Files
jak-project/third-party/curl/docs/libcurl/opts/CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION.md
Alexander J. Semenuk 5d5e35fb9b fix: Windows toolchain compatibility (curl 8.21 re-vendor, endless reconfigure loop) (#4355)
## Problem

Windows builds break with a current local toolchain (Scoop LLVM 22.1.8,
CMake 4.4.0, VS 2026), in two independent ways:

1. The build stops at curl's deliberate guard: `#error "no non-blocking
method was found/used/set"` in `third-party/curl/lib/nonblock.c`.
2. From the second configure onward, `cmake --build` re-runs CMake in an
endless loop (observed 42 consecutive reconfigure cycles in a single
build). Likely the same mechanism behind the "endlessly building" VS
2026 note in `docs/setup/dev/vs.md`.

## Root cause

1. `third-party/curl/CMake/CurlTests.c` passes `int *` to
`ioctlsocket()`, whose third parameter is `u_long *`. Clang 22 promotes
`-Wincompatible-pointer-types` to a hard error in C, so the
`HAVE_IOCTLSOCKET_FIONBIO` try_compile silently fails and
`curl_config.h` never defines it. Upstream CI does not see this because
the windows-2022 runner image ships an older LLVM. GCC 14 promotes the
same warning to a hard error, which is very likely the `CurlTests.c.obj`
failure reported from MSYS2 in open-goal/jak-project#3551. Upstream curl
hit the identical problem with GCC 14 and fixed the probe in curl 8.8.0
(curl/curl#13578).
2. The root CMakeLists copies the build tree's `compile_commands.json`
into `<src>/build/` for clangd using `configure_file()`, which registers
its input as a configure dependency. CMake rewrites
`compile_commands.json` late in every generation, after
`CTestTestfile.cmake` and `cmake_install.cmake` (outputs of the same
Ninja regen rule), so once the dependency is registered the rule is
deterministically dirty and every `ninja` invocation re-runs CMake. A
pristine first configure is safe (the file does not exist yet, so the
`if(EXISTS ...)` guard skips the copy), which is why the loop looks
machine- or IDE-specific.

## Fix

1. Per review, re-vendor `third-party/curl` at the `curl-8_21_0` tag
(previously `curl-8_3_0`), which carries the upstream probe fix plus two
years of upstream development; `vendor.yaml` updated to match.
Adjustments the version jump forced:
- curl 8.15 removed the native macOS Secure Transport backend
(`CURL_USE_SECTRANSP`), so macOS now builds curl against OpenSSL like
Linux. The two macOS workflows install Homebrew `openssl@3` and export
`OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR` (keg-only), and the macOS setup docs gained the same
two lines.
- `CURL_BROTLI` / `CURL_ZSTD` switched to AUTO-detection in curl 8.10;
pinned OFF to keep the previous no-compression behavior and avoid
silently linking whatever the CI images happen to have.
- curl's new top-level `BUILD_EXAMPLES` cache option (default ON) leaked
into discord-rpc's identically named option and broke configure at a
nonexistent `examples/send-presence` directory; pinned OFF ahead of the
third-party subdirectories.

The diff is dominated by the mechanical tag-tree swap under
`third-party/curl` (linguist-vendored, collapsed in review). The
hand-written changes are `CMakeLists.txt`, the two macOS workflows,
`docs/setup/system/macos.md`, and `vendor.yaml`.
2. Swap `configure_file()` for `file(COPY ...)`: the same clangd copy
with no configure dependency registered. (`file(COPY_FILE ...
ONLY_IF_DIFFERENT)` would be cleaner still but requires CMake 3.21,
above the declared `cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.10)`.)

## Test plan

- [x] Fresh `cmake --preset Release-windows-clang` (LLVM 22, no cache
seeding) completes and logs `Enabled SSL backends: Schannel`; the
FIONBIO probe passes without the previous `#error`
- [x] Full Windows Release build from scratch in the branch worktree
(all 1422 targets)
- [x] goalc-test suite: 1509 passed, 0 failed
- [x] Second consecutive configure with `compile_commands.json` present:
the regen rule in `build.ninja` has no `compile_commands.json` input;
`<src>/build/compile_commands.json` is still refreshed for clangd
- [x] Repeated `ninja` invocations after a full build no longer re-run
CMake
- [x] macOS Intel and ARM CI green (first exercise of the OpenSSL
backend switch)

---

I work off a self-hosted forge, so this GitHub account is quiet; the
configure logs and ninja dirty-node traces from the investigation are
available if anyone wants the raw data.

