--- name: "wcurl" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "curl" version: "8.23.0-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/wcurl" --- # wcurl(1) a simple wrapper around curl to easily download files. ## NAME **wcurl** - a simple wrapper around curl to easily download files. ## SYNOPSIS **wcurl \...** **wcurl \[--curl-options \\]... \[--dry-run\] \[--no-decode-filename\] \[-o\|-O\|--output \\] \[--\] \...** **wcurl \[--curl-options=\\]... \[--dry-run\] \[--no-decode-filename\] \[--output=\\] \[--\] \...** **wcurl -V\|--version** **wcurl -h\|--help** ## DESCRIPTION **wcurl** is a simple curl wrapper which lets you use curl to download files without having to remember any parameters. Call **wcurl** with a list of URLs you want to download and **wcurl** picks sane defaults. If you need anything more complex, you can provide any of curl's supported parameters via the **--curl-options** option. Beware that you likely should be using curl directly if your use case is not covered. By default, **wcurl** does: - \* Percent-encode whitespace in URLs; - \* Download multiple URLs in parallel ``` if the installed curl's version is \>= 7.66.0 (--parallel); ``` - \* Use a total number of 5 parallel connections to the same protocol + hostname + port number target ``` if the installed curl's version is \>= 8.16.0 (--parallel-max-host); ``` - \* Follow redirects; - \* Automatically choose a filename as output; - \* Avoid overwriting files ``` if the installed curl's version is \>= 7.83.0 (--no-clobber); ``` - \* Perform retries; - \* Set the downloaded file timestamp ``` to the value provided by the server, if available; ``` - \* Default to https ``` if the URL does not contain any scheme; ``` - \* Disable curl's URL globbing parser ``` so {} and [] characters in URLs are not treated specially; ``` - \* Percent-decode the resulting filename; - \* Use 'index.html' as the default filename ``` if there is none in the URL, or if it is '-'. ``` ## OPTIONS - \--curl-options, --curl-options=\... Specify extra options to be passed when invoking curl. May be specified more than once. - \-o, -O, --output, --output=\ Use the provided output path instead of getting it from the URL. If multiple URLs are provided, resulting files share the same name with a number appended to the end (curl \>= 7.83.0). If this option is provided multiple times, only the last value is considered. - \--no-decode-filename Do not percent-decode the output filename, even if the percent-encoding in the URL was done by **wcurl**, e.g.: The URL contained whitespace. - \--dry-run Do not actually execute curl, print what would be invoked. - \-V, --version Print version information. - \-h, --help Print help message. ## CURL\_OPTIONS Any option supported by curl can be set here. This is not used by **wcurl**; it is instead forwarded to the curl invocation. The value is split on whitespace (spaces, tabs and newlines) and each resulting word is passed to curl as a separate argument. Quotes and backslashes are not interpreted, so an argument containing whitespace cannot be passed this way. For example, **--curl-options='-H "Cookie: a=1; b=2"'** passes the four arguments *-H*, *"Cookie:*, *a=1;* and *b=2"* to curl, which treats the extra words as URLs to download. To pass arguments that contain whitespace, write them to a curl config file and pass it with **--curl-options="--config \"**, or use curl directly. Everything in \ becomes part of the curl command line, so never build it from untrusted input. ## URL URL to be downloaded. Anything that is not a parameter is considered an URL. Whitespace is percent-encoded and the URL is passed to curl, which then performs the parsing. May be specified more than once. ## EXAMPLES Download a single file: **wcurl example.com/filename.txt** Download two files in parallel: **wcurl example.com/filename1.txt example.com/filename2.txt** Download a file passing the **--progress-bar** and **--http2** flags to curl: **wcurl --curl-options="--progress-bar --http2" example.com/filename.txt** Resume from an interrupted download. The options necessary to resume the download (*--clobber --continue-at -*) must be the **last** options specified in *--curl-options*. Note that the only way to resume interrupted downloads is to allow wcurl to overwrite the destination file: **wcurl --curl-options="--clobber --continue-at -" example.com/filename.txt** Download multiple files without a limit of concurrent connections per host (the default limit is 5): **wcurl --curl-options="--parallel-max-host 0" example.com/filename1.txt example.com/filename2.txt** ## AUTHORS ``` Samuel Henrique \ Sergio Durigan Junior \ and many contributors, see the AUTHORS file. ``` ## REPORTING BUGS If you experience any problems with **wcurl** that you do not experience with curl, submit an issue on GitHub: https://github.com/curl/wcurl ## COPYRIGHT **wcurl** is licensed under the curl license ## SEE ALSO [**curl**(1)](/curl/1.md), [**trurl**(1)](/trurl/1.md)