When using cURL for data transfer via the command line, it typically displays a progress bar, which can be inconvenient in scenarios such as automation scripts or log files.
To disable the progress bar in cURL, use the -s or --silent option, which puts cURL into silent mode, suppressing all progress output.
For example, if you want to download a file silently, you can use the following command:
curl -s -O http://example.com/file.txt
The -O option instructs cURL to save the file locally using the name specified in the remote file.
Additionally, to capture error messages while operating in silent mode, you can redirect standard error to standard output or another file, such as:
curl -s http://example.com/file.txt -o file.txt 2>error.log
In this command, -o file.txt specifies the output filename, and 2>error.log redirects all error messages to the error.log file.
This way, even in silent mode, you can capture and inspect potential errors without missing crucial debugging information.