xh

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.

Installation

Via MMRL or via the MMRL CLI

mmrl install -y xhhttp

Usage

USAGE:
    xh [OPTIONS] <[METHOD] URL> [--] [REQUEST_ITEM]...
ARGS:
    <[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
    -m, --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]
    -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
    -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 or with TOKEN
        --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 set
        --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]
        --native-tls                     Use the system TLS library instead of rustls (if enabled at compile time)
        --https                          Make HTTPS requests if not specified in the URL
        --http-version <VERSION>         HTTP version to use [possible values: 1.0, 1.1, 2]
    -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 information
    -V, --version                        Print version information
Each option can be reset with a --no-OPTION argument.

Run xh help for more detailed information.

Request Items

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 picture@hello.jpg or picture@hello.jpg;type=image/jpeg;filename=goodbye.jpg.
• : for adding or removing headers e.g connection:keep-alive or connection:.
• ; for including headers with empty values e.g header-without-value;.
• =@/:=@ for setting the request body's JSON or form fields from a file (=@ for strings and :=@ for other JSON types).

The request body can also be read from standard input, or from a file using @filename.

Shorthand form for URLs

Similar to HTTPie, specifying the scheme portion of the request URL is optional. xh also supports omitting localhost from the URL as long it starts with colon plus an optional port number.

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.com

Making HTTPS requests by default

xh 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/get

Strict compatibility mode

If 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.

Examples

# 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 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

How xh compares to HTTPie

Advantages

• 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 --curl flag.
• Short, cheatsheet-style output from --help. (For longer output, pass help.)

Disadvantages

• Not all of HTTPie's features are implemented. (#4)
• Header names are not case-sensitive.
• No plugin system.
• General immaturity. HTTPie is old and well-tested.
• Worse documentation.

Other differences

• --check-status is enabled unless xh is being used in strict compatibility mode.
• rustls is used by default instead of the system's TLS library. (If enabled at compile time, the --native-tls flag can be used.)
• JSON keys are not sorted.
• Formatted output is always UTF-8.

Similar or related Projects

• 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