PHP CURL Cookbook

List of commonly used cases with PHP cURL extension.

CURL library Home Page and Wiki Page.

PHP Extension Page and List Of Options.

PHP Guzzle library - wrapper over PHP CURL extension.

For testing requests we will use the excellent services httpbin.org and Postman Echo.

Requirements
Installation
Basics
Advanced
Todo

Requirements

PHP >= 5.5
cURL PHP Extension
Mbstring PHP Extension
Fileinfo PHP Extension

Installation

Download repository

git clone https://github.com/andriichuk/php-curl-cookbook.git

Go to the directory

cd ./php-curl-cookbook

Install composer dependencies

bash run composer install

Run BASH example

bash run bash 01_Basics/01_Request_Methods/01_Get/console.sh

Run PHP example

bash run php 01_Basics/01_Request_Methods/01_Get/curl-ext.php

For multiple usage

bash console

bash 01_Basics/01_Request_Methods/01_Get/console.sh
php 01_Basics/01_Request_Methods/01_Get/curl-ext.php

Basics

HTTP Request methods

GET method

Bash

[example]

curl --request GET "https://postman-echo.com/get?foo=bar"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

The default method is GET. If you want to specify it directly than add CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST option.

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/get?foo=bar',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    
    /**
     * Or specify directly
     * CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'GET'
     */
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);
curl_close($curlHandler);

echo($response);

PHP Guzzle library

Call get method of Guzzle Client instance.

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://postman-echo.com/get',
    [
        RequestOptions::QUERY => [
            'foo' => 'bar',
        ],
    ]
);

echo($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{"args":{"foo":"bar"},"headers":{"x-forwarded-proto":"https","host":"postman-echo.com","user-agent":"GuzzleHttp/6.3.3 curl/7.64.0 PHP/7.3.5-1+ubuntu19.04.1+deb.sury.org+1","x-forwarded-port":"443"},"url":"https://postman-echo.com/get?foo=bar"}

POST raw request

Bash

[example]

curl --request POST "https://postman-echo.com/post" --data "POST raw request content"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/post',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    /**
     * Specify POST method
     */
    CURLOPT_POST => true,

    /**
     * Specify request content
     */
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => 'POST raw request content',
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

echo($response);

PHP Guzzle library

Call post method of Guzzle Client instance.

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->post(
    'https://postman-echo.com/post',
    [
        RequestOptions::BODY => 'POST raw request content',
        RequestOptions::HEADERS => [
            'Content-Type' => 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
        ],
    ]
);

echo($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{"args":{},"data":"","files":{},"form":{"POST raw request content":""},"headers":{"x-forwarded-proto":"https","host":"postman-echo.com","content-length":"24","content-type":"application/x-www-form-urlencoded","user-agent":"GuzzleHttp/6.3.3 curl/7.64.0 PHP/7.3.5-1+ubuntu19.04.1+deb.sury.org+1","x-forwarded-port":"443"},"json":{"POST raw request content":""},"url":"https://postman-echo.com/post"}

POST form data

Bash

[example]

curl --request POST "https://postman-echo.com/post" --data "foo=bar&baz=biz"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/post',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    /**
     * Specify POST method
     */
    CURLOPT_POST => true,

    /**
     * Specify array of form fields
     */
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
        'foo' => 'bar',
        'baz' => 'biz',
    ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

echo($response);

PHP Guzzle library

Call post method of Guzzle Client instance.

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->post(
    'https://postman-echo.com/post',
    [
        RequestOptions::FORM_PARAMS => [
            'foo' => 'bar',
            'baz' => 'biz',
        ],
    ]
);

echo($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{"args":{},"data":"","files":{},"form":{"foo":"bar","baz":"biz"},"headers":{"x-forwarded-proto":"https","host":"postman-echo.com","content-length":"15","content-type":"application/x-www-form-urlencoded","user-agent":"GuzzleHttp/6.3.3 curl/7.64.0 PHP/7.3.5-1+ubuntu19.04.1+deb.sury.org+1","x-forwarded-port":"443"},"json":{"foo":"bar","baz":"biz"},"url":"https://postman-echo.com/post"}

PUT method

Bash

[example]

curl --request PUT "https://postman-echo.com/put" --data "foo=bar&baz=biz"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/put',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    /**
     * Specify custom HTTP request method
     */
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'PUT',

    /**
     * Specify request body (can be array or string)
     */
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
        'foo' => 'bar',
        'baz' => 'biz',
    ]
]);

$pageContent = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

echo($pageContent);

PHP Guzzle library

Call put method of Guzzle Client instance.

