curl/docs/cmdline-opts/metalink.d

Long: metalink
Help: Process given URLs as metalink XML file
Added: 7.27.0
Category: misc
---
This option was previously used to specify a metalink resource. Metalink
support has unfortunately been disabled in curl since 7.78.0 due to security
reasons.
cmdline-docs: more conversion 2016-11-16 08:20:36 -05:00			`Long: metalink`
			`Help: Process given URLs as metalink XML file`
			`Added: 7.27.0`
docs: add categories to all cmdline opts Adapted gen.pl with 'listcats' This commit is a part of "--help me if you can" Closes #5680 2020-07-13 08:15:04 -04:00			`Category: misc`
cmdline-docs: more conversion 2016-11-16 08:20:36 -05:00			`---`
metalink: remove Warning: this will make existing curl command lines that use metalink to stop working. Reasons for removal: 1. We've found several security problems and issues involving the metalink support in curl. The issues are not detailed here. When working on those, it become apparent to the team that several of the problems are due to the system design, metalink library API and what the metalink RFC says. They are very hard to fix on the curl side only. 2. The metalink usage with curl was only very briefly documented and was not following the "normal" curl usage pattern in several ways, making it surprising and non-intuitive which could lead to further security issues. 3. The metalink library was last updated 6 years ago and wasn't so active the years before that either. An unmaintained library means there's a security problem waiting to happen. This is probably reason enough. 4. Metalink requires an XML parsing library, which is complex code (even the smaller alternatives) and to this day often gets security updates. 5. Metalink is not a widely used curl feature. In the 2020 curl user survey, only 1.4% of the responders said that they'd are using it. In 2021 that number was 1.2%. Searching the web also show very few traces of it being used, even with other tools. 6. The torrent format and associated technology clearly won for downloading large files from multiple sources in parallel. Cloes #7176 2021-06-01 10:24:00 -04:00			`This option was previously used to specify a metalink resource. Metalink`
			`support has unfortunately been disabled in curl since 7.78.0 due to security`
			`reasons.`