Installing a custom version of curl (command line tool)

 

Overview

This article explains how to install a custom version of curl (command line tool). curl is installed on all DreamHost servers by default, but depending on your needs, you may wish to install a newer version.

These instructions explain how to install the curl command line tool, which is different from cURL. See this article to learn more about the differences between curl and cURL.

Installing curl

  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.

    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)

See also

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