LinuxQuestions.org - cURL not posting login data?

Hello,

I have searched much for the answer to this question; most of my Google
searches bring up the same thing, the cURL manual. Done much experimentation
but to no avail.

I am running an automated script that compares content of a web page against the last
time it was checked (using diff) to see if it was updated. Works great.

Now I want to check a page (php bulletin board) which requires logging in
with password.

According to the cURL manual, this should be no big deal. Quote from the cURL
manual:

"It's easy to post data using curl."

The "form" container of the page looks like this:

<form action="login.php" method="post" target="_top">
<input type="text" name="username" size="25" maxlength="40" value="" /></div>
<input type="password" name="password" size="25" maxlength="32" /></div>
<input type="checkbox" name="autologin" />
<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="viewforum.php?f=1&start=0" />
<input type="submit" name="login" class="mainoption" value="Log in" /><br />
</form>

Following the directions from the POST (HTTP) section of the manual I enter this:

(NOTE: the URL I have used in each case was entered as a full http protocol URL when
running the command. I have removed the http protocol prefixes here to keep them from being parsed as a link.)

curl -d "username=myusername&password=xyz123&login=Log+in&redirect=viewforum.php?f=1&start=0" bogusforums.com/login.php?redirect=viewforum.php&f=1&start=0

The URL supplied is the URL which, if I am logged out using a particular browser,
this would take me to a login page, and then once the login data was entered and
submitted, would normally take me right to the desired forum page.

I am assuming then, that by posting the data using cURL as I have done, it should
download the content of that same desired forum page.

Instead, the output I get is something like this:

allasso:~ allasso$curl -d "username=myusername&password=xyz123&login=Log+in&redirect=viewforum.php?f=1&start=0" bogusforums.com/login.php?redirect=viewforum.php&f=1&start=0
[1] 863
[2] 864

THEN, if I keep re-entering the same command, it looks like this (notice the numbers
in brackets seem to increase sequentially):

allasso:~ allasso$curl -d "username=myusername&password=xyz123&login=Log+in&redirect=viewforum.php?f=1&start=0" bogusforums.com/login.php?redirect=viewforum.php&f=1&start=0
[3] 865
[4] 866
[1] Done curl -d "username=myusername&password=xyz123&login=Log+in&redirect=viewforum.php?f=1&start=0" bogusforums.com/login.php?redirect=viewforum.php
[2] Done f=1
allasso:~ allasso$curl -d "username=myusername&password=xyz123&login=Log+in&redirect=viewforum.php?f=1&start=0" bogusforums.com/login.php?redirect=viewforum.php&f=1&start=0
[5] 867
[6] 868
[3] Done curl -d "username=myusername&password=xyz123&login=Log+in&redirect=viewforum.php?f=1&start=0" bogusforums.com.com/login.php?redirect=viewforum.php
[4] Done f=1

As I said, I just simply want it to download the same page that shows up when I submit
data manually from a browser.

I then tried entering the same information using the -F option instead of -d:

curl -F "username=myusername&password=xyz123&login=Log+in&redirect=viewforum.php?f=1&start=0" bogusforums.com/login.php?redirect=viewforum.php&f=1&start=0

This gives me similar output, only this time it will download the login page (not the page I
wish to be directed to), and then does not exit.

If I simply press return again, I get this:

[1]- Done curl -F "username=myusername&password=xyz123&login=Log+in&redirect=viewforum.php?f=1&start=0" bogusforums.com.com/login.php?redirect=viewforum.php
[2]+ Done f=1

Anyone know what is going on, and what I need to do to get cURL to get past the login
page and download the desired page each time?

Thanks,

Allasso