curl_easy_unescape(3)

curl_easy_unescape3

Url decodes the given string

Usage

#include <curl/curl.h>
char *curl_easy_unescape(CURL *curl, const char *input,
                         int inlength, int *outlength);

Overview

This function converts the URL encoded string input to a "plain string" and returns that in an allocated memory area. All input characters that are URL encoded (%XX where XX is a two-digit hexadecimal number) are converted to their binary versions.

If the length argument is set to 0 (zero), curl_easy_unescape(3) uses strlen() on input to find out the size.

If outlength is non-NULL, the function writes the length of the returned string in the integer it points to. This allows proper handling even for strings containing %00. Since this is a pointer to an int type, it can only return a value up to INT_MAX so no longer string can be returned in this parameter.

Since 7.82.0, the curl parameter is ignored. Prior to that there was per-handle character conversion support for some old operating systems such as TPF, but it was otherwise ignored.

You must curl_free(3) the returned string when you are done with it.

Examples

int main(void)
{
  CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
  if(curl) {
    int decodelen;
    char *decoded = curl_easy_unescape(curl, "%63%75%72%6c", 12, &decodelen);
    if(decoded) {
      /* do not assume printf() works on the decoded data! */
      printf("Decoded: ");
      /* ... */
      curl_free(decoded);
    }
    curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
  }
}

Return value

A pointer to a null-terminated string or NULL if it failed.

Releases

115 releases since Mac OS X 10.5; the text changed 19 times.

  1. 10.5–10.5.8
  2. 10.6–10.6.2
  3. 10.6.3–10.6.8
  4. 10.7–10.9.5
  5. 10.10–10.10.4
  6. 10.10.5–10.11.6
  7. 10.12–10.12.1
  8. 10.12.2–10.12.5
  9. 10.12.6–10.14.6
  10. 10.15–11.5
  11. 12.0.1–12.2
  12. 12.3–12.5
  13. 13.0
  14. 13.1
  15. 13.2
  16. 13.3
  17. 13.4
  18. 13.5–14.1
  19. 14.2–14.4
  20. 14.5–26.5

Availability

Added in 7.15.4 and replaces the old curl_unescape(3) function.

From curl 166.0.0.0.1 in macOS 26.5. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.