When using libcurl you init your easy-session and get a handle, which you use as input to the following interface functions you use.

You continue by setting all the options you want in the upcoming transfer, most important among them is the URL itself. You might want to set some callbacks as well that will be called from the library when data is available etc.

When all is setup, you tell libcurl to perform the transfer. It will then do the entire operation and won't return until it is done or failed.