libcurl basics

libcurl is a library of functions that are provided with a C API, for
applications written in C. You can easily use it from C++ too, with only a few
considerations (see libcurl for C++ programmers. For
other languages, there exist “bindings” that work as intermediate layers
between libcurl the library and corresponding functions for the particular
language you like.

That said, networking and protocols are areas with lots of pitfalls and
special cases so the more you know about these things, the more you will be
able to understand about libcurl’s options and ways of working. Not to
mention, such knowledge is invaluable when you are debugging and need to
understand what to do next when things don’t go as you intended.

libcurl generally does the simple and basic transfer by default, and if you
want to add more advanced features, you add that by setting the correct
options. For example, libcurl doesn’t support HTTP cookies by default but it
does once you tell it.