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->put(
    'https://postman-echo.com/put',
    [
        RequestOptions::FORM_PARAMS => [
            'foo' => 'bar',
            'baz' => 'biz',
        ],
    ]
);

echo($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{"args":{},"data":"","files":{},"form":{"foo":"bar","baz":"biz"},"headers":{"x-forwarded-proto":"https","host":"postman-echo.com","content-length":"15","content-type":"application/x-www-form-urlencoded","user-agent":"GuzzleHttp/6.3.3 curl/7.64.0 PHP/7.3.5-1+ubuntu19.04.1+deb.sury.org+1","x-forwarded-port":"443"},"json":{"foo":"bar","baz":"biz"},"url":"https://postman-echo.com/put"}

PATCH method

Bash

curl --request PATCH "https://postman-echo.com/patch" --data "foo=bar&baz=biz"

PHP CURL extension

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/patch',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    /**
     * Specify custom HTTP request method
     */
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'PATCH',

    /**
     * Specify request body (can be array or string)
     */
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
        'foo' => 'bar',
        'baz' => 'biz',
    ]
]);

$pageContent = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

echo($pageContent);

PHP Guzzle library

Call patch method of Guzzle Client instance.

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->patch(
    'https://postman-echo.com/patch',
    [
        RequestOptions::FORM_PARAMS => [
            'foo' => 'bar',
            'baz' => 'biz',
        ],
    ]
);

echo($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{"args":{},"data":"","files":{},"form":{"foo":"bar","baz":"biz"},"headers":{"x-forwarded-proto":"https","host":"postman-echo.com","content-length":"15","accept":"*/*","content-type":"application/x-www-form-urlencoded","user-agent":"curl/7.64.0","x-forwarded-port":"443"},"json":{"foo":"bar","baz":"biz"},"url":"https://postman-echo.com/patch"}

DELETE method

Bash

curl --request DELETE "https://postman-echo.com/delete" --data "foo=bar&baz=biz" --max-time 10

PHP CURL extension

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/delete',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    /**
     * Specify custom HTTP request method
     */
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'DELETE',

    /**
     * Specify request body (can be array or string)
     */
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
        'foo' => 'bar',
        'baz' => 'biz',
    ]
]);

$pageContent = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

echo($pageContent);

PHP Guzzle library

Call delete method of Guzzle Client instance.

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->delete(
    'https://postman-echo.com/delete',
    [
        RequestOptions::FORM_PARAMS => [
            'foo' => 'bar',
            'baz' => 'biz',
        ],
    ]
);

echo($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{"args":{},"data":"","files":{},"form":{"foo":"bar","baz":"biz"},"headers":{"x-forwarded-proto":"https","host":"postman-echo.com","content-length":"15","content-type":"application/x-www-form-urlencoded","user-agent":"GuzzleHttp/6.3.3 curl/7.64.0 PHP/7.3.5-1+ubuntu19.04.1+deb.sury.org+1","x-forwarded-port":"443"},"json":{"foo":"bar","baz":"biz"},"url":"https://postman-echo.com/delete"}

Headers

Send custom request headers

Bash

curl --request GET "https://postman-echo.com/headers" --header "foo: bar" --header "baz: biz"

PHP CURL extension

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/headers',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    /**
     * Specify request headers
     */
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'foo: bar',
        'baz: biz',
    ]
]);

$pageContent = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

echo($pageContent);

PHP Guzzle library

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://postman-echo.com/headers',
    [
        RequestOptions::HEADERS => [
            'foo' => 'bar',
            'baz' => 'biz',
        ],
    ]
);

print_r(
    $response->getBody()->getContents()
);

Response

{"headers":{"x-forwarded-proto":"https","host":"postman-echo.com","baz":"biz","foo":"bar","user-agent":"GuzzleHttp/6.3.3 curl/7.64.0 PHP/7.3.5-1+ubuntu19.04.1+deb.sury.org+1","x-forwarded-port":"443"}}

Get response headers

Bash

curl --request GET "https://postman-echo.com/response-headers?Content-Type=text/html&foo=bar"

PHP CURL extension

$headers = [];

