> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://linuxhandbook.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Curl Downloading HTML Instead of The Actual Zip File? Here's What to Do - URL: https://linuxhandbook.com/curl-downloading-html-file/ - Published: 2022-04-29T11:59:13.000Z - Updated: 2022-11-19T14:23:25.000Z - Description: Used Curl to download a Zip file from GitHub but got an HTML file instead? That download link is not broken. Here's what you need to do. - Author: Abhishek Prakash - Tags: Troubleshooting [Curl](https://curl.se/?ref=linuxhandbook.com) is an excellent tool for [downloading files in the Linux terminal](https://itsfoss.com/download-files-from-linux-terminal/?ref=linuxhandbook.com). The usual syntax to download a file with the same name as the original file is pretty simple: ``` curl -O URL_of_the_file ``` This works most of the time. However, you'll notice that sometimes when you are downloading a file from GitHub or SourceForge, it doesn't fetch the correct file. For example, I was trying to download archinstall script in tar gz format. The files are located on the [release page](https://github.com/archlinux/archinstall/releases/?ref=linuxhandbook.com). If I open this source code link in a browser, it gets me the source code in .tar.gz format. However, if I use the terminal to download the same file [using curl command](https://linuxhandbook.com/curl-command-examples/), I get a small file that is not in the correct archive format. ``` tar -zxvf v2.4.2.tar.gz gzip: stdin: not in gzip format tar: Child returned status 1 tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now ``` When I run the [file command](https://linuxhandbook.com/file-command/) to know the exact file type, it tells me that it is an HTML document. ``` file v2.4.2.tar.gz v2.4.2.tar.gz: HTML document, ASCII text, with no line terminators ``` ![Curl downloads html file instead of zip archive](https://linuxhandbook.com/content/images/2022/04/curl-downloading-html-instead-of-zip.png) HTML document instead of the archive zip or [tarball](https://linuxhandbook.com/basic-tar-commands/)? Where's the problem? Let me show you the quick fix. ## Properly downloading archive file with curl The problem here is that the URL you have redirects to the actual archive file. To get that, you need to use additional options. ``` curl -JLO URL_of_the_file ``` The options can be in any order. It's just easier to remember J LO (Jennifer Lopez). Here's a quick explanation of the options based on the [man page](https://linuxhandbook.com/man-pages/) of the curl command. - J: This option tells the -O, --remote-name option to use the server-specified Content-Disposition filename instead of extracting a filename from the URL. - L: If the server reports that the requested page has moved to a different location (indicated with a Location: header and a 3XX response code), this option will make curl redo the request on the new place. - O: With this option, you don't need to specify the output filename for the download. As you can see in the screenshot below, I was able to download the correct file this time with the curl -JLO option. ![Properly downloading ](https://linuxhandbook.com/content/images/2022/04/downloading-zip-file-with-curl.png) ## Bonus tip: Do you need to log in? This works for the public files. But if you try to download files from private repositories or GitLab, then you may see a message about redirection to the login page. ``` You are being redirected. ``` In such cases, please provide the API token with -H option. [Curl or wget](https://linuxhandbook.com/curl-wget-difference/), both commands can encounter this issue. I hope this quick little tip helps you correctly download archive files with Curl. Let me know if you still facing problems with curl downloads.