1 This is Info file wget.info, produced by Makeinfo version 1.67 from the
2 input file ./wget.texi.
4 INFO-DIR-SECTION Net Utilities
5 INFO-DIR-SECTION World Wide Web
7 * Wget: (wget). The non-interactive network downloader.
10 This file documents the the GNU Wget utility for downloading network
13 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
15 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
16 manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
17 preserved on all copies.
19 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
20 this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also
21 that the sections entitled "Copying" and "GNU General Public License"
22 are included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire
23 resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission
24 notice identical to this one.
27 File: wget.info, Node: Wgetrc Syntax, Next: Wgetrc Commands, Prev: Wgetrc Location, Up: Startup File
32 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
36 The "variable" will also be called "command". Valid "values" are
37 different for different commands.
39 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
40 `DIr__PrefiX' is the same as `dirprefix'. Empty lines, lines beginning
41 with `#' and lines containing white-space only are discarded.
43 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
44 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
45 global `wgetrc', you can do it with:
50 File: wget.info, Node: Wgetrc Commands, Next: Sample Wgetrc, Prev: Wgetrc Syntax, Up: Startup File
55 The complete set of commands is listed below, the letter after `='
56 denoting the value the command takes. It is `on/off' for `on' or `off'
57 (which can also be `1' or `0'), STRING for any non-empty string or N
58 for a positive integer. For example, you may specify `use_proxy = off'
59 to disable use of proxy servers by default. You may use `inf' for
60 infinite values, where appropriate.
62 Most of the commands have their equivalent command-line option
63 (*Note Invoking::), except some more obscure or rarely used ones.
65 accept/reject = STRING
66 Same as `-A'/`-R' (*Note Types of Files::).
69 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. `-nH' disables it.
72 Enable/disable continuation of the retrieval, the same as `-c'
76 Enable/disable going to background, the same as `-b' (which enables
80 Set base for relative URLs, the same as `-B'.
83 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the `-C' option.
85 convert links = on/off
86 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as `-k'.
89 Ignore N remote directory components.
92 Debug mode, same as `-d'.
95 Delete after download, the same as `--delete-after'.
98 Top of directory tree, the same as `-P'.
101 Turning dirstruct on or off, the same as `-x' or `-nd',
105 Same as `-D' (*Note Domain Acceptance::).
108 Specify the number of bytes "contained" in a dot, as seen
109 throughout the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the
110 value with `k' or `m', representing kilobytes and megabytes,
111 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval
112 to suit your needs, or you can use the predefined "styles" (*Note
116 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line
117 throughout the retrieval (50 by default).
120 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
123 Specify the dot retrieval "style", as with `--dot-style'.
125 exclude_directories = STRING
126 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude
127 from download, the same as `-X' (*Note Directory-Based Limits::).
129 exclude_domains = STRING
130 Same as `--exclude-domains' (*Note Domain Acceptance::).
133 Follow FTP links from HTML documents, the same as `-f'.
136 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an HTML
137 document, the same as `-F'.
140 Use STRING as FTP proxy, instead of the one specified in
144 Turn globbing on/off, the same as `-g'.
147 Define an additional header, like `--header'.
153 Use STRING as HTTP proxy, instead of the one specified in
157 Set HTTP user to STRING.
159 ignore_length = on/off
160 When set to on, ignore `Content-Length' header; the same as
163 include_directories = STRING
164 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow
165 when downloading, the same as `-I'.
168 Read the URLs from STRING, like `-i'.
171 Consider data longer than specified in content-length header as
172 invalid (and retry getting it). The default behaviour is to save
173 as much data as there is, provided there is more than or equal to
174 the value in `Content-Length'.
177 Set logfile, the same as `-o'.
180 Your user name on the remote machine, for FTP. Defaults to
184 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as `-m'.
187 Turn reading netrc on or off.
193 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
194 `--no-parent' (*Note Directory-Based Limits::).
197 Use STRING as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
198 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
200 output_document = STRING
201 Set the output filename, the same as `-O'.
204 Set passive FTP, the same as `--passive-ftp'.
207 Set your FTP password to PASSWORD. Without this setting, the
208 password defaults to `username@hostname.domainname'.
211 Set proxy authentication user name to STRING, like `--proxy-user'.
213 proxy_passwd = STRING
214 Set proxy authentication password to STRING, like `--proxy-passwd'.
217 Quiet mode, the same as `-q'.
220 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in global
221 wgetrc. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop retrieving
222 after the download sum has become greater than quota. The quota
223 can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes `k' appended) or mbytes
224 (`m' appended). Thus `quota = 5m' will set the quota to 5 mbytes.
