oracular (3) CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER.3.gz

Provided by: libcurl4-doc_8.9.1-2ubuntu2.2_all bug

NAME

       CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER - set of HTTP headers

SYNOPSIS

       #include <curl/curl.h>

       CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,
                                 struct curl_slist *headers);

DESCRIPTION

       Pass  a pointer to a linked list of HTTP headers to pass to the server and/or proxy in your HTTP request.
       The same list can be used for both host and proxy requests!

       When used within an IMAP or SMTP request to upload a MIME mail, the given  header  list  establishes  the
       document-level  MIME  headers  to prepend to the uploaded document described by CURLOPT_MIMEPOST(3). This
       does not affect raw mail uploads.

       The linked list should be a fully valid list  of  struct  curl_slist  structs  properly  filled  in.  Use
       curl_slist_append(3) to create the list and curl_slist_free_all(3) to clean up an entire list. If you add
       a header that is otherwise generated and used by libcurl internally, your added header is  used  instead.
       If  you  add  a  header  with  no  content  as in 'Accept:' (no data on the right side of the colon), the
       internally used header is disabled/removed. With this option you can add new  headers,  replace  internal
       headers  and  remove  internal headers. To add a header with no content (nothing to the right side of the
       colon), use the form 'name;' (note the ending semicolon).

       The headers included in the linked list must not be CRLF-terminated, because libcurl adds CRLF after each
       header  item  itself. Failure to comply with this might result in strange behavior. libcurl passes on the
       verbatim strings you give it, without any filter or other safe guards.  That  includes  white  space  and
       control characters.

       The  first  line  in  an  HTTP request (containing the method, usually a GET or POST) is not a header and
       cannot be replaced using this option. Only the lines following the request-line are headers. Adding  this
       method  line  in  this  list  of  headers  only  causes  your  request  to  send  an  invalid header. Use
       CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST(3) to change the method.

       When this option is passed to curl_easy_setopt(3), libcurl does not copy the entire list so you must keep
       it  around  until  you no longer use this handle for a transfer before you call curl_slist_free_all(3) on
       the list.

       Pass a NULL to this option to reset back to no custom headers.

       The  most  commonly  replaced  HTTP  headers  have  "shortcuts"   in   the   options   CURLOPT_COOKIE(3),
       CURLOPT_USERAGENT(3) and CURLOPT_REFERER(3). We recommend using those.

       There is an alternative option that sets or replaces headers only for requests that are sent with CONNECT
       to a proxy: CURLOPT_PROXYHEADER(3). Use CURLOPT_HEADEROPT(3) to control the behavior.

SPECIFIC HTTP HEADERS

       Setting some specific headers causes libcurl to act differently.

       Host:  The specified hostname is used for cookie matching if the cookie engine is also enabled  for  this
              transfer. If the request is done over HTTP/2 or HTTP/3, the custom hostname is instead used in the
              ":authority" header field and Host: is not sent at all over the wire.

       Transfer-Encoding: chunked
              Tells libcurl the upload is to be done using  this  chunked  encoding  instead  of  providing  the
              Content-Length: field in the request.

SPECIFIC MIME HEADERS

       When  used  to  build  a  MIME email for IMAP or SMTP, the following document-level headers can be set to
       override libcurl-generated values:

       Mime-Version:
              Tells the parser at the receiving site how to interpret the MIME framing.  It  defaults  to  "1.0"
              and should normally not be altered.

       Content-Type:
              Indicates  the document's global structure type. By default, libcurl sets it to "multipart/mixed",
              describing a document made of independent parts. When a MIME mail is only composed of  alternative
              representations  of  the  same  data  (i.e.:  HTML  and  plain  text),  this header must be set to
              "multipart/alternative".  In all cases the value must be of the form "multipart/*" to respect  the
              document structure and may not include the "boundary=" parameter.

       Other specific headers that do not have a libcurl default value but are strongly desired by mail delivery
       and user agents should also be included.  These are From:, To:, Date: and Subject: among others and their
       presence and value is generally checked by anti-spam utilities.

SECURITY CONCERNS

       By  default,  this  option makes libcurl send the given headers in all HTTP requests done by this handle.
       You should therefore use this option with caution if you for example connect to the remote site  using  a
       proxy  and  a  CONNECT request, you should to consider if that proxy is supposed to also get the headers.
       They may be private or otherwise sensitive to leak.

       Use CURLOPT_HEADEROPT(3) to make the headers only get sent to where you intend them to get sent.

       Custom headers are sent in all requests done by the easy handle, which implies that if you  tell  libcurl
       to follow redirects (CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION(3)), the same set of custom headers is sent in the subsequent
       request. Redirects can of course go to other hosts and thus those servers get all the  contents  of  your
       custom headers too.

       Starting in 7.58.0, libcurl specifically prevents "Authorization:" headers from being sent to other hosts
       than the first used one, unless specifically permitted with the CURLOPT_UNRESTRICTED_AUTH(3) option.

       Starting in 7.64.0, libcurl specifically prevents "Cookie:" headers from being sent to other  hosts  than
       the first used one, unless specifically permitted with the CURLOPT_UNRESTRICTED_AUTH(3) option.

DEFAULT

       NULL

PROTOCOLS

       This functionality affects http, imap and smtp

EXAMPLE

       int main(void)
       {
         CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();

         struct curl_slist *list = NULL;

         if(curl) {
           curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com");

           list = curl_slist_append(list, "Shoesize: 10");
           list = curl_slist_append(list, "Accept:");

           curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, list);

           curl_easy_perform(curl);

           curl_slist_free_all(list); /* free the list */
         }
       }

HISTORY

       Use for MIME mail added in 7.56.0.

AVAILABILITY

       Added in curl 7.1

RETURN VALUE

       Returns CURLE_OK if HTTP is supported, and CURLE_UNKNOWN_OPTION if not.

SEE ALSO

       CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST(3),       CURLOPT_HEADER(3),       CURLOPT_HEADEROPT(3),       CURLOPT_MIMEPOST(3),
       CURLOPT_PROXYHEADER(3), curl_mime_init(3)