CURLOPT_SSH_COMPRESSION(3)

✨ CURLOPT_SSH_COMPRESSION ✨

okay bestie, so this is a page from the libcurl Library Functions Manual and honestly? it's a short one but it's lowkey iconic. sit down, hydrate, let's go 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

CURLOPT_SSH_COMPRESSION — enable SSH compression 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <curl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_SSH_COMPRESSION, long enable);

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so you pass in a long as your parameter, and the vibe is: set it to 1L to enable, or 0L to disable. that's it. that's the whole thing 🫶

it turns on built-in SSH compression. but bestie, listen to me — this is a request, not an order. the server may or may not actually do it. you're basically sliding into the server's DMs like "hey could u compress 🥺" and the server gets to decide. no cap, that's the dynamic. ✨

🎀 DEFAULT 🎀

0, disabled

like, off. not on. the compression is not giving until you ask. 💀

🌈 PROTOCOLS 🌈

this functionality affects scp and sftp — that's the whole guest list, iykyk 🔥

🧚 EXAMPLE 🧚

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

    /* enable built-in compression */
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_SSH_COMPRESSION, 1L);

    /* Perform the request */
    curl_easy_perform(curl);
  }
}

look at her go. main character energy fr fr 👑

⭐ AVAILABILITY ⭐

Added in curl 7.56.0 — so if you're on something older, this option is gonna ghost you 🙈

💜 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, so go see libcurl-errors(3) and figure out what's wrong. 😭

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

• CURLOPT_ACCEPT_ENCODING(3)
• CURLOPT_TRANSFER_ENCODING(3)

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and that's the tea, bestie 🍓 this page is from libcurl, dated 2026-10-12, and it's literally called CURLOPT_SSH_COMPRESSION(3) — go compress something, ily, bye 💖✨💅