c: Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
Long: url
Arg: <url>
Help: URL to work with
Category: curl
Example: --url $URL
Added: 7.5
See-also: next config
Multi: append
---
Specify a URL to fetch. This option is mostly handy when you want to specify
URL(s) in a config file.

If the given URL is missing a scheme name (such as "http://" or "ftp://" etc)
then curl will make a guess based on the host. If the outermost subdomain
name matches DICT, FTP, IMAP, LDAP, POP3 or SMTP then that protocol will be
used, otherwise HTTP will be used. Since 7.45.0 guessing can be disabled by
setting a default protocol, see --proto-default for details.

To control where this URL is written, use the --output or the --remote-name
options.

**WARNING**: On Windows, particular file:// accesses can be converted to
network accesses by the operating system. Beware!