A two to three hour libcurl video tutorial

agenda.md

This is going to become a live-stream video "class" done by Daniel in November 2023. Also recorded for Youtube of course.

The exact date/time is pending. This is the tentative agenda. What are you missing from here?

Mastering libcurl

• The project
• Getting libcurl
• API and ABI
• Architecture
• Transfers
• Basics
• Using
• Share API
• TLS
• Proxies
• HTTP
• HTTP header API
• URL API
• WebSocket
• Future

getting it

• installing
• building
• debugging
• free support
• paid support

API and ABI

• compatibility
• versions
• the API is for C
• header files
• compiling libcurl programs

Architecture

• C89
• backends
• everything is non-blocking

transfers

• content ignorant
• URLs
• callbacks
• different versions/installs

libcurl basics

• global init
• easy handles
• options
• easy perform
• multi handles
• multi perform
• multi_socket

Using libcurl

• verbose debug function tracing
• curl_version / curl_version_info
• persistent connections
• multiplexing
• Downloads
  • Storing downloads
  • Compression
  • Multiple downloads
  • Maximum file size
  • Resuming and ranges
• Uploads
  • Multiple uploads
• Transfer controls
  • Stop slow transfers
  • Rate limiting
• Connections
  • Name resolve tricks
  • Connection timeout
  • Network interface
  • Local port number
  • Keep alive
• Timeouts
• .netrc
• return codes
• SCP and SFTP
• Reading email
• Sending email
• --libcurl
• post transfer meta-data
• caches
• some words on threads
• error handling with libcurl

Share API

• sharing data between easy handles

TLS

• ciphers
• enable TLS
• verifying server certificates custom checks
• client certificates
• on TLS backends
• SSLKEYLOGFILE

Proxies

• Proxy type
• HTTP proxy
• SOCKS proxy (tor)
• Authentication
• HTTPS proxy
• Proxy environment variables
• Proxy headers

HTTP

• Authentication
• Ranges
• HTTP versions
• Conditionals
• HTTP POST data with callback
• Multipart formpost
• Redirects
• Modify the HTTP request
• HTTP PUT
• Cookies
• Alternative Services
• HSTS
• HTTP/2
• HTTP/3

HTTP header API

• get specific header field after transfer
• iterate over many headers

URL API

• Parse a URL
• extract components
• update components
• URL encoding/decoding
• IDN encoding/decoding
• redirects

WebSocket

• just a quickie, I did a separate websocket video recently https://youtu.be/NLIhd0wYO24

I have a suggestion how about issuing certificate for the attending class member. I know it doesn't mean much but as some one who just stated filling out their LinkedIn its kind of useful because, it illustrates that you are an active member of the tech community. I have watched many technical talks over years but it just recently hit me I have no way of proving it on my resume. as solution I have found this website recently I think can do just this. https://eu.badgr.com/

Feedback from Mastodon/email to get into the presentation:

• handling libcurl in threads
• practical tips on real-world error handling, as often this is hand-waved away during tutorials and blog posts
• when scripting curl becomes so cumbersome that switching to writing libcurl apps makes more sense instead
• best companion libs to write async libcurl apps