How do I make a post request using the curl plugin? I see no option where I can specify the post data, or the type of request.
Is it even possible with the plugin, or is there an alternative plugin I can use?
How to make a POST request using the Collectd curl plugin
collectdcurl
Related Solutions
curl already uses keepalive by default.
As an example:
curl -v http://www.google.com http://www.google.com
Produces the following:
* About to connect() to www.google.com port 80 (#0)
* Trying 74.125.39.99... connected
* Connected to www.google.com (74.125.39.99) port 80 (#0)
> GET / HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.19.7 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.19.7 OpenSSL/0.9.8k zlib/1.2.3.3 libidn/1.15
> Host: www.google.com
> Accept: */*
>
< HTTP/1.1 302 Found
< Location: http://www.google.ch/
< Cache-Control: private
< Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
< Set-Cookie: PREF=ID=0dd153a227433b2f:FF=0:TM=1289232886:LM=1289232886:S=VoXSLP8XWvjzNcFj; expires=Wed, 07-Nov-2012 16:14:46 GMT; path=/; domain=.google.com
< Set-Cookie: NID=40=sOJuv6mxhQgqXkVEOzBwpUFU3YLPQYf4HRcySE1veCBV5cPtP3OiLPKqvRxL10VLiFETGz7cu25pD_EoUq1f_CkNwOna-xRcFFsCokiFqIbGPrb6DmUO7XhcpMYOt3dB; expires=Tue, 10-May-2011 16:14:46 GMT; path=/; domain=.google.com; HttpOnly
< Date: Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:14:46 GMT
< Server: gws
< Content-Length: 218
< X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
<
<HTML><HEAD><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">
<TITLE>302 Moved</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>
<H1>302 Moved</H1>
The document has moved
<A HREF="http://www.google.ch/">here</A>.
</BODY></HTML>
* Connection #0 to host www.google.com left intact
* Re-using existing connection! (#0) with host www.google.com
* Connected to www.google.com (74.125.39.99) port 80 (#0)
> GET / HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.19.7 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.19.7 OpenSSL/0.9.8k zlib/1.2.3.3 libidn/1.15
> Host: www.google.com
> Accept: */*
>
< HTTP/1.1 302 Found
< Location: http://www.google.ch/
< Cache-Control: private
< Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
< Set-Cookie: PREF=ID=8b531815cdfef717:FF=0:TM=1289232886:LM=1289232886:S=ifbAe1QBX915QGHr; expires=Wed, 07-Nov-2012 16:14:46 GMT; path=/; domain=.google.com
< Set-Cookie: NID=40=Rk86FyMCV3LzorQ1Ph8g1TV3f-h41NA-9fP6l7G-441pLEiciG9k8L4faOGC0VI6a8RafpukiDvaNvJqy8wExED9-Irzs7VdUQYwI8bCF2Kc2ivskb6KDRDkWzMxW_xG; expires=Tue, 10-May-2011 16:14:46 GMT; path=/; domain=.google.com; HttpOnly
< Date: Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:14:46 GMT
< Server: gws
< Content-Length: 218
< X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
<
<HTML><HEAD><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">
<TITLE>302 Moved</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>
<H1>302 Moved</H1>
The document has moved
<A HREF="http://www.google.ch/">here</A>.
</BODY></HTML>
* Connection #0 to host www.google.com left intact
* Closing connection #0
This snippet:
* Connection #0 to host www.google.com left intact * Re-using existing connection! (#0) with host www.google.com
Indicates it re-used the same connection.
Use the same "curl -v http://my.server/url1 http://my.server/url2" invocation against your server and check that you see the same message.
Consider using tcpdump instead of netstat to see how the packets are handled. netstat will only give you a momentary glimpse of what's happening, whereas with tcpdump you'll see every single packet involved. Another option is Wireshark.
You are correct -- lighttpd doesn't support POST requests with an empty message body without a 'Content-Length' header set to zero, and CURL sends such a request. There's argument back and forth about who's right, but in my opinion, lighttpd is broken. A POST with no Content-Length and no Transfer-Encoding is perfectly legal and has no message body.
Adding -d "" causes CURL to send a Content-Length: 0 header, which resolves the problem.
You could modify lighttp. Find the code that issues the 411 error and instead set the content length to zero.
Best Answer
While libcurl certainly supports the POST method (example), it appears that the specific functionality isn't exposed in the current version of the collectd plugin.
Your best shot is probably going to be to setup a server/service/page that can "proxy" the POST request for you through a GET request, and return the results.