794 lines
		
	
	
		
			32 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			Plaintext
		
	
	
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			794 lines
		
	
	
		
			32 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			Plaintext
		
	
	
	
	
	
| Updated: December 22, 2003 (http://curl.haxx.se/docs/faq.html)
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|                                   _   _ ____  _     
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|                               ___| | | |  _ \| |    
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|                              / __| | | | |_) | |    
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|                             | (__| |_| |  _ <| |___ 
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|                              \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|
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| 
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| FAQ
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| 
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|  1. Philosophy
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|   1.1 What is cURL?
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|   1.2 What is libcurl?
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|   1.3 What is cURL not?
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|   1.4 When will you make curl do XXXX ?
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|   1.5 Who makes cURL?
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|   1.6 What do you get for making cURL?
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|   1.7 What about CURL from curl.com?
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|   1.8 I have a problem who do I mail?
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| 
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|  2. Install Related Problems
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|   2.1 configure doesn't find OpenSSL even when it is installed
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|    2.1.1. native linker doesn't find openssl
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|    2.1.2. only the libssl lib is missing
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|   2.2 Does curl work/build with other SSL libraries?
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|   2.3 Where can I find a copy of LIBEAY32.DLL?
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|   2.4 Does cURL support Socks (RFC 1928) ?
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| 
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|  3. Usage Problems
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|   3.1 curl: (1) SSL is disabled, https: not supported
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|   3.2 How do I tell curl to resume a transfer?
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|   3.3 Why doesn't my posting using -F work?
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|   3.4 How do I tell curl to run custom FTP commands?
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|   3.5 How can I disable the Pragma: nocache header?
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|   3.6 Does curl support ASP, XML, XHTML or HTML version Y?
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|   3.7 Can I use curl to delete/rename a file through FTP?
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|   3.8 How do I tell curl to follow HTTP redirects?
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|   3.9 How do I use curl in my favorite programming language?
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|   3.10 What about SOAP, WebDAV, XML-RPC or similar protocols over HTTP?
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|   3.11 How do I POST with a different Content-Type?
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|   3.12 Why do FTP specific features over HTTP proxy fail?
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|   3.13 Why does my single/double quotes fail?
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|   3.14 Does curl support javascript or pac (automated proxy config)?
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|   3.15 Can I do recursive fetches with curl?
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| 
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|  4. Running Problems
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|   4.1 Problems connecting to SSL servers.
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|   4.2 Why do I get problems when I use & or % in the URL?
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|   4.3 How can I use {, }, [ or ] to specify multiple URLs?
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|   4.4 Why do I get downloaded data even though the web page doesn't exist?
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|   4.5 Why do I get return code XXX from a HTTP server?
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|    4.5.1 "400 Bad Request"
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|    4.5.2 "401 Unauthorized"
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|    4.5.3 "403 Forbidden"
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|    4.5.4 "404 Not Found"
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|    4.5.5 "405 Method Not Allowed"
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|    4.5.6 "301 Moved Permanently"
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|   4.6 Can you tell me what error code 142 means?
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|   4.7 How do I keep user names and passwords secret in Curl command lines?
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|   4.8 I found a bug!
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|   4.9 Curl can't authenticate to the server that requires NTLM?
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|   4.10 My HTTP request using HEAD, PUT or DELETE doesn't work!
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|   4.11 Why does my HTTP range requests return the full document?
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|   4.12 Why do I get "certificate verify failed" ?
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| 
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|  5. libcurl Issues
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|   5.1 Is libcurl thread-safe?
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|   5.2 How can I receive all data into a large memory chunk?
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|   5.3 How do I fetch multiple files with libcurl?
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|   5.4 Does libcurl do Winsock initing on win32 systems?
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|   5.5 Does CURLOPT_WRITEDATA and CURLOPT_READDATA work on win32 ?
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|   5.6 What about Keep-Alive or persistent connections?
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|   5.7 Link errors when building libcurl on Windows!
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| 
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|  6. License Issues
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|   6.1 I have a GPL program, can I use the libcurl library?
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|   6.2 I have a closed-source program, can I use the libcurl library?
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|   6.3 I have a BSD licensed program, can I use the libcurl library?
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|   6.4 I have a program that uses LGPL libraries, can I use libcurl?
