PycURL Home Page

PYCURL 7.19.0
Sep 9 2008

>>> import pycurl
>>> print pycurl.__doc__

PycURL is aPython interface tolibcurl.PycURL can be used to fetch objects identified by a URLfrom a Python program, similar to theurllib Python module.PycURL is mature, very fast, and supports a lot of features.

Overview

• libcurl is a free and easy-to-use client-side URL transfer library, supporting FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, GOPHER, TELNET, DICT, FILE and LDAP. libcurl supports HTTPS certificates, HTTP POST, HTTP PUT, FTP uploading, kerberos, HTTP form based upload, proxies, cookies, user+password authentication, file transfer resume, http proxy tunneling and more!
  
  
• libcurl is highly portable, it builds and works identically on numerous platforms, including Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Darwin, HPUX, IRIX, AIX, Tru64, Linux, Windows, Amiga, OS/2, BeOs, Mac OS X, Ultrix, QNX, OpenVMS, RISC OS, Novell NetWare, DOS and more...
  
  
• libcurl is free, thread-safe, IPv6 compatible, feature rich, well supported and fast.

Intended Audience

PycURL is targeted at the advanced developer - if you need dozens ofconcurrent fast and reliable connections or any of the sophisticatedfeatures as listed above then PycURL is for you.

The main drawback with PycURL is that it is a relative thin layer overlibcurl without any of those nice Pythonic class hierarchies.This means it has a somewhat steep learning curve unless youare already familiar with libcurl's C API.

To sum up, PycURL is very fast (esp. for multiple concurrent operations)and very feature complete, but has a somewhat complex interface.If you need something simpler or prefer a pure Pythonmodule you might want to check outurllib2andurlgrabber.There is also a goodcomparisonof the various libraries.

Documentation

PycURL now includes API documentation in the doc directory of the distribution,as well as a number of test and example scripts in the testsand examplesdirectories of the distribution.

The real info, though, is located in thelibcurl documentation,most important beingcurl_easy_setopt.Thelibcurl tutorialalso provides a lot of useful information.

For a quick start have a look at the high-performance URL downloaderretriever-multi.py.

For a list of changes consult the PycURL ChangeLog.

Download

DownloadPycURL sources version 7.19.0 (Sep 9 2008) or trythe code fromthe CVS repository.

You can get prebuilt Win32 modules as well as older versions from thedownload area.Please note that the prebuilt versions are provided for yourconvenience only and are completely unsupported - use themat your own risk.

Also, official PycURL packages are available for Ubuntu,Debian GNU/Linux, FreeBSD,Gentoo Linux, NetBSD,and OpenBSD.

Community

If you want to ask questions or discuss PycURL related issues, ourmailing listis the place to be.

ThePycURL SourceForgeproject page provides bug- and patch tracking systems.

And the libcurl library also has it's ownmailing lists.

License

Copyright (C) 2001-2008 Kjetil Jacobsen
Copyright (C) 2001-2008 Markus F.X.J. Oberhumer

PycURL is dual licensed under the LGPL and an MIT/X derivative licensebased on the cURL license. You can redistribute and/or modify PycURLaccording to the terms of either license.