Ubuntu Manpage: CURLOPT_NETRC - enable use of .netrc

Provided by: libcurl4-doc_8.17.0-1ubuntu1_all

NAME

       CURLOPT_NETRC - enable use of .netrc

SYNOPSIS

       #include <curl/curl.h>

       CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_NETRC, long level);

DESCRIPTION

This parameter controls the preference level of libcurl between using usernames and passwords from your
~/.netrc file, relative to usernames and passwords in the URL supplied with CURLOPT_URL(3). If the NETRC
environment variable is set, that filename is used as the netrc file. (Added in 8.16.0)

On Windows, libcurl primarily checks for .netrc in %HOME%. If %HOME% is not set on Windows, libcurl falls
back to %USERPROFILE%. If the file does not exist, it falls back to check if there is instead a file
named _netrc - using an underscore instead of period.

You can also tell libcurl a different filename to use with CURLOPT_NETRC_FILE(3).

libcurl uses a username (and supplied or prompted password) supplied with CURLOPT_USERPWD(3) or
CURLOPT_USERNAME(3) in preference to any of the options controlled by this parameter.

Only machine name, username and password are taken into account (init macros and similar things are not
supported).

The netrc file provides credentials for a hostname independent of which protocol and port number that are
used.

libcurl does not verify that the file has the correct properties set (as the standard Unix ftp client
does). It should only be readable by user.

level is a long that should be set to one of the values described below.

CURL_NETRC_IGNORED (0)
libcurl ignores the .netrc file. This is the default.

CURL_NETRC_OPTIONAL (1)
The use of the .netrc file is optional, and information in the URL is to be preferred. The file is
scanned for the host and username (to find the password only) or for the host only, to find the
first username and password after that machine, which ever information is not specified.

CURL_NETRC_REQUIRED (2)
The use of the .netrc file is required, and any credential information present in the URL is
ignored. The file is scanned for the host and username (to find the password only) or for the host
only, to find the first username and password after that machine, which ever information is not
specified.

FILE FORMAT

       The .netrc file format is simple: you specify lines with a machine name and follow the login and password
       that are associated with that machine.

       Each field is provided as a sequence of letters that ends with a space or newline.  Starting  in  7.84.0,
       libcurl  also  supports  quoted  strings.  They  start and end with double quotes and support the escaped
       special letters ", n, r, and t. Quoted strings are the only way a  space  character  can  be  used  in  a
       username or password.

       machine <name>
              Provides  credentials for a host called name. libcurl searches the .netrc file for a machine token
              that matches the hostname specified in the URL. Once a match is made, the  subsequent  tokens  are
              processed, stopping when the end of file is reached or another "machine" is encountered.

       default
              This  is  the  same  as  machine  name except that default matches any name. There can be only one
              default token, and it must be after all machine tokens. To provide a default anonymous  login  for
              hosts that are not otherwise matched, add a line similar to this in the end:

              default login anonymous password user@domain

       login <name>
              The username string for the remote machine.

       password <secret>
              Supply  a  password.  If  this  token is present, curl supplies the specified string if the remote
              server requires a password as part of the login process.  Note that if this token  is  present  in
              the .netrc file you really should make sure the file is not readable by anyone besides the user.

       macdef <name>
              Define  a  macro. This feature is not supported by libcurl. In order for the rest of the .netrc to
              still work fine, libcurl properly skips every definition done with "macdef" that it finds.

DEFAULT

       CURL_NETRC_IGNORED

PROTOCOLS

       This functionality affects all supported protocols

EXAMPLE

       int main(void)
       {
         CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
         if(curl) {
           CURLcode ret;
           curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "ftp://example.com/");
           curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_NETRC, CURL_NETRC_OPTIONAL);
           ret = curl_easy_perform(curl);
         }
       }

HISTORY

       CURL_NETRC_* enums became long types in 8.13.0, prior to this version a  long  cast  was  necessary  when
       passed to curl_easy_setopt(3).

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).