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PowerShell Curl Performance Testing Script

PowerShell script for testing website performance using curl with session cookie support on Windows.

Usage

.\curl_performance_script.ps1 -Url "https://your-site.com" [-CookieFile "cookies.txt"]

How to Get Session Cookies from Browser

Chrome/Edge

Login to your SSO site in browser
Press F12 to open DevTools
Go to Application tab > Storage section > Cookies
Click on your domain name
Find session/auth cookies (usually named: session_id, JSESSIONID, auth_token, etc.)
Copy the Value (just the long string)
Save to file as raw value: abc123def456789xyz

Firefox

Login to your SSO site in browser
Press F12 to open DevTools
Go to Storage tab > Cookies
Select your domain from the list
Copy the session cookie value
Save to file as raw value

Just paste the raw cookie value from browser DevTools:

abc123def456789xyz

Script Code

# PowerShell Curl Performance Testing Script with Session Cookie Support
# Usage: .\curl_performance_script.ps1 -Url "https://your-site.com" [-CookieFile "cookies.txt"]

param(
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string]$Url,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
    [string]$CookieFile = "cookies.txt"
)

# Check if curl is available
if (-not (Get-Command curl -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
    Write-Host "❌ Error: curl not found. Please install curl or use Windows 10+ which includes curl.exe" -ForegroundColor Red
    exit 1
}

$timestamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd_HHmmss"
$ResultsFile = "performance_$timestamp.log"

Write-Host "=== CURL PERFORMANCE TEST ===" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile
Write-Host "URL: $Url" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
Write-Host "Cookie File: $CookieFile" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
Write-Host "Timestamp: $(Get-Date)" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
Write-Host "=========================" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append

if (-not (Test-Path $CookieFile)) {
    Write-Host "⚠ Cookie file not found: $CookieFile" -ForegroundColor Yellow
    Write-Host "Creating empty cookie file. Add your session cookie value manually."
    New-Item -ItemType File -Path $CookieFile -Force | Out-Null
}

function Run-PerformanceTest {
    param([int]$TestNum)

    Write-Host "=== TEST $TestNum ===" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append

    # Read cookie value if file exists and has content
    $cookieValue = ""
    if ((Test-Path $CookieFile) -and (Get-Content $CookieFile -Raw).Trim()) {
        $cookieValue = (Get-Content $CookieFile -Raw).Trim()
    }

    $curlArgs = @(
        "-w"
("DNS Lookup:           %{time_namelookup}s`n" +
         "TCP Connect:          %{time_connect}s`n" +
         "SSL Handshake:        %{time_appconnect}s`n" +
         "Pre-transfer:         %{time_pretransfer}s`n" +
         "Redirect Time:        %{time_redirect}s`n" +
         "Time to First Byte:   %{time_starttransfer}s`n" +
         "Total Time:           %{time_total}s`n" +
         "Download Speed:       %{speed_download} bytes/sec`n" +
         "Upload Speed:         %{speed_upload} bytes/sec`n" +
         "Size Downloaded:      %{size_download} bytes`n" +
         "Size Uploaded:        %{size_upload} bytes`n" +
         "Size Request:         %{size_request} bytes`n" +
         "Size Header:          %{size_header} bytes`n" +
         "HTTP Response Code:   %{http_code}`n" +
         "Redirect Count:       %{num_redirects}`n" +
         "Final URL:            %{url_effective}`n" +
         "Content Type:         %{content_type}`n" +
         "Remote IP:            %{remote_ip}`n" +
         "SSL Verify Result:    %{ssl_verify_result}`n`n")
        "-H"
        "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; PerformanceTest/1.0)"
        "-o"
        "$env:TEMP\response_$TestNum.html"
        "-s"
        "-L"
        "-f"
    )

    # Add cookie header if we have a cookie value
    if ($cookieValue) {
        $curlArgs += @("-H", "Cookie: session=$cookieValue")
    }

