Like curl or this website specifically?
curl is a CLI tool used primarily to interact with webservers.
It can do much more than that, but its unclear what kind of an explanation you're seeking.
this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2025
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So it's basically a terminal emulator ?
Not quite the right way of thinking about it.
curl is a program that can be used from a terminal.
Servers are often interacted with via URLs.
curl is just one of many tools for interacting with them.
If you have access to a terminal with curl installed I would suggest running man curl and having a read of the output.
Alternatively it can be read here:
I've see your other posts now and I've come to the conclusion you are trying to figure out how to browse the web via a terminal.
In the biz we call this an https://xyproblem.info/
You were never going to get a satisfying answer with your question.
A better one would have been "how do I browse the web with a terminal"
And people would have directed you to search for things like "terminal browser"
Curl is a tool used to ask servers and websites for information from the command line. It outputs this information to you directly as stdout instead of just downloading a file to a given location. You can use pipes and redirections to work with this though
Usually it's used by developers.
Personally, I use it to get files from github or websites. If can also be used to send stuff to a server.
It's a very simple tool that just sends the request and gives the answer. If you were to point it at a website you'd get back the code a browser would normally use to make the website on your end.