CURLOPT_COOKIELIST(3) curl_easy_setopt options CURLOPT_COOKIELIST(3)
NAME
CURLOPT_COOKIELIST - add to or manipulate cookies held in memory
SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_COOKIELIST,
char *cookie);
DESCRIPTION
Pass a char * to a cookie string.
Such a cookie can be either a single line in Netscape / Mozilla format
or just regular HTTP-style header (Set-Cookie: ...) format. This will
also enable the cookie engine. This adds that single cookie to the in-
ternal cookie store.
Exercise caution if you are using this option and multiple transfers
may occur. If you use the Set-Cookie format and do not specify a do-
main then the cookie is sent for any domain (even after redirects are
followed) and cannot be modified by a server-set cookie. If a server
sets a cookie of the same name (or maybe you have imported one) then
both will be sent on a future transfer to that server, likely not what
you intended. To address these issues set a domain in Set-Cookie (doing
that will include sub-domains) or use the Netscape format as shown in
EXAMPLE.
Additionally, there are commands available that perform actions if you
pass in these exact strings:
ALL erases all cookies held in memory
SESS erases all session cookies held in memory
FLUSH writes all known cookies to the file specified by CURLOPT_COOK-
IEJAR(3)
RELOAD loads all cookies from the files specified by CURLOPT_COOK-
IEFILE(3)
DEFAULT
NULL
PROTOCOLS
HTTP
EXAMPLE
/* This example shows an inline import of a cookie in Netscape format.
You can set the cookie as HttpOnly to prevent XSS attacks by prepending
#HttpOnly_ to the hostname. That may be useful if the cookie will later
be imported by a browser.
*/
#define SEP "\t" /* Tab separates the fields */
char *my_cookie =
"example.com" /* Hostname */
SEP "FALSE" /* Include subdomains */
SEP "/" /* Path */
SEP "FALSE" /* Secure */
SEP "0" /* Expiry in epoch time format. 0 == Session */
SEP "foo" /* Name */
SEP "bar"; /* Value */
/* my_cookie is imported immediately via CURLOPT_COOKIELIST.
*/
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_COOKIELIST, my_cookie);
/* The list of cookies in cookies.txt will not be imported until right
before a transfer is performed. Cookies in the list that have the same
hostname, path and name as in my_cookie are skipped. That is because
libcurl has already imported my_cookie and it's considered a "live"
cookie. A live cookie will not be replaced by one read from a file.
*/
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookies.txt"); /* import */
/* Cookies are exported after curl_easy_cleanup is called. The server
may have added, deleted or modified cookies by then. The cookies that
were skipped on import are not exported.
*/
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookies.txt"); /* export */
curl_easy_perform(curl); /* cookies imported from cookies.txt */
curl_easy_cleanup(curl); /* cookies exported to cookies.txt */
Cookie file format
The cookie file format and general cookie concepts in curl are de-
scribed in the HTTP-COOKIES.md file, also hosted online here:
https://curl.se/docs/http-cookies.html
AVAILABILITY
ALL was added in 7.14.1
SESS was added in 7.15.4
FLUSH was added in 7.17.1
RELOAD was added in 7.39.0
RETURN VALUE
Returns CURLE_OK if the option is supported, CURLE_UNKNOWN_OPTION if
not, or CURLE_OUT_OF_MEMORY if there was insufficient heap space.
SEE ALSO
CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE(3), CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR(3), CURLOPT_COOKIE(3),
CURLINFO_COOKIELIST(3),
libcurl 7.81.0 October 31, 2021 CURLOPT_COOKIELIST(3)
Generated by dwww version 1.14 on Thu Jan 23 06:20:35 CET 2025.