Monitor website status with curl

When a desired website is down or a new website is about to become available, one can use the “curl” program to check the status of the website HTTP response code. Using a periodic check with watch program one can monitor the status for an extended period of time. Keep in mind that the website might have anti-DOS measures that block repeated requests from the same IP address. Set “watch” interval and maximum number of requests to avoid being blocked.

Use a command like the following to check every 60 seconds for up to 60 times (1 hour):

watch -n 60 -q 60 curl -s -w %{response_code} -o /dev/null URL

Curl command reference:

curl -s -w %{response_code} -o /dev/null URL
-o /dev/null
discard the webpage content to avoid screen clutter. On Windows, use -o NUL instead.
-s
silent mode
-w %{response_code}
write the HTTP response code to console
URL
the desired URL to check