curl_exec function causes server to drop the connection

Question

Hi Everyone,

I am having a strange issue with the following function that I have written. Briefly, this function connects to a URL and fetches the output by using curl functions. However, when I execute this function, I get a "server unexpectedly dropped the connection" message:

/**
 * Connects to remote URL and posts parameters, returns the result
 *
 * @param string $URL 
 * @param string $ArrayPostParameters 
 * @param string $HTTPRequestType 
 * @param string $HTTPAuth 
 * @param string $HTTPAuthUsername 
 * @param string $HTTPAuthPassword 
 * @param string $ConnectTimeOutSeconds 
 * @param string $ReturnHeaders 
 * @return array
 * @author xxxxxxxxxx
 */
function DataPostToRemoteURL($URL, $ArrayPostParameters, $HTTPRequestType = 'POST', $HTTPAuth = false, $HTTPAuthUsername = '', $HTTPAuthPassword = '', $ConnectTimeOutSeconds = 1, $ReturnHeaders = false)
    {
    $PostParameters = implode('&', $ArrayPostParameters);

    $CurlHandler = curl_init();
     curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_URL, $URL);

     if ($HTTPRequestType == 'GET')
      {
      curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_HTTPGET, true);
      }
     elseif ($HTTPRequestType == 'PUT')
      {
      curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_PUT, true);
      }
     elseif ($HTTPRequestType == 'DELETE')
      {
      curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'DELETE');
      }
     else
      {
      curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_POST, true);
      curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $PostParameters);
      }

     curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
     curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
     curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 5);
     curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $ConnectTimeOutSeconds);
     curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, $ConnectTimeOutSeconds);
     curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3');

     // The option doesn't work with safe mode or when open_basedir is set.
     if ((ini_get('safe_mode') != false) && (ini_get('open_basedir') != false))
      {
      curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
      }

     if ($ReturnHeaders == true)
      {
      curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_HEADER, true);
      }
     else
      {
      curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
      }

     if ($HTTPAuth == true)
      {
      curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH, CURLAUTH_BASIC);
      curl_setopt($CurlHandler, CURLOPT_USERPWD, $HTTPAuthUsername.':'.$HTTPAuthPassword);
      }

     $RemoteContent = curl_exec($CurlHandler);

    if (curl_error($CurlHandler) != '')
     {
     return array(false, curl_error($CurlHandler));
     }

    curl_close($CurlHandler); 

    return array(true, $RemoteContent);
    }

When I debugged the function, I noticed that curl_exec() function causes this issue. No curl_error message and no PHP error is generated.

Do you have any idea about reason(s)? safe_mode is disabled in PHP.INI for your information.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Answer 1

How are you calling this function? If you're leaving the $ConnectTimeOutSeconds option at it's default of 1 your CURLOPT_TIMEOUT setting might be causing the issue as it probably takes more than 1 second to connect and return the page.