Installing a custom version of curl (command line tool)

curl is installed on all DreamHost servers by default; however, you may want to install a newer version depending on your needs. This article walks you through how to install a custom version of curl (command line tool).

1. Log in to your server via SSH.
2. Make sure you're in your user's home directory.

   [server]$ cd ~

3. Locate the version you wish to install here:
   • https://curl.se/download/

   Right-click a .zip link and copy its URL. You can then run the following wget command to download the .zip file.

   [server]$ wget https://curl.se/download/curl-8.3.0.zip

4. Unzip the file.

   [server]$ unzip curl-8.3.0.zip

5. Navigate into this new directory.

   [server]$ cd curl-8.3.0

6. Run the following to install:

   curl requires you to choose which SSL library you'd prefer to use when building it. These instructions use openssl. View SELECT YOUR TLS for further details.

   [server]$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME/curl --with-openssl
   [server]$ make
   [server]$ make install

7. Open your .bash_profile using nano or vim. For example:

   nano ~/.bash_profile

8. Add this line to your .bash_profile:

   export PATH=$HOME/curl/bin:$PATH

9. Update your .bash_profile to activate your new configuration.

   [server]$ . ~/.bash_profile

10. Check the location and version of curl:

    [server]$ which curl
    /home/username/curl/bin/curl
    
    [server]$ curl --version
    curl 8.3.0 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)