Get page output with curl --fail

http curl http-post wget postfile
Thom Thom Thom picture Thom Thom Thom · Mar 19, 2014 · Viewed 24.6k times · Source

Calling curl without parameters, i get the page output, even with an http status code = 404:

$ curl http://www.google.com/linux;
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=en>
  <meta charset=utf-8>
  <meta name=viewport content="initial-scale=1, minimum-scale=1, width=device-width">
  <title>Error 404 (Not Found)!!1</title>
  <style>
    *{margin:0;padding:0}html,code{font:15px/22px arial,sans-serif}html{background:#fff;color:#222;padding:15px}body{margin:7% auto 0;max-width:390px;min-height:180px;padding:30px 0 15px}* > body{background:url(//www.google.com/images/errors/robot.png) 100% 5px no-repeat;padding-right:205px}p{margin:11px 0 22px;overflow:hidden}ins{color:#777;text-decoration:none}a img{border:0}@media screen and (max-width:772px){body{background:none;margin-top:0;max-width:none;padding-right:0}}#logo{background:url(//www.google.com/images/errors/logo_sm_2.png) no-repeat}@media only screen and (min-resolution:192dpi){#logo{background:url(//www.google.com/images/errors/logo_sm_2_hr.png) no-repeat 0% 0%/100% 100%;-moz-border-image:url(//www.google.com/images/errors/logo_sm_2_hr.png) 0}}@media only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:2){#logo{background:url(//www.google.com/images/errors/logo_sm_2_hr.png) no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:100% 100%}}#logo{display:inline-block;height:55px;width:150px}
  </style>
  <a href=//www.google.com/><span id=logo aria-label=Google></span></a>
  <p><b>404.</b> <ins>That’s an error.</ins>
  <p>The requested URL <code>/linux</code> was not found on this server.  <ins>That’s all we know.</ins>

$ echo $?;
0

The status code is 0.

Calling it with --fail will not show the output:

$ curl --fail http://www.google.com/linux;
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found

$ echo $?;
22

The status code is 22 now ...

Id' like to get the output even when http status = 404, 500 (like the first curl execution) and, at the same time, get a different system error (like in the second curl execution, $? = 22). Is it possible with curl? If not, how could I achieve this with another tool (this tool must accept file uploads e post data! wget doesn't seems to be an alternative ...)

Thanks.

Answer

Sabuj Hassan picture Sabuj Hassan · Mar 19, 2014

First of all the maximum value for the error code(or exit code) is 255. Here is the reference.

Also, the --fail will not allow you to do what you are looking for. However, you can use alternate ways(writing a shell script) to handle the scenario, but not sure it will be effective or not for you!

http_code=$(curl -s -o out.html -w '%{http_code}'  http://www.google.com/linux;)

if [[ $http_code -eq 200 ]]; then
    exit 0
fi

## decide which status you want to return for 404 or 500
exit  204

Now do the $? and you'll get the exit code from there.

You'll find the response html inside the out.html file.

You can also pass the url to the script as commandline argument. Check here.

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