication is used, curl only sends its credentials to the initial host. If a redirect takes curl to a different host, it won't be able to intercept the user+password. See also --loca‐ tion-trusted on how to change this. You can limit the amount of redirects to follow by using the --max-redirs option. When curl follows a redirect and the request is not a plain GET (for example POST or PUT), it will do the following request with a GET if the HTTP response was 301, 302, or 303. If the response code was any other 3xx code, curl will re-send the following request using the same unmodified method. If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
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