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An application can receive WebSocket data two different ways, but there is only one way for it to send data over the connection: the curl_ws_send() function.

curl_ws_send()

CURLcode curl_ws_send(CURL *curl, const void *buffer, size_t buflen,
                      size_t *sent, curl_off_t fragsize,
                      unsigned int sendflags);

curl - transfer handle

buffer - pointer to the frame data to send

buflen - length of the data (in bytes) in buffer

fragsize - the total size of the whole fragment, used when sending only a part of a larger fragment.

sent - number of bytes that were sent

flags - bitmask describing the data. See bit descriptions below.

Full fragment vs partial

To send a complete WebSocket fragment, set fragsize to zero and provide data for all other arguments.

To send a fragment in smaller pieces: send the first part with fragsize set to the total fragment size. You must know and provide the size of the entire fragment before you can send it. In subsequent calls to curl_ws_send() you send the next pieces of the fragment with fragsize set to zero but with the CURLWS_OFFSET bit sets in the flags argument. Repeat until all pieces have been sent that constitute the whole fragment.

Flags

CURLWS_TEXT

The buffer contains text data. Note that this makes a difference to WebSocket but libcurl itself does not perform any verification of the content or make any precautions that you actually send valid UTF-8 content.

CURLWS_BINARY

This is binary data.

CURLWS_CONT

This is not the final fragment of the message, which implies that there is another fragment coming as part of the same message where this bit is not set.

CURLWS_CLOSE

Close this transfer.

CURLWS_PING

This as a ping.

CURLWS_PONG

This as a pong.

CURLWS_OFFSET

The provided data is only a partial fragment and there is more data coming in a following call to curl_ws_send(). When sending only a piece of the fragment like this, the fragsize must be provided with the total expected frame size in the first call and it needs to be zero in subsequent calls.

When CURLWS_OFFSET is set, no other flag bits should be set as this is a continuation of a previous send and the bits describing the fragments were set then.