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Is it possible to set timeout value for curl globally? E.g. via an environment variable or config file?

I have a shell script with some 20 curl commands scattered all over and would like to avoid specifying --connect-timeout everywhere.

This is for shell scripting, not php or C/C++ or ...

Kashyap
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2 Answers2

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As far as I can see on the man page, there is no such environment variable.

You could make a function called curl:

curl () {
    command curl --connect-timeout 60 "$@"
}

So whenever you call curl, it will call this function, which in turn calls the curl command (command suppresses shell function lookup) with the same arguments.

Benjamin W.
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  • yupp, I also read the man page ! `curl` actually respects `http/https_proxy` env variable, though it's not documented either. I was hoping something similar. – Kashyap Jan 11 '16 at 20:27
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    @Kashyap http_proxy and friends are documented at the link in this answer in the Environment section. – Etan Reisner Jan 11 '16 at 21:33
0

TL;DR

all CLI options can be specified in the 'default config file'

# set timeout to 2.5 seconds globally
echo 'connect-timeout = 2.5' > ~/.curlrc

From man page: "When curl is invoked, it (unless -q, --disable is used) checks for a default config file and uses it if found".

-K, --config <file>

Specify a text file to read curl arguments from. The command line arguments found in the text file will be used as if they were provided on the command line.

Options and their parameters must be specified on the same line in the file, separated by whitespace, colon, or the equals sign. Long option names can optionally be given in the config file without the initial double dashes and if so, the colon or equals characters can be used as separators. If the option is specified with one or two dashes, there can be no colon or equals character between the option and its parameter.

If the parameter contains whitespace (or starts with : or =), the parameter must be enclosed within quotes. Within double quotes, the following escape sequences are available: \, ", \t, \n, \r and \v. A backslash preceding any other letter is ignored.

If the first column of a config line is a '#' character, the rest of the line will be treated as a comment.

Only write one option per physical line in the config file.

Specify the filename to -K, --config as '-' to make curl read the file from stdin.

Note that to be able to specify a URL in the config file, you need to specify it using the --url option, and not by simply writing the URL on its own line. So, it could look similar to this:

url = "https://curl.se/docs/"

 # --- Example file ---
 # this is a comment
 url = "example.com"
 output = "curlhere.html"
 user-agent = "superagent/1.0"

 # and fetch another URL too
 url = "example.com/docs/manpage.html"
 -O
 referer = "http://nowhereatall.example.com/"
 # --- End of example file ---

When curl is invoked, it (unless -q, --disable is used) checks for a default config file and uses it if found, even when -K, --config is used. The default config file is checked for in the following places in this order:

  1. $CURL_HOME/.curlrc

  2. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/curlrc (Added in 7.73.0)

  3. $HOME/.curlrc

  4. Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.curlrc

  5. Windows: %APPDATA%\.curlrc

  6. Windows: %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\.curlrc

  7. Non-Windows: use getpwuid to find the home directory

  8. On Windows, if it finds no .curlrc file in the sequence described above, it checks for one in the same dir the curl executable is placed.

On Windows two filenames are checked per location: .curlrc and _curlrc, preferring the former. Older versions on Windows checked for _curlrc only.

Kashyap
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