docs/libcurl/opts/CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE.3

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.TH CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE 3 "17 Jun 2014" "libcurl 7.37.0" "curl_easy_setopt options"
.SH NAME
CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE \- file name to read cookies from
.SH SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, char *filename);
.SH DESCRIPTION
Pass a pointer to a zero terminated string as parameter. It should point to
the file name of your file holding cookie data to read. The cookie data can be
in either the old Netscape / Mozilla cookie data format or just regular HTTP
headers (Set-Cookie style) dumped to a file.

It also enables the cookie engine, making libcurl parse and send cookies on
subsequent requests with this handle.

Given an empty or non-existing file or by passing the empty string ("") to
this option, you can enable the cookie engine without reading any initial
cookies. If you tell libcurl the file name is "-" (just a single minus sign),
libcurl will instead read from stdin.

This option only \fBreads\fP cookies. To make libcurl write cookies to file,
see \fICURLOPT_COOKIEJAR(3)\fP.

Exercise caution if you are using this option and multiple transfers may occur.
If you use the Set-Cookie format and don't specify a domain then the cookie is
sent for any domain (even after redirects are followed) and cannot be modified
by a server-set cookie. If a server sets a cookie of the same name then both
will be sent on a future transfer to that server, likely not what you intended.
To address these issues set a domain in Set-Cookie (doing that will include
sub-domains) or use the Netscape format.

If you use this option multiple times, you just add more files to read.
Subsequent files will add more cookies.

The application does not have to keep the string around after setting this
option.
.SH DEFAULT
NULL
.SH PROTOCOLS
HTTP
.SH EXAMPLE
.nf
CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
  curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "http://example.com/foo.bin");

  /* get cookies from an existing file */
  curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "/tmp/cookies.txt");

  ret = curl_easy_perform(curl);

  curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
}
.fi
.SH "Cookie file format"
The cookie file format and general cookie concepts in curl are described in
the HTTP-COOKIES.md file, also hosted online here:
https://curl.haxx.se/docs/http-cookies.html
.SH AVAILABILITY
As long as HTTP is supported
.SH RETURN VALUE
Returns CURLE_OK if HTTP is supported, and CURLE_UNKNOWN_OPTION if not.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR CURLOPT_COOKIE "(3), " CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR "(3), "