CURLOPT_MAIL_FROM(3)

💌 CURLOPT_MAIL_FROM(3) — Library Functions Manual, but make it cute ✨

🎀 NAME 🎀

CURLOPT_MAIL_FROM — SMTP sender address 💌

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

okay bestie, include the header and call it like this:

#include <curl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_MAIL_FROM, char *from);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So this is the option where you pass a pointer to a null-terminated string as the parameter. It should be used to specify the sender's email address when sending SMTP mail with libcurl. 💅

An originator email address should be specified with angled brackets (<>) around it — and if you don't specify them, they get added automatically. no cap, libcurl handles the glow-up for you ✨

In order to specify DSN parameters (as per RFC 3461), the address has to be written in angled brackets, followed by the parameters. iykyk 🫶

If this parameter is not specified then an empty address is sent to the SMTP server, which might cause the email to be rejected. 😭 literally not the vibe.

The application does not have to keep the string around after setting this option. so you can let it go, bestie 💜

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

🍓 DEFAULT 🍓

blank — literally blank, bestie.

🌈 PROTOCOLS 🌈

This functionality affects smtp only.

🎀 EXAMPLE 🎀

here's the whole vibe in C:

int main(void)
{
  CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
  if(curl) {
    CURLcode result;
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "smtp://example.com/");
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_MAIL_FROM, "president@example.com");
    result = curl_easy_perform(curl);
    curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
  }
}

🦋 AVAILABILITY 🦋

Added in curl 7.20.0.

💅 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) for the tea ☕

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• CURLOPT_MAIL_AUTH(3)
• CURLOPT_MAIL_RCPT(3)

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okay that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 source/version: libcurl, date: 2026-10-12, page: CURLOPT_MAIL_FROM(3) — mwah 💋✨