Ubuntu: Using curl to download an image

Question

I want to download an image accessible from this link: https://www.python.org/static/apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png into my local system. Now, I'm aware that the curl command can be used to download remote files through the terminal. So, I entered the following in my terminal in order to download the image into my local system:

curl https://www.python.org/static/apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png

However, this doesn't seem to work, so obviously there is some other way to download images from the Internet using curl. What is the correct way to download images using this command?

Answer 1

curl without any options will perform a GET request. It will simply return the data from the URI specified. Not retrieve the file itself to your local machine.

When you do,

$ curl https://www.python.org/static/apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png

You will receive binary data:

                   |�>�$! <R�HP@T*�Pm�Z��jU֖��ZP+UAUQ@�
��{X\� K���>0c�yF[i�}4�!�V̧�H_�)nO#�;I��vg^_ ��-Hm$$N0.
���%Y[�L�U3�_^9��P�T�0'u8�l�4 ...

In order to save this, you can use:

$ curl https://www.python.org/static/apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png > image.png

to store that raw image data inside of a file.

An easier way though, is just to use wget.

$ wget https://www.python.org/static/apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png
$ ls
.
..
apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png

Answer 2

For those who don't have nor want to install wget, curl -O (capital "o", not a zero) will do the same thing as wget. E.g. my old netbook doesn't have wget, and is a 2.68 MB install that I don't need.

curl -O https://www.python.org/static/apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png

Answer 3

If you want to keep the original name — use uppercase -O

curl -O https://www.python.org/static/apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png

If you want to save remote file with a different name — use lowercase -o

curl -o myPic.png https://www.python.org/static/apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png