Use curl to post file from pipe

Question

How might i take the output from a pipe and use curl to post that as a file?

E.g. the following workds

curl -F 'file=@data/test.csv' -F 'filename=test.csv' https://mydomain@apikey=secret

I'd like to get the file contents from a pipe instead but I can't quite figure out how to specify it as a file input. My first guess is -F 'file=@-' but that's not quite right.

cat data/test.csv | curl -F 'file=@-' -F 'filename=test.csv' https://mydomain@apikey=secret

(Here cat is just a substitute for a more complex sequence of events that would get the data)

Update The following works:

cat test/data/test.csv  | curl -XPOST  -H 'Content-Type:multipart/form-data' --form 'file=@-;filename=test.csv' $url

@DanielStenberg The server was complaining that req.file didn't exist (Node/Express). Hacking further adding the arguments -XPOST -H 'Content-Type:multipart/form-data' seemed to attach the data as the server expected — prototype
– prototype, Commented Mar 26, 2021 at 16:54
If you use --trace-ascii - you'll see that curl already use that Content-Type by default (and -XPOST doesn't help either). It was rather your fixed -F option that did the trick. — Daniel Stenberg
– Daniel Stenberg, Commented Mar 26, 2021 at 17:01
@DanielStenberg Very helpful. Please post your comment as the answer so I can mark as such. — prototype
– prototype, Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 2:52

Daniel Stenberg · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-29 07:35:49Z

1

If you add --trace-ascii - to the command line you'll see that curl already uses that Content-Type by default (and -XPOST doesn't help either). It was rather your fixed -F option that did the trick!

answered Mar 29, 2021 at 7:35

Daniel Stenberg

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