Question

I’m trying to download a file needed for my application off the internet (as part of installation) so that the first time the app starts up, the needed files get downloaded. For now I’m putting them on Google Drive and making them public, then I’m going to use libcURL to download them. The problem is, I just can’t get the data.

I use the following link: https://docs.google.com/uc?id=documentID&export=download and replace documentID with the id. When I try connecting to the site though, it keeps giving me a small snippet of HTML code that basically says “Moved Temporarily” and gives me a link to the new URL. When I use the new link in my program, I get no output whatsoever. However, both links work just fine in my web browser, even when I’m not signed in. So Why don’t they work in my program? Am I not setting up SSL options correctly, or is Google Drive simply not meant for this kind of thing?

Here’s my code:

#include <curl/curl.h>

int main()
{
    curl_global_init(CURL_GLOBAL_ALL);

    CURL *curl;
    CURLcode res;

    curl = curl_easy_init();
    if(curl) {
        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://docs.google.com/uc?id=documentID&export=download");
        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0L);
        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0L);
        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1L);
        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1L);
        res = curl_easy_perform(curl);
    }
    curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
    return 0;
}

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You’ll need to set the CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION option to tell cURL to follow redirects.