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|   6.5 Can I modify curl/libcurl for my program and keep the changes secret?
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|   6.6 Can you please change the curl/libcurl license to XXXX?
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| 
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| ==============================================================================
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| 
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| 1. Philosophy
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| 
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|   1.1 What is cURL?
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| 
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|   cURL (or simply just 'curl') is a command line tool for getting or sending
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|   files using URL syntax. The name is a play on 'Client for URLs', originally
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|   with URL spelled in uppercase to make it obvious it deals with URLs. The
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|   fact it can also be pronounced 'see URL' also helped, it works as an
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|   abbrivation for "Client URL Request Library" or why not the recursive
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|   version: "Curl is a URL Request Library".
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| 
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|   Curl supports a range of common Internet protocols, currently including
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|   HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, GOPHER, LDAP, DICT, TELNET and FILE.
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| 
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|   We spell it cURL or just curl. We pronounce it with an initial k sound:
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|   [kurl].
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| 
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|   NOTE: there are numerous sub-projects and related projects that also use the
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|   word curl in the project names in various combinations, but you should take
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|   notice that this FAQ is directed at the command-line tool named curl (and
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|   libcurl the library), and may therefore not be valid for other curl
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|   projects.
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| 
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|   1.2 What is libcurl?
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| 
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|   libcurl is a reliable and portable library which provides you with an easy
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|   interface to a range of common Internet protocols.
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| 
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|   You can use libcurl for free in your application even if it is commercial
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|   or closed-source.
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| 
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|   1.3 What is cURL not?
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|   
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|   Curl is *not* a wget clone even though that is a very common misconception.
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|   Never, during curl's development, have we intended curl to replace wget or
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|   compete on its market. Curl is targeted at single-shot file transfers.
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| 
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|   Curl is not a web site mirroring program. If you wanna use curl to mirror
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|   something: fine, go ahead and write a script that wraps around curl to make
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|   it reality (like curlmirror.pl does).
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| 
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|   Curl is not an FTP site mirroring program. Sure, get and send FTP with curl
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|   but if you want systematic and sequential behavior you should write a
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|   script (or write a new program that interfaces libcurl) and do it.
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| 
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|   Curl is not a PHP tool, even though it works perfectly well when used from
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|   or with PHP.
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| 
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|   Curl is not a single-OS program. Curl exists, compiles, builds and runs
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|   under a wide range of operating systems, including all modern Unixes (and a
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|   bunch of older ones too), Windows, Amiga, BeOS, OS/2, OS X, QNX etc.
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| 
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|   1.4 When will you make curl do XXXX ?
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| 
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|   We love suggestions of what to change in order to make curl and libcurl
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|   better. We do however believe in a few rules when it comes to the future of
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|   curl:
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| 
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|   * Curl -- the command line tool -- is to remain a non-graphical command line
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|     tool. If you want GUIs or fancy scripting capabilities, you should look
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|     for another tool that uses libcurl.
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| 
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|   * We do not add things to curl that other small and available tools already
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|     do very fine at the side. Curl's output is fine to pipe into another
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|     program or redirect to another file for the next program to interpret.
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| 
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|   * We focus on protocol related issues and improvements. If you wanna do more
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|     magic with the supported protocols than curl currently does, chances are
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|     big we will agree. If you wanna add more protocols, we may very well
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|     agree.
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| 
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|   * If you want someone else to make all the work while you wait for us to
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|     implement it for you, that is not a very friendly attitude. We spend a
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|     considerable time already on maintaining and developing curl. In order to
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|     get more out of us, you should consider trading in some of your time and
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|     efforts in return.
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| 
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|   * If you write the code, chances are bigger that it will get into curl
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|     faster.
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| 
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|   1.5 Who makes cURL?
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| 
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|   cURL and libcurl are not made by any single individual. Sure, Daniel
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|   Stenberg writes the major parts, but other persons' submissions are
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|   important and crucial. Anyone can contribute and post their changes and
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|   improvements and have them inserted in the main sources (of course on the
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|   condition that developers agree on that the fixes are good).
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| 
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|   The list of contributors in the docs/THANKS file is only a small part of all
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|   the people that every day provide us with bug reports, suggestions, ideas
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|   and source code.
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| 
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|   curl is developed by a community, with Daniel at the wheel.
