There is an issue with CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION in DrupalWebTestCase::curlInitialize() that will break curl GET and POST.

It took me a while to realize this. I had an error with every POST or GET call within my tests, so that each $this->drupalGet() and $this->drupalPost() (and related) were broken. For example i was unable to make a $this->drupalLogin($account) thing work properly.

I patched with the cookiejar patch http://drupal.org/node/1671200#comment-6258866, and i then figured out that the problem is in the

curl_setopt_array($this->curlHandle, $this->additionalCurlOptions + $curl_options);

and it's related to CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, that make a couple of things happen:

1. If you are running your website on an host that has one of the following php options

• safe_mode = On
• open_basedir option is set

your tests will not work, unless you put safe_mode = off and/or unset the open_basedir.

2. CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION has been deprecated in php 5.3 and removed in php 5.4.

I think something should be done about those.
Regards,
b.