--out-null and HEAD requests

[AndrewKvalheim]

I’ve been using --output /dev/null but recently read that --out-null is the more efficient and portable version of this. When I try switching to it, however, it appears to substantially differ:

• Expected:

  $ curl --fail --head --no-progress-meter --write-out '%header{location}' 'http://en.wikipedia.org/' --output '/dev/null'
  https://en.wikipedia.org/

• Actual:

  $ curl --fail --head --no-progress-meter --write-out '%header{location}' 'http://en.wikipedia.org/' --out-null
  HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
  content-length: 0
  location: https://en.wikipedia.org/
  server: HAProxy
  x-cache: cp4042 int
  x-cache-status: int-tls
  connection: close
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/

Is it not intended to be used with HEAD requests? What’s the correct way to do this?

[jay]

#20256