Getting HTTP code in PHP using curl

Question

I'm using CURL to get the status of a site, if it's up/down or redirecting to another site. I want to get it as streamlined as possible, but it's not working well.

<?php
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_TIMEOUT,10);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
$httpcode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
curl_close($ch);

return $httpcode;
?>

I have this wrapped in a function. It works fine but performance is not the best because it downloads the whole page, thing in if I remove $output = curl_exec($ch); it returns 0 all the time.

Does anyone know how to make the performance better?

halfer · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-13 16:14:26Z

372

First make sure if the URL is actually valid (a string, not empty, good syntax), this is quick to check server side. For example, doing this first could save a lot of time:

if(!$url || !is_string($url) || ! preg_match('/^http(s)?:\/\/[a-z0-9-]+(.[a-z0-9-]+)*(:[0-9]+)?(\/.*)?$/i', $url)){
    return false;
}

Make sure you only fetch the headers, not the body content:

@curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER  , true);  // we want headers
@curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_NOBODY  , true);  // we don't need body

For more details on getting the URL status http code I refer to another post I made (it also helps with following redirects):

How can I check if a URL exists via PHP?

As a whole:

$url = 'http://www.example.com';
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, true);    // we want headers
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_NOBODY, true);    // we don't need body
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT,10);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
$httpcode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
curl_close($ch);

echo 'HTTP code: ' . $httpcode;

edited Jul 13, 2018 at 16:14

halfer

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answered Sep 27, 2012 at 20:07

MoonLite

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4 Comments

Sk8erPeter Over a year ago

I edited your post and pasted the working example code as a whole. I find it this way more helpful. Btw., +1 for mentioning CURLOPT_HEADER and CURLOPT_NOBODY settings! :)

Brainware Over a year ago

It is not necessary to set CURLOPT_HEADER to true. You still get the httpcode from curl_getinfo() either way.

sshow Over a year ago

As of PHP 5.5.0 and cURL 7.10.8, this [CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE] is a legacy alias of CURLINFO_RESPONSE_CODE (ref)

itoctopus Over a year ago

For some reason this line curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_NOBODY, true); is hanging. Not sure if this is related to the server's PHP version.

Deepika Patel · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-10 09:14:44Z

183

// must set $url first....
$http = curl_init($url);
// do your curl thing here
$result = curl_exec($http);
$http_status = curl_getinfo($http, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
curl_close($http);
echo $http_status;

answered Feb 10, 2015 at 9:14

Deepika Patel

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2 Comments

Mike_K Over a year ago

This one does not require ignoring the body and only makes one call, making it my preferred answer as well.

trane77 Over a year ago

Checking the doc in 2021: As of PHP 5.5.0 and cURL 7.10.8, this is a legacy alias of CURLINFO_RESPONSE_CODE

vimdude · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-09 13:49:04Z

31

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0)");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST,false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER,false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS, 10);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 5);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 20);
$rt = curl_exec($ch);
$info = curl_getinfo($ch);
echo $info["http_code"];

edited Feb 9, 2016 at 13:49

vimdude

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answered May 2, 2015 at 11:59

ntson1009

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Comments

Raphael Caixeta · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-03 14:30:38Z

16

Try PHP's "get_headers" function.

Something along the lines of:

<?php
    $url = 'http://www.example.com';
    print_r(get_headers($url));
    print_r(get_headers($url, 1));
?>

answered Aug 3, 2012 at 14:30

Raphael Caixeta

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1 Comment

Mike Kormendy Over a year ago

Get headers is slow compared to curl.

Mahendra Jella · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-02 05:49:14Z

6

curl_getinfo — Get information regarding a specific transfer

Check curl_getinfo

<?php
// Create a curl handle
$ch = curl_init('http://www.yahoo.com/');

// Execute
curl_exec($ch);

// Check if any error occurred
if(!curl_errno($ch))
{
 $info = curl_getinfo($ch);

 echo 'Took ' . $info['total_time'] . ' seconds to send a request to ' . $info['url'];
}

// Close handle
curl_close($ch);

answered Jul 2, 2015 at 5:49

Mahendra Jella

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Comments

Explosion Pills · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-03 14:30:41Z

3

curl_exec is necessary. Try CURLOPT_NOBODY to not download the body. That might be faster.

answered Aug 3, 2012 at 14:30

Explosion Pills

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Comments

Shamim Shaikh · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-06 13:24:52Z

use this hitCurl method for fetch all type of api response i.e. Get / Post

        function hitCurl($url,$param = [],$type = 'POST'){
        $ch = curl_init();
        if(strtoupper($type) == 'GET'){
            $param = http_build_query((array)$param);
            $url = "{$url}?{$param}";
        }else{
            curl_setopt_array($ch,[
                CURLOPT_POST => (strtoupper($type) == 'POST'),
                CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => (array)$param,
            ]);
        }
        curl_setopt_array($ch,[
            CURLOPT_URL => $url,
            CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        ]);
        $resp = curl_exec($ch);
        $statusCode = curl_getinfo($ch,CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
        curl_close($ch);
        return [
            'statusCode' => $statusCode,
            'resp' => $resp
        ];
    }

Demo function to test api

 function fetchApiData(){
        $url = 'https://postman-echo.com/get';
        $resp = $this->hitCurl($url,[
            'foo1'=>'bar1',
            'foo2'=>'bar2'
        ],'get');
        $apiData = "Getting header code {$resp['statusCode']}";
        if($resp['statusCode'] == 200){
            $apiData = json_decode($resp['resp']);
        }
        echo "<pre>";
        print_r ($apiData);
        echo "</pre>";
    }

christian Nguyen · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-13 13:40:33Z

-5

Here is my solution need get Status Http for checking status of server regularly

$url = 'http://www.example.com'; // Your server link

while(true) {

    $strHeader = get_headers($url)[0];

    $statusCode = substr($strHeader, 9, 3 );

    if($statusCode != 200 ) {
        echo 'Server down.';
        // Send email 
    }
    else {
        echo 'oK';
    }

    sleep(30);
}

edited Aug 13, 2016 at 13:40

answered Aug 13, 2016 at 8:14

christian Nguyen

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2 Comments

Mike Kormendy Over a year ago

Getheaders is slow compared to curl.

Ugur Kazdal Over a year ago

why don't you use cron or webhook instead of using sleep and endless loop ?

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