curl / libcurl / API / curl_easy_setopt / CURLOPT_IGNORE_CONTENT_LENGTH

CURLOPT_IGNORE_CONTENT_LENGTH explained

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

Protocols

This functionality affects ftp and 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);
  }
}

History

Support for FTP added in 7.46.0.

Notes

This option is not working for HTTP when libcurl is built to use the hyper backend.

Availability

Added in curl 7.14.1

Return value

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