225 Note that the user's startup file overrides system settings.
228 Recursion level, the same as `-l'.
231 Recursive on/off, the same as `-r'.
233 relative_only = on/off
234 Follow only relative links, the same as `-L' (*Note Relative
237 remove_listing = on/off
238 If set to on, remove FTP listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
239 to off is the same as `-nr'.
241 retr_symlinks = on/off
242 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain
243 files; the same as `--retr-symlinks'.
246 Use (or not) `/robots.txt' file (*Note Robots::). Be sure to know
247 what you are doing before changing the default (which is `on').
249 server_response = on/off
250 Choose whether or not to print the HTTP and FTP server responses,
253 simple_host_check = on/off
254 Same as `-nh' (*Note Host Checking::).
260 Set timeout value, the same as `-T'.
262 timestamping = on/off
263 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as `-N' (*Note Time-Stamping::).
266 Set number of retries per URL, the same as `-t'.
269 Turn proxy support on/off. The same as `-Y'.
272 Turn verbose on/off, the same as `-v'/`-nv'.
275 Wait N seconds between retrievals, the same as `-w'.
278 File: wget.info, Node: Sample Wgetrc, Prev: Wgetrc Commands, Up: Startup File
283 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
284 It is divided in two section--one for global usage (suitable for global
285 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for `$HOME/.wgetrc').
286 Be careful about the things you change.
288 Note that all the lines are commented out. For any line to have
289 effect, you must remove the `#' prefix at the beginning of line.
292 ### Sample Wget initialization file .wgetrc
295 ## You can use this file to change the default behaviour of wget or to
296 ## avoid having to type many many command-line options. This file does
297 ## not contain a comprehensive list of commands -- look at the manual
298 ## to find out what you can put into this file.
300 ## Wget initialization file can reside in /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
301 ## (global, for all users) or $HOME/.wgetrc (for a single user).
303 ## To use any of the settings in this file, you will have to uncomment
304 ## them (and probably change them).
308 ## Global settings (useful for setting up in /usr/local/etc/wgetrc).
309 ## Think well before you change them, since they may reduce wget's
310 ## functionality, and make it behave contrary to the documentation:
313 # You can set retrieve quota for beginners by specifying a value
314 # optionally followed by 'K' (kilobytes) or 'M' (megabytes). The
315 # default quota is unlimited.
318 # You can lower (or raise) the default number of retries when
319 # downloading a file (default is 20).
322 # Lowering the maximum depth of the recursive retrieval is handy to
323 # prevent newbies from going too "deep" when they unwittingly start
324 # the recursive retrieval. The default is 5.
327 # Many sites are behind firewalls that do not allow initiation of
328 # connections from the outside. On these sites you have to use the
329 # `passive' feature of FTP. If you are behind such a firewall, you
330 # can turn this on to make Wget use passive FTP by default.
335 ## Local settings (for a user to set in his $HOME/.wgetrc). It is
336 ## *highly* undesirable to put these settings in the global file, since
337 ## they are potentially dangerous to "normal" users.
339 ## Even when setting up your own ~/.wgetrc, you should know what you
340 ## are doing before doing so.
343 # Set this to on to use timestamping by default:
346 # It is a good idea to make Wget send your email address in a `From:'
347 # header with your request (so that server administrators can contact
348 # you in case of errors). Wget does *not* send `From:' by default.
349 #header = From: Your Name <username@site.domain>
351 # You can set up other headers, like Accept-Language. Accept-Language
352 # is *not* sent by default.
353 #header = Accept-Language: en
355 # You can set the default proxy for Wget to use. It will override the
356 # value in the environment.
357 #http_proxy = http://proxy.yoyodyne.com:18023/
359 # If you do not want to use proxy at all, set this to off.
362 # You can customize the retrieval outlook. Valid options are default,
363 # binary, mega and micro.
366 # Setting this to off makes Wget not download /robots.txt. Be sure to
367 # know *exactly* what /robots.txt is and how it is used before changing
371 # It can be useful to make Wget wait between connections. Set this to
372 # the number of seconds you want Wget to wait.
375 # You can force creating directory structure, even if a single is being
376 # retrieved, by setting this to on.
379 # You can turn on recursive retrieving by default (don't do this if
380 # you are not sure you know what it means) by setting this to on.
383 # To have Wget follow FTP links from HTML files by default, set this
388 File: wget.info, Node: Examples, Next: Various, Prev: Startup File, Up: Top
393 The examples are classified into three sections, because of clarity.
394 The first section is a tutorial for beginners. The second section
395 explains some of the more complex program features. The third section
396 contains advice for mirror administrators, as well as even more complex
397 features (that some would call perverted).
