cURL Allowed Redirects: Tutorial on setting up a command-line tool to automatically follow jump links

Hands-on with cURL to automatically track jump links

engaged in crawling friends have encountered this situation: with cURL to capture data when the request is successful, the return is empty. Eighty percent is encountered in the web page redirection, this time you have to let the cURL learn to automatically track the jump link. Today we will talk about how to play with proxy IP to this function.

Why do I need a proxy IP to work with redirects?

For example, you are collecting price data from an e-commerce site, and the target site realizes that you are accessing it with a script, and directly jumps you to the verification page. If you use ipipgo's dynamic residential proxy at this time, you can disguise as a real user's geographic location and network environment. As if the cURL put on a simulation mask, both to avoid triggering the anti-climbing mechanism, but also complete tracking of the jump link.

Here's the point:

• Enable automatic redirection with the -L parameter (never write lowercase l)
• Setting the proxy channel with the -x parameter
• Remember to add the -v parameter to see the details of the jump process

Step-by-step breakdown

First install the latest version of cURL (older versions may be buggy) and then write commands in this format:

curl -L -x http://用户名:密码@gateway.ipipgo.io:端口 Destination URL -v

A few key points are explained here:

A practical guide to avoiding the pit

Last week, a customer feedback that set the proxy is still blocked, and later found that the cookie is not handled properly. Here to teach you a trick: first with a proxy cURL access to the login page, the return of the cookie stored, subsequent requests are with this cookie. like this:

curl -x http://user:pass@gateway.ipipgo.io:1234 -c cookies.txt Login URL
curl -L -b cookies.txt -x Proxy address Required login page

Frequently Asked Questions QA

Q: What should I do if the proxy settings are correct but the connection times out?
A: First remove the -L parameter to test the proxy connectivity alone, we recommend using ipipgo's "IP Inspection Tool" to verify whether the channel is open.

Q: Tracking stops at the 3rd jump?
A: Try to adjust the -max-redirs parameter to a larger number of times, such as -max-redirs 10. If you encounter this situation frequently, it is recommended to switch to ipipgo's intelligent routing agent, which can automatically optimize the jump paths

Q：How to deal with the messy return content?
A: Add -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate" at the end of the command to try, if it doesn't work, the target website may have enabled special encryption, you need to contact ipipgo technical support to open a deep resolution proxy!

Why do you recommend ipipgo Proxy?

Tests have found that it takes an average of 2.3 seconds to process a redirect with a regular proxy, while ipipgo's Smart Link Optimization Proxy can compress the time to less than 0.8 seconds. In particular, theirJump Chain Caching TechnologyIt is especially friendly to e-commerce platforms and travel websites, which are big redirectors. Recently, new users can also get a 3-day enterprise-level agent trial for signing up, so we recommend experiencing the results for yourself.

Lastly: remember to set a reasonable timeout (-m parameter) when dealing with redirects, don't let the program die waiting. Encountered difficult problems can be directly poked ipipgo official website in the lower right corner of the 24-hour technical support, their engineers have solved a variety of strange redirection cases, may be able to give you an unexpected surprise.