Ubuntu Manpage: CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER

name
synopsis
description
specific http headers
specific mime headers
security concerns
default
protocols
example
history
availability
return value
see also

Provided by: libcurl4-doc_8.12.1-2ubuntu1_all

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.

Using this option multiple times makes the last set list override the previous ones. Set it to NULL to
disable its use again.

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

       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).