401 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
402 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced techniques of usage.
403 * Guru Usage:: Mirroring and the hairy stuff.
406 File: wget.info, Node: Simple Usage, Next: Advanced Usage, Prev: Examples, Up: Examples
411 * Say you want to download a URL. Just type:
413 wget http://fly.cc.fer.hr/
415 The response will be something like:
417 --13:30:45-- http://fly.cc.fer.hr:80/en/
419 Connecting to fly.cc.fer.hr:80... connected!
420 HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
421 Length: 4,694 [text/html]
425 13:30:46 (23.75 KB/s) - `index.html' saved [4694/4694]
427 * But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is
428 lengthy? The connection will probably fail before the whole file
429 is retrieved, more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting
430 the file until it either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the
431 default number of retries (this being 20). It is easy to change
432 the number of tries to 45, to insure that the whole file will
435 wget --tries=45 http://fly.cc.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
437 * Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its
438 progress to log file `log'. It is tiring to type `--tries', so we
441 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.cc.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
443 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in
444 the background. To unlimit the number of retries, use `-t inf'.
446 * The usage of FTP is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
449 $ wget ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr/welcome.msg
450 --10:08:47-- ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr:21/welcome.msg
452 Connecting to gnjilux.cc.fer.hr:21... connected!
453 Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
454 ==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD not needed.
455 ==> PORT ... done. ==> RETR welcome.msg ... done.
456 Length: 1,340 (unauthoritative)
460 10:08:48 (1.28 MB/s) - `welcome.msg' saved [1340]
462 * If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory
463 listing, parse it and convert it to HTML. Try:
465 wget ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/
469 File: wget.info, Node: Advanced Usage, Next: Guru Usage, Prev: Simple Usage, Up: Examples
474 * You would like to read the list of URLs from a file? Not a problem
479 If you specify `-' as file name, the URLs will be read from
482 * Create a mirror image of GNU WWW site (with the same directory
483 structure the original has) with only one try per document, saving
484 the log of the activities to `gnulog':
486 wget -r -t1 http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/ -o gnulog
488 * Retrieve the first layer of yahoo links:
490 wget -r -l1 http://www.yahoo.com/
492 * Retrieve the index.html of `www.lycos.com', showing the original
495 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
497 * Save the server headers with the file:
498 wget -s http://www.lycos.com/
501 * Retrieve the first two levels of `wuarchive.wustl.edu', saving them
504 wget -P/tmp -l2 ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
506 * You want to download all the GIFs from an HTTP directory. `wget
507 http://host/dir/*.gif' doesn't work, since HTTP retrieval does not
508 support globbing. In that case, use:
510 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://host/dir/
512 It is a bit of a kludge, but it works. `-r -l1' means to retrieve
513 recursively (*Note Recursive Retrieval::), with maximum depth of 1.
514 `--no-parent' means that references to the parent directory are
515 ignored (*Note Directory-Based Limits::), and `-A.gif' means to
516 download only the GIF files. `-A "*.gif"' would have worked too.
518 * Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
519 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already
520 present. It would be:
522 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
524 * If you want to encode your own username and password to HTTP or
525 FTP, use the appropriate URL syntax (*Note URL Format::).
527 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@jagor.srce.hr/.emacs
529 * If you do not like the default retrieval visualization (1K dots
530 with 10 dots per cluster and 50 dots per line), you can customize
531 it through dot settings (*Note Wgetrc Commands::). For example,
532 many people like the "binary" style of retrieval, with 8K dots and
535 wget --dot-style=binary ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/README
537 You can experiment with other styles, like:
539 wget --dot-style=mega ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/xemacs-20.4/xemacs-20.4.tar.gz
540 wget --dot-style=micro http://fly.cc.fer.hr/
542 To make these settings permanent, put them in your `.wgetrc', as
543 described before (*Note Sample Wgetrc::).
546 File: wget.info, Node: Guru Usage, Prev: Advanced Usage, Up: Examples
551 * If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or FTP
552 subdirectories), use `--mirror' (`-m'), which is the shorthand for
553 `-r -N'. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it to
554 recheck a site each Sunday:
557 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/ -o /home/me/weeklog
559 * You may wish to do the same with someone's home page. But you do
560 not want to download all those images--you're only interested in
563 wget --mirror -A.html http://www.w3.org/
565 * But what about mirroring the hosts networkologically close to you?
566 It seems so awfully slow because of all that DNS resolving. Just
567 use `-D' (*Note Domain Acceptance::).
