curl_global_init(3) libcurl Manual curl_global_init(3)
NAME
curl_global_init - Global libcurl initialisation
SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_global_init(long flags);
DESCRIPTION
This function sets up the program environment that libcurl needs. Think
of it as an extension of the library loader.
This function must be called at least once within a program (a program
is all the code that shares a memory space) before the program calls
any other function in libcurl. The environment it sets up is constant
for the life of the program and is the same for every program, so mul-
tiple calls have the same effect as one call.
The flags option is a bit pattern that tells libcurl exactly what fea-
tures to init, as described below. Set the desired bits by ORing the
values together. In normal operation, you must specify
CURL_GLOBAL_ALL. Do not use any other value unless you are familiar
with it and mean to control internal operations of libcurl.
This function is not thread safe. You must not call it when any other
thread in the program (i.e. a thread sharing the same memory) is run-
ning. This does not just mean no other thread that is using libcurl.
Because curl_global_init(3) calls functions of other libraries that are
similarly thread unsafe, it could conflict with any other thread that
uses these other libraries.
If you are initializing libcurl from a Windows DLL you should not ini-
tialize it from DllMain or a static initializer because Windows holds
the loader lock during that time and it could cause a deadlock.
See the description in libcurl(3) of global environment requirements
for details of how to use this function.
FLAGS
CURL_GLOBAL_ALL
Initialize everything possible. This sets all known bits except
CURL_GLOBAL_ACK_EINTR.
CURL_GLOBAL_SSL
(This flag's presence or absence serves no meaning since 7.57.0.
The description below is for older libcurl versions.)
Initialize SSL.
The implication here is that if this bit is not set, the ini-
tialization of the SSL layer needs to be done by the application
or at least outside of libcurl. The exact procedure how to do
SSL initialization depends on the TLS backend libcurl uses.
Doing TLS based transfers without having the TLS layer initial-
ized may lead to unexpected behaviors.
CURL_GLOBAL_WIN32
Initialize the Win32 socket libraries.
The implication here is that if this bit is not set, the ini-
tialization of winsock has to be done by the application or you
risk getting undefined behaviors. This option exists for when
the initialization is handled outside of libcurl so there's no
need for libcurl to do it again.
CURL_GLOBAL_NOTHING
Initialise nothing extra. This sets no bit.
CURL_GLOBAL_DEFAULT
A sensible default. It will init both SSL and Win32. Right now,
this equals the functionality of the CURL_GLOBAL_ALL mask.
CURL_GLOBAL_ACK_EINTR
This bit has no point since 7.69.0 but its behavior is instead
the default.
Before 7.69.0: when this flag is set, curl will acknowledge
EINTR condition when connecting or when waiting for data. Other-
wise, curl waits until full timeout elapses. (Added in 7.30.0)
EXAMPLE
curl_global_init(CURL_GLOBAL_DEFAULT);
/* use libcurl, then before exiting... */
curl_global_cleanup();
AVAILABILITY
Added in 7.8
RETURN VALUE
If this function returns non-zero, something went wrong and you cannot
use the other curl functions.
SEE ALSO
curl_global_init_mem(3), curl_global_cleanup(3), curl_global_sslset(3),
curl_easy_init(3) libcurl(3)
libcurl 7.81.0 November 26, 2021 curl_global_init(3)
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