CURLOPT_WRITEDATA

Section: curl_easy_setopt options (3)
Updated: November 04, 2020
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NAME

CURLOPT_WRITEDATA - custom pointer passed to the write callback

SYNOPSIS

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_WRITEDATA, void *pointer);

DESCRIPTION

A data pointer to pass to the write callback. If you use the CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION(3) option, this is the pointer you'll get in that callback's 4th argument. If you don't use a write callback, you must make pointer a 'FILE *' (cast to 'void *') as libcurl will pass this to fwrite(3) when writing data.

The internal CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION(3) will write the data to the FILE * given with this option, or to stdout if this option hasn't been set.

If you're using libcurl as a win32 DLL, you MUST use a CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION(3) if you set this option or you will experience crashes.

DEFAULT

By default, this is a FILE * to stdout.

PROTOCOLS

Used for all protocols.

EXAMPLE

A common technique is to use the write callback to store the incoming data into a dynamically growing allocated buffer, and then this CURLOPT_WRITEDATA(3) is used to point to a struct or the buffer to store data in. Like in the getinmemory example: https://curl.se/libcurl/c/getinmemory.html

AVAILABILITY

Available in all libcurl versions. This option was formerly known as CURLOPT_FILE, the name CURLOPT_WRITEDATA(3) was introduced in 7.9.7.

RETURN VALUE

This will return CURLE_OK.