Send an API Request with cURL

One of the quickest ways to send an API request in the command line is to use the cURL command, which can be used on most systems. This guide shows you how to build a request using cURL.

Authentication

The Linode API employs user-level Personal Access Tokens for authentication. This token is passed along in the header of an API request. The header should use the format:

Authorization: Bearer <token-string>

Instead of entering your personal access token each time you send a cURL request, you store the token as a temporary shell variable. In the command below, replace <token-string> with your own token:

export TOKEN=<token-string>

Note

Not all endpoints require authentication. Public endpoints include the region, distribution images, instance types, and other endpoints.

Build the API Request

Replace the values in the command below with your chosen type, region, and image, and choose a label and secure password.

curl -X POST https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/instances \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -H "Content-type: application/json" \
    -d '{"type": "g6-standard-2", "region": "us-east", "image": "linode/debian11", "root_pass": "[password]", "label": "[label]"}'

Pagination

If a results list contains more than 100 items, the response is split into multiple pages. Each response includes the total number of pages and the current page. For example, querying the available kernels produces more than 300 results:

curl https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/kernels | json_pp

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...
      {
          "architecture" : "i386",
          "built" : "2016-10-07T22:21:55",
          "deprecated" : true,
          "id" : "linode/4.8.1-x86-linode94",
          "kvm" : true,
          "label" : "4.8.1-x86-linode94",
          "pvops" : true,
          "version" : "4.8.1"
      },
      {
          "architecture" : "i386",
          "built" : "2016-09-15T13:13:40",
          "deprecated" : true,
          "id" : "linode/4.7.3-x86-linode92",
          "kvm" : true,
          "label" : "4.7.3-x86-linode92",
          "pvops" : true,
          "version" : "4.7.3"
      }
    ],
    "page" : 1,
    "pages" : 4,
    "results" : 312
}

The pages field indicates that the results are divided into three pages. To view additional pages, add a page parameter to the end of the URL. View the second page:

curl https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/kernels | json_pp page=2

If you prefer a smaller number of items per page, you can override the default value with the page_size parameter:

curl https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/kernels | json_pp page_size=50

Filter Results

The API also supports filtering lists of results. Filters are passed using the X-Filter header and use JSON format. You can filter on almost any field that appears in a response object and the API documentation specifies which fields are filterable.

The following query uses the deprecated and vendor fields to return all current Debian images:

curl https://api.linode.com/v4/images/ -H 'X-Filter: { "vendor": "Debian", "deprecated": false}' | json_pp

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{
   "data" : [
      {
         "created" : "2019-07-07T12:24:54",
         "created_by" : "linode",
         "deprecated" : false,
         "description" : "",
         "eol" : "2024-07-01T04:00:00",
         "expiry" : null,
         "id" : "linode/debian10",
         "is_public" : true,
         "label" : "Debian 10",
         "size" : 1500,
         "status" : "available",
         "type" : "manual",
         "updated" : "2022-09-12T14:08:55",
         "vendor" : "Debian"
      },
      {
         "created" : "2021-08-14T22:44:02",
         "created_by" : "linode",
         "deprecated" : false,
         "description" : "",
         "eol" : "2026-07-01T04:00:00",
         "expiry" : null,
         "id" : "linode/debian11",
         "is_public" : true,
         "label" : "Debian 11",
         "size" : 1300,
         "status" : "available",
         "type" : "manual",
         "updated" : "2022-09-12T14:09:17",
         "vendor" : "Debian"
      },
      {
         "created" : "2022-04-26T19:17:51",
         "created_by" : "linode",
         "deprecated" : false,
         "description" : "",
         "eol" : "2026-07-01T04:00:00",
         "expiry" : null,
         "id" : "linode/debian11-kube-v1.23.6",
         "is_public" : true,
         "label" : "Kubernetes 1.23.13 on Debian 11",
         "size" : 3500,
         "status" : "available",
         "type" : "manual",
         "updated" : "2022-11-17T14:15:50",
         "vendor" : "Debian"
      },
      {
         "created" : "2022-11-17T14:17:22",
         "created_by" : "linode",
         "deprecated" : false,
         "description" : "",
         "eol" : "2026-07-01T04:00:00",
         "expiry" : null,
         "id" : "linode/debian11-kube-v1.24.8",
         "is_public" : true,
         "label" : "Kubernetes 1.24.8 on Debian 11",
         "size" : 3500,
         "status" : "available",
         "type" : "manual",
         "updated" : "2022-11-17T14:17:36",
         "vendor" : "Debian"
      }
   ],
   "page" : 1,
   "pages" : 1,
   "results" : 4
}

More complex searches are possible through the use of logical operators. Use or to return a list of all Debian and Ubuntu images:

curl https://api.linode.com/v4/images/ -H 'X-Filter: {"+or": [{"vendor":"Debian"}, {"vendor":"Ubuntu"}]}' | json_pp

See the Linode API documentation for a full list of supported operators.

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