The curl project has announced the release of curl 8.15.0, marking the 269th release in the command-line tool’s history.
This latest iteration features a more compact development cycle of just 42 days, resulting in focused improvements and critical backend changes that will impact developers worldwide.
The most significant change in curl 8.15.0 involves the removal of support for two key SSL/TLS implementations: Secure Transport and BearSSL.
This decision affects developers who previously relied on these cryptographic backends for their applications.
The removal of Secure Transport particularly impacts macOS and iOS developers, as this was Apple’s native SSL/TLS implementation.
The change consolidates curl’s SSL/TLS support around more widely adopted backends like OpenSSL, GnuTLS, and mbedTLS.
Developers using curl_easy_setopt() With CURLOPT_SSLENGINE or similar SSL-specific options will need to migrate to supported alternatives.
This streamlining effort reduces maintenance overhead while focusing resources on more commonly used implementations.
Development Metrics and Community Contributions
Despite the shorter 42-day development cycle, the curl team achieved remarkable productivity metrics.
The release includes 233 documented bugfixes, averaging 5.5 fixes per day throughout the development period.
This represents a significant portion of the project’s total 12,282 bug fixes accumulated over its lifetime.
The development effort involved 334 commits from a diverse contributor base of 57 individuals, with 29 being new contributors to the project.
Among these, 37 authors contributed code changes, including 16 newcomers.
This demonstrates the project’s continued ability to attract fresh talent while maintaining its collaborative development model.
Technical Specifications and Command-Line Options
curl 8.15.0 maintains its comprehensive feature set with 269 command-line options, solidifying its position as a versatile tool for HTTP/HTTPS requests, file transfers, and API interactions.
The release preserves all existing curl_easy_setopt() options, maintaining the total count at 308 configuration parameters for libcurl integration.
Developers can verify their installation using standard commands:
bashcurl --version
curl 8.15.0 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
The libcurl library maintains its 96 public functions, ensuring API stability for applications built on previous versions.
No new security fixes were required for this release, indicating the codebase’s stability, though the project has historically addressed 167 security issues.
This release demonstrates curl’s commitment to continuous improvement while maintaining backward compatibility for the millions of applications that depend on its robust networking capabilities.
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