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/response-headers?foo=bar',

    /**
     * Exclude the body from the output
     */
    CURLOPT_NOBODY => true,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => false,

    /**
     * Include the header in the output
     */
    CURLOPT_HEADER => false,

    /**
     * Collect server response headers
     */
    CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION => function ($curlInfo, $header) use (&$headers) {
        array_push($headers, trim($header));

        return mb_strlen($header);
    },
]);

curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

print_r(
    array_filter($headers)
);

PHP Guzzle library

use GuzzleHttp\Client;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get('https://postman-echo.com/response-headers?foo=bar');

print_r(
    $response->getHeaders()
);

Response

Array
(
    [Content-Type] => Array
        (
            [0] => application/json; charset=utf-8
        )

    [Date] => Array
        (
            [0] => Sun, 19 May 2019 14:16:36 GMT
        )
    // ...

Request stats

Bash

See full list of options here

curl --request GET "https://postman-echo.com/get?foo=bar" -w "size_download:  %{size_download}" -o /dev/null -s

PHP CURL extension

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/get?foo=bar',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
]);

curl_exec($curlHandler);

$curlInfo = curl_getinfo($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

print_r($curlInfo);

PHP Guzzle library

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;
use GuzzleHttp\TransferStats;

$httpClient = new Client();

$httpClient->get(
    'https://postman-echo.com/get',
    [
        RequestOptions::ON_STATS => function (TransferStats $stats) {
            print_r($stats->getHandlerStats());
        }
    ]
);

Response

Array
(
    [url] => https://postman-echo.com/get
    [content_type] => application/json; charset=utf-8
    [http_code] => 200
    [header_size] => 354
    [request_size] => 128
    [filetime] => -1
    [ssl_verify_result] => 0
    [redirect_count] => 0
    // ...

Debug request

Output debug info to STDERR

Bash

[example]

curl --verbose --request GET "https://postman-echo.com/get?foo=bar"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/get?foo=bar',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    /**
     * Specify debug option
     */
    CURLOPT_VERBOSE => true,
]);

curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$httpClient->get(
    'https://postman-echo.com/get?foo=bar',
    [
        RequestOptions::DEBUG => true,
    ]
);

Response

*   Trying 35.153.115.14...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Expire in 149999 ms for 3 (transfer 0x55b754f97120)
* Expire in 200 ms for 4 (transfer 0x55b754f97120)
* Connected to postman-echo.com (35.153.115.14) port 443 (#0)
// ...

Output debug info to file

Bash

[example]

curl --request GET "https://postman-echo.com/get?foo=bar" --verbose --silent > debug.log 2>&1

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/get?foo=bar',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    /**
     * Specify debug option.
     */
    CURLOPT_VERBOSE => true,

    /**
     * Specify log file.
     * Make sure that the folder is writable.
     */
    CURLOPT_STDERR => fopen('./curl.log', 'w+'),
]);

curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$httpClient->get(
    'https://postman-echo.com/get?foo=bar',
    [
        RequestOptions::DEBUG => fopen('./guzzle.log', 'w+'),
    ]
);

Log file content

*   Trying 35.153.115.14...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Expire in 149999 ms for 3 (transfer 0x55b754f97120)
* Expire in 200 ms for 4 (transfer 0x55b754f97120)
* Connected to postman-echo.com (35.153.115.14) port 443 (#0)
// ...

Error catching

Bash

[example]

curl --verbose --request GET "https://httpbin.org/delay/5" --max-time 3 --connect-timeout 2

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://httpbin.org/delay/5',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT => 2,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 3,
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);
$statusCode = curl_getinfo($curlHandler, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);

if ($statusCode > 300) {
    print_r('Redirection or Error response with status: ' . $statusCode);
}

if (curl_errno($curlHandler) !== CURLE_OK) {
    print_r([
        'error_code' => curl_errno($curlHandler),
        'error_message' => curl_error($curlHandler),
    ]);
}

curl_close($curlHandler);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;
use GuzzleHttp\Exception\GuzzleException;

$httpClient = new Client();

try {
    $response = $httpClient->get(
        'https://httpbin.org/dedlay/5',
        [
            RequestOptions::CONNECT_TIMEOUT => 2,
            RequestOptions::TIMEOUT => 3,
        ]
    );

    print_r($response->getBody()->getContents());
} catch (GuzzleException $exception) {
    print_r([
        'code' => $exception->getCode(),
        'message' => $exception->getMessage(),
    ]);
}