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| 
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|   1.6 What do you get for making cURL?
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| 
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|   Project cURL is entirely free and open. No person gets paid for developing
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|   curl. We do this voluntarily on our spare time.
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| 
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|   We get some help from companies. Contactor Data hosts the curl web site,
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|   Haxx owns the curl web site's domain and sourceforge.net hosts several
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|   project services we take advantage from, like the bug tracker, mailing lists
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|   and more.
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| 
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|   If you want to support our project with a donation or similar, one way of
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|   doing that would be to buy "gift certificates" at useful online shopping
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|   sites, such as amazon.com or thinkgeek.com. Another way would be to sponsor
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|   us through a banner-program or even better: by helping us coding,
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|   documenting, testing etc. You're welcome to send us a buck using paypal, as
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|   described here: http://curl.haxx.se/donation.html
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| 
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|   1.7 What about CURL from curl.com?
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| 
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|   During the summer 2001, curl.com was busy advertising their client-side
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|   programming language for the web, named CURL.
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| 
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|   We are in no way associated with curl.com or their CURL programming
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|   language. 
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| 
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|   Our project name curl has been in effective use since 1998. We were not the
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|   first computer related project to use the name "curl" and do not claim any
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|   first-hand rights to the name.
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| 
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|   We recognize that we will be living in parallel with curl.com and wish them
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|   every success.
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| 
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|   1.8 I have a problem who do I mail?
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| 
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|   Please do not mail any single individual unless you really need to. Keep
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|   curl-related questions on a suitable mailing list. All available mailing
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|   lists are listed in the MANUAL document and online at
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|   http://curl.haxx.se/mail/
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| 
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|   Keeping curl-related questions and discussions on mailing lists allows
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|   others to join in and help, to share their ideas, contribute their
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|   suggestions and spread their wisdom. Keeping discussions on public mailing
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|   lists also allows for others to learn from this (both current and future
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|   users thanks to the web based archives of the mailing lists), thus saving us
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|   from having to repeat ourselves even more. Thanks for respecting this.
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| 
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| 
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| 2. Install Related Problems
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| 
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|   2.1. configure doesn't find OpenSSL even when it is installed
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| 
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|   This may be because of several reasons.
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| 
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|     2.1.1. native linker doesn't find openssl
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| 
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|     Affected platforms:
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|       Solaris (native cc compiler)
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|       HPUX (native cc compiler)
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|       SGI IRIX (native cc compiler)
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|       SCO UNIX (native cc compiler)
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| 
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|     When configuring curl, I specify --with-ssl. OpenSSL is installed in
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|     /usr/local/ssl Configure reports SSL in /usr/local/ssl, but fails to find
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|     CRYPTO_lock in -lcrypto
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| 
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|     Cause: The cc for this test places the -L/usr/local/ssl/lib AFTER
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|     -lcrypto, so ld can't find the library. This is due to a bug in the GNU
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|     autoconf tool.
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| 
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|     Workaround: Specifying "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/ssl/lib" in front of
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|     ./configure places the -L/usr/local/ssl/lib early enough in the command
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|     line to make things work
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| 
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|     Solution submitted by: Bob Allison <allisonb@users.sourceforge.net>
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| 
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|     2.1.2. only the libssl lib is missing
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| 
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|     If all include files and the libcrypto lib is present, with only the
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|     libssl being missing according to configure, this is mostly likely because
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|     a few functions are left out from the libssl.
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| 
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|     If the function names missing include RSA or RSAREF you can be certain
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|     that this is because libssl requires the RSA and RSAREF libs to build.
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| 
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|     See the INSTALL file section that explains how to add those libs to
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|     configure. Make sure that you remove the config.cache file before you
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|     rerun configure with the new flags.
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| 
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|   2.2. Does curl work/build with other SSL libraries?
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| 
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|   Curl has been written to use OpenSSL, although there should not be much
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|   problems using a different library. If anyone does "port" curl to use a
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|   different SSL library, we are of course very interested in getting the
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|   patch!
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| 
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|   2.3. Where can I find a copy of LIBEAY32.DLL?
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| 
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|   That is an OpenSSL binary built for Windows.
