CURLOPT_NOBODY(3)

💖 CURLOPT_NOBODY(3) 💖

okay bestie, this one is from the Library Functions Manual, and it's the page for CURLOPT_NOBODY — literally "do the download request without getting the body." Main character behavior fr fr.

🌸 NAME 🌸

CURLOPT_NOBODY — do the download request without getting the body. That's it, that's the vibe 💅.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <curl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_NOBODY, long opt);

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

A long parameter set to 1 tells libcurl to not include the body-part in the output when doing what would otherwise be a download. For HTTP(S), this makes libcurl do a HEAD request. For most other protocols it means just not asking to transfer the body data.

For HTTP operations when CURLOPT_NOBODY(3) has been set, disabling this option (with 0) makes it a GET again — only if the method is still set to be HEAD. The proper way to get back to a GET request is to set CURLOPT_HTTPGET(3), and for other methods, use the POST or UPLOAD options.

Enabling CURLOPT_NOBODY(3) means asking for a download without a body. Lowkey iconic.

If you do a transfer with HTTP that involves a method other than HEAD, you get a body (unless the resource and server sends a zero byte body for the specific URL you request).

🎀 DEFAULT 🎀

0, the body is transferred.

🦋 PROTOCOLS 🦋

This functionality affects all supported protocols. All of them, bestie 🌈.

💖 EXAMPLE 💖

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

    /* get us the resource without a body - use HEAD */
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_NOBODY, 1L);

    /* Perform the request */
    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 👑

• CURLOPT_HTTPGET(3)
• CURLOPT_MIMEPOST(3)
• CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS(3)
• CURLOPT_REQUEST_TARGET(3)
• CURLOPT_UPLOAD(3)

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mwah 💋 this icon is from libcurl, dated 2026-10-12, and it's still CURLOPT_NOBODY(3). bye bestie 🫶