Ubuntu: Using curl to download an image

curl without any options will perform a GET request. It will simply return the data from the URI specified. Not retrieve the file itself to your local machine.

When you do,

$ curl https://www.python.org/static/apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png

You will receive binary data:

                   |�>�$! <R�HP@T*�Pm�Z��jU֖��ZP+UAUQ@�
��{X\� K���>0c�yF[i�}4�!�V̧�H_�)nO#�;I��vg^_ ��-Hm$$N0.
���%Y[�L�U3�_^9��P�T�0'u8�l�4 ...

In order to save this, you can use:

$ curl https://www.python.org/static/apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png > image.png

to store that raw image data inside of a file.

An easier way though, is just to use wget.

$ wget https://www.python.org/static/apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png
$ ls
.
..
apple-touch-icon-144x144-precomposed.png