&reftitle.examples;

## Basic curl example

Once you've compiled PHP with cURL support, you can begin using the cURL functions. The basic idea behind the cURL functions is that you initialize a cURL session using the `curl_init`, then you can set all your options for the transfer via the `curl_setopt`, then you can execute the session with the `curl_exec` and then you finish off your session using the `curl_close`. Here is an example that uses the cURL functions to fetch the example.com homepage into a file:

### Using PHP's cURL module to fetch the example.com homepage

    <?php

    $ch = curl_init("http://www.example.com/");
    $fp = fopen("example_homepage.txt", "w");

    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);

    curl_exec($ch);
    if(curl_error($ch)) {
        fwrite($fp, curl_error($ch));
    }
    curl_close($ch);
    fclose($fp);
    ?>