Response

Array
(
    [error_code] => 28
    [error_message] => Operation timed out after 3001 milliseconds with 0 bytes received
)

Follow redirects

Bash

curl --location --max-redirs 5 -X GET "https://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/3"

PHP CURL extension

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/3',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 5,
]);

$content = curl_exec($curlHandler);
$curlInfo = curl_getinfo($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

print_r($curlInfo);

PHP Guzzle library

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;
use GuzzleHttp\TransferStats;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/3',
    [
        RequestOptions::ALLOW_REDIRECTS => [
            'max' => 5,
        ],
    ]
);

echo $response->getStatusCode();

Response

{
  "args": {}, 
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*", 
    "Host": "httpbin.org", 
    "User-Agent": "curl/7.64.0"
  }, 
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/get"
}

Timeouts

Bash

[example]

curl --request GET "https://httpbin.org/delay/5" --max-time 20 --connect-timeout 10

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://httpbin.org/delay/5',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 20,
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

print_r($response);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://httpbin.org/delay/5',
    [
        RequestOptions::CONNECT_TIMEOUT => 10,
        RequestOptions::TIMEOUT => 20,
    ]
);

print_r($response->getBody()->getContents());

Set HTTP version

Bash

[example]

# See https://ec.haxx.se/http-versions.html

curl --request GET "https://httpbin.org/get" --http2

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://httpbin.org/get',
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_2_0,
]);

curl_exec($curlHandler);
$info = curl_getinfo($curlHandler);
curl_close($curlHandler);

print_r($info);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;
use GuzzleHttp\TransferStats;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://httpbin.org/get',
    [
        RequestOptions::VERSION => 2.0,
        RequestOptions::ON_STATS => function (TransferStats $stats) {
            print_r($stats->getHandlerStats());
        }
    ]
);

Response

Array
(
    [url] => https://httpbin.org/get
    ...
    [http_version] => 2
    [protocol] => 2
    ...
)

Get cURL version

Bash

[example]

curl --version

PHP CURL extension and Guzzle library

[example]

print_r(curl_version());

Response

curl 7.64.0 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.64.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1c zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) libssh/0.8.6/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.36.0 librtmp/2.3
Release-Date: 2019-02-06
Protocols: dict file ftp ftps gopher http https imap imaps ldap ldaps pop3 pop3s rtmp rtsp scp sftp smb smbs smtp smtps telnet tftp 
Features: AsynchDNS IDN IPv6 Largefile GSS-API Kerberos SPNEGO NTLM NTLM_WB SSL libz TLS-SRP HTTP2 UnixSockets HTTPS-proxy PSL

Set User agent

Bash

[example]

curl --request GET "https://httpbin.org/get" --user-agent 'Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A537a Safari/419.3'

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/get',
    CURLOPT_USERAGENT => 'Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A537a Safari/419.3',
    
    /* OR set header
      CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A537a Safari/419.3',
    ]*/
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

print_r($response);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://httpbin.org/get',
    [
        RequestOptions::HEADERS => [
            'User-Agent' => 'Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A537a Safari/419.3',
        ]
    ]
);

print_r($response->getBody()->getContents());

Redirect Location History

Bash

[example]

curl --verbose --location --request GET "https://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/5" 2>&1 | grep "Location:"

Response

< Location: http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/4
< Location: http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/3
< Location: http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/2
< Location: http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/1
< Location: http://httpbin.org/get

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

$locations = [];

curl_setopt_array(
    $curlHandler,
    [
        CURLOPT_URL => 'https://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/5',
        CURLOPT_NOBODY => true,
        CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
        CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION => function ($curlInfo, $header) use (&$locations) {
            preg_match('#Location:\s(?<url>[\S]+)#iu', $header, $location);

            if (!empty($location['url'])) {
                $locations[] = trim($location['url']);
            }

            return mb_strlen($header);
        },
    ]
);

curl_exec($curlHandler);
curl_close($curlHandler);

print_r($locations);

Response

Array
(
    [0] => http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/4
    [1] => http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/3
    [2] => http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/2
    [3] => http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/1
    [4] => http://httpbin.org/get
)