569 wget -rN -Dsrce.hr http://www.srce.hr/
571 Now Wget will correctly find out that `regoc.srce.hr' is the same
572 as `www.srce.hr', but will not even take into consideration the
573 link to `www.mit.edu'.
575 * You have a presentation and would like the dumb absolute links to
576 be converted to relative? Use `-k':
580 * You would like the output documents to go to standard output
581 instead of to files? OK, but Wget will automatically shut up
582 (turn on `--quiet') to prevent mixing of Wget output and the
585 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
587 You can also combine the two options and make weird pipelines to
588 retrieve the documents from remote hotlists:
590 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
593 File: wget.info, Node: Various, Next: Appendices, Prev: Examples, Up: Top
598 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
602 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers
603 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
604 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
605 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
606 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
607 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
610 File: wget.info, Node: Proxies, Next: Distribution, Prev: Various, Up: Various
615 "Proxies" are special-purpose HTTP servers designed to transfer data
616 from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies is
617 lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
618 achieved by channeling all HTTP and FTP requests through the proxy
619 which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is requested
620 again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for proxies
621 is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their internal
622 networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain information
623 from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data using an
626 Wget supports proxies for both HTTP and FTP retrievals. The
627 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
628 the following environment variables:
631 This variable should contain the URL of the proxy for HTTP
635 This variable should contain the URL of the proxy for HTTP
636 connections. It is quite common that HTTP_PROXY and FTP_PROXY are
640 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain
641 extensions proxy should *not* be used for. For instance, if the
642 value of `no_proxy' is `.mit.edu', proxy will not be used to
643 retrieve documents from MIT.
645 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
646 may be specified from within Wget itself.
651 This option may be used to turn the proxy support on or off. Proxy
652 support is on by default, provided that the appropriate environment
658 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy
659 settings specified by the environment.
661 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them.
662 The authorization consists of "username" and "password", which must be
663 sent by Wget. As with HTTP authorization, several authentication
664 schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the `Basic' authentication
665 scheme is currently implemented.
667 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
668 URL or through the command-line options. Assuming that the company's
669 proxy is located at `proxy.srce.hr' at port 8001, a proxy URL location
670 containing authorization data might look like this:
672 http://hniksic:mypassword@proxy.company.com:8001/
674 Alternatively, you may use the `proxy-user' and `proxy-password'
675 options, and the equivalent `.wgetrc' settings `proxy_user' and
676 `proxy_passwd' to set the proxy username and password.
679 File: wget.info, Node: Distribution, Next: Mailing List, Prev: Proxies, Up: Various
684 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at
685 the master GNU archive site prep.ai.mit.edu, and its mirrors. For
686 example, Wget 1.5.3 can be found at
687 `ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/wget-1.5.3.tar.gz'
690 File: wget.info, Node: Mailing List, Next: Reporting Bugs, Prev: Distribution, Up: Various
695 Wget has its own mailing list at <wget@sunsite.auc.dk>, thanks to
696 Karsten Thygesen. The mailing list is for discussion of Wget features
697 and web, reporting Wget bugs (those that you think may be of interest
698 to the public) and mailing announcements. You are welcome to
699 subscribe. The more people on the list, the better!
701 To subscribe, send mail to <wget-subscribe@sunsite.auc.dk>. the
702 magic word `subscribe' in the subject line. Unsubscribe by mailing to
703 <wget-unsubscribe@sunsite.auc.dk>.
705 The mailing list is archived at `http://fly.cc.fer.hr/archive/wget'.
708 File: wget.info, Node: Reporting Bugs, Next: Portability, Prev: Mailing List, Up: Various
713 You are welcome to send bug reports about GNU Wget to
714 <bug-wget@gnu.org>. The bugs that you think are of the interest to the
715 public (i.e. more people should be informed about them) can be Cc-ed to
716 the mailing list at <wget@sunsite.auc.dk>.
718 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
721 1. Please try to ascertain that the behaviour you see really is a
722 bug. If Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as
723 documented, it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not
724 sure about the way they are supposed to work, it might well be a
727 2. Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible.
728 E.g. if Wget crashes on `wget -rLl0 -t5 -Y0 http://yoyodyne.com -o
729 /tmp/log', you should try to see if it will crash with a simpler
732 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of
733 your `.wgetrc' file, just dumping it into the debug message is
734 probably a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the
735 bug repeats with `.wgetrc' moved out of the way. Only if it turns
736 out that `.wgetrc' settings affect the bug, should you mail me the
737 relevant parts of the file.
