docs/HTTP-COOKIES: converted to markdown

Updated: July 3, 2012 (https://curl.haxx.se/docs/http-cookies.html)

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# HTTP Cookies

## Cookie overview

HTTP Cookies

 1. HTTP Cookies

 1.1 Cookie overview

 1.2 Cookies saved to disk

 1.3 Cookies with curl the command line tool

 1.4 Cookies with libcurl

 1.5 Cookies with javascript

==============================================================================

1. HTTP Cookies

  1.1 Cookie overview

  HTTP cookies are pieces of 'name=contents' snippets that a server tells the

  client to hold and then the client sends back those the server on subsequent

  requests to the same domains/paths for which the cookies were set.

  Cookies are `name=contents` pairs that a HTTP server tells the client to

  hold and then the client sends back those to the server on subsequent

  requests to the same domains and paths for which the cookies were set.

  Cookies are either "session cookies" which typically are forgotten when the

  session is over which is often translated to equal when browser quits, or

  servers with the Cookie: header.

  For a very long time, the only spec explaining how to use cookies was the

  original Netscape spec from 1994: https://curl.haxx.se/rfc/cookie_spec.html

  original [Netscape spec from 1994](https://curl.haxx.se/rfc/cookie_spec.html).

  In 2011, RFC6265 (https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc6265.txt) was finally published

  and details how cookies work within HTTP.

  In 2011, [RFC6265](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc6265.txt) was finally

  published and details how cookies work within HTTP.

  1.2 Cookies saved to disk

## Cookies saved to disk

  Netscape once created a file format for storing cookies on disk so that they

  would survive browser restarts. curl adopted that file format to allow

  When libcurl saves a cookiejar, it creates a file header of its own in which

  there is a URL mention that will link to the web version of this document.

  1.3 Cookies with curl the command line tool

## Cookies with curl the command line tool

  curl has a full cookie "engine" built in. If you just activate it, you can

  have curl receive and send cookies exactly as mandated in the specs.

  Command line options:

  -b, --cookie

  `-b, --cookie`

    tell curl a file to read cookies from and start the cookie engine, or if

    it isn't a file it will pass on the given string. -b name=var works and so

    does -b cookiefile.

  tell curl a file to read cookies from and start the cookie engine, or if it

  isn't a file it will pass on the given string. -b name=var works and so does

  -b cookiefile.

  -j, --junk-session-cookies

  `-j, --junk-session-cookies`

    when used in combination with -b, it will skip all "session cookies" on

    load so as to appear to start a new cookie session.

  when used in combination with -b, it will skip all "session cookies" on load

  so as to appear to start a new cookie session.

  -c, --cookie-jar

  `-c, --cookie-jar`

  tell curl to start the cookie engine and write cookies to the given file

  after the request(s)

  1.4 Cookies with libcurl

## Cookies with libcurl

  libcurl offers several ways to enable and interface the cookie engine. These

  options are the ones provided by the native API. libcurl bindings may offer

  access to them using other means.

  CURLOPT_COOKIE

  `CURLOPT_COOKIE`

  Is used when you want to specify the exact contents of a cookie header to

  send to the server.

  CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE

  `CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE`

  Tell libcurl to activate the cookie engine, and to read the initial set of

  cookies from the given file. Read-only.

  CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR

  `CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR`

  Tell libcurl to activate the cookie engine, and when the easy handle is

  closed save all known cookies to the given cookiejar file. Write-only.

  CURLOPT_COOKIELIST

  `CURLOPT_COOKIELIST`

  Provide detailed information about a single cookie to add to the internal

    storage of cookies. Pass in the cookie as a HTTP header with all the

    details set, or pass in a line from a netscape cookie file. This option

    can also be used to flush the cookies etc.

  storage of cookies. Pass in the cookie as a HTTP header with all the details

  set, or pass in a line from a netscape cookie file. This option can also be

  used to flush the cookies etc.

  CURLINFO_COOKIELIST

  `CURLINFO_COOKIELIST`

  Extract cookie information from the internal cookie storage as a linked

  list.

  1.5 Cookies with javascript

## Cookies with javascript

  These days a lot of the web is built up by javascript. The webbrowser loads

  complete programs that render the page you see. These javascript programs

 README.win32 RESOURCES TODO TheArtOfHttpScripting THANKS VERSIONS      \

 KNOWN_BUGS BINDINGS $(man_MANS) $(HTMLPAGES) HISTORY INSTALL           \

 $(PDFPAGES) LICENSE-MIXING README.netware INSTALL.devcpp               \

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 MAIL-ETIQUETTE HTTP-COOKIES.md SECURITY RELEASE-PROCEDURE SSL-PROBLEMS \

 HTTP2.md ROADMAP.md CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md CODE_STYLE.md

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