CURLOPT_COOKIE(3)

🍪 CURLOPT_COOKIE(3) 🍪

okay bestie, welcome to the CURLOPT_COOKIE page from the Library Functions Manual 💖 this is the group-chat explainer for the HTTP Cookie header, and no cap, it's lowkey a bop.

🌸 NAME 🌸

CURLOPT_COOKIE — HTTP Cookie header

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <curl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_COOKIE, char *cookie);

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

Pass a pointer to a null-terminated string as the parameter, bestie. It's used to set one or more cookies in the HTTP request. The string format should be NAME=CONTENTS, where NAME is the cookie name and CONTENTS is what the cookie should contain. Periodt.

To set multiple cookies, set them all with a single option concatenated like this: "name1=content1; name2=content2;" etc. libcurl does not syntax check the data — it just assumes the application gives it what it needs to send. 💀

This option sets the cookie header explicitly in the outgoing request(s). If multiple requests are done due to authentication, followed redirections or similar, they all get this cookie passed on. Slay, consistency.

The cookies set by this option are separate from the internal cookie storage held by the cookie engine, and they are not modified by it. If you enable the cookie engine and either you have imported a cookie of the same name (e.g. 'foo') or the server has set one, it has no effect on the cookies you set here. A request to the server sends both the 'foo' held by the cookie engine and the 'foo' held by this option. To set a cookie that is instead held by the cookie engine and can be modified by the server, use CURLOPT_COOKIELIST(3). iykyk.

⚠️ warning bestie ⚠️ Since this custom cookie is appended to the Cookie: header in addition to any cookies set by the cookie engine, there is a risk that the header ends up too long and thereby getting the entire request rejected by the server. Not cute. 😭

The application does not have to keep the string around after setting this option. 🫶

Using this option multiple times makes the last set string override the previous ones. Set it to NULL to disable its use again.

This option does not enable the cookie engine. Use CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE(3) or CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR(3) to enable parsing and sending cookies automatically. 💖

🎀 DEFAULT 🎀

NULL, no cookies.

🌈 PROTOCOLS 🌈

This functionality affects http only.

🦋 EXAMPLE 🦋

Here's the little cutie in action:

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

    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_COOKIE, "tool=curl; fun=yes;");

    curl_easy_perform(curl);
  }
}

⭐ AVAILABILITY ⭐

Added in curl 7.1.

💜 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).

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

• CURLINFO_COOKIELIST(3)
• CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE(3)
• CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR(3)
• CURLOPT_COOKIELIST(3)
• CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER(3)

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okay bye bestie 💖 this page is from source/version libcurl, dated 2026-10-12, and it's the CURLOPT_COOKIE(3) page — mwah 💋