curl.1: add an "OUTPUT" section at the top of the manpage

Explain the basic concepts behind curl output.

Inspired by #6124

Closes #6134

diff --git a/docs/cmdline-opts/page-header b/docs/cmdline-opts/page-header
index a51e485babe82034f18cd4bde6e259d6c7f08c7d..62e97120d3ed1065beabb41e0893b60f3daf4611 100644 (file)
--- a/docs/cmdline-opts/page-header
+++ b/docs/cmdline-opts/page-header
@@ -99,6 +99,15 @@ getting many files from the same server will not do multiple connects /
 handshakes. This improves speed. Of course this is only done on files
 specified on a single command line and cannot be used between separate curl
 invokes.
+.SH OUTPUT
+If not told otherwise, curl writes the received data to stdout. It can be
+instructed to instead save that data into a local file, using the --output or
+--remote-name options. If curl is given multiple URLs to transfer on the
+command line, it similarly needs multiple options for where to save them.
+
+curl does not parse or otherwise "understand" the content it gets or writes as
+output. It does no encoding or decoding, unless explictly asked so with
+dedicated command line options.
 .SH PROTOCOLS
 curl supports numerous protocols, or put in URL terms: schemes. Your
 particular build may not support them all.