CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS(3) curl_easy_setopt options CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS(3)
NAME
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS - data to POST to server
SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, char *postdata);
DESCRIPTION
Pass a char * as parameter, pointing to the full data to send in an
HTTP POST operation. You must make sure that the data is formatted the
way you want the server to receive it. libcurl will not convert or en-
code it for you in any way. For example, the web server may assume that
this data is url-encoded.
The data pointed to is NOT copied by the library: as a consequence, it
must be preserved by the calling application until the associated
transfer finishes. This behavior can be changed (so libcurl does copy
the data) by setting the CURLOPT_COPYPOSTFIELDS(3) option.
This POST is a normal application/x-www-form-urlencoded kind (and
libcurl will set that Content-Type by default when this option is
used), which is commonly used by HTML forms. Change Content-Type with
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER(3).
You can use curl_easy_escape(3) to url-encode your data, if necessary.
It returns a pointer to an encoded string that can be passed as post-
data.
Using CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS(3) implies setting CURLOPT_POST(3) to 1.
If CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS(3) is explicitly set to NULL then libcurl will
get the POST data from the read callback. If you want to send a zero-
byte POST set CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS(3) to an empty string, or set CUR-
LOPT_POST(3) to 1 and CURLOPT_POSTFIELDSIZE(3) to 0.
libcurl will use assume this option points to a nul-terminated string
unless you also set CURLOPT_POSTFIELDSIZE(3) to specify the length of
the provided data, which then is strictly required if you want to send
off nul bytes included in the data.
Using POST with HTTP 1.1 implies the use of a "Expect: 100-continue"
header, and libcurl will add that header automatically if the POST is
either known to be larger than 1MB or if the expected size is unknown.
You can disable this header with CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER(3) as usual.
To make multipart/formdata posts (aka RFC2388-posts), check out the
CURLOPT_HTTPPOST(3) option combined with curl_formadd(3).
DEFAULT
NULL
PROTOCOLS
HTTP
EXAMPLE
CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
const char *data = "data to send";
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com");
/* size of the POST data */
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDSIZE, 12L);
/* pass in a pointer to the data - libcurl will not copy */
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, data);
curl_easy_perform(curl);
}
AVAILABILITY
Always
RETURN VALUE
Returns CURLE_OK
SEE ALSO
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDSIZE(3), CURLOPT_READFUNCTION(3),
libcurl 7.81.0 November 26, 2021 CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS(3)
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