Why CURL --data-urlencode does not URL encode

Question

I'm trying to URL encode query parameters using curl with --data-urlencode but they end up being appended to the query like with --data.

The issue can be reproduced with the help of netcat and doing queries against it.

Example curl POST query:

curl --data-urlencode "foo=bar" 127.0.0.1:8080/test/path

Actual output:

$ nc -l 8080
POST /test/path HTTP/1.1
Host: 127.0.0.1:8080
User-Agent: curl/7.58.0
Accept: */*
Content-Length: 7
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

foo=bar

Expected output:

$ nc -l 8080
POST /test/path?foo=bar HTTP/1.1
Host: 127.0.0.1:8080
User-Agent: curl/7.58.0
Accept: */*

drew010 · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-15 22:48:02Z

7

According to the manual, the --data-urlencode option "...posts data, similar to the other -d, --data options". So if you're seeing a post, that's the expected behavior.

You can use --get to make curl issue a GET request instead. Also, -v is a good friend!

curl -v --data-urlencode "foo=bar" http://127.0.0.1/test.php
*   Trying 127.0.0.1...
* Connected to 127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1) port 80 (#0)
> POST /test.php HTTP/1.1
> Host: 127.0.0.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.47.0
> Accept: */*
> Content-Length: 7
> Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

With --get:

curl -v --get --data-urlencode "foo=bar" http://127.0.0.1/test.php
*   Trying 127.0.0.1...
* Connected to 127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1) port 80 (#0)
> GET /test.php?foo=bar HTTP/1.1
> Host: 127.0.0.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.47.0
> Accept: */*

answered Nov 15, 2019 at 22:48

drew010

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3 Comments

Jaakko Over a year ago

I later added explicit mention of that I want to do POST.

Jaakko Over a year ago

However, I do think your answer is correct and I had misunderstood that urlencoding meant encoding the data to the URL path but instead it means encoding the data in application/x-www-form-urlencoded to the body of the message.

Jaakko Over a year ago

Using the --get with --request POST has the desired effect of doing POST request with all the data encoded to the URL, but I have to say it feels quite confusing.

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