Question

When testing a REST POST api via curl, is it possible to send data from an external json file, instead of inline via --data?

Answer 1

To specify the data from a file, use –data @filename. From man page of curl:

If you start the data with the letter @, the rest should be a file name to read the data from, or – if you want curl to read the data from stdin. The contents of the file must already be URL-encoded. Multiple files can also be specified. Posting data from a file named ‘foobar’ would thus be done with –data @foobar.