In a nutshell - you should start from the very first page you'd expect
a browser user to start at. Catch and return cookies on every command
line. Save each page and check it over. Post back *all* form
elements, including the "submit" input field, if it's named.

I generally use a command line that looks a lot like this:

   curl -b cookies -c cookies -s -S -L -o output.html <url>

or

   curl -b cookies -c cookies -s -S -L -d "somepostvars" -o output.html <url>

That should go a long way towards navigating most sites.

In your particular case, it looks like the site sends you a couple of
cookies when it displays the login form. You're jumping right in and
posting to the login page *without* those cookies, so it thinks you
have cookies disabled. You should hit the page twice - first time to
get (and save) the cookies, second time to perform the login:

   curl -b cookies -c cookies -s -S -L -o page1.html https://my.netspace.net.au/

   curl -b cookies -c cookies -s -S -L -o page2.html -d
"username=elroyel1327&password=woo&Next=Submit"
https://my.netspace.net.au/logincheck

That gets me as far as "Your username or password is incorrect, please
try again."

You're not posting back all the form variables, either. There's one
called "dest" that seems to be set to the page (dest="/logincheck")
and another that sets the "remember me" flag. They might not matter
in this particular site, but that's something you'll find out by
experimenting with it...

Ralph Mitchell

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 00:02:27 -0600, Dennis Falling <dfalling_at_mac.com> wrote:
> Ok, clearly I'm not as knowledgeable about these things as you expect
> me to be. Any advice on where to go to learn what I need to do this?
> I don't even know where to start (I thought this was a good starting
> place, but I guess I was wrong.) If you could just point me in any
> direction (right or wrong), I'll be happy.
>
> Thanks,
> -dennis falling
>
>
> On Feb 14, 2005, at 1:37 PM, Daniel Stenberg wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 14 Feb 2005, Dennis Falling wrote:
> >
> >> What do you mean that I don't follow locations? The primary login
> >> page is <https://my.netspace.net.au/>, but I'm using the page that it
> >> redirects the post to <https://my.netspace.net.au/logincheck> to send
> >> the info to.
> >
> > http://curl.haxx.se/docs/manpage.html#-L--location
> >
> >> As far as the cookies, do I need to access the first page to get the
> >> cookie, then when accessing the second page with the login info, use
> >> that cookie?
> >
> > Perhaps. You need to find out.
> >
> > --
> > Daniel Stenberg -- http://curl.haxx.se -- http://daniel.haxx.se
> > Dedicated custom curl help for hire: http://haxx.se/curl.html
> >
>
>
Received on 2005-02-15