c: Copyright (C) 1998 - 2022, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
Long: url
Arg: <url>
Help: URL to work with
Category: curl
Example: --url $URL
Added: 7.5
See-also: next config
Multi: append
---
Specify a URL to fetch. This option is mostly handy when you want to specify
URL(s) in a config file.

If the given URL is missing a scheme name (such as "http://" or "ftp://" etc)
then curl will make a guess based on the host. If the outermost sub-domain
name matches DICT, FTP, IMAP, LDAP, POP3 or SMTP then that protocol will be
used, otherwise HTTP will be used. Since 7.45.0 guessing can be disabled by
setting a default protocol, see --proto-default for details.

To control where this URL is written, use the --output or the --remote-name
options.

**WARNING**: On Windows, particular file:// accesses can be converted to
network accesses by the operating system. Beware!
