netrc.md 1.1 KB


c: Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, daniel@haxx.se, et al. SPDX-License-Identifier: curl Long: netrc Short: n Help: Must read .netrc for username and password Category: curl Added: 4.6 Mutexed: netrc-file netrc-optional Multi: boolean See-also:

  • netrc-file
  • config
  • user Example:
  • --netrc $URL ---

--netrc

Make curl scan the .netrc file in the user's home directory for login name and password. This is typically used for FTP on Unix. If used with HTTP, curl enables user authentication. See netrc(5) and ftp(1) for details on the file format. Curl does not complain if that file does not have the right permissions (it should be neither world- nor group-readable). The environment variable "HOME" is used to find the home directory.

On Windows two filenames in the home directory are checked: .netrc and _netrc, preferring the former. Older versions on Windows checked for _netrc only.

A quick and simple example of how to setup a .netrc to allow curl to FTP to the machine host.domain.com with username 'myself' and password 'secret' could look similar to:

machine host.domain.com
login myself
password secret