Connect to a service (HTTP)¶

Create a .netrc file¶

Note

Many services are protected by Basic authentication. When accessing these services in a web browser, you typically need to enter your credentials only once, and your browser will submit the Authorization header on subsequent requests. When accessing these services from the command line, you typically need to enter your credentials every time. Creating and using a .netrc file on your computer avoids this extra work.

To create (or append credentials to) a ~/.netrc file:

Run, replacing HOSTNAME with the server’s hostname (e.g. ocp99.open-contracting.org), USERNAME with your username, and PASSWORD with your password:
```
echo 'machine HOSTNAME
  login USERNAME
  password PASSWORD' >> ~/.netrc
```
Check that only one section of the ~/.netrc file refers to the hostname, replacing HOSTNAME:
```
$ grep -A2 HOSTNAME ~/.netrc
machine myhostname
  login myuser
  password mypass
```
If there are multiple sections or an incorrect password, you must correct the file in a text editor.
Change the file’s permissions to be readable only by the owner:
```
chmod 600 ~/.netrc
```
Check the permissions:
```
$ stat -f "%Sp" ~/.netrc
-rw-------
```

Test your configuration. For example, for Kingfisher Collect:

$ curl -n https://collect.kingfisher.open-contracting.org/listprojects.json
{"node_name": "ocp99", "status": "ok", "projects": ["kingfisher"]}