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| 
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|   Curl uses OpenSSL to do the SSL stuff. The LIBEAY32.DLL is what curl needs
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|   on a windows machine to do https://. Check out the curl web site to find
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|   accurate and up-to-date pointers to recent OpenSSL DLLs and other binary
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|   packages.
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| 
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|   2.4. Does cURL support Socks (RFC 1928) ?
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| 
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|   There is limited support for SOCKS5 for curl built with IPv6 support
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|   disabled.
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| 
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| 
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| 3. Usage problems
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| 
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|   3.1. curl: (1) SSL is disabled, https: not supported
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| 
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|   If you get this output when trying to get anything from a https:// server,
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|   it means that the configure script couldn't find all libs and include files
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|   it requires for SSL to work. If the configure script fails to find them,
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|   curl is simply built without SSL support.
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| 
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|   To get the https:// support into a curl that was previously built but that
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|   reports that https:// is not supported, you should dig through the document
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|   and logs and check out why the configure script doesn't find the SSL libs
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|   and/or include files.
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| 
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|   Also, check out the other paragraph in this FAQ labeled "configure doesn't
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|   find OpenSSL even when it is installed".
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| 
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|   3.2. How do I tell curl to resume a transfer?
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| 
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|   Curl supports resumed transfers both ways on both FTP and HTTP.
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| 
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|   Try the -C option.
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| 
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|   3.3. Why doesn't my posting using -F work?
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| 
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|   You can't simply use -F or -d at your choice. The web server that will
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|   receive your post assumes one of the formats. If the form you're trying to
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|   "fake" sets the type to 'multipart/form-data', then and only then you must
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|   use the -F type. In all the most common cases, you should use -d which then
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|   causes a posting with the type 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'.
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| 
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|   This is described in some detail in the MANUAL and TheArtOfHttpScripting
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|   documents, and if you don't understand it the first time, read it again
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|   before you post questions about this to the mailing list. Also, try reading
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|   through the mailing list archives for old postings and questions regarding
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|   this.
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| 
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|   3.4. How do I tell curl to run custom FTP commands?
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| 
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|   You can tell curl to perform optional commands both before and/or after a
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|   file transfer. Study the -Q/--quote option.
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| 
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|   Since curl is used for file transfers, you don't use curl to just perform
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|   FTP commands without transferring anything. Therefore you must always specify
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|   a URL to transfer to/from even when doing custom FTP commands.
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| 
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|   3.5. How can I disable the Pragma: nocache header?
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| 
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|   You can change all internally generated headers by adding a replacement with
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|   the -H/--header option. By adding a header with empty contents you safely
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|   disable that one. Use -H "Pragma:" to disable that specific header.
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| 
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|   3.6. Does curl support ASP, XML, XHTML or HTML version Y?
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| 
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|   To curl, all contents are alike. It doesn't matter how the page was
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|   generated. It may be ASP, PHP, Perl, shell-script, SSI or plain
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|   HTML-files. There's no difference to curl and it doesn't even know what kind
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|   of language that generated the page.
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| 
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|   See also item 3.14 regarding javascript.
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| 
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|   3.7. Can I use curl to delete/rename a file through FTP?
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| 
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|   Yes. You specify custom FTP commands with -Q/--quote.
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| 
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|   One example would be to delete a file after you have downloaded it:
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| 
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|      curl -O ftp://download.com/coolfile -Q '-DELE coolfile'
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| 
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|   3.8 How do I tell curl to follow HTTP redirects?
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| 
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|   Curl does not follow so-called redirects by default. The Location: header
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|   that informs the client about this is only interpreted if you're using the
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|   -L/--location option. As in:
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| 
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|      curl -L http://redirector.com
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| 
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|   3.9 How do I use curl in my favorite programming language?
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| 
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|   There exist many language interfaces/bindings for curl that integrates it
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|   better with various languages. If you are fluid in a script language, you
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|   may very well opt to use such an interface instead of using the command line
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|   tool.
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| 
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|   Find out more about which languages that support curl directly, and how to
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|   install and use them, in the libcurl section of the curl web site:
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| 
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|         http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/
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| 
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|   In February 2003, there are interfaces available for the following
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|   languages: Basic, C, C++, Cocoa, Dylan, Euphoria, Java, Lua, Object-Pascal,
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|   Pascal, Perl, PHP, PostgreSQL, Python, Rexx, Ruby, Scheme and Tcl. By the
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|   time you read this, additional ones may have appeared!
