Using cURL in Python with PycURL
Introduction
In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to use PycURL, which is an interface to the cURL library in Python. cURL is a tool used for transferring data to and from a server and for making various types of data requests. PycURL is great for testing REST APIs, downloading files, and so on. Some developers prefer using Postman for testing APIs but PycURL is another suitable option to do so as it supports multiple protocols like FILE, FTPS, HTTPS, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, SCP, SMB, etc. Moreover, PycURL comes in handy when a lot of concurrent, fast, and reliable connections are required.
As mentioned above, PycURL is an interface to the libcURL library in Python; therefore PycURL inherits all the capabilities of libcURL. PycURL is extremely fast (it is known to be much faster than Requests, which is a Python library for HTTP requests), has multiprotocol support, and also contains sockets for supporting network operations.
Pre-requisites
Before you go ahead with this tutorial, please note that there are a few prerequisites. You should have a basic understanding of Python’s syntax, and/or have at least beginner-level programming experience