CURLOPT_URL.3 15 KB

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  23. .TH CURLOPT_URL 3 "July 24, 2018" "libcurl 7.61.1" "curl_easy_setopt options"
  24. .SH NAME
  25. CURLOPT_URL \- provide the URL to use in the request
  26. .SH SYNOPSIS
  27. #include <curl/curl.h>
  28. CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_URL, char *URL);
  29. .SH DESCRIPTION
  30. Pass in a pointer to the \fIURL\fP to work with. The parameter should be a
  31. char * to a zero terminated string which must be URL-encoded in the following
  32. format:
  33. scheme://host:port/path
  34. For a greater explanation of the format please see RFC3986.
  35. libcurl doesn't validate the syntax or use this variable until the transfer is
  36. issued. Even if you set a crazy value here, \fIcurl_easy_setopt(3)\fP will
  37. still return \fICURLE_OK\fP.
  38. If the given URL is missing a scheme name (such as "http://" or "ftp://" etc)
  39. then libcurl will make a guess based on the host. If the outermost sub-domain
  40. name matches DICT, FTP, IMAP, LDAP, POP3 or SMTP then that protocol will be
  41. used, otherwise HTTP will be used. Since 7.45.0 guessing can be disabled by
  42. setting a default protocol, see \fICURLOPT_DEFAULT_PROTOCOL(3)\fP for details.
  43. Should the protocol, either that specified by the scheme or deduced by libcurl
  44. from the host name, not be supported by libcurl then
  45. \fICURLE_UNSUPPORTED_PROTOCOL\fP will be returned from either the
  46. \fIcurl_easy_perform(3)\fP or \fIcurl_multi_perform(3)\fP functions when you
  47. call them. Use \fIcurl_version_info(3)\fP for detailed information of which
  48. protocols are supported by the build of libcurl you are using.
  49. \fICURLOPT_PROTOCOLS(3)\fP can be used to limit what protocols libcurl will
  50. use for this transfer, independent of what libcurl has been compiled to
  51. support. That may be useful if you accept the URL from an external source and
  52. want to limit the accessibility.
  53. \fICURLOPT_URL(3)\fP is the only option that \fBmust\fP be set before a
  54. transfer is started.
  55. The host part of the URL contains the address of the server that you want to
  56. connect to. This can be the fully qualified domain name of the server, the
  57. local network name of the machine on your network or the IP address of the
  58. server or machine represented by either an IPv4 or IPv6 address. For example:
  59. http://www.example.com/
  60. http://hostname/
  61. http://192.168.0.1/
  62. http://[2001:1890:1112:1::20]/
  63. It is also possible to specify the user name, password and any supported login
  64. options as part of the host, for the following protocols, when connecting to
  65. servers that require authentication:
  66. http://user:password@www.example.com
  67. ftp://user:password@ftp.example.com
  68. smb://domain%2fuser:password@server.example.com
  69. imap://user:password;options@mail.example.com
  70. pop3://user:password;options@mail.example.com
  71. smtp://user:password;options@mail.example.com
  72. At present only IMAP, POP3 and SMTP support login options as part of the host.
  73. For more information about the login options in URL syntax please see RFC2384,
  74. RFC5092 and IETF draft draft-earhart-url-smtp-00.txt (Added in 7.31.0).
  75. The port is optional and when not specified libcurl will use the default port
  76. based on the determined or specified protocol: 80 for HTTP, 21 for FTP and 25
  77. for SMTP, etc. The following examples show how to specify the port:
  78. http://www.example.com:8080/ - This will connect to a web server using port
  79. 8080 rather than 80.
  80. smtp://mail.example.com:587/ - This will connect to a SMTP server on the
  81. alternative mail port.
  82. The path part of the URL is protocol specific and whilst some examples are
  83. given below this list is not conclusive:
  84. .IP HTTP
  85. The path part of an HTTP request specifies the file to retrieve and from what
  86. directory. If the directory is not specified then the web server's root
  87. directory is used. If the file is omitted then the default document will be
  88. retrieved for either the directory specified or the root directory. The exact
  89. resource returned for each URL is entirely dependent on the server's
  90. configuration.
  91. http://www.example.com - This gets the main page from the web server.
  92. http://www.example.com/index.html - This returns the main page by explicitly
  93. requesting it.
  94. http://www.example.com/contactus/ - This returns the default document from
  95. the contactus directory.
  96. .IP FTP
  97. The path part of an FTP request specifies the file to retrieve and from what
  98. directory. If the file part is omitted then libcurl downloads the directory
  99. listing for the directory specified. If the directory is omitted then
  100. the directory listing for the root / home directory will be returned.
  101. ftp://ftp.example.com - This retrieves the directory listing for the root
  102. directory.
  103. ftp://ftp.example.com/readme.txt - This downloads the file readme.txt from the
  104. root directory.
