I'm trying to figure out what this means? I want to be able to post something to Instagram's API, but not sure what curl -F means? I tried searching it on google, but it's not giving me much. Maybe someone with this matter can shine some light?
Also, What is the best way to post to Instagram with this method? The documentation is asking
curl -F 'access_token=ACCESS-TOKEN' \ Can someone explain this to me?
Thanks in advance!
4 Answers
From man curl:
-F, --form <name=content> (HTTP) This lets curl emulate a filled-in form in which a user has pressed the submit button. This causes curl to POST data using the Content-Type multipart/form-data according to RFC 2388. This enables uploading of binary files etc. To force the 'content' part to be a file, prefix the file name with an @ sign. To just get the content part from a file, prefix the file name with the symbol <. The difference between @ and < is then that @ makes a file get attached in the post as a file upload, while the < makes a text field and just get the contents for that text field from a file. Example, to send your password file to the server, where 'password' is the name of the form-field to which /etc/passwd will be the input: curl -F password=@/etc/passwd To read content from stdin instead of a file, use - as the filename. This goes for both @ and < constructs. You can also tell curl what Content-Type to use by using 'type=', in a manner similar to: curl -F "web=@index.html;type=text/html" url.com or curl -F "name=daniel;type=text/foo" url.com You can also explicitly change the name field of a file upload part by setting filename=, like this: curl -F "file=@localfile;filename=nameinpost" url.com See further examples and details in the MANUAL. This option can be used multiple times. curl is a linux utility that simulates web requests. Issuing a curl -F command issues a http request with form submission data. In this case, the form data is the data access_token=ACCESS-TOKEN and it is being issued to the url
Further information on what cURL is and what it does can be found at
-F emulate user filling in a form and submit.
You can look for this in the man page of curl on your system. If it supports the option, it will have an entry in the man page.
This isn't really a programming question but I can give you some guidance to help you on your way.
-F tells curl to emulate a filled in HTML Form that has just had it's submit button clicked.
And scroll down or search for the bit called
'-F, --form <name=content>' As that details it with more complexity