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;
use GuzzleHttp\RedirectMiddleware;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/5',
    [
        RequestOptions::ALLOW_REDIRECTS => [
            'max' => 5,
            'track_redirects' => true,
        ],
    ]
);

print_r($response->getHeader(RedirectMiddleware::HISTORY_HEADER));

Response

Array
(
    [0] => http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/4
    [1] => http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/3
    [2] => http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/2
    [3] => http://httpbin.org/absolute-redirect/1
    [4] => http://httpbin.org/get
)

Set HTTP Referer

Bash

[example]

curl --request GET "https://httpbin.org/get" --referer "https://github.com"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://httpbin.org/get',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_REFERER => 'https://github.com',
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

print_r($response);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://httpbin.org/get',
    [
        RequestOptions::HEADERS => [
            'Referer' => 'https://github.com',
        ],
    ]
);

print_r($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{
  "args": {}, 
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*", 
    "Host": "httpbin.org", 
    "Referer": "https://github.com", 
    "User-Agent": "curl/7.64.0"
  }, 
  "origin": "100.00.00.00", 
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/get"
}

Advanced

Files

Upload file

Bash

[example]

# format: curl --form '[request_field_name]=@[absolute_path_to_file]' [upload_url]
curl --form 'file=@/home/serge/curl-examples/02_Advanced/01_Files/01_Upload/resource/file.txt' https://postman-echo.com/post

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$uploadFilePath = __DIR__ . '/resource/file.txt';

if (!file_exists($uploadFilePath)) {
    throw new Exception('File not found: ' . $uploadFilePath);
}

$uploadFileMimeType = mime_content_type($uploadFilePath);
$uploadFilePostKey = 'file';

$uploadFile = new CURLFile(
    $uploadFilePath,
    $uploadFileMimeType,
    $uploadFilePostKey
);

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/post',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    /**
     * Specify POST method
     */
    CURLOPT_POST => true,

    /**
     * Specify array of form fields
     */
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
        $uploadFilePostKey => $uploadFile,
    ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

echo($response);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->post(
    'https://postman-echo.com/post',
    [
        RequestOptions::MULTIPART => [
            [
                'name' => 'file',
                'contents' => new SplFileObject(__DIR__ . '/resource/file.txt', 'r'),
                'filename' => 'file',
            ]
        ],
    ]
);

echo($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{"args":{},"data":{},"files":{"file":"data:application/octet-stream;base64,TG9yZW0gaXBzdW0gZG9sb3Igc2l0I ..."}}

Upload multiple files

Bash

[example]

curl --form 'text_file=@/home/serge/curl-examples/02_Advanced/01_Files/02_Upload_Multiple/resource/file.txt' \
--form 'image_file=@/home/serge/curl-examples/02_Advanced/01_Files/02_Upload_Multiple/resource/github-icon.png' \
https://postman-echo.com/post

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$localFiles = [
    'text_file' => __DIR__ . '/resource/file.txt',
    'image_file' => __DIR__ . '/resource/github-icon.png',
];

$uploadFiles = [];

foreach ($localFiles as $filePostKey => $uploadFilePath) {
    if (!file_exists($uploadFilePath)) {
        throw new Exception('File not found: ' . $uploadFilePath);
    }

    $uploadFileMimeType = mime_content_type($uploadFilePath);

    $uploadFiles[$filePostKey] = new CURLFile($uploadFilePath, $uploadFileMimeType, $filePostKey);
}

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/post',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    /**
     * Specify POST method
     */
    CURLOPT_POST => true,

    /**
     * Specify array of form fields
     */
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $uploadFiles,
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

echo($response);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$localFiles = [
    'text_file' => __DIR__ . '/resource/file.txt',
    'image_file' => __DIR__ . '/resource/github-icon.png',
];

$uploadFiles = [];

foreach ($localFiles as $filePostKey => $uploadFilePath) {
    if (!file_exists($uploadFilePath)) {
        throw new Exception('File not found: ' . $uploadFilePath);
    }

    array_push($uploadFiles, [
        'name' => $filePostKey,
        'contents' => new SplFileObject($uploadFilePath, 'r'),
        'filename' => $filePostKey,
    ]);
}

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->post(
    'https://postman-echo.com/post',
    [
        RequestOptions::MULTIPART => $uploadFiles,
    ]
);

echo($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response example

{"args":{},"data":{},"files":{"text_file":"data:application/octet-stream;base64,TG9yZW0gaXBzdW0gZG9sb3Ig ...", "image_file":"data:application/octet-stream;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAANAAAADQC ..."}}

