.\" $Id: curl_client_init.3,v 1.4 2004/03/24 21:40:45 bagder Exp $
.\"
.TH curl_client_init 3 "4 December 2005" "libcurl 7.10.7" "libcurl Manual"
.SH NAME
curl_client_init - create a client handle
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <curl/curl.h>
.sp
.BI "CURLC *curl_client_init(long " flags ");"
.ad
.SH DESCRIPTION

This function creates a "Curl Client" object and returns a CURLC
handle to be used as input to \fIcurl_easy_init_c\fP(3) and other
client functions.  Your program must have a corresponding call to
\fIcurl_client_cleanup\fP(3) when you are done with the client object.

You can instead use \fIcurl_global_init\fP(3) to create the global
client object and save yourself some coding at the expense of program
modularity.  See the ENVIRONMENT section of the libcurl(3) man page 
for details on using global and private client objects.

The \fIflags\fP argument is a logical or of some combination of the
following:

.IN +4

\fICURL_CLIENT_GLOBAL_OPENSSL\fP

\fICURL_CLIENT_GLOBAL_GNUTLS\fP

\fICURL_CLIENT_GLOBAL_WINSOCK\fP

\fICURL_CLIENT_GLOBAL_AMIGASOCK\fP

\fICURL_CLIENT_GLOBAL_CHARSET\fP

.IN -4

Each indicates that you allow libcurl to use a particular global
facility in operations connected to the client object.  If you don't
allow the use of a global facility, libcurls functionality may be
reduced.  For example, if you don't specify
\fICURL_CLIENT_GLOBAL_OPENSSL\fP and libcurl is built to use OpenSSL
to access "https" URLs, libcurl will not be able to access https URLs.
If you are running under Windows and do not specify
\fICURL_CLIENT_GLOBAL_WINSOCK\fP, libcurl will be practically useless, as it
will have no way to access the network.  All operations will fail.

When you indicate that libcurl may use a global facility, you must
have previously set up that facility so that libcurl can use it;
libcurl does not initialize global facilities for use with client
objects you create with \fIcurl_client_init\fP(3).

For details on the global facility situation, including what
initialization you have to do before specifying these flags, see the
libcurl(3) man page.


.SH RETURN VALUE
If this function returns NULL, something went wrong and a client object
did not get created.

.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR curl_client_cleanup "(3), " curl_global_init "(3), "
.BR curl_easy_init_c "(3), "
.BR libcurl "(3), " libcurl-client "(3)"