netcat is a bit complicated to use

curl is installed by default on most systems

curl

You can also send http requests with the curl command:

$ curl -s http://substack.net

issues a GET request to substack.net and prints the body to sdtout You don't get back the headers only the content.

To see just the headers, use -I:

$ curl -sI http://substack.net

The -s gets rid of annoying progress output.

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curl: issuing a POST

The default is to send a GET request. Use -X to set the http verb (POST) and -d to set form parameters (for each form element):

$ curl -X POST http://localhost:5000 -d title=whatever \
  -d date=1421044443 -d body='beep boop!'

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