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.TH CURLOPT_TIMEOUT 3 "October 03, 2017" "libcurl 7.58.0" "curl_easy_setopt options"

.SH NAME
CURLOPT_TIMEOUT \- set maximum time the request is allowed to take
.SH SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, long timeout);
.SH DESCRIPTION
Pass a long as parameter containing \fItimeout\fP - the maximum time in
seconds that you allow the libcurl transfer operation to take. Normally, name
lookups can take a considerable time and limiting operations to less than a
few minutes risk aborting perfectly normal operations. This option may cause
libcurl to use the SIGALRM signal to timeout system calls.

In unix-like systems, this might cause signals to be used unless
\fICURLOPT_NOSIGNAL(3)\fP is set.

If both \fICURLOPT_TIMEOUT(3)\fP and \fICURLOPT_TIMEOUT_MS(3)\fP are set, the
value set last will be used.

Since this puts a hard limit for how long time a request is allowed to take,
it has limited use in dynamic use cases with varying transfer times. You are
then advised to explore \fICURLOPT_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT(3)\fP,
\fICURLOPT_LOW_SPEED_TIME(3)\fP or using \fICURLOPT_PROGRESSFUNCTION(3)\fP to
implement your own timeout logic.
.SH DEFAULT
Default timeout is 0 (zero) which means it never times out during transfer.
.SH PROTOCOLS
All
.SH EXAMPLE
.nf
CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
  curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "http://example.com");

  /* complete within 20 seconds */
  curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 20L);

  curl_easy_perform(curl);
}
.fi
.SH AVAILABILITY
Always
.SH RETURN VALUE
Returns CURLE_OK. Returns CURLE_BAD_FUNCTION_ARGUMENT if set to a negative
value or a value that when converted to milliseconds is too large.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR CURLOPT_TIMEOUT_MS "(3), "
.BR CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT "(3), " CURLOPT_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT "(3), "