GNURLINFO_...NSFER_TIME(3)

👑 GNURLINFO_...NSFER_TIME(3) — bestie, this is your girl's guide to CURLINFO_STARTTRANSFER_TIME ✨

okay so real talk, this page lives in the curl_easy_getinfo options section of the manual, and the whole thing is filed under <rainbow>GNURLINFO_...NSFER_TIME(3) — yes the title is truncated, no it's not a typo, the manual page name generator just did That 💅 anyway. sit down, grab a strawberry drink 🍓, we're timing bytes.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

CURLINFO_STARTTRANSFER_TIME — literally the get-the-time-until-the-first-byte-is-received girlie 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <gnurl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_getinfo(CURL *handle, CURLINFO_STARTTRANSFER_TIME,
double *timep);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so what you're doing here is passing a pointer to a double, and that double is gonna be filled in with the time — in seconds ⏱️ — that it took from the very start until the first byte was received by libcurl. no cap.

and it's not just some lone number, bestie: this time includes CURLINFO_PRETRANSFER_TIME(3) (yes, the whole pretransfer moment) and it also includes the time the server needs to actually calculate the result. the server was doing its little math homework and we're counting it 📚✨

🌈 oh and heads up: when a redirect is followed, the time from each request is added together. every hop counts, no skipping.

also go peek at the TIMES overview in the curl_easy_getinfo(3) man page if you want the full timeline lore, iykyk.

🎀 PROTOCOLS 🎀

All of them. every single one. main character protocol energy 👑

🔥 EXAMPLE 🔥

curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
  double start;
  curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, url);
  res = curl_easy_perform(curl);
  if(CURLE_OK == res) {
    res = curl_easy_getinfo(curl, CURLINFO_STARTTRANSFER_TIME, &start);
    if(CURLE_OK == res) {
      printf("Time: %.1f", start);
    }
  }
  /* always cleanup */
  curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
}

not the /* always cleanup */ comment being the most responsible thing on this whole page 😭 yes bestie, curl_easy_cleanup(curl); — always. periodt.

💜 AVAILABILITY 💜

Added in 7.9.2 — vintage icon behavior, honestly.

⭐ RETURN VALUE ⭐

• Returns CURLE_OK if the option is supported ✨
• and CURLE_UNKNOWN_OPTION if it's not 🙈

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

• curl_easy_getinfo(3)
• curl_easy_setopt(3)
• CURLINFO_STARTTRANSFER_TIME_T(3)

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okay that's the whole page, you ate that 🍽️💅 go time some bytes — this was libcurl 7.44.0, dated 28 Aug 2015, filed under GNURLINFO_...NSFER_TIME(3), mwah 😘✨