    $curlArgs += $Url

    try {
        $result = & curl @curlArgs 2>&1
        $result | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append

        if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) {
            Write-Host "❌ Test $TestNum failed" -ForegroundColor Red | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
        }
    }
    catch {
        Write-Host "❌ Test $TestNum failed: $($_.Exception.Message)" -ForegroundColor Red | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
    }

    Write-Host "" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
}

Write-Host "Running performance tests..." | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append

# Run 5 tests
for ($i = 1; $i -le 5; $i++) {
    Run-PerformanceTest -TestNum $i
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 2
}

Write-Host "=== CALCULATING AVERAGES ===" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append

# Extract timing data
$content = Get-Content $ResultsFile -Raw
$dnsMatches = [regex]::Matches($content, "DNS Lookup:\s+(\d+\.?\d*)s")
$connectMatches = [regex]::Matches($content, "TCP Connect:\s+(\d+\.?\d*)s")
$sslMatches = [regex]::Matches($content, "SSL Handshake:\s+(\d+\.?\d*)s")
$ttfbMatches = [regex]::Matches($content, "Time to First Byte:\s+(\d+\.?\d*)s")
$totalMatches = [regex]::Matches($content, "Total Time:\s+(\d+\.?\d*)s")
$sizeMatches = [regex]::Matches($content, "Size Downloaded:\s+(\d+)")
$speedMatches = [regex]::Matches($content, "Download Speed:\s+(\d+)")

function Calculate-Average {
    param([System.Text.RegularExpressions.MatchCollection]$Matches)
    if ($Matches.Count -eq 0) { return 0 }
    $sum = ($Matches | ForEach-Object { [double]$_.Groups[1].Value }) | Measure-Object -Sum
    return [math]::Round($sum.Sum / $Matches.Count, 3)
}

if ($dnsMatches.Count -gt 0) {
    $avgDns = Calculate-Average -Matches $dnsMatches
    $avgConnect = Calculate-Average -Matches $connectMatches
    $avgSsl = Calculate-Average -Matches $sslMatches
    $avgTtfb = Calculate-Average -Matches $ttfbMatches
    $avgTotal = Calculate-Average -Matches $totalMatches
    $avgSize = Calculate-Average -Matches $sizeMatches
    $avgSpeed = Calculate-Average -Matches $speedMatches

    Write-Host "Average DNS Lookup:         ${avgDns}s" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
    Write-Host "Average TCP Connect:        ${avgConnect}s" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
    Write-Host "Average SSL Handshake:      ${avgSsl}s" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
    Write-Host "Average Time to First Byte: ${avgTtfb}s" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
    Write-Host "Average Total Time:         ${avgTotal}s" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
    Write-Host "Average Download Size:      ${avgSize} bytes" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
    Write-Host "Average Download Speed:     ${avgSpeed} bytes/sec" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
}

Write-Host "" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
Write-Host "=== PERFORMANCE SUMMARY ===" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
Write-Host "Total Tests: 5" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
Write-Host "Results saved to: $ResultsFile" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
Write-Host "Session cookie file: $CookieFile" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append

# Performance warnings
if ($avgTotal -and $avgTotal -gt 3.0) {
    Write-Host "⚠ WARNING: Average load time exceeds 3 seconds" -ForegroundColor Yellow | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
}

if ($content -match "HTTP Response Code:\s+[45]\d\d") {
    Write-Host "⚠ WARNING: HTTP errors detected" -ForegroundColor Yellow | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
}

if ((Test-Path $CookieFile) -and (Get-Content $CookieFile -Raw).Trim()) {
    Write-Host "✓ Session cookie available" -ForegroundColor Green | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
} else {
    Write-Host "⚠ No session cookie found" -ForegroundColor Yellow | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
}

Write-Host "" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append
Write-Host "Performance test completed: $(Get-Date)" | Tee-Object -FilePath $ResultsFile -Append

Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Results summary:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host "- Detailed log: $ResultsFile" -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "- Session cookie file: $CookieFile" -ForegroundColor White
if ($avgTotal) {
    Write-Host "- Average total time: $($avgTotal)s" -ForegroundColor White
}