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| 
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|   3.10 What about SOAP, WebDAV, XML-RPC or similar protocols over HTTP?
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| 
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|   Curl adheres to the HTTP spec, which basically means you can play with *any*
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|   protocol that is built on top of HTTP. Protocols such as SOAP, WEBDAV and
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|   XML-RPC are all such ones. You can use -X to set custom requests and -H to
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|   set custom headers (or replace internally generated ones).
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| 
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|   Using libcurl is of course just as fine and you'd just use the proper
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|   library options to do the same.
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| 
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|   3.11 How do I POST with a different Content-Type?
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| 
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|   You can always replace the internally generated headers with -H/--header.
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|   To make a simple HTTP POST with text/xml as content-type, do something like:
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| 
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|         curl -d "datatopost" -H "Content-Type: text/xml" [URL]
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| 
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|   3.12 Why do FTP specific features over HTTP proxy fail?
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| 
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|   Because when you use a HTTP proxy, the protocol spoken on the network will
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|   be HTTP, even if you specify a FTP URL. This effectively means that you
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|   normally can't use FTP specific features such as FTP upload and FTP quote
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|   etc.
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| 
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|   There is one exception to this rule, and that is if you can "tunnel through"
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|   the given HTTP proxy. Proxy tunneling is enabled with a special option (-p)
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|   and is generally not available as proxy admins usually disable tunneling to
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|   other ports than 443 (which is used for HTTPS access through proxies).
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| 
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|   3.13 Why does my single/double quotes fail?
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| 
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|   To specify a command line option that includes spaces, you might need to
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|   put the entire option within quotes. Like in:
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| 
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|    curl -d " with spaces " url.com
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|   
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|   or perhaps
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| 
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|    curl -d ' with spaces ' url.com
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| 
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|   Exactly what kind of quotes and how to do this is entirely up to the shell
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|   or command line interpreter that you are using. For most unix shells, you
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|   can more or less pick either single (') or double (") quotes. For
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|   Windows/DOS prompts I believe you're forced to use double (") quotes.
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| 
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|   Please study the documentation for your particular environment. Examples in
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|   the curl docs will use a mix of both these ones as shown above. You must
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|   adjust them to work in your environment.
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| 
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|   Remember that curl works and runs on more operating systems than most single
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|   individuals have ever tried.
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| 
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|   3.14 Does curl support javascript or pac (automated proxy config)?
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| 
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|   Many web pages do magic stuff using embedded javascript. Curl and libcurl
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|   have no built-in support for that, so it will be treated just like any other
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|   contents.
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| 
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|   .pac files are a netscape invention and are sometimes used by organizations
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|   to allow them to differentiate which proxies to use. The .pac contents is
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|   just a javascript program that gets invoked by the browser and that returns
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|   the name of the proxy to connect to. Since curl doesn't support javascript,
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|   it can't support .pac proxy configuration either.
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| 
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|   Some work-arounds usually suggested to overcome this javascript dependency:
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| 
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|     - Depending on the javascript complexity, write up a script that
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|       translates it to another language and execute that.
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| 
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|     - Read the javascript code and rewrite the same logic in another language.
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| 
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|     - Implement a javascript interpreted, people have successfully used the
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|       Mozilla javascript engine in the past.
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| 
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|     - Ask your admins to stop this, for a static proxy setup or similar.
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| 
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|   3.15 Can I do recursive fetches with curl?
 | |
| 
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|   No. curl itself has no code that performs recursive operations, such as
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|   those performed by wget.
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| 
 | |
|   There exist wrapper scripts with that functionality (for example the
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|   curlmirror perl script), and you can write programs based on libcurl to do
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|   it, but the command line tool curl itself cannot.