Upload multiple files as an array

Bash

[example]

curl --form 'documents[]=@/home/serge/projects/php-curl-cookbook/02_Advanced/01_Files/03_Upload_Array_Of_Files/resource/file-1.txt' \
--form 'documents[]=@/home/serge/projects/php-curl-cookbook/02_Advanced/01_Files/03_Upload_Array_Of_Files/resource/file-2.txt' \
--form 'images[icon]=@/home/serge/projects/php-curl-cookbook/02_Advanced/01_Files/03_Upload_Array_Of_Files/resource/github-icon.png' \
--form 'images[octocat]=@/home/serge/projects/php-curl-cookbook/02_Advanced/01_Files/03_Upload_Array_Of_Files/resource/github-octocat.jpg' \
https://postman-echo.com/post

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$localFiles = [
    // indexed
    'documents' => [
        __DIR__ . '/resource/file-1.txt',
        __DIR__ . '/resource/file-2.txt',
    ],

    // associated
    'images' => [
        'icon' => __DIR__ . '/resource/github-icon.png',
        'octocat' => __DIR__ . '/resource/github-octocat.jpg',
    ],
];

$uploadFiles = [];

foreach ($localFiles as $fileType => $files) {
    foreach ($files as $filePostKey => $uploadFilePath) {
        if (!file_exists($uploadFilePath)) {
            throw new Exception('File not found: ' . $uploadFilePath);
        }

        $uploadFileMimeType = mime_content_type($uploadFilePath);
        $keyName = sprintf('%s[%s]', $fileType, $filePostKey);

        $uploadFiles[$keyName] = new CURLFile($uploadFilePath, $uploadFileMimeType, $filePostKey);
    }
}

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/post',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    /**
     * Specify POST method
     */
    CURLOPT_POST => true,

    /**
     * Specify array of form fields
     */
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $uploadFiles,
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);

curl_close($curlHandler);

echo($response);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$localFiles = [
    'documents' => [
        __DIR__ . '/resource/file-1.txt',
        __DIR__ . '/resource/file-2.txt',
    ],
    'images' => [
        'icon' => __DIR__ . '/resource/github-icon.png',
        'octocat' => __DIR__ . '/resource/github-octocat.jpg',
    ],
];

$uploadFiles = [];

foreach ($localFiles as $fileType => $files) {
    foreach ($files as $filePostKey => $uploadFilePath) {
        if (!file_exists($uploadFilePath)) {
            throw new Exception('File not found: ' . $uploadFilePath);
        }

        $uploadFileMimeType = mime_content_type($uploadFilePath);
        $keyName = sprintf('%s[%s]', $fileType, $filePostKey);

        array_push($uploadFiles, [
            'name' => $keyName,
            'contents' => new SplFileObject($uploadFilePath, 'r'),
            'filename' => $keyName,
        ]);
    }
}

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->post(
    'https://postman-echo.com/post',
    [
        RequestOptions::MULTIPART => $uploadFiles,
    ]
);

echo($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response example

{"args":{},"data":{},"files":{"file-1.txt":"data:application/octet-stream;base64,Rmlyc3QgRmlsZSBDb250ZW50Cg==","file-2.txt":"data:application/octet-stream;base64,U2V...=","github-icon.png":"data:application/octet-stream;base64,iVBORw...","github-octocat.jpg":"data:application/octet-stream;base64,/9j/4QAYRXhpZgAASUkqAAg..."},"form":{},"headers":{"x-forwarded-proto":"https","host":"postman-echo.com","content-length":"59650","accept":"*/*","content-type":"multipart/form-data; boundary=------------------------14a7692feb592877","user-agent":"curl/7.58.0","x-forwarded-port":"443"},"json":null,"url":"https://postman-echo.com/post"}

Download file

Bash

[example]

curl https://httpbin.org/image/jpeg --output /home/serge/curl-examples/02_Advanced/01_Files/04_Download/resource/image.jpeg

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$imageFilePath = __DIR__ . '/resource/image.jpeg';

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://httpbin.org/image/jpeg',
    CURLOPT_FILE => fopen($imageFilePath, 'w+')
]);

curl_exec($curlHandler);

if (curl_errno($curlHandler) === CURLE_OK) {
    echo 'The image has been successfully downloaded: ' . $imageFilePath;
}

curl_close($curlHandler);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$imageFilePath = __DIR__ . '/resource/image.jpeg';
$imageFileResource = fopen($imageFilePath, 'w+');

