1libcurl-thread(3)            libcurl thread safety           libcurl-thread(3)
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NAME

6       libcurl-thread - libcurl thread safety
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Multi-threading with libcurl

9       libcurl  is thread safe but has no internal thread synchronization. You
10       may have to provide your own locking should you meet any of the  thread
11       safety exceptions below.
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13       Handles. You must never share the same handle in multiple threads.  You
14       can pass the handles around among threads, but you  must  never  use  a
15       single handle from more than one thread at any given time.
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17       Shared  objects. You can share certain data between multiple handles by
18       using the share interface but you must provide your own locking and set
19       curl_share_setopt(3) CURLSHOPT_LOCKFUNC and CURLSHOPT_UNLOCKFUNC.
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TLS

22       If you are accessing HTTPS or FTPS URLs in a multi-threaded manner, you
23       are then of course using the underlying SSL library multi-threaded  and
24       those  libs  might  have their own requirements on this issue.  You may
25       need to provide one or two functions to allow it to function properly:
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27       OpenSSL
28              OpenSSL 1.1.0+ "can be safely used  in  multi-threaded  applica‐
29              tions  provided that support for the underlying OS threading API
30              is built-in." In that case the engine is used by  libcurl  in  a
31              way that is fully thread-safe.
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33              https://www.openssl.org/docs/man1.1.0/man3/CRYPTO_THREAD_run_once.html#DESCRIP‐
34              TION
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36              OpenSSL <= 1.0.2 the user must set callbacks.
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38              https://www.openssl.org/docs/man1.0.2/man3/CRYPTO_set_lock‐
39              ing_callback.html#DESCRIPTION
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41              https://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/c/opensslthreadlock.html
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44       GnuTLS https://gnutls.org/manual/html_node/Thread-safety.html
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46       NSS    thread-safe already without anything required.
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48       Secure-Transport
49              The  engine  is  used  by libcurl in a way that is fully thread-
50              safe.
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52       WinSSL The engine is used by libcurl in a way  that  is  fully  thread-
53              safe.
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55       wolfSSL
56              The  engine  is  used  by libcurl in a way that is fully thread-
57              safe.
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59       BoringSSL
60              The engine is used by libcurl in a way  that  is  fully  thread-
61              safe.
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Other areas of caution

64       Signals
65              Signals  are  used  for  timing  out  name  resolves (during DNS
66              lookup) - when built without using either the c-ares or threaded
67              resolver  backends.  When  using multiple threads you should set
68              the CURLOPT_NOSIGNAL(3) option to 1L for all handles. Everything
69              will  or  might  work  fine except that timeouts are not honored
70              during the DNS lookup - which you can work  around  by  building
71              libcurl  with  c-ares  or threaded-resolver support. c-ares is a
72              library that provides asynchronous name resolves. On some  plat‐
73              forms,  libcurl simply will not function properly multi-threaded
74              unless the CURLOPT_NOSIGNAL(3) option is set.
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76              When CURLOPT_NOSIGNAL(3) is set to 1L, your application needs to
77              deal with the risk of a SIGPIPE (that at least the OpenSSL back‐
78              end can trigger). Note that setting  CURLOPT_NOSIGNAL(3)  to  0L
79              will  not  work  in  a  threaded situation as there will be race
80              where libcurl risks restoring the former  signal  handler  while
81              another thread should still ignore it.
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83       Name resolving
84              gethostby*  functions  and  other system calls. These functions,
85              provided by your operating system, must be thread  safe.  It  is
86              very  important  that  libcurl can find and use thread safe ver‐
87              sions of these and other system calls,  as  otherwise  it  can't
88              function  fully thread safe. Some operating systems are known to
89              have faulty thread implementations. We have previously  received
90              problem reports on *BSD (at least in the past, they may be work‐
91              ing fine these days).  Some operating systems that are known  to
92              have  solid  and  working  thread support are Linux, Solaris and
93              Windows.
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95       curl_global_* functions
96              These functions are not thread safe. If you  are  using  libcurl
97              with multiple threads it is especially important that before use
98              you  call  curl_global_init(3)  or  curl_global_init_mem(3)   to
99              explicitly  initialize  the  library  and its dependents, rather
100              than rely on the  "lazy"  fail-safe  initialization  that  takes
101              place  the  first  time  curl_easy_init(3) is called. For an in-
102              depth explanation refer to libcurl(3) section GLOBAL CONSTANTS.
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104       Memory functions
105              These functions, provided either by  your  operating  system  or
106              your  own  replacements,  must  be  thread  safe.  You  can  use
107              curl_global_init_mem(3) to set your own replacement memory func‐
108              tions.
109
110       Non-safe functions
111              CURLOPT_DNS_USE_GLOBAL_CACHE(3) is not thread-safe.
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115libcurl 7.66.0                   June 30, 2019               libcurl-thread(3)