Getting LibCurl to work with Visual Studio 2013

Question

I am having trouble getting LibCurl to work with Visual Studio 2013. I downloaded the current version (curl-7.33.0) and tried following the instructions I found on this site: Using LibCurl with Visual 2010

But I can't find curllib.lib in the folder I downloaded. And I am still getting errors:

After searching the internet for more help. I now get these error messages. There appears to be a problem with linking to libcurl.lib?

This is what I have configured:

---

Inside /lib I have libcurl.lib and libcurl.dll

---

UPDATE

I downloaded this release for Win32 MSVC: http://curl.haxx.se/download.html#Win32 After adding the libcurl libraries and successfully compiling, I am now getting this error message:

 The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b). Click OK to close the application.

Here is the sample code I am trying to run:

#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h> 
#include <curl/curl.h> 


int main(void)
{
    CURL *curl;
    CURLcode res;

    curl = curl_easy_init();
    if (curl) {
        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "http://google.com");
        res = curl_easy_perform(curl);

        /* always cleanup */
        curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
    }
    return 0;
}

---

FINAL UPDATE

I believe I have gotten LibCurl to work with Visual Studio 2013 now. Persistence ftw! Although, after spending hours trying to solve these error messages, I am a little hesitant at saying everything is working fine now. That is why I am putting a bounty on this question to get clear and concise instructions on getting LibCurl to work with Visual Studio 2013.

This is what I did to get it to work:

1. First, download the Win32 MSVC package here: http://curl.haxx.se/download.html#Win32 For these instructions sake, let's say you downloaded to C:\LibCurl

2. Start a new project in Visual Studio. Go to Project|Project Properties|VC++ Directories|Include Directories| Add the path to the include directory inside the downloaded package. (C:\LibCurl\include)

3. Next, go to Project|Project Properties|Linker|General|Additional Library Directories| Add the path to the lib directory. (Where curllib.dll is located)

4. Then, go to Project|Project Properties|Linker|Input|Additional Dependencies| And add curllib.lib

5. Now if you compile a test program, you will likely get the message saying libsasl.dll is missing. You will need to download this file and put it in the same directory as your build. I used 7-Zip to extract libsasl.dll from OpenLDAP for Windows. OpenLDAP for Windows

This is the result of my test code from above:

Answer 1

I would say that in a comment, but I am lacking in points. You don't have to copy any .dll into your program run catalog. Go to Project | Properties | Configuration Properties and in line Envrionment write: PATH=$(ExecutablePath)$(LocalDebuggerEnvironment).

From now on, all .dlls from any catalog you mention in Project|Project Properties|VC++ Directories|Binary should be usable without copying them.

The rest is exactly as you written.

Answer 2

A lot of these instructions are out of date because they recommend the win32-ssl-devel-msvc package for curl, which no longer exists.

The following instructions allow you to build libcurl using only:

• Visual Studio 2013
• curl generic source tarball (tested on curl 7.44.0).

A. Build libcurl static library

1. Download the latest curl generic source from: http://curl.haxx.se/latest.cgi?curl=tar.gz
2. Extract the source to a local directory (we'll be using C:\libcurl)
3. Open a command prompt
4. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\bin\vcvars32.bat" To initialize your VC environment variables (adjust your VS 2013 installation directory as needed)
5. cd C:\libcurl\winbuild
6. nmake /f Makefile.vc mode=static VC=12
7. The build should appear in C:\libcurl\builds\libcurl-vc12-x86-release-static-ipv6-sspi-winssl

B. Link Against libcurl in Visual Studio

1. In Visual Studio, right click your project in Solution Explorer, then click "Properties"
2. Configuration Properties > C/C++ > General > Additional Include Directories: add C:\libcurl\builds\libcurl-vc12-x86-release-static-ipv6-sspi-winssl\include
3. Configuration Properties > C/C++ > Preprocessor > Preprocessor Definitions: add CURL_STATICLIB
4. Configuration Properties > Linker > General > Additional Library Directories: add C:\libcurl\builds\libcurl-vc12-x86-release-static-ipv6-sspi-winssl\lib
5. Configuration Properties > Linker > Input > Additional Dependencies: add libcurl_a.lib

C. Call libcurl from Your Project

The following sample shows a call to libcurl:

#include "stdafx.h"

#include <curl/curl.h>

void main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
    if (curl) printf("curl_easy_init() succeeded!\n"); 
    else fprintf(stderr, "Error calling curl_easy_init().\n");
}

Answer 3

Download the curl v7.37.0 source code and use the Visual Studio project files provided.

I've spent the last few weeks polishing my own personal project files, that were based off the original VC6 files, and adding them to the repository.

.dsw / .dsp (VC6), .sln / .vcproj (VC7, VC7.1, VC8 and VC9 as well as .sln / .vcxproj (VC10, VC11 and VC12) files are provided for both DLL and Static Library builds with support for OpenSSL and Windows SSPI / SChannel in both Win32 and x64 configurations.

Answer 4

I tried to do it from scratch with VS2012 (I don't have 2013) and it works perfectly.

• I downloaded version 7.19.3 from http://curl.haxx.se/latest.cgi?curl=win32-ssl-devel-msvc because it's the only available version for VS.
• I added the include directory, not the curl directory as he says in the tutorial.
• I compiled a small toy project without any problem.

So, I'm not sure what your problem is, but:

• Make sure you download the right archive.
• Try to put the cURL folder on a path without space.
• If you know someone who use VS2012 or older, try your code with the same include and lib and see if it works.
• Paste a minimal working example of your code so I can test it.

Answer 5

The problem is that the targets for the default VS2013 platform tools are not set in the NuGet packages. This is why it works in VS2012 but not VS2013. I manually created replacement targets files. Instructions and download:

https://github.com/evoskuil/curl-nuget-targets

Answer 6

This is a bit late, but for those who still have problems, this method worked best for me:

1. Add VS to the system PATH:
   For example: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\bin.
2. Download current curl-X.zip from http://curl.haxx.se/download.html and unzip.
3. Open command line at curl-X/winbuild.
4. Call vcvars32.bat.
5. Call nmake /f Makefile.vc mode=static VC=12.
6. Goto curl-X/builds/libcurl-XXX.

There you find the includes and a libcurl_a.lib. This lib works fine for me.
Remember to define -DCURL_STATICLIB when you compile your code with this lib.