When it comes to make HTTP calls, I always use curl as it is a ubiquitous tool for the job.
Today, I discover that I can use curl for some other tasks.
copying files
curl supports the FILE protocol (file:/), therefore it is possible to “download” a file:
$ curl file:/path/to/some/large/file -o /the/destination/file
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 2389M 100 2389M 0 0 339M 0 0:00:07 0:00:07 --:--:-- 369M
See http://askubuntu.com/questions/17275/progress-and-speed-with-cp
querying LDAP
Normally, when I needed to query an LDAP server, ldapsearch is always the de facto tool though it may not be installed on some environment.
Nowadays, I tends to use Docker image for LDAP for the job:
$ docker run --rm --name ldap -it --entrypoint bash emeraldsquad/ldapsearch:latest
Inside the container, I use ldapsearch for querying:
$ ldapsearch -x -LLL \
-h ldap-test-server.example.com \
-p 8081 \
-D 'uid=admin,ou=system' \
-w ${LDAP_PASSWORD} \
-b 'ou=users,dc=example,dc=com'
Today, I learned that I can achieve the same task with curl:
$ curl -v \
-u "uid=admin,ou=system":${LDAP_PASSWORD} \
"ldap://ldap-test-server.example.com:8081/ou=users,dc=example,dc=com??sub?(objectclass=*)"
This is really great as curl may come pre-installed on lots of environments whereas ldapsearch and Docker may not.
If you need a more sophisticated query, consider giving LDAP URL Format a read. It will explain the structure of the URL you could use with curl.