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| 
 | |
| 4. Running Problems
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.1. Problems connecting to SSL servers.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   It took a very long time before we could sort out why curl had problems to
 | |
|   connect to certain SSL servers when using SSLeay or OpenSSL v0.9+.  The
 | |
|   error sometimes showed up similar to:
 | |
| 
 | |
|   16570:error:1407D071:SSL routines:SSL2_READ:bad mac decode:s2_pkt.c:233:
 | |
| 
 | |
|   It turned out to be because many older SSL servers don't deal with SSLv3
 | |
|   requests properly. To correct this problem, tell curl to select SSLv2 from
 | |
|   the command line (-2/--sslv2).
 | |
| 
 | |
|   There has also been examples where the remote server didn't like the SSLv2
 | |
|   request and instead you had to force curl to use SSLv3 with -3/--sslv3.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.2. Why do I get problems when I use & or % in the URL?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   In general unix shells, the & letter is treated special and when used, it
 | |
|   runs the specified command in the background. To safely send the & as a part
 | |
|   of a URL, you should quote the entire URL by using single (') or double (")
 | |
|   quotes around it.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   An example that would invoke a remote CGI that uses &-letters could be:
 | |
| 
 | |
|      curl 'http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?text=yes&q=curl'
 | |
| 
 | |
|   In Windows, the standard DOS shell treats the %-letter specially and you
 | |
|   need to use TWO %-letters for each single one you want to use in the URL.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Also note that if you want the literal %-letter to be part of the data you
 | |
|   pass in a POST using -d/--data you must encode it as '%25' (which then also
 | |
|   needs the %-letter doubled on Windows machines).
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.3. How can I use {, }, [ or ] to specify multiple URLs?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Because those letters have a special meaning to the shell, and to be used in
 | |
|   a URL specified to curl you must quote them.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   An example that downloads two URLs (sequentially) would do:
 | |
| 
 | |
|     curl '{curl,www}.haxx.se'
 | |
| 
 | |
|   To be able to use those letters as actual parts of the URL (without using
 | |
|   them for the curl URL "globbing" system), use the -g/--globoff option:
 | |
| 
 | |
|     curl -g 'www.site.com/weirdname[].html'
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.4. Why do I get downloaded data even though the web page doesn't exist?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Curl asks remote servers for the page you specify. If the page doesn't exist
 | |
|   at the server, the HTTP protocol defines how the server should respond and
 | |
|   that means that headers and a "page" will be returned. That's simply how
 | |
|   HTTP works.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   By using the --fail option you can tell curl explicitly to not get any data
 | |
|   if the HTTP return code doesn't say success.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.5 Why do I get return code XXX from a HTTP server?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   RFC2616 clearly explains the return codes. This is a short transcript. Go
 | |
|   read the RFC for exact details:
 | |
| 
 | |
|     4.5.1 "400 Bad Request"
 | |
| 
 | |
|     The request could not be understood by the server due to malformed
 | |
|     syntax. The client SHOULD NOT repeat the request without modifications.
 | |
| 
 | |
|     4.5.2 "401 Unauthorized"
 | |
| 
 | |
|     The request requires user authentication.
 | |
| 
 | |
|     4.5.3 "403 Forbidden"
 | |
| 
 | |
|     The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it.
 | |
|     Authorization will not help and the request SHOULD NOT be repeated.
 | |
| 
 | |
|     4.5.4 "404 Not Found"
 | |
| 
 | |
|     The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication
 | |
|     is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent.
 | |
| 
 | |
|     4.5.5 "405 Method Not Allowed"
 | |
| 
 | |
|     The method specified in the Request-Line is not allowed for the resource
 | |
|     identified by the Request-URI. The response MUST include an Allow header
 | |
|     containing a list of valid methods for the requested resource.
 | |
| 
 | |
|     4.5.6 "301 Moved Permanently"
 | |
|  
 | |
|     If you get this return code and an HTML output similar to this:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        <H1>Moved Permanently</H1> The document has moved <A
 | |
|        HREF="http://same_url_now_with_a_trailing_slash/">here</A>.
 | |
| 
 | |
|     it might be because you request a directory URL but without the trailing
 | |
|     slash. Try the same operation again _with_ the trailing URL, or use the
 | |
|     -L/--location option to follow the redirection.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.6. Can you tell me what error code 142 means?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   All error codes that are larger than the highest documented error code means
 | |
|   that curl has exited due to a crash. This is a serious error, and we
 | |
|   appreciate a detailed bug report from you that describes how we could go
 | |
|   ahead and repeat this!
