curl/docs/libcurl/opts/CURLOPT_IGNORE_CONTENT_LENGTH.md
Daniel Stenberg 54ded66618
docs/libcurl: improve easy setopt examples
- always assign the curl_easy_perform() return code (and declare
  the necessary 'result' variable for it)

- always call curl_easy_cleanup() on the created easy handles

Closes #21364
2026-04-18 23:34:39 +02:00

1.7 KiB

c SPDX-License-Identifier Title Section Source Protocol See-also Added-in
Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al. curl CURLOPT_IGNORE_CONTENT_LENGTH 3 libcurl
HTTP
FTP
CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION (3)
CURLOPT_MAXFILESIZE_LARGE (3)
7.14.1

NAME

CURLOPT_IGNORE_CONTENT_LENGTH - 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%

EXAMPLE

int main(void)
{
  CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
  if(curl) {
    CURLcode result;
    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);

    result = curl_easy_perform(curl);
    curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
  }
}

HISTORY

Support for FTP added in 7.46.0.

%AVAILABILITY%

RETURN VALUE

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).