wcurl(1) User Commands wcurl(1)
wcurl - a simple wrapper around curl to easily download files.
wcurl <URL>...
wcurl [--curl-options <CURL_OPTIONS>]... [--dry-run]
[--no-decode-filename] [-o|-O|--output <PATH>] [--] <URL>...
wcurl [--curl-options=<CURL_OPTIONS>]... [--dry-run]
[--no-decode-filename] [--output=<PATH>] [--] <URL>...
wcurl -V|--version
wcurl -h|--help
wcurl is a simple curl wrapper which lets you use curl to download
files without having to remember any parameters.
Simply 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. Just 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.
--curl-options, --curl-options=<CURL_OPTIONS>...
Specify extra options to be passed when invoking curl. May be
specified more than once.
-o, -O, --output, --output=<PATH>
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, just 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.
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.
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
Samuel Henrique <samueloph@debian.org>
Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@debian.org>
and many contributors, see the AUTHORS file.
If you experience any problems with wcurl that you do not experience
with curl, submit an issue on GitHub: https://github.com/curl/wcurl
wcurl is licensed under the curl license
curl(1), trurl(1)
wcurl 2026-01-08 wcurl(1)
NAME
wcurl - a simple wrapper around curl to easily download files.
SYNOPSIS
wcurl <URL>...
wcurl [--curl-options <CURL_OPTIONS>]... [--dry-run]
[--no-decode-filename] [-o|-O|--output <PATH>] [--] <URL>...
wcurl [--curl-options=<CURL_OPTIONS>]... [--dry-run]
[--no-decode-filename] [--output=<PATH>] [--] <URL>...
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.
Simply 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. Just 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.
OPTIONS
--curl-options, --curl-options=<CURL_OPTIONS>...
Specify extra options to be passed when invoking curl. May be
specified more than once.
-o, -O, --output, --output=<PATH>
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, just 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.
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 <samueloph@debian.org>
Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@debian.org>
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), trurl(1)
wcurl 2026-01-08 wcurl(1)