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

my apologies for the incorrect use of "cURL".

It should be "curl"