Fedora considers curl-minimal

Posted Mar 14, 2022 18:45 UTC (Mon) by bagder (guest, #38414)
In reply to: Fedora considers curl-minimal by Paf
Parent article: Fedora considers curl-minimal

The curl project asks its users about these things in its annual survey. While that then is self-reported it certainly isn't an unquestionable truth, but probably the best what-features-in-curl-is-used numbers you can get.

The 2021 survey analysis is linked to from here: https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2021/07/05/curl-user-survey-2...

Fedora considers curl-minimal

Posted Mar 15, 2022 12:29 UTC (Tue) by Paf (subscriber, #91811) [Link] (1 responses)

Given curls use in scripts and other tools used in installers, etc, I feel comfortable saying the user survey is massively *unrepresentative* of use.

Those interested enough in curl to take the survey are vastly more likely to use weird protocols.

In essence we see it has two lives:
A basic system component which is worked in to the fabric of other things, in which role it uses HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP to get stuff from the internet
A Swiss army utility protocol fiddler/translator for developers and admins

It doesn’t seem crazy these would be separate packages, given the risks posed to the (much larger) first group, and the minor burden introduced for the second group who know how to deal with it.

Fedora considers curl-minimal

Posted Mar 15, 2022 15:11 UTC (Tue) by amacater (subscriber, #790) [Link]

Curl is the "Oh dear, if that's the recommended way to get components for [Kubernetes/Open Stack/any other popular program], it's bound to be a world of hurt putting it all together" moment for me.

Maybe I've been insulated by living with distributions for too long but it's also very much a "don't trust anything that asks you to curl/wget stuff from random 'Net addresses" syndrome, I'm afraid.