$httpClient = new Client();
$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://httpbin.org/image/jpeg',
    [
        RequestOptions::SINK => $imageFileResource,
    ]
);

if ($response->getStatusCode() === 200) {
    echo 'The image has been successfully downloaded: ' . $imageFilePath;
}

Response

The image has been successfully downloaded: /home/serge/curl-examples/02_Advanced/01_Files/04_Download/resource/image.jpeg

Auth

Basic Auth

Bash

[example]

curl --user postman:password --request GET "https://postman-echo.com/basic-auth"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

$userName = 'postman';
$password = 'password';

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/basic-auth',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH => CURLAUTH_BASIC,
    CURLOPT_USERPWD => $userName . ':' . $password,
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);
curl_close($curlHandler);

print_r('First example response: ' . $response . PHP_EOL);

/**
 * Or specify credentials in Authorization header
 */

$curlSecondHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlSecondHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/basic-auth',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'Authorization: Basic ' . base64_encode($userName . ':' . $password)
    ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlSecondHandler);
curl_close($curlSecondHandler);

print_r('Second example response: ' . $response . PHP_EOL);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$userName = 'postman';
$password = 'password';

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://postman-echo.com/basic-auth',
    [
        RequestOptions::AUTH => [$userName, $password]
    ]
);

print_r($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{"authenticated":true}

Digest Auth

Bash

[example]

curl --digest --user postman:password --request GET "https://postman-echo.com/digest-auth"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

$userName = 'postman';
$password = 'password';

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/digest-auth',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH => CURLAUTH_DIGEST,
    CURLOPT_USERPWD => $userName . ':' . $password,
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);
curl_close($curlHandler);

print_r($response);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$userName = 'postman';
$password = 'password';

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://postman-echo.com/digest-auth',
    [
        RequestOptions::AUTH => [$userName, $password, 'digest']
    ]
);

print_r($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{"authenticated":true}

Bearer Auth

Bash

[example]

curl -X GET "https://httpbin.org/bearer" -H "Accept: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer your_token"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

$token = 'your_token';

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://httpbin.org/bearer',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'Accept: application/json',
        'Authorization: Bearer ' . $token
    ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);
curl_close($curlHandler);

print_r($response);

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$token = 'your_token';

$httpClient = new Client();

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://httpbin.org/bearer',
    [
        RequestOptions::HEADERS => [
            'Accept' => 'application/json',
            'Authorization' => 'Bearer ' . $token,
        ]
    ]
);

print_r($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{
  "authenticated": true, 
  "token": "your_token"
}

Cookies

Send cookies from string

Bash

[example]

curl --cookie "foo=bar;baz=foo" --request GET "https://httpbin.org/cookies"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://httpbin.org/cookies',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    CURLOPT_COOKIE => 'foo=bar;baz=foo',

    /**
     * Or set header
     * CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
           'Cookie: foo=bar;baz=foo',
       ]
     */
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);
curl_close($curlHandler);

echo $response;

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\Cookie\CookieJar;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$url = 'https://httpbin.org/cookies';
$urlHost = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_HOST);

$cookieJar = CookieJar::fromArray(
    [
        'foo' => 'bar',
        'baz' => 'foo',
    ],
    $urlHost
);

$response = $httpClient->get(
    $url,
    [
        RequestOptions::COOKIES => $cookieJar,
    ]
);

echo($response->getBody()->getContents());

Response

{
  "cookies": {
    "baz": "foo", 
    "foo": "bar"
  }
}

Set cookie options

Cookies have attributes that can be sent from the server to the client, but not from the client to the server. The client can only send the name and value of the cookie.

