Common mistakes when using libcurl

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2021-09-27 13:30:04

I’ve been traveling this road for a while. Here’s my collection of 15 of the most common mistakes and issues people will run into when writing applications and services that use libcurl. I’ve also done recorded presentations on this topic that you can watch if you prefer that medium.

Most of these issues are shared among application authors independently of what language the program is written in – as libcurl bindings tend to be very thin and more or less expose the API in the same way the C API does. Some mistakes are however C and C++ specific.

Nothing in my list here is magic, hidden or unknown. Everything is documented and well-known. The by far most common mistakes are done by people not reading up, rushing a bit too fast and sometimes making a little too many assumptions. Of course there’s also occasional copy-and-pasting from bad examples going on. The web is full of questionable source snippets to get inspiration from.

We spend a significant amount of time and energy on making sure the documentation is accurate, detailed and thorough. Many mistakes can be avoided by simply reading up a little more first!