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.TH CURLOPT_POST 3 "May 21, 2018" "libcurl 7.64.0" "curl_easy_setopt options"

.SH NAME
CURLOPT_POST \- request an HTTP POST
.SH SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_POST, long post);
.SH DESCRIPTION
A parameter set to 1 tells libcurl to do a regular HTTP post. This will also
make the library use a "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
header. (This is by far the most commonly used POST method).

Use one of \fICURLOPT_POSTFIELDS(3)\fP or \fICURLOPT_COPYPOSTFIELDS(3)\fP
options to specify what data to post and \fICURLOPT_POSTFIELDSIZE(3)\fP or
\fICURLOPT_POSTFIELDSIZE_LARGE(3)\fP to set the data size.

Optionally, you can provide data to POST using the
\fICURLOPT_READFUNCTION(3)\fP and \fICURLOPT_READDATA(3)\fP options but then
you must make sure to not set \fICURLOPT_POSTFIELDS(3)\fP to anything but
NULL. When providing data with a callback, you must transmit it using chunked
transfer-encoding or you must set the size of the data with the
\fICURLOPT_POSTFIELDSIZE(3)\fP or \fICURLOPT_POSTFIELDSIZE_LARGE(3)\fP
options. To enable chunked encoding, you simply pass in the appropriate
Transfer-Encoding header, see the post-callback.c example.

You can override the default POST Content-Type: header by setting your own
with \fICURLOPT_HTTPHEADER(3)\fP.

Using POST with HTTP 1.1 implies the use of a "Expect: 100-continue" header.
You can disable this header with \fICURLOPT_HTTPHEADER(3)\fP as usual.

If you use POST to an HTTP 1.1 server, you can send data without knowing the
size before starting the POST if you use chunked encoding. You enable this by
adding a header like "Transfer-Encoding: chunked" with
\fICURLOPT_HTTPHEADER(3)\fP. With HTTP 1.0 or without chunked transfer, you
must specify the size in the request.

When setting \fICURLOPT_POST(3)\fP to 1, libcurl will automatically set
\fICURLOPT_NOBODY(3)\fP and \fICURLOPT_HTTPGET(3)\fP to 0.

If you issue a POST request and then want to make a HEAD or GET using the same
re-used handle, you must explicitly set the new request type using
\fICURLOPT_NOBODY(3)\fP or \fICURLOPT_HTTPGET(3)\fP or similar.
.SH DEFAULT
0, disabled
.SH PROTOCOLS
HTTP
.SH EXAMPLE
.nf
CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
  curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "http://example.com/foo.bin");
  curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_POST, 1L);

  /* set up the read callback with CURLOPT_READFUNCTION */

  ret = curl_easy_perform(curl);

  curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
}
.fi
.SH AVAILABILITY
Along with HTTP
.SH RETURN VALUE
Returns CURLE_OK if HTTP is supported, and CURLE_UNKNOWN_OPTION if not.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS "(3), " CURLOPT_HTTPPOST "(3), "