How to repeat Chrome requests as curl commands?

Question

For some automated tests that I did, I had to record requests from Chrome, and then repeat them in curl commands. I start checking how to do it...

There is another implementation at https://github.com/mattcg/har-to-curl — Salix alba, Aug 22 '16 at 18:19

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 13 '16 at 05:05

The way I did it was:

Access websites when the developers tools open.
Issue requests, make sure they are logged in the console.
Right click on the requests, select 'Save as HAR with content', and save to a file.
Then run the following php script to parse the HAR file and output the correct curls:

script:

<?php    
$contents=file_get_contents('/home/elyashivl/har.har');
$json = json_decode($contents);
$entries = $json->log->entries;
foreach ($entries as $entry) {
  $req = $entry->request;
  $curl = 'curl -X '.$req->method;
  foreach($req->headers as $header) {
    $curl .= " -H '$header->name: $header->value'";
  }
  if (property_exists($req, 'postData')) {
    # Json encode to convert newline to literal '\n'
    $data = json_encode((string)$req->postData->text);
    $curl .= " -d '$data'";
  }
  $curl .= " '$req->url'";
  echo $curl."\n";
}

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 18 '18 at 18:21

5

Don't know in which version they added this feature, but Chrome now offers a "Save as cURL" option:

You can access this by going under the Network tab of the Developer Tools, and right clicking on a XHR request

answered Jun 18 '18 at 18:21

John Pink

577
4
14

In my case, I had to copy many requests, so I didn't want to go over each one and copy as curl. So I was looking for a batch copy solution – ElyashivLavi Jun 19 '18 at 05:46
You can do Copy all as cURL – Sasha Pachev Apr 09 '20 at 19:33
However, in my case, I needed to run an HAR file that a user has collected. I could have had him do save all as cURL, but I like the HAR format better because it is easier to parse and analyze. – Sasha Pachev Apr 09 '20 at 19:41

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 09 '20 at 19:39

Building upon the code by ElyashivLavi, I added a file name argument, error checking when reading from the file, putting curl in verbose mode, and disabling the Accept-encoding request header, which usually results in getting back compressed output that would make it hard to debug, as well as automatic execution of curl commands:

<?php

function bail($msg)
{
    fprintf(STDERR, "Fatal error: $msg\n");
    exit(1);
}

global $argv;

if (count($argv) < 2)
    bail("Missing HAR file name");

$fname = $argv[1];
$contents=file_get_contents($fname);

if ($contents === false)
    bail("Could not read file $fname");

$json = json_decode($contents);
$entries = $json->log->entries;

foreach ($entries as $entry)
{
    $req = $entry->request;
    $curl = 'curl --verbose -X '.$req->method;

    foreach($req->headers as $header)
    {
        if (strtolower($header->name) === "accept-encoding")
            continue; // avoid gzip response
        $curl .= " -H '$header->name: $header->value'";
    }

    if (property_exists($req, 'postData'))
    {
        # Json encode to convert newline to literal '\n'
        $data = json_encode((string)$req->postData->text);
        $curl .= " -d '$data'";
    }

    $curl .= " '$req->url'";
    echo $curl."\n";
    system($curl);
}

How to repeat Chrome requests as curl commands?

3 Answers3