CURLOPT_NOBODY - Man Page

#include <curl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_NOBODY, long opt);

A long parameter set to 1 tells libcurl to not include the body-part in the output when doing what would otherwise be a download. For HTTP(S), this makes libcurl do a HEAD request. For most other protocols it means just not asking to transfer the body data.

For HTTP operations when CURLOPT_NOBODY(3) has been set, disabling this option (with 0) makes it a GET again - only if the method is still set to be HEAD. The proper way to get back to a GET request is to set CURLOPT_HTTPGET(3) and for other methods, use the POST or UPLOAD options.

Enabling CURLOPT_NOBODY(3) means asking for a download without a body.

If you do a transfer with HTTP that involves a method other than HEAD, you get a body (unless the resource and server sends a zero byte body for the specific URL you request).

0, the body is transferred

This functionality affects all supported protocols

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

    /* get us the resource without a body - use HEAD */
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_NOBODY, 1L);

    /* Perform the request */
    curl_easy_perform(curl);
  }
}

Added in curl 7.1

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).

CURLOPT_HTTPGET(3), CURLOPT_MIMEPOST(3), CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS(3), CURLOPT_REQUEST_TARGET(3), CURLOPT_UPLOAD(3)

curl_easy_setopt(3), CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST(3), CURLOPT_HTTPGET(3), CURLOPT_HTTPPOST(3), CURLOPT_POST(3), libcurl-symbols(3), libcurl-tutorial(3).