curl/docs/cmdline-opts/form-escape.md

---
c: Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
Long: form-escape
Help: Escape multipart form field/filenames using backslash
Protocols: HTTP
Added: 7.81.0
Category: http upload
Multi: single
See-also:
  - form
Example:
  - --form-escape -F 'field\name=curl' -F 'file=@load"this' $URL
---

# `--form-escape`

Tells curl to pass on names of multipart form fields and files using
backslash-escaping instead of percent-encoding.
docs/cmdline: change to .md for cmdline docs - switch all invidual files documenting command line options into .md, as the documentation is now markdown-looking. - made the parser treat 4-space indents as quotes - switch to building the curl.1 manpage using the "mainpage.idx" file, which lists the files to include to generate it, instead of using the previous page-footer/headers. Also, those files are now also .md ones, using the same format. I gave them underscore prefixes to make them sort separately: _NAME.md, _SYNOPSIS.md, _DESCRIPTION.md, _URL.md, _GLOBBING.md, _VARIABLES.md, _OUTPUT.md, _PROTOCOLS.md, _PROGRESS.md, _VERSION.md, _OPTIONS.md, _FILES.md, _ENVIRONMENT.md, _PROXYPREFIX.md, _EXITCODES.md, _BUGS.md, _AUTHORS.md, _WWW.md, _SEEALSO.md - updated test cases accordingly Closes #12751 2024-01-21 06:18:43 +08:00			`---`
copyright: update all copyright lines and remove year ranges - they are mostly pointless in all major jurisdictions - many big corporations and projects already don't use them - saves us from pointless churn - git keeps history for us - the year range is kept in COPYING checksrc is updated to allow non-year using copyright statements Closes #10205 2023-01-02 20:51:48 +08:00			`c: Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.`
docs/cmdline-opts: add copyright and license identifier to each file gen.pl now insists on C: and SPDX-License-Identifier: fields to be present in all files. Closes #9002 2022-06-14 06:12:03 +08:00			`SPDX-License-Identifier: curl`
mime: use percent-escaping for multipart form field and file names Until now, form field and file names where escaped using the backslash-escaping algorithm defined for multipart mails. This commit replaces this with the percent-escaping method for URLs. As this may introduce incompatibilities with server-side applications, a new libcurl option CURLOPT_MIME_OPTIONS with bitmask CURLMIMEOPT_FORMESCAPE is introduced to revert to legacy use of backslash-escaping. This is controlled by new cli tool option --form-escape. New tests and documentation are provided for this feature. Reported by: Ryan Sleevi Fixes #7789 Closes #7805 2021-10-25 18:58:37 +08:00			`Long: form-escape`
docs: more language cleanups - present tense - avoid bad words Closes #13003 2024-02-27 17:35:28 +08:00			`Help: Escape multipart form field/filenames using backslash`
mime: use percent-escaping for multipart form field and file names Until now, form field and file names where escaped using the backslash-escaping algorithm defined for multipart mails. This commit replaces this with the percent-escaping method for URLs. As this may introduce incompatibilities with server-side applications, a new libcurl option CURLOPT_MIME_OPTIONS with bitmask CURLMIMEOPT_FORMESCAPE is introduced to revert to legacy use of backslash-escaping. This is controlled by new cli tool option --form-escape. New tests and documentation are provided for this feature. Reported by: Ryan Sleevi Fixes #7789 Closes #7805 2021-10-25 18:58:37 +08:00			`Protocols: HTTP`
			`Added: 7.81.0`
docs/cmdline-opts: fix example and categories for --form-escape The example was missing a "--form" argument I also replaced "--form" with "-F" to shorten the line a bit since it was already very long. And I also moved --form-escape from the "post" category to the "upload" category (this is what I originally wanted to fix, before also noticing the mistake in the example). Closes #9298 2022-08-12 11:18:10 +08:00			`Category: http upload`
