Compiled language

[xnox]

Has it been considered to write this wrapper in a compiled language?
Or even contribute it back to curl itself?

[sergiodj]

Heya :-).

Yes, we've considered rewriting the wrapper in C. This is in my TODO list, but it's not something urgent because right now the wrapper is so simple that having it in shell doesn't hurt.

As for contributing back to curl: I'm assuming you're asking about whether we considered implementing this wrapper as an option in the curl binary. IIRC we did consider that, but in the end decided to implement a proper command because it's easier to remember. Admittedly, curl already has the necessary command line options needed to do the job, it's just that they can be overwhelming. While we could have implemented a curl --download-this-file URL, having it as a separate binary allows us to be more flexible when it comes to choosing the best options to do the job depending on the scenario.

[ericcurtin]

This is the perfect use case for Rust over C tbh... No existing C/C++ in the codebase...

[xnox]

This is the perfect use case for Rust over C tbh... No existing C/C++ in the codebase...

And what about the 174,722 lines of C code that is cURL? =) that doesn't count right? =)))))

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                             files          blank        comment           code
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C                                      681          29370          41037         174722

[ericcurtin]

#74

[ericcurtin]

This is the perfect use case for Rust over C tbh... No existing C/C++ in the codebase...

And what about the 174,722 lines of C code that is cURL? =) that doesn't count right? =)))))

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                             files          blank        comment           code
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C                                      681          29370          41037         174722

Separate project, if this was the main curl project, I wouldn't propose this

[vszakats]

The resulting wcurl Rust binary size is 2.3 MB (5.7 MB for debug), and
uses 53 dependencies. (macOS arm64)

To compare, a full-featured static curl binary on the same platform is
3.5 MB ¹.

I've found the working Rust example nice, but kept wondering where
its advantage is compared to the POSIX script that is 11 KB and runs most
everywhere as-is. Even on Windows as I found out this week, with an extra
step, relying on busybox (<700 KB). Or compared to a C implementation,
which would likely be small and need the C runtime only.

The release wcurl Rust binary seems reproducible, but looking into it, it leaks
local absolute build paths, including the logged-in username.

(There is also of course the requirement of the Rust (cross-)toolchain in
addition to C, if we'd want to build it as part of the curl-for-win build process
for example.)

[ FWIW just enabled wcurl on Windows in curl-for-win dev daily builds, first
appearing in today's daily. Experimental. ]

[ericcurtin]

Addressed concerns in the PR, resulting binary 380 KB

[ericcurtin]

Down to 332 KB now