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.7. How do I keep user names and passwords secret in Curl command lines?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This problem has two sides:
 | |
| 
 | |
|   The first part is to avoid having clear-text passwords in the command line
 | |
|   so that they don't appear in 'ps' outputs and similar. That is easily
 | |
|   avoided by using the "-K" option to tell curl to read parameters from a
 | |
|   file or stdin to which you can pass the secret info.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   To keep the passwords in your account secret from the rest of the world is
 | |
|   not a task that curl addresses. You could of course encrypt them somehow to
 | |
|   at least hide them from being read by human eyes, but that is not what
 | |
|   anyone would call security.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Also note that regular HTTP and FTP passwords are sent in clear across the
 | |
|   network. All it takes for anyone to fetch them is to listen on the network.
 | |
|   Eavesdropping is very easy.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.8 I found a bug!
 | |
| 
 | |
|   It is not a bug if the behavior is documented. Read the docs first.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   If it is a problem with a binary you've downloaded or a package for your
 | |
|   particular platform, try contacting the person who built the package/archive
 | |
|   you have.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   If there is a bug, read the BUGS document first. Then report it as described
 | |
|   in there.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.9. Curl can't authenticate to the server that requires NTLM?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This is supported in curl 7.10.6 or later. No earlier curl version knows
 | |
|   of this magic.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   NTLM is a Microsoft proprietary protocol. Proprietary formats are evil. You
 | |
|   should not use such ones.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.10 My HTTP request using HEAD, PUT or DELETE doesn't work!
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Many web servers allow or demand that the administrator configures the
 | |
|   server properly for these requests to work on the web server.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Some servers seem to support HEAD only on certain kinds of URLs.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   To fully grasp this, try the documentation for the particular server
 | |
|   software you're trying to interact with. This is not anything curl can do
 | |
|   anything about.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.11 Why does my HTTP range requests return the full document?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Because the range may not be supported by the server, or the server may
 | |
|   choose to ignore it and return the full document anyway.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   4.12 Why do I get "certificate verify failed" ?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   You invoke curl 7.10 or later to communicate on a https:// URL and get an
 | |
|   error back looking something similar to this:
 | |
| 
 | |
|       curl: (35) SSL: error:14090086:SSL routines: 
 | |
|       SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Then it means that curl couldn't verify that the server's certificate was
 | |
|   good. Curl verifies the certificate using the CA cert bundle that comes with
 | |
|   the curl installation.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   To disable the verification (which makes it act like curl did before 7.10),
 | |
|   use -k. This does however enable man-in-the-middle attacks.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   If you get this failure but are having a CA cert bundle installed and used,
 | |
|   the server's certificate is not signed by one of the CA's in the bundle. It
 | |
|   might for example be self-signed. You then correct this problem by obtaining
 | |
|   a valid CA cert for the server. Or again, decrease the security by disabling
 | |
|   this check.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Details are also in the SSLCERTS file in the release archives, found online
 | |
|   here: http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html
 | |
| 
 | |
| 5. libcurl Issues
 | |
| 
 | |
|   5.1. Is libcurl thread-safe?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Yes.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   We have written the libcurl code specificly adjusted for multi-threaded
 | |
|   programs. libcurl will use thread-safe functions instead of non-safe ones if
 | |
|   your system has such.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   We would appreciate some kind of report or README file from those who have
 | |
|   used libcurl in a threaded environment.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   5.2 How can I receive all data into a large memory chunk?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   [ See also the examples/getinmemory.c source ]
 | |
| 
 | |
|   You are in full control of the callback function that gets called every time
 | |
|   there is data received from the remote server. You can make that callback do
 | |
|   whatever you want. You do not have to write the received data to a file.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   One solution to this problem could be to have a pointer to a struct that you
 | |
|   pass to the callback function. You set the pointer using the
 | |
|   curl_easy_setopt(CURLOPT_FILE) function. Then that pointer will be passed to
 | |
|   the callback instead of a FILE * to a file:
 | |
| 
 | |
|         /* imaginary struct */
 | |
|         struct MemoryStruct {
 | |
|           char *memory;
 | |
