blob: 383adda6e844251526f32a05a69a7a7dbd807e16 [file] [log] [blame]
lh9ed821d2023-04-07 01:36:19 -07001Short: b
2Long: cookie
3Arg: <data>
4Protocols: HTTP
5Help: Send cookies from string/file
6---
7Pass the data to the HTTP server in the Cookie header. It is supposedly
8the data previously received from the server in a "Set-Cookie:" line. The
9data should be in the format "NAME1=VALUE1; NAME2=VALUE2".
10
11If no '=' symbol is used in the argument, it is instead treated as a filename
12to read previously stored cookie from. This option also activates the cookie
13engine which will make curl record incoming cookies, which may be handy if
14you're using this in combination with the --location option or do multiple URL
15transfers on the same invoke.
16
17The file format of the file to read cookies from should be plain HTTP headers
18(Set-Cookie style) or the Netscape/Mozilla cookie file format.
19
20The file specified with --cookie is only used as input. No cookies will be
21written to the file. To store cookies, use the --cookie-jar option.
22
23Exercise caution if you are using this option and multiple transfers may
24occur. If you use the NAME1=VALUE1; format, or in a file use the Set-Cookie
25format and don't specify a domain, then the cookie is sent for any domain
26(even after redirects are followed) and cannot be modified by a server-set
27cookie. If the cookie engine is enabled and a server sets a cookie of the same
28name then both will be sent on a future transfer to that server, likely not
29what you intended. To address these issues set a domain in Set-Cookie (doing
30that will include sub domains) or use the Netscape format.
31
32If this option is used several times, the last one will be used.
33
34Users very often want to both read cookies from a file and write updated
35cookies back to a file, so using both --cookie and --cookie-jar in the same
36command line is common.