  105. ftp://ftp.example.com/libcurl/readme.txt - This downloads readme.txt from the
  106. libcurl directory.
  107. ftp://user:password@ftp.example.com/readme.txt - This retrieves the readme.txt
  108. file from the user's home directory. When a username and password is
  109. specified, everything that is specified in the path part is relative to the
  110. user's home directory. To retrieve files from the root directory or a
  111. directory underneath the root directory then the absolute path must be
  112. specified by prepending an additional forward slash to the beginning of the
  113. path.
  114. ftp://user:password@ftp.example.com//readme.txt - This retrieves the readme.txt
  115. from the root directory when logging in as a specified user.
  116. .IP SMTP
  117. The path part of a SMTP request specifies the host name to present during
  118. communication with the mail server. If the path is omitted then libcurl will
  119. attempt to resolve the local computer's host name. However, this may not
  120. return the fully qualified domain name that is required by some mail servers
  121. and specifying this path allows you to set an alternative name, such as
  122. your machine's fully qualified domain name, which you might have obtained
  123. from an external function such as gethostname or getaddrinfo.
  124. smtp://mail.example.com - This connects to the mail server at example.com and
  125. sends your local computer's host name in the HELO / EHLO command.
  126. smtp://mail.example.com/client.example.com - This will send client.example.com in
  127. the HELO / EHLO command to the mail server at example.com.
  128. .IP POP3
  129. The path part of a POP3 request specifies the message ID to retrieve. If the
  130. ID is not specified then a list of waiting messages is returned instead.
  131. pop3://user:password@mail.example.com - This lists the available messages for
  132. the user
  133. pop3://user:password@mail.example.com/1 - This retrieves the first message for
  134. the user
  135. .IP IMAP
  136. The path part of an IMAP request not only specifies the mailbox to list (Added
  137. in 7.30.0) or select, but can also be used to check the UIDVALIDITY of the
  138. mailbox, to specify the UID, SECTION (Added in 7.30.0) and PARTIAL octets
  139. (Added in 7.37.0) of the message to fetch and to specify what messages to
  140. search for (Added in 7.37.0).
  141. imap://user:password@mail.example.com - Performs a top level folder list
  142. imap://user:password@mail.example.com/INBOX - Performs a folder list on the
  143. user's inbox
  144. imap://user:password@mail.example.com/INBOX/;UID=1 - Selects the user's inbox
  145. and fetches message 1
  146. imap://user:password@mail.example.com/INBOX;UIDVALIDITY=50/;UID=2 - Selects
  147. the user's inbox, checks the UIDVALIDITY of the mailbox is 50 and fetches
  148. message 2 if it is
  149. imap://user:password@mail.example.com/INBOX/;UID=3/;SECTION=TEXT - Selects the
  150. user's inbox and fetches the text portion of message 3
  151. imap://user:password@mail.example.com/INBOX/;UID=4/;PARTIAL=0.1024 - Selects
  152. the user's inbox and fetches the first 1024 octets of message 4
  153. imap://user:password@mail.example.com/INBOX?NEW - Selects the user's inbox and
  154. checks for NEW messages
  155. imap://user:password@mail.example.com/INBOX?SUBJECT%20shadows - Selects the
  156. user's inbox and searches for messages containing "shadows" in the subject
  157. line
  158. For more information about the individual components of an IMAP URL please
  159. see RFC5092.
  160. .IP SCP
  161. The path part of a SCP request specifies the file to retrieve and from what
  162. directory. The file part may not be omitted. The file is taken as an absolute
  163. path from the root directory on the server. To specify a path relative to the
  164. user's home directory on the server, prepend ~/ to the path portion. If the
  165. user name is not embedded in the URL, it can be set with the
  166. \fICURLOPT_USERPWD(3)\fP or \fICURLOPT_USERNAME(3)\fP option.
  167. scp://user@example.com/etc/issue - This specifies the file /etc/issue
  168. scp://example.com/~/my-file - This specifies the file my-file in the
  169. user's home directory on the server
  170. .IP SFTP
  171. The path part of a SFTP request specifies the file to retrieve and from what
  172. directory. If the file part is omitted then libcurl downloads the directory
  173. listing for the directory specified. If the path ends in a / then a directory
  174. listing is returned instead of a file. If the path is omitted entirely then
  175. the directory listing for the root / home directory will be returned. If the
  176. user name is not embedded in the URL, it can be set with the
  177. \fICURLOPT_USERPWD(3)\fP or \fICURLOPT_USERNAME(3)\fP option.
  178. sftp://user:password@example.com/etc/issue - This specifies the file
  179. /etc/issue
  180. sftp://user@example.com/~/my-file - This specifies the file my-file in the
  181. user's home directory
  182. sftp://ssh.example.com/~/Documents/ - This requests a directory listing
  183. of the Documents directory under the user's home directory
  184. .IP SMB
  185. The path part of a SMB request specifies the file to retrieve and from what
  186. share and directory or the share to upload to and as such, may not be omitted.