cmdline/docs: add a required 'multi' keyword for each option The keyword specifies how option works when specified multiple times: - single: the last provided value replaces the earlier ones - append: it supports being provided multiple times - boolean: on/off values - mutex: flag-like option that disable anoter flag The 'gen.pl' script then outputs the proper and unified language for each option's multi-use behavior in the generated man page. The multi: header is requires in each .d file and will cause build error if missing or set to an unknown value. Closes #9759 2022-10-18 16:39:43 +08:00			`Multi: single`
docs/cmdline: change to .md for cmdline docs - switch all invidual files documenting command line options into .md, as the documentation is now markdown-looking. - made the parser treat 4-space indents as quotes - switch to building the curl.1 manpage using the "mainpage.idx" file, which lists the files to include to generate it, instead of using the previous page-footer/headers. Also, those files are now also .md ones, using the same format. I gave them underscore prefixes to make them sort separately: _NAME.md, _SYNOPSIS.md, _DESCRIPTION.md, _URL.md, _GLOBBING.md, _VARIABLES.md, _OUTPUT.md, _PROTOCOLS.md, _PROGRESS.md, _VERSION.md, _OPTIONS.md, _FILES.md, _ENVIRONMENT.md, _PROXYPREFIX.md, _EXITCODES.md, _BUGS.md, _AUTHORS.md, _WWW.md, _SEEALSO.md - updated test cases accordingly Closes #12751 2024-01-21 06:18:43 +08:00			`See-also:`
			`- form`
			`Example:`
			`- --form-escape -F 'field\name=curl' -F 'file=@load"this' $URL`
mime: use percent-escaping for multipart form field and file names Until now, form field and file names where escaped using the backslash-escaping algorithm defined for multipart mails. This commit replaces this with the percent-escaping method for URLs. As this may introduce incompatibilities with server-side applications, a new libcurl option CURLOPT_MIME_OPTIONS with bitmask CURLMIMEOPT_FORMESCAPE is introduced to revert to legacy use of backslash-escaping. This is controlled by new cli tool option --form-escape. New tests and documentation are provided for this feature. Reported by: Ryan Sleevi Fixes #7789 Closes #7805 2021-10-25 18:58:37 +08:00			`---`
docs/cmdline: change to .md for cmdline docs - switch all invidual files documenting command line options into .md, as the documentation is now markdown-looking. - made the parser treat 4-space indents as quotes - switch to building the curl.1 manpage using the "mainpage.idx" file, which lists the files to include to generate it, instead of using the previous page-footer/headers. Also, those files are now also .md ones, using the same format. I gave them underscore prefixes to make them sort separately: _NAME.md, _SYNOPSIS.md, _DESCRIPTION.md, _URL.md, _GLOBBING.md, _VARIABLES.md, _OUTPUT.md, _PROTOCOLS.md, _PROGRESS.md, _VERSION.md, _OPTIONS.md, _FILES.md, _ENVIRONMENT.md, _PROXYPREFIX.md, _EXITCODES.md, _BUGS.md, _AUTHORS.md, _WWW.md, _SEEALSO.md - updated test cases accordingly Closes #12751 2024-01-21 06:18:43 +08:00
			# `--form-escape`

mime: use percent-escaping for multipart form field and file names Until now, form field and file names where escaped using the backslash-escaping algorithm defined for multipart mails. This commit replaces this with the percent-escaping method for URLs. As this may introduce incompatibilities with server-side applications, a new libcurl option CURLOPT_MIME_OPTIONS with bitmask CURLMIMEOPT_FORMESCAPE is introduced to revert to legacy use of backslash-escaping. This is controlled by new cli tool option --form-escape. New tests and documentation are provided for this feature. Reported by: Ryan Sleevi Fixes #7789 Closes #7805 2021-10-25 18:58:37 +08:00			`Tells curl to pass on names of multipart form fields and files using`
			`backslash-escaping instead of percent-encoding.`