curl/docs/LIBCURL

62 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
Raw Permalink Normal View History

2000-05-22 13:35:35 -04:00
_ _ _ _
| (_) |__ ___ _ _ _ __| |
| | | '_ \ / __| | | | '__| |
| | | |_) | (__| |_| | | | |
|_|_|_.__/ \___|\__,_|_| |_|
2000-05-22 15:02:54 -04:00
How To Use Libcurl In Your Program
Interfaces
libcurl currently offers two different interfaces to the URL transfer
engine. They can be seen as one low-level and one high-level, in the sense
that the low-level one will allow you to deal with a lot more details but on
the other hand not offer as many fancy features (such as Location:
following). The high-level interface is supposed to be a built-in
implementation of the low-level interface. You will not be able to mix
function calls from the different layers.
As we currently ONLY support the high-level interface, the so called easy
interface, I will not attempt to describe any low-level functions at this
point.
Function descriptions
The interface is meant to be very simple for very simple
implementations. Thus, we have minimized the number of entries.
2000-05-26 07:59:43 -04:00
The Easy Interface
2000-05-22 15:02:54 -04:00
2000-05-26 07:59:43 -04:00
When using the easy interface, you init your easy-session and get a handle,
which you use as input to the following interface functions you use.
2000-05-22 15:02:54 -04:00
You continue by setting all the options you want in the upcoming transfer,
2000-05-26 07:59:43 -04:00
most important among them is the URL itself. You might want to set some
callbacks as well that will be called from the library when data is available
etc.
2000-05-22 15:02:54 -04:00
2000-05-26 07:59:43 -04:00
When all is setup, you tell libcurl to perform the transfer. It will then do
the entire operation and won't return until it is done or failed.
2000-05-22 15:02:54 -04:00
After the transfer has been made, you cleanup the easy-session's handle and
libcurl is entirely off the hook!
2000-05-22 15:02:54 -04:00
2000-05-26 07:59:43 -04:00
curl_easy_init()
curl_easy_setopt()
curl_easy_perform()
curl_easy_cleanup()
2000-05-22 15:02:54 -04:00
While the above four functions are the main functions to use in the easy
interface, there is a series of helpful functions to use. They are:
curl_version() - displays the libcurl version
curl_getdate() - converts a date string to time_t
curl_getenv() - portable environment variable reader
curl_formparse() - helps building a HTTP form POST
curl_slist_append() - builds a linked list
curl_slist_free_all() - frees a whole curl_slist
Read the separate man pages for these functions for details!