xh is a friendly and fast tool for sending HTTP requests. It reimplements as much
as possible of HTTPie's excellent design, with a focus
on improved performance.
curl -sfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ducaale/xh/master/install.sh | sh
iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ducaale/xh/master/install.ps1 | iex
| OS | Method | Command |
|---|---|---|
| Any | Cargo* | cargo install xh --locked |
| Any | Huber | huber install xh |
| Android (Termux) | pkg | pkg install xh |
| Android (Magisk/KernelSU) | MMRL** | mmrl install xhhttp |
| Alpine Linux | apk*** | apk add xh |
| Arch Linux | Pacman | pacman -S xh |
| Debian & Ubuntu | Apt**** | sudo apt install xh |
| FreeBSD | FreshPorts | pkg install xh |
| NetBSD | pkgsrc | pkgin install xh |
| Linux & macOS | Nixpkgs | nix-env -iA nixpkgs.xh |
| Linux & macOS | Homebrew | brew install xh |
| macOS | MacPorts | sudo port install xh |
| Windows | Scoop | scoop install xh |
| Windows | Chocolatey | choco install xh |
| Windows | Winget | winget add ducaale.xh |
* Make sure that you have Rust 1.74 or later installed
** You will need to install the MMRL CLI
*** The xh package is available in Edge and will be in v3.17+. It is built with native-tls only.
**** You will need to add the apt repository from https://apt.cli.rs/
The release page contains prebuilt binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows.
Usage: xh [OPTIONS] <[METHOD] URL> [REQUEST_ITEM]...
Arguments:
<[METHOD] URL> The request URL, preceded by an optional HTTP method
[REQUEST_ITEM]... Optional key-value pairs to be included in the request.
Options:
-j, --json (default) Serialize data items from the command line as a JSON object
-f, --form Serialize data items from the command line as form fields
--multipart Like --form, but force a multipart/form-data request even without files
--raw <RAW> Pass raw request data without extra processing
--pretty <STYLE> Controls output processing [possible values: all, colors, format, none]
--format-options <FORMAT_OPTIONS> Set output formatting options
-s, --style <THEME> Output coloring style [possible values: auto, solarized, monokai, fruity]
--response-charset <ENCODING> Override the response encoding for terminal display purposes
--response-mime <MIME_TYPE> Override the response mime type for coloring and formatting for the terminal
-p, --print <FORMAT> String specifying what the output should contain
-h, --headers Print only the response headers. Shortcut for --print=h
-b, --body Print only the response body. Shortcut for --print=b
-m, --meta Print only the response metadata. Shortcut for --print=m
-v, --verbose... Print the whole request as well as the response
--all Show any intermediary requests/responses while following redirects with --follow
-P, --history-print <FORMAT> The same as --print but applies only to intermediary requests/responses
-q, --quiet Do not print to stdout or stderr
-S, --stream Always stream the response body
-o, --output <FILE> Save output to FILE instead of stdout
-d, --download Download the body to a file instead of printing it
-c, --continue Resume an interrupted download. Requires --download and --output
--session <FILE> Create, or reuse and update a session
--session-read-only <FILE> Create or read a session without updating it form the request/response exchange
-A, --auth-type <AUTH_TYPE> Specify the auth mechanism [possible values: basic, bearer, digest]
-a, --auth <USER[:PASS] | TOKEN> Authenticate as USER with PASS (-A basic|digest) or with TOKEN (-A bearer)
--ignore-netrc Do not use credentials from .netrc
--offline Construct HTTP requests without sending them anywhere
--check-status (default) Exit with an error status code if the server replies with an error
-F, --follow Do follow redirects
--max-redirects <NUM> Number of redirects to follow. Only respected if --follow is used
--timeout <SEC> Connection timeout of the request
--proxy <PROTOCOL:URL> Use a proxy for a protocol. For example: --proxy https:http://proxy.host:8080
--verify <VERIFY> If "no", skip SSL verification. If a file path, use it as a CA bundle
--cert <FILE> Use a client side certificate for SSL
--cert-key <FILE> A private key file to use with --cert
--ssl <VERSION> Force a particular TLS version [possible values: auto, tls1, tls1.1, tls1.2, tls1.3]
--https Make HTTPS requests if not specified in the URL
--http-version <VERSION> HTTP version to use [possible values: 1.0, 1.1, 2, 2-prior-knowledge]
--resolve <HOST:ADDRESS> Override DNS resolution for specific domain to a custom IP
--interface <NAME> Bind to a network interface or local IP address
-4, --ipv4 Resolve hostname to ipv4 addresses only
-6, --ipv6 Resolve hostname to ipv6 addresses only
-I, --ignore-stdin Do not attempt to read stdin
--curl Print a translation to a curl command
--curl-long Use the long versions of curl's flags
--help Print help
-V, --version Print version
Each option can be reset with a --no-OPTION argument.
