Who is the Original Author and Maintainer of curl?

This article identifies the creator and primary maintainer of curl, the ubiquitous command-line tool and library used for transferring data across various network protocols. It details the origins of the project, the developer behind its creation, and his ongoing role in managing the software today.

The original author and lead maintainer of curl is Daniel Stenberg, a Swedish software developer. He started the project in the late 1990s and continues to actively develop and manage it today.

The Origins of curl

The project began in 1996 as a small tool written by Stenberg to automatically download currency exchange rates for an IRC bot. Originally called httpget, the utility went through several name changes and expansions: * 1996: Released as httpget (version 0.1). * 1997: Support for FTP was added, prompting a name change to urlget. * 1998: On March 20, 1998, the tool was renamed curl (Client URL) and released as version 4.0, supporting both HTTP and FTP uploads.

Ongoing Maintenance and Leadership

Since its inception, Daniel Stenberg has remained the primary force behind curl. He coordinates the open-source project, writes a significant portion of the code, and manages updates, security patches, and releases.

While curl has received contributions from thousands of developers worldwide, Stenberg remains the project’s official maintainer, ensuring the tool’s stability, security, and backward compatibility across billions of active devices.