CURLOPT_IGNORE_CONTENT_LENGTH - Man Page

ignore content length

Synopsis

#include <curl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_IGNORE_CONTENT_LENGTH,
                          long ignore);

Description

If ignore is set to 1L, ignore the Content-Length header in the HTTP response and ignore asking for or relying on it for FTP transfers.

This is useful for doing HTTP transfers with ancient web servers which report incorrect content length for files over 2 gigabytes. If this option is used, curl cannot accurately report progress, and it instead stops the download when the server ends the connection.

It is also useful with FTP when for example the file is growing while the transfer is in progress which otherwise unconditionally causes libcurl to report error.

Only use this option if strictly necessary.

Default

0

Protocols

HTTP

Example

int main(void)
{
  CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
  if(curl) {
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com");

    /* we know the server is silly, ignore content-length */
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_IGNORE_CONTENT_LENGTH, 1L);

    curl_easy_perform(curl);
  }
}

Availability

Added in 7.14.1. Support for FTP added in 7.46.0. This option is not working for HTTP when libcurl is built to use the hyper backend.

Return Value

Returns CURLE_OK if the option is supported, and CURLE_UNKNOWN_OPTION if not.

See Also

CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION(3), CURLOPT_MAXFILESIZE_LARGE(3)

Referenced By

curl_easy_setopt(3), libcurl-symbols(3).

February 19 2024 libcurl