CURLOPT_USERPWD(3) Library Functions Manual CURLOPT_USERPWD(3)
NAME
CURLOPT_USERPWD - username and password to use in authentication
SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, char *userpwd);
DESCRIPTION
Pass a char pointer as parameter, pointing to a null-terminated login
details string for the connection. The format of which is: [user-
name]:[password].
When using Kerberos V5 authentication with a Windows based server, you
should specify the username part with the domain name in order for the
server to successfully obtain a Kerberos Ticket. If you do not then the
initial part of the authentication handshake may fail.
When using NTLM, the username can be specified simply as the username
without the domain name should the server be part of a single domain and
forest.
To specify the domain name use either Down-Level Logon Name or UPN (User
Principal Name) formats. For example EXAMPLEser and user@example.com re-
spectively.
Some HTTP servers (on Windows) support inclusion of the domain for Basic
authentication as well.
When using HTTP and CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION(3), libcurl might perform
several requests to possibly different hosts. libcurl only sends this
user and password information to hosts using the initial hostname (un-
less CURLOPT_UNRESTRICTED_AUTH(3) is set), so if libcurl follows redi-
rects to other hosts, it does not send the user and password to those.
This is enforced to prevent accidental information leakage.
Use CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH(3) to specify the authentication method for HTTP
based connections or CURLOPT_LOGIN_OPTIONS(3) to control IMAP, POP3 and
SMTP options.
The user and password strings are not URL decoded, so there is no way to
send in a username containing a colon using this option. Use CUR-
LOPT_USERNAME(3) for that, or include it in the URL.
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.
DEFAULT
NULL
PROTOCOLS
This functionality affects all supported protocols
EXAMPLE
int main(void)
{
CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
CURLcode res;
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com/foo.bin");
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "clark:kent");
res = curl_easy_perform(curl);
curl_easy_cleanup(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
CURLOPT_PASSWORD(3), CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD(3), CURLOPT_USERNAME(3)
libcurl 2026-07-12 CURLOPT_USERPWD(3)
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