(AI-assisted)
2026-07-27 19:19:18 -04:00

4.4 KiB
Vendored
Generated

c, SPDX-License-Identifier, Title, Section, Source, See-also, Protocol, Added-in
c SPDX-License-Identifier Title Section Source See-also Protocol Added-in
Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al. curl CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION 3 libcurl
CURLOPT_HEADERDATA (3)
CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION (3)
curl_easy_header (3)
HTTP
FTP
POP3
IMAP
SMTP
7.7.2

NAME

CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION - callback that receives header data

SYNOPSIS

#include <curl/curl.h>

size_t header_callback(char *buffer,
                       size_t size,
                       size_t nitems,
                       void *userdata);

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION,
                          header_callback);

DESCRIPTION

Pass a pointer to your callback function, which should match the prototype shown above.

This callback function gets invoked by libcurl as soon as it has received header data. The header callback is called once for each header and only complete header lines are passed on to the callback. Parsing headers is easy to do using this callback. buffer points to the delivered data, and the size of that data is nitems; size is always 1. The provided header line is not null-terminated. Do not modify the passed in buffer.

The pointer named userdata is the one you set with the CURLOPT_HEADERDATA(3) option.

Your callback should return the number of bytes actually taken care of. If that amount differs from the amount passed to your callback function, it signals an error condition to the library. This causes the transfer to get aborted and the libcurl function used returns CURLE_WRITE_ERROR.

You can also abort the transfer by returning CURL_WRITEFUNC_ERROR. (7.87.0)

A complete HTTP header that is passed to this function can be up to CURL_MAX_HTTP_HEADER (100K) bytes and includes the final line terminator.

If this option is not set, or if it is set to NULL, but CURLOPT_HEADERDATA(3) is set to anything but NULL, the function used to accept response data is used instead. That is the function specified with CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION(3), or if it is not specified or NULL - the default, stream-writing function.

It is important to note that the callback is invoked for the headers of all responses received after initiating a request and not the final response. This includes all responses which occur during authentication negotiation. If you need to operate on only the headers from the final response, you need to collect headers in the callback yourself and use HTTP status lines, for example, to delimit response boundaries.

For an HTTP transfer, the status line and the blank line preceding the response body are both included as headers and passed to this function.

When a server sends a chunked encoded transfer, it may contain a trailer. That trailer is identical to an HTTP header and if such a trailer is received it is passed to the application using this callback as well. There are several ways to detect it being a trailer and not an ordinary header: 1) it comes after the response-body. 2) it comes after the final header line (CR LF) 3) a Trailer: header among the regular response-headers mention what header(s) to expect in the trailer.

For non-HTTP protocols like FTP, POP3, IMAP and SMTP this function gets called with the server responses to the commands that libcurl sends.

A more convenient way to get HTTP headers might be to use curl_easy_header(3).

LIMITATIONS

libcurl does not unfold HTTP "folded headers" (deprecated since RFC 7230). A folded header is a header that continues on a subsequent line and starts with a whitespace. Such folds are passed to the header callback as separate ones, although strictly they are continuations of the previous lines.

DEFAULT

Nothing.

%PROTOCOLS%

EXAMPLE

static size_t header_callback(char *buffer, size_t size,
                              size_t nitems, void *userdata)
{
  /* received header is 'nitems' bytes in 'buffer' NOT NULL-TERMINATED */
  /* 'userdata' is set with CURLOPT_HEADERDATA */
  return nitems;
}

int main(void)
{
  CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
  if(curl) {
    CURLcode result;
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com");

    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION, header_callback);

    result = curl_easy_perform(curl);

    curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
  }
}

%AVAILABILITY%

RETURN VALUE

curl_easy_setopt(3) returns a CURLcode indicating success or error.

CURLE_OK (0) means everything was OK, non-zero means an error occurred, see libcurl-errors(3).