curl: command not found
Covers: bash curl command not found · command not found curl — all distros — May 2026
🐧 Ubuntu / Debian
🎩 CentOS / RHEL
🏔️ Alpine
🐳 Docker
🍎 macOS
$ curl -fsSL https://example.com/install.sh | bash
bash: curl: command not found
bash: curl: command not found
⚡ Quick Fix by OS
# Ubuntu / Debian / WSL:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y curl
# CentOS 7 / RHEL 7:
sudo yum install -y curl
# CentOS 8+ / RHEL 8+ / Fedora:
sudo dnf install -y curl
# Alpine Linux:
apk add --no-cache curl
# macOS — curl is built-in, if missing:
brew install curl
Why Is curl Missing?
curl is pre-installed on most full Linux distributions and all macOS versions. It's missing in these common scenarios:
- Minimal Docker images —
ubuntu:22.04,debian:bookworm-slim,alpine:3all omit curl to reduce image size - CI/CD pipelines — Fresh runner containers often don't have curl pre-installed
- Minimal VPS images — Some providers ship bare-minimum Debian without network tools
Fix in Dockerfile
FROM debian:bookworm-slim
RUN apt-get update && \
apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends curl && \
rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
Use wget as Alternative
If you can't install curl but have wget, most curl download commands have a direct wget equivalent:
# curl equivalent:
curl -O https://example.com/file.tar.gz
# wget equivalent:
wget https://example.com/file.tar.gz
# curl -L (follow redirects):
wget --content-disposition https://example.com/file