|           size_t size;
 | |
|         };
 | |
| 
 | |
|         /* imaginary callback function */
 | |
|         size_t
 | |
|         WriteMemoryCallback(void *ptr, size_t size, size_t nmemb, void *data)
 | |
|         {
 | |
|           register int realsize = size * nmemb;
 | |
|           struct MemoryStruct *mem = (struct MemoryStruct *)data;
 | |
|         
 | |
|           mem->memory = (char *)realloc(mem->memory, mem->size + realsize + 1);
 | |
|           if (mem->memory) {
 | |
|             memcpy(&(mem->memory[mem->size]), ptr, realsize);
 | |
|             mem->size += realsize;
 | |
|             mem->memory[mem->size] = 0;
 | |
|           }
 | |
|           return realsize;
 | |
|         }
 | |
| 
 | |
|   5.3 How do I fetch multiple files with libcurl?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   libcurl has excellent support for transferring multiple files. You should
 | |
|   just repeatedly set new URLs with curl_easy_setopt() and then transfer it
 | |
|   with curl_easy_perform(). The handle you get from curl_easy_init() is not
 | |
|   only reusable, but you're even encouraged to reuse it if you can, as that
 | |
|   will enable libcurl to use persistent connections.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   5.4 Does libcurl do Winsock initialization on win32 systems?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Yes, if told to in the curl_global_init() call.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   5.5 Does CURLOPT_WRITEDATA and CURLOPT_READDATA work on win32 ?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Yes, but you cannot open a FILE * and pass the pointer to a DLL and have
 | |
|   that DLL use the FILE * (as the DLL and the client application cannot access
 | |
|   each others' variable memory areas). If you set CURLOPT_WRITEDATA you must
 | |
|   also use CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION as well to set a function that writes the
 | |
|   file, even if that simply writes the data to the specified FILE *.
 | |
|   Similarly, if you use CURLOPT_READDATA you must also specify
 | |
|   CURLOPT_READFUNCTION.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   (Provided by Joel DeYoung and Bob Schader)
 | |
| 
 | |
|   5.6 What about Keep-Alive or persistent connections?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   curl and libcurl have excellent support for persistent connections when
 | |
|   transferring several files from the same server.  Curl will attempt to reuse
 | |
|   connections for all URLs specified on the same command line/config file, and
 | |
|   libcurl will reuse connections for all transfers that are made using the
 | |
|   same libcurl handle.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   5.7 Link errors when building libcurl on Windows!
 | |
| 
 | |
|   You need to make sure that your project, and all the libraries (both static
 | |
|   and dynamic) that it links against, are compiled/linked against the same run
 | |
|   time library.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   This is determined by the /MD, /ML, /MT (and their corresponding /M?d)
 | |
|   options to the command line compiler. /MD (linking against MSVCRT dll) seems
 | |
|   to be the most commonly used option.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   (Provided by Andrew Francis)
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 6. License Issues
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Curl and libcurl are released under a MIT/X derivate license. The license is
 | |
|   very liberal and should not impose a problem for your project. This section
 | |
|   is just a brief summary for the cases we get the most questions. (Parts of
 | |
|   this section was much enhanced by Bjorn Reese.)
 | |
| 
 | |
|   6.1. I have a GPL program, can I use the libcurl library?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Yes!
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Since libcurl may be distributed under the MIT/X derivate license, it can be
 | |
|   used together with GPL in any software.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   6.2. I have a closed-source program, can I use the libcurl library?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Yes!
 | |
| 
 | |
|   libcurl does not put any restrictions on the program that uses the library.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   6.3. I have a BSD licensed program, can I use the libcurl library?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Yes!
 | |
| 
 | |
|   libcurl does not put any restrictions on the program that uses the library.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   6.4. I have a program that uses LGPL libraries, can I use libcurl?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Yes!
 | |
| 
 | |
|   The LGPL license doesn't clash with other licenses.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   6.5. Can I modify curl/libcurl for my program and keep the changes secret?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   Yes!
 | |
| 
 | |
|   The MIT/X derivate license practically allows you to do almost anything with
 | |
|   the sources, on the condition that the copyright texts in the sources are
 | |
|   left intact.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   6.6. Can you please change the curl/libcurl license to XXXX?
 | |
| 
 | |
|   No.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   We have carefully picked this license after years of development and
 | |
|   discussions and a large amount of people have contributed with source code
 | |
|   knowing that this is the license we use. This license puts the restrictions
 | |
|   we want on curl/libcurl and it does not spread to other programs or
 | |
|   libraries that use it. It should be possible for everyone to use libcurl or
 | |
|   curl in their projects, no matter what license they already have in use.
 | 
