Solution 1:

You don't need --header "Content-Length: $LENGTH".

curl --request POST --data-binary "@template_entry.xml" $URL

Note that GET request does not support content body widely.

Also remember that POST request have 2 different coding schema. This is first form:

  $ nc -l -p 6666 &
  $ curl  --request POST --data-binary "@README" http://localhost:6666

POST / HTTP/1.1
User-Agent: curl/7.21.0 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.21.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8o zlib/1.2.3.4 libidn/1.15 libssh2/1.2.6
Host: localhost:6666
Accept: */*
Content-Length: 9309
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Expect: 100-continue

.. -*- mode: rst; coding: cp1251; fill-column: 80 -*-
.. rst2html.py README README.html
.. contents::

You probably request this:

-F/--form name=content
           (HTTP) This lets curl emulate a filled-in form in
              which a user has pressed the submit button. This
              causes curl to POST data using the Content- Type
              multipart/form-data according to RFC2388. This
              enables uploading of binary files etc. To force the
              'content' part to be a file, prefix the file name
              with an @ sign. To just get the content part from a
              file, prefix the file name with the symbol <. The
              difference between @ and < is then that @ makes a
              file get attached in the post as a file upload,
              while the < makes a text field and just get the
              contents for that text field from a file.