CURLOPT_MAXFILESIZE_LARGE(3) Introduction to Library Functions CURLOPT_MAXFILESIZE_LARGE(3)

CURLOPT_MAXFILESIZE_LARGE - maximum file size allowed to download

#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_MAXFILESIZE_LARGE,

curl_off_t size);

Pass a curl_off_t as parameter. This specifies the maximum accepted size (in bytes) of a file to download. If the file requested is found larger than this value, the transfer is aborted and CURLE_FILESIZE_EXCEEDED is returned. Passing a zero size disables this, and passing a negative size yields a CURLE_BAD_FUNCTION_ARGUMENT.

If the size is known to exceed the limit before the transfer starts, libcurl aborts before starting the transfer. If the transfer instead exceeds the limit while it is in progress, libcurl aborts it at that point.

Since 8.20.0, this option also stops ongoing transfers that would reach this threshold due to automatic decompression using CURLOPT_ACCEPT_ENCODING(3).

0, meaning disabled.

This functionality affects ftp, http and mqtt

int main(void)
{

CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
CURLcode result;
curl_off_t ridiculous = (curl_off_t)1 << 48;
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com/");
/* refuse to download if larger than ridiculous */
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_MAXFILESIZE_LARGE, ridiculous);
result = curl_easy_perform(curl);
} }

Added in curl 7.11.0

Before curl 8.4.0, the limit was not applied to transfers in progress.

curl_easy_setopt(3) returns a CURLcode indicating success or error.

CURLE_OK (0) means everything was OK, non-zero means an error occurred, see libcurl-errors(3).

CURLOPT_MAXFILESIZE(3), CURLOPT_MAX_RECV_SPEED_LARGE(3)

2026-08-09 libcurl