  187. If the user name is not embedded in the URL, it can be set with the
  188. \fICURLOPT_USERPWD(3)\fP or \fICURLOPT_USERNAME(3)\fP option. If the user name
  189. is embedded in the URL then it must contain the domain name and as such, the
  190. backslash must be URL encoded as %2f.
  191. smb://server.example.com/files/issue - This specifies the file "issue" located
  192. in the root of the "files" share
  193. smb://server.example.com/files/ -T issue - This specifies the file "issue" will
  194. be uploaded to the root of the "files" share.
  195. .IP LDAP
  196. The path part of a LDAP request can be used to specify the: Distinguished
  197. Name, Attributes, Scope, Filter and Extension for a LDAP search. Each field
  198. is separated by a question mark and when that field is not required an empty
  199. string with the question mark separator should be included.
  200. ldap://ldap.example.com/o=My%20Organisation - This will perform a LDAP search
  201. with the DN as My Organisation.
  202. ldap://ldap.example.com/o=My%20Organisation?postalAddress - This will perform
  203. the same search but will only return postalAddress attributes.
  204. ldap://ldap.example.com/?rootDomainNamingContext - This specifies an empty DN
  205. and requests information about the rootDomainNamingContext attribute for an
  206. Active Directory server.
  207. For more information about the individual components of a LDAP URL please
  208. see RFC4516.
  209. .IP RTMP
  210. There's no official URL spec for RTMP so libcurl uses the URL syntax supported
  211. by the underlying librtmp library. It has a syntax where it wants a
  212. traditional URL, followed by a space and a series of space-separated
  213. name=value pairs.
  214. While space is not typically a "legal" letter, libcurl accepts them. When a
  215. user wants to pass in a '#' (hash) character it will be treated as a fragment
  216. and get cut off by libcurl if provided literally. You will instead have to
  217. escape it by providing it as backslash and its ASCII value in hexadecimal:
  218. "\\23".
  219. .RS 0
  220. The application does not have to keep the string around after setting this
  221. option.
  222. .SH ENCODING
  223. The string pointed to in the \fICURLOPT_URL(3)\fP argument is generally
  224. expected to be a sequence of characters using an ASCII compatible encoding.
  225. If libcurl is built with IDN support, the server name part of the URL can use
  226. an "international name" by using the current encoding (according to locale) or
  227. UTF-8 (when winidn is used).
  228. If libcurl is built without IDN support, the server name is used exactly as
  229. specified when passed to the name resolver functions.
  230. .SH DEFAULT
  231. There is no default URL. If this option isn't set, no transfer can be
  232. performed.
  233. .SH SECURITY CONCERNS
  234. Applications may at times find it convenient to allow users to specify URLs
  235. for various purposes and that string would then end up fed to this option.
  236. Getting a URL from an external untrusted party will bring reasons for several
  237. security concerns:
  238. If you have an application that runs as or in a server application, getting an
  239. unfiltered URL can easily trick your application to access a local resource
  240. instead of a remote. Protecting yourself against localhost accesses is very
  241. hard when accepting user provided URLs.
  242. Such custom URLs can also access other ports than you planned as port numbers
  243. are part of the regular URL format. The combination of a local host and a
  244. custom port number can allow external users to play tricks with your local
  245. services.
  246. Accepting external URLs may also use other protocols than http:// or other
  247. common ones. Restrict what accept with \fICURLOPT_PROTOCOLS(3)\fP.
  248. User provided URLs can also be made to point to sites that redirect further on
  249. (possibly to other protocols too). Consider your
  250. \fICURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION(3)\fP and \fICURLOPT_REDIR_PROTOCOLS(3)\fP settings.
  251. .SH PROTOCOLS
  252. All
  253. .SH EXAMPLE
  254. .nf
  255. CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
  256. if(curl) {
  257. curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "http://example.com");
  258. curl_easy_perform(curl);
  259. }
  260. .fi
  261. .SH AVAILABILITY
  262. POP3 and SMTP were added in 7.31.0
  263. .SH RETURN VALUE
  264. Returns CURLE_OK on success or CURLE_OUT_OF_MEMORY if there was insufficient
  265. heap space.
  266. Note that \fIcurl_easy_setopt(3)\fP won't actually parse the given string so
  267. given a bad URL, it will not be detected until \fIcurl_easy_perform(3)\fP or
  268. similar is called.
  269. .SH "SEE ALSO"
  270. .BR CURLOPT_VERBOSE "(3), " CURLOPT_PROTOCOLS "(3), "
  271. .BR CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE "(3), " CURLOPT_FRESH_CONNECT "(3), "
  272. .BR curl_easy_perform "(3), "
  273. .BR CURLINFO_REDIRECT_URL "(3), " CURLOPT_PATH_AS_IS "(3), "