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\Cookie\CookieJar;
use GuzzleHttp\Cookie\SetCookie;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;

$httpClient = new Client();

$url = 'https://httpbin.org/cookies';
$urlHost = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_HOST);

$cookies = [
    new SetCookie([
        'Name'     => 'foo',
        'Value'    => 'bar',
        
        // Other attributes will not be sent to the server, they are only needed for validation.
        'Domain'   => $urlHost,
        'Path'     => '/',
        'Max-Age'  => 100,
        'Secure'   => false,
        'Discard'  => false,
        'HttpOnly' => false,
    ]),
    new SetCookie([
        'Name'     => 'baz',
        'Value'    => 'foo',
        'Domain'   => $urlHost,
        'Path'     => '/',
        'Max-Age'  => 100,
        'Secure'   => false,
        'Discard'  => false,
        'HttpOnly' => false,
    ]),
];

$cookieJar = new CookieJar(true, $cookies);

$response = $httpClient->get(
    $url,
    [
        RequestOptions::COOKIES => $cookieJar,
    ]
);

echo($response->getBody()->getContents());

Request headers

> GET /cookies HTTP/1.1
Host: httpbin.org
User-Agent: GuzzleHttp/6.3.3 curl/7.58.0 PHP/7.3.6-1+ubuntu18.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
Cookie: foo=bar; baz=foo

Response

{
  "cookies": {
    "baz": "foo", 
    "foo": "bar"
  }
}

Send cookies from file

Bash

Cookie JAR file structure:

# Domain    Flag    Path    Secure  Expiration  Name    Value
httpbin.org	FALSE	/	    FALSE	0	        foo	    bar
httpbin.org	FALSE	/	    FALSE	0	        baz	    foo

[example]

curl --cookie "02_Advanced/03_Cookies/03_Send_Cookies_From_File/resource/cookie-jar.txt" --request GET "https://httpbin.org/cookies"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

$cookieFile = __DIR__ . '/resource/cookie-jar.txt';

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://httpbin.org/cookies',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE  => $cookieFile,
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);
curl_close($curlHandler);

echo $response;

PHP Guzzle library

Guzzle cookie file structure:

[
  {
    "Name": "foo",
    "Value": "bar",
    "Domain": "httpbin.org",
    "Path": "\/",
    "Max-Age": 100,
    "Expires": 1567343671,
    "Secure": false,
    "Discard": false,
    "HttpOnly": false
  },
  {
    "Name": "baz",
    "Value": "foo",
    "Domain": "httpbin.org",
    "Path": "\/",
    "Max-Age": 100,
    "Expires": 1567343671,
    "Secure": false,
    "Discard": false,
    "HttpOnly": false
  }
]

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;
use GuzzleHttp\Cookie\FileCookieJar;

$httpClient = new Client();

$cookieJarFile = new FileCookieJar(
    __DIR__ . '/resource/guzzle-cookie-jar.json',
    false
);

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://httpbin.org/cookies',
    [
        RequestOptions::COOKIES => $cookieJarFile,
    ]
);

echo $response->getBody()->getContents();

Response

{
  "cookies": {
    "baz": "foo", 
    "foo": "bar"
  }
}

Save Response cookies to file

Bash

[example]

curl --location --cookie-jar "02_Advanced/03_Cookies/04_Save_Response_Cookies_To_File/resource/cookie-jar.txt" --request GET "https://httpbin.org/cookies/set/foo/bar"

PHP CURL extension

[example]

$curlHandler = curl_init();

$cookieFile = __DIR__ . '/resource/cookie-jar.txt';

curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://httpbin.org/cookies/set/foo/bar',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,

    CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR  => $cookieFile,
    CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
]);

$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);
curl_close($curlHandler);

echo $response;

PHP Guzzle library

[example]

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\RequestOptions;
use GuzzleHttp\Cookie\FileCookieJar;

$httpClient = new Client();

$cookieJarFile = new FileCookieJar(
    __DIR__ . '/resource/guzzle-cookie-jar.json',
    true
);

$response = $httpClient->get(
    'https://httpbin.org/cookies/set/foo/bar',
    [
        RequestOptions::COOKIES => $cookieJarFile,
    ]
);

echo $response->getBody()->getContents();

Response

{
  "cookies": {
    "foo": "bar"
  }
}

Todo

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PHP CURL Cookbook

Table of Contents

Requirements

Installation

Basics

HTTP Request methods

GET method

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

POST raw request

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

POST form data

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

PUT method

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

PATCH method

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

DELETE method

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

Headers

Send custom request headers

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

Get response headers

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

Request stats

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

Debug request

Output debug info to STDERR

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

Output debug info to file

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

Log file content

Error catching

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

Follow redirects

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

Timeouts

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

Set HTTP version

Bash

PHP CURL extension

PHP Guzzle library

Get cURL version

Bash

PHP CURL extension and Guzzle library

Set User agent

Bash

PHP CURL extension