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curlconnection-timeout

Negative curl timeout

What happens when you use a negative curl timeout?

$curlOptions[CURLOPT_TIMEOUT] = -2;

Does it get transformed into positive 2, or remains -2?

Because, sometimes curl works, sometimes doesn't...

Solution

  • This is how curl works:

    First it connects to the url that you provide.

    Then it perform the overall curl operation for the amount of seconds you have specified through the CURLOPT_TIMEOUT option.

    So if you set the CURLOPT_TIMEOUT as -2 it will never execute after connecting to the host. To verify this, run the script by enabling the CURLOPT_VERBOSE option. And you'll get the following msg always.

    * Operation timed out after -2000 milliseconds with 0 bytes received