c Curl get request to variable - c++

Question

Sure I am missing something obvious, but trying to make a curl get request and return the response to a variable.
size_t write_to_string(void *ptr, size_t size, size_t nmemb, std::string stream){
size_t realsize = size * nmemb;
std::string temp(static_cast<const char*>(ptr), realsize);
cout << temp << endl;
return realsize;
}
CURLcode curl_get(const std::string& url, std::ostream& os, long timeout = 30){
CURLcode code(CURLE_FAILED_INIT);
CURL* curl = curl_easy_init();
string *response;
if (curl){
if (CURLE_OK == (code = curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, &write_to_string))
&& CURLE_OK == (code = curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_NOPROGRESS, 1L))
&& CURLE_OK == (code = curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1L))
&& CURLE_OK == (code = curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_FILE, &os))
&& CURLE_OK == (code = curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_WRITEDATA, response))
&& CURLE_OK == (code = curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, timeout))
&& CURLE_OK == (code = curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, url.c_str())))
{
code = curl_easy_perform(curl);
}
curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
}
std::string a = *response;
return code;
}
response is always either null or an out of bounds pointer from the dozen ways I have tried. The cout does show the correct response.
All I am trying to do is create a generic function for all curl get calls and have it return the get data. New to c, so sorry if I am overlooking something simple.

Answer 1

You declare write_to_string to accept std::string but you pass it a pointer to std::string (via CURLOPT_WRITEDATA).
You don't do anything with std::string stream in write_to_string.
You declare response as a std::string* but do not initialize it, so you have dangling pointer.