CURLOPT_PROXY(3) Library Functions Manual CURLOPT_PROXY(3)
NAME
CURLOPT_PROXY - proxy to use
SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_PROXY, char *proxy);
DESCRIPTION
Set the proxy to use for transfers with this easy handle. The parameter
should be a char * to a null-terminated string holding the hostname or
dotted numerical IP address. A numerical IPv6 address must be written
within [brackets].
To specify port number in this string, append :[port] to the end of the
host name. The proxy's port number may optionally (but discouraged) be
specified with the separate option CURLOPT_PROXYPORT(3). If not speci-
fied, libcurl defaults to using port 1080 for proxies.
The proxy string may be prefixed with [scheme]:// to specify which kind
of proxy is used.
Using this option multiple times makes the last set string override the
previous ones. Set it to NULL to disable its use again.
The application does not have to keep the string around after setting
this option.
http://
HTTP Proxy. Default when no scheme or proxy type is specified.
https://
HTTPS Proxy. (Added in 7.52.0 for OpenSSL and GnuTLS Since
7.87.0, it also works for BearSSL, mbedTLS, Rustls, Schannel, Se-
cure Transport and wolfSSL.)
This uses HTTP/1 by default. Setting CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE(3) to
CURLPROXY_HTTPS2 allows libcurl to negotiate using HTTP/2 with
proxy.
socks4://
SOCKS4 Proxy.
socks4a://
SOCKS4a Proxy. Proxy resolves URL hostname.
socks5://
SOCKS5 Proxy.
socks5h://
SOCKS5 Proxy. Proxy resolves URL hostname.
Without a scheme prefix, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE(3) can be used to specify
which kind of proxy the string identifies.
When you tell the library to use an HTTP proxy, libcurl transparently
converts operations to HTTP even if you specify an FTP URL etc. This may
have an impact on what other features of the library you can use, such
as CURLOPT_QUOTE(3) and similar FTP specifics that do not work unless
you tunnel through the HTTP proxy. Such tunneling is activated with CUR-
LOPT_HTTPPROXYTUNNEL(3).
Setting the proxy string to "" (an empty string) explicitly disables the
use of a proxy, even if there is an environment variable set for it.
Unix domain sockets are supported for socks proxies since 7.84.0. Set
localhost for the host part. e.g. socks5h://local-
host/path/to/socket.sock
When you set a hostname to use, do not assume that there is any particu-
lar single port number used widely for proxies. Specify it.
When a proxy is used, the active FTP mode as set with CUROPT_FTPPORT(3),
cannot be used.
Doing FTP over an HTTP proxy without CURLOPT_HTTPPROXYTUNNEL(3) set
makes libcurl do HTTP with an FTP URL over the proxy. For such trans-
fers, common FTP specific options do not work, for example CUR-
LOPT_USE_SSL(3).
Authentication
The proxy can also be specified with its associated credentials like for
ordinary URLs in the style: scheme://username:password@hostname
Alternatively, set them using CURLOPT_PROXYUSERNAME(3) and CURLOPT_PROX-
YPASSWORD(3).
Environment variables
libcurl respects the proxy environment variables named http_proxy,
ftp_proxy, sftp_proxy etc. If set, libcurl uses the specified proxy for
that URL scheme. For an "FTP://" URL, the ftp_proxy is considered.
all_proxy is used if no protocol specific proxy was set.
If no_proxy (or NO_PROXY) is set, it is the exact equivalent of setting
the CURLOPT_NOPROXY(3) option.
The CURLOPT_PROXY(3) and CURLOPT_NOPROXY(3) options override environment
variables.
DEFAULT
NULL
PROTOCOLS
This functionality affects all supported protocols
EXAMPLE
int main(void)
{
CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com/file.txt");
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_PROXY, "http://proxy:80");
curl_easy_perform(curl);
}
}
HISTORY
Since 7.14.1 the proxy environment variable names can include the proto-
col scheme.
Since 7.21.7 the proxy string supports the socks protocols as "schemes".
Since 7.50.2, unsupported schemes in proxy strings cause libcurl to re-
turn error.
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
CURLOPT_HTTPPROXYTUNNEL(3), CURLOPT_PRE_PROXY(3), CURLOPT_PROXYPORT(3),
CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE(3)
libcurl 2026-07-12 CURLOPT_PROXY(3)
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