curl_init

(PHP 4 >= 4.0.2, PHP 5, PHP 7)

curl_init — Initialize a cURL session

Description

curl_init ([ string|null $url = null ] ) : CurlHandle|false

Initializes a new session and return a cURL handle for use with the curl_setopt(), curl_exec(), and curl_close() functions.

Parameters

url: If provided, the CURLOPT_URL option will be set to its value. You can manually set this using the curl_setopt() function.

Note:

The file protocol is disabled by cURL if open_basedir is set.

Return Values

Returns a cURL handle on success, false on errors.

Changelog

Version	Description
8.0.0	On success, this function returns a CurlHandle instance now; previously, a resource was returned.
8.0.0	`url` is nullable now.

Examples

Example #1 Initializing a new cURL session and fetching a web page

<?php
// create a new cURL resource
$ch = curl_init();

// set URL and other appropriate options
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://www.example.com/");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);

// grab URL and pass it to the browser
curl_exec($ch);

// close cURL resource, and free up system resources
curl_close($ch);
?>