Annie Command Line HTTP Client

The annie-cli package provides the annie CLI script. This script can be used to make an HTTP request or series of requests and parse the responses. The goal is to be a competitor to cURL, offering a better interface for web developers who prefer to work with HTTP methods and terms instead of quirky cURL arguments.

This should be of special use to developers working with REST services. annie maps much more closely to the way RESTful services are documented, developed, and used than does curl. Fans of shell scripting should also find they can easily work with complex REST applications.

Must Haves

Though usable, the following features are needed before annie-cli can be released as a version 1.0.

• ~~TLS support~~
• ~~multiline entry for message body~~
• automatically pipe STDIN to message body
• session support

Basic Usage

Usage: annie [OPTS] [METHOD] URL

Make an HTTP request and display the result.  METHOD can be any valid HTTP
method or anything that *looks* like a valid HTTP method.  The default is
GET.

The following OPTS are recognized
  -H --head=HEADER      Send a request header
  -D --data=DATA        Send request body data; with -j DATA can be in form
                        foo:bar or {"foo":"bar"}; with -f DATA can be
                        foo=bar&baz=boo; else DATA is unparsed and sent raw
  -j --json             Enable JSON data (q.v., -D)
  -f --form             Enable HTML form data (q.v., -D)
  -o --output=FORMAT    One of: auto,body,full,head,headers,stat,status
     --session=FILE     Maintain session (enables cookies, defaults to
                        /tmp/annie.session.$UID) [not implemented]
  -                     read input from console (CTRL+D to end)

Usage Examples

Make a GET request against a URL

Make a GET request to http://example.com/ and display the response. By default, annie displays only the response body if one is present.

$ annie http://example.com/

{"status":"ok"}

Specify the HTTP request method

Make a HEAD request to check the status and headers. Since the response to a HEAD request does not have a body, annie will display the status and headers.

$ annie head http://example.com/

HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 15
Etag: ad5cb2e79b8f789

Send a request header

Make a conditional GET using the If-None-Match header and the resource ETag.

$ annie http://example.com/ -HIf-None-Match:ad5cb2e79b8f789

HTTP/1.0 304 Not Modified

Send raw request data

PUT a new plain text document containing the text "foo" at the specified URL.

$ annie put http://example.com/foo -HContent-Type:text/plain -Dfoo

HTTP/1.0 201 Created

Send JSON request data

The --json option sets the Content-Type header and enables JSON parsing of any data arguments. The following examples are equivalent.

$ annie post $URL -HContent-Type:application/json -D'{"action":"add","id":23}'

$ annie post $URL --json -Daction:add -Did:23

HTTP/1.0 303 See Other
Location: http://example.com/svc/23

Send HTML form request data

The --form option sets the Content-Type header and enables form-encoded parsing of any data arguments. The following examples are equivalent.

$ annie post $URL -HContent-Type:application/x-www-form-urlencoded -D'a=1&b=2'

$ annie post $URL --form -Da=1 -Db=2

HTTP/1.0 303 See Other
Location: http://example.com/svc/23