diff -ruNp curl-7.19.4.orig/include/curl/curl.h curl-7.19.4/include/curl/curl.h
--- curl-7.19.4.orig/include/curl/curl.h	2009-03-03 00:05:31.000000000 +0100
+++ curl-7.19.4/include/curl/curl.h	2009-03-10 14:49:47.017943954 +0100
@@ -1510,7 +1510,7 @@ CURL_EXTERN void curl_free(void *p);
  * DESCRIPTION
  *
  * curl_global_init() should be invoked exactly once for each application that
- * uses libcurl
+ * uses libcurl and before any call of other libcurl function
  */
 CURL_EXTERN CURLcode curl_global_init(long flags);
 
diff -ruNp curl-7.19.4.orig/src/main.c curl-7.19.4/src/main.c
--- curl-7.19.4.orig/src/main.c	2009-02-17 10:10:21.000000000 +0100
+++ curl-7.19.4/src/main.c	2009-03-10 14:49:50.297971916 +0100
@@ -3969,6 +3969,12 @@ operate(struct Configurable *config, int
 
   memset(&heads, 0, sizeof(struct OutStruct));
 
+  /* initialize curl library - do not call any libcurl functions before */
+  if (main_init() != CURLE_OK) {
+    helpf(config->errors, "error initializing curl library\n");
+    return CURLE_FAILED_INIT;
+  }
+
 #ifdef CURLDEBUG
   /* this sends all memory debug messages to a logfile named memdump */
   env = curlx_getenv("CURL_MEMDEBUG");
@@ -4015,10 +4021,6 @@ operate(struct Configurable *config, int
 #endif
 
   /* inits */
-  if (main_init() != CURLE_OK) {
-    helpf(config->errors, "error initializing curl library\n");
-    return CURLE_FAILED_INIT;
-  }
   config->postfieldsize = -1;
   config->showerror=TRUE;
   config->use_httpget=FALSE;