CURLINFO_CONTENT_TYPE(3)

Hey bestie! 💖 This is CURLINFO_CONTENT_TYPE(3) straight from the Library Functions Manual — the page for the Content-Type of response, and yes it’s giving main-character energy. ✨

💖 NAME 💖

CURLINFO_CONTENT_TYPE - Content-Type of response 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

       #include <curl/curl.h>

       CURLcode curl_easy_getinfo(CURL *handle, CURLINFO_CONTENT_TYPE, char **ct);

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

Okay so the whole vibe is: you pass a pointer to a char pointer, and it receives the content-type of the downloaded object. This is literally the value read from the Content-Type: field. Slay. 💅

If you get NULL, that means the server did not send a valid Content-Type header or the protocol used does not support this. No cap. 🫶

The ct pointer is NULL or points to private memory. You must not free it. Like, hands off. It gets freed automatically when you call curl_easy_cleanup(3) on the corresponding curl handle. Obsessed with the automatic cleanup, honestly. 🧚

The modern way to get this header from a response is to instead use the curl_easy_header(3) function. Iconic alternative, iykyk. 🌈

🦋 PROTOCOLS 🦋

This functionality affects http only. Periodt. 💀

🌸 EXAMPLE 🌸

Here’s the example in all its untouched glory: ⭐

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

           result = curl_easy_perform(curl);

           if(!result) {
             /* extract the content-type */
             char *ct = NULL;
             result = curl_easy_getinfo(curl, CURLINFO_CONTENT_TYPE, &ct);
             if(!result && ct) {
               printf("Content-Type: %s\n", ct);
             }
           }
           curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
         }
       }

💜 AVAILABILITY 💜

Added in curl 7.9.4. 💖

🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

curl_easy_getinfo(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). 😭

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION(3)
• curl_easy_getinfo(3)
• curl_easy_header(3)
• curl_easy_setopt(3)

These are the besties you should also check out. 🫶

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Mwah 💋 that’s the whole CURLINFO_CONTENT_TYPE(3) page — brought to you by libcurl and dated 2026-10-12. Bye bestie, go get that content-type! 🦋✨