CURLOPT_COOKIE(3) Library Functions Manual CURLOPT_COOKIE(3)
NAME
CURLOPT_COOKIE - HTTP Cookie header
SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_COOKIE, char *cookie);
DESCRIPTION
Pass a pointer to a null-terminated string as parameter. It is used to
set one or more cookies in the HTTP request. The format of the string
should be NAME=CONTENTS, where NAME is the cookie name and CONTENTS is
what the cookie should contain.
To set multiple cookies, set them all using a single option concatenated
like this: "name1=content1; name2=content2;" etc. libcurl does not syn-
tax check the data but assumes the application gives it what it needs to
send.
This option sets the cookie header explicitly in the outgoing re-
quest(s). If multiple requests are done due to authentication, followed
redirections or similar, they all get this cookie passed on.
The cookies set by this option are separate from the internal cookie
storage held by the cookie engine and they are not be modified by it. If
you enable the cookie engine and either you have imported a cookie of
the same name (e.g. 'foo') or the server has set one, it has no effect
on the cookies you set here. A request to the server sends both the
'foo' held by the cookie engine and the 'foo' held by this option. To
set a cookie that is instead held by the cookie engine and can be modi-
fied by the server use CURLOPT_COOKIELIST(3).
Since this custom cookie is appended to the Cookie: header in addition
to any cookies set by the cookie engine, there is a risk that the header
ends up too long and thereby getting the entire request rejected by the
server.
The application does not have to keep the string around after setting
this option.
Using this option multiple times makes the last set string override the
previous ones. Set it to NULL to disable its use again.
This option does not enable the cookie engine. Use CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE(3)
or CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR(3) to enable parsing and sending cookies automati-
cally.
DEFAULT
NULL, no cookies
PROTOCOLS
This functionality affects http only
EXAMPLE
int main(void)
{
CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com");
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_COOKIE, "tool=curl; fun=yes;");
curl_easy_perform(curl);
}
}
AVAILABILITY
Added in curl 7.1
RETURN VALUE
curl_easy_setopt(3) returns a CURLcode indicating success or error.
CURLE_OK (0) means everything was OK, non-zero means an error occurred,
see libcurl-errors(3).
SEE ALSO
CURLINFO_COOKIELIST(3), CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE(3), CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR(3),
CURLOPT_COOKIELIST(3), CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER(3)
libcurl 2026-07-12 CURLOPT_COOKIE(3)
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