CURLOPT_TIMEOUT(3)

💖 CURLOPT_TIMEOUT(3) 💖

okay so bestie, this is the libcurl page from the Library Functions Manual, and it's all about CURLOPT_TIMEOUT(3) — maximum time the transfer is allowed to complete. it's giving “put a timer on the whole entire thing” energy ⏳✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

CURLOPT_TIMEOUT — maximum time the transfer is allowed to complete.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <curl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, long timeout);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Pass a long as the parameter containing timeout — the maximum time in seconds that you allow the entire transfer operation to take. the whole thing, from start to end. Normally, name lookups can take a considerable time and limiting operations risk aborting perfectly normal operations 😭.

CURLOPT_TIMEOUT_MS(3) is the same function but set in milliseconds. If both CURLOPT_TIMEOUT(3) and CURLOPT_TIMEOUT_MS(3) are set, the value set last is used. fr fr, last one wins 💅.

Since this option puts a hard limit on how long time a request is allowed to take, it has limited use in dynamic use cases with varying transfer times. That is especially apparent when using multi interface, which may queue the transfer, and that time is included. You are advised to explore CURLOPT_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT(3), CURLOPT_LOW_SPEED_TIME(3) or using CURLOPT_PROGRESSFUNCTION(3) to implement your own timeout logic. iykyk 🫶

The connection timeout set with CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT(3) is included in this general all-covering timeout.

With CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT(3) set to 3 and CURLOPT_TIMEOUT(3) set to 5, the operation can never last longer than 5 seconds.

With CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT(3) set to 4 and CURLOPT_TIMEOUT(3) set to 2, the operation can never last longer than 2 seconds. math is mathing 🧮✨

heads up bestie ⚠️ This option may cause libcurl to use the SIGALRM signal to timeout system calls on builds not using asynch DNS. In Unix-like systems, this might cause signals to be used unless CURLOPT_NOSIGNAL(3) is set.

🎀 DEFAULT 🎀

0 (zero) — which means it never times out during transfer. periodt 💤

🌈 PROTOCOLS 🌈

This functionality affects all supported protocols. all of them, no cap 🌈

🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

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

    /* complete within 20 seconds */
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 20L);

    curl_easy_perform(curl);
  }
}

👑 AVAILABILITY 👑

Added in curl 7.1 — iconic behavior, honestly 👑

💜 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). zero = slay, non-zero = something went sideways 😭

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

• CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT(3)
• CURLOPT_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT(3)
• CURLOPT_TCP_KEEPALIVE(3)
• CURLOPT_TIMEOUT_MS(3)

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byeee bestie 💖 — this libcurl manual page, dated 2026-10-12, is signing off 🎀