HTTP requests with curl in scripts in Bash Scripting - Mini Project: Build & Apply

HTTP requests with curl in scripts

📖 Scenario: You want to automate checking the status of a website using a script. This helps you know if the website is up or down without opening a browser.

🎯 Goal: Build a bash script that uses curl to send an HTTP request to a website and shows the HTTP status code returned.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a variable with the website URL

Create a variable to store curl options

Use curl with the variables to get the HTTP status code

Print the HTTP status code

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Automating website health checks helps system administrators and developers monitor if websites are online without manual checking.

💼 Career

Knowing how to use curl in scripts is useful for roles in IT support, DevOps, and automation testing.

1

Set the website URL

Create a variable called url and set it to the string "https://example.com".

Bash Scripting

# Create a variable called url and set it to "https://example.com"
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use url="https://example.com" to store the website address.

2

Set curl options

Create a variable called curl_opts and set it to the string "-s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}'" to make curl silent, discard output, and show only the HTTP status code.

Bash Scripting

url="https://example.com"
# Create a variable called curl_opts with value "-s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}'"
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curl_opts='-s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}"' to set curl options.

3

Get HTTP status code using curl

Create a variable called status_code and set it to the output of running curl with $curl_opts and $url.

Bash Scripting

url="https://example.com"
curl_opts='-s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}"'
# Use curl with $curl_opts and $url to get the HTTP status code and store it in status_code
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use status_code=$(curl $curl_opts "$url") to run curl and save the status code.

4

Print the HTTP status code

Write a echo command to print the text "HTTP status code: " followed by the value of status_code.

Bash Scripting

url="https://example.com"
curl_opts='-s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}"'
status_code=$(curl $curl_opts "$url")
# Print the HTTP status code with echo
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo "HTTP status code: $status_code" to show the result.