Run xh help for more detailed information.
xh uses HTTPie's request-item syntax to set headers, request body, query string, etc.
=/:=for setting the request body's JSON or form fields (=for strings and:=for other JSON types).==for adding query strings.@for including files in multipart requests e.g[email protected]or[email protected];type=image/jpeg;filename=goodbye.jpg.:for adding or removing headers e.gconnection:keep-aliveorconnection:.;for including headers with empty values e.gheader-without-value;.
An @ prefix can be used to read a value from a file. For example: x-api-key:@api-key.txt.
The request body can also be read from standard input, or from a file using @filename.
To construct a complex JSON object, a JSON path can be used as a key e.g app[container][0][id]=090-5.
For more information on this syntax, refer to https://httpie.io/docs/cli/nested-json.
Similar to HTTPie, specifying the scheme portion of the request URL is optional, and a leading colon works as shorthand
for localhost. :8000 is equivalent to localhost:8000, and :/path is equivalent to localhost/path.
URLs can have a leading :// which allows quickly converting a URL into a valid xh or HTTPie command. For example
http://httpbin.org/json becomes http ://httpbin.org/json.
xh http://localhost:3000/users # resolves to http://localhost:3000/users
xh localhost:3000/users # resolves to http://localhost:3000/users
xh :3000/users # resolves to http://localhost:3000/users
xh :/users # resolves to http://localhost:80/users
xh example.com # resolves to http://example.com
xh ://example.com # resolves to http://example.comxh will default to HTTPS scheme if the binary name is one of xhs, https, or xhttps. If you have installed xh
via a package manager, both xh and xhs should be available by default. Otherwise, you need to create one like this:
cd /path/to/xh && ln -s ./xh ./xhs
xh httpbin.org/get # resolves to http://httpbin.org/get
xhs httpbin.org/get # resolves to https://httpbin.org/getIf xh is invoked as http or https (by renaming the binary), or if the XH_HTTPIE_COMPAT_MODE environment variable is set,
it will run in HTTPie compatibility mode. The only current difference is that --check-status is not enabled by default.
# Send a GET request
xh httpbin.org/json
# Send a POST request with body {"name": "ahmed", "age": 24}
xh httpbin.org/post name=ahmed age:=24
# Send a GET request with querystring id=5&sort=true
xh get httpbin.org/json id==5 sort==true
# Send a GET request and include a header named x-api-key with value 12345
xh get httpbin.org/json x-api-key:12345
# Send a POST request with body read from stdin.
echo "[1, 2, 3]" | xh post httpbin.org/post
# Send a PUT request and pipe the result to less
xh put httpbin.org/put id:=49 age:=25 | less
# Download and save to res.json
xh -d httpbin.org/json -o res.json
# Make a request with a custom user agent
xh httpbin.org/get user-agent:foobar- Improved startup speed.
- Available as a single statically linked binary that's easy to install and carry around.
- HTTP/2 support.
- Builtin translation to curl commands with the
--curlflag. - Short, cheatsheet-style output from
--help. (For longer output, passhelp.)
- Not all of HTTPie's features are implemented. (#4)
- No plugin system.
- General immaturity. HTTPie is old and well-tested.
- Worse documentation.
- curlie - frontend to cURL that adds the ease of use of httpie
- httpie-go - httpie-like HTTP client written in Go
- curl2httpie - convert command arguments between cURL and HTTPie