739 3. Please start Wget with `-d' option and send the log (or the
740 relevant parts of it). If Wget was compiled without debug support,
741 recompile it. It is *much* easier to trace bugs with debug support
744 4. If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. `gdb `which
745 wget` core' and type `where' to get the backtrace.
747 5. Find where the bug is, fix it and send me the patches. :-)
750 File: wget.info, Node: Portability, Next: Signals, Prev: Reporting Bugs, Up: Various
755 Since Wget uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and avoids
756 using "special" ultra-mega-cool features of any particular Unix, it
757 should compile (and work) on all common Unix flavors.
759 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds
760 of Unix systems, including Solaris, Linux, SunOS, OSF (aka Digital
761 Unix), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, and others; refer to the file `MACHINES' in
762 the distribution directory for a comprehensive list. If you compile it
763 on an architecture not listed there, please let me know so I can update
766 Wget should also compile on the other Unix systems, not listed in
767 `MACHINES'. If it doesn't, please let me know.
769 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works
770 on Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. It has been compiled
771 successfully using MS Visual C++ 4.0, Watcom, and Borland C compilers,
772 with Winsock as networking software. Naturally, it is crippled of some
773 features available on Unix, but it should work as a substitute for
774 people stuck with Windows. Note that the Windows port is *neither
775 tested nor maintained* by me--all questions and problems should be
776 reported to Wget mailing list at <wget@sunsite.auc.dk> where the
777 maintainers will look at them.
780 File: wget.info, Node: Signals, Prev: Portability, Up: Various
785 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
786 signal (`SIGHUP') and ignores it. If the output was on standard
787 output, it will be redirected to a file named `wget-log'. Otherwise,
788 `SIGHUP' is ignored. This is convenient when you wish to redirect the
789 output of Wget after having started it.
791 $ wget http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/gnus.tar.gz &
792 $ kill -HUP %% # Redirect the output to wget-log
794 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any
795 way. `C-c', `kill -TERM' and `kill -KILL' should kill it alike.
798 File: wget.info, Node: Appendices, Next: Copying, Prev: Various, Up: Top
803 This chapter contains some references I consider useful, like the
804 Robots Exclusion Standard specification, as well as a list of
805 contributors to GNU Wget.
809 * Robots:: Wget as a WWW robot.
810 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
811 * Contributors:: People who helped.
814 File: wget.info, Node: Robots, Next: Security Considerations, Prev: Appendices, Up: Appendices
819 Since Wget is able to traverse the web, it counts as one of the Web
820 "robots". Thus Wget understands "Robots Exclusion Standard"
821 (RES)--contents of `/robots.txt', used by server administrators to
822 shield parts of their systems from wanderings of Wget.
824 Norobots support is turned on only when retrieving recursively, and
825 *never* for the first page. Thus, you may issue:
827 wget -r http://fly.cc.fer.hr/
829 First the index of fly.cc.fer.hr will be downloaded. If Wget finds
830 anything worth downloading on the same host, only *then* will it load
831 the robots, and decide whether or not to load the links after all.
832 `/robots.txt' is loaded only once per host. Wget does not support the
835 The description of the norobots standard was written, and is
836 maintained by Martijn Koster <m.koster@webcrawler.com>. With his
837 permission, I contribute a (slightly modified) texified version of the
842 * Introduction to RES::
846 * Norobots Examples::
849 File: wget.info, Node: Introduction to RES, Next: RES Format, Prev: Robots, Up: Robots
854 "WWW Robots" (also called "wanderers" or "spiders") are programs
855 that traverse many pages in the World Wide Web by recursively
856 retrieving linked pages. For more information see the robots page.
858 In 1993 and 1994 there have been occasions where robots have visited
859 WWW servers where they weren't welcome for various reasons. Sometimes
860 these reasons were robot specific, e.g. certain robots swamped servers
861 with rapid-fire requests, or retrieved the same files repeatedly. In
862 other situations robots traversed parts of WWW servers that weren't
863 suitable, e.g. very deep virtual trees, duplicated information,
864 temporary information, or cgi-scripts with side-effects (such as
867 These incidents indicated the need for established mechanisms for
868 WWW servers to indicate to robots which parts of their server should
869 not be accessed. This standard addresses this need with an operational
872 This document represents a consensus on 30 June 1994 on the robots
873 mailing list (`robots@webcrawler.com'), between the majority of robot
874 authors and other people with an interest in robots. It has also been
875 open for discussion on the Technical World Wide Web mailing list
876 (`www-talk@info.cern.ch'). This document is based on a previous working
877 draft under the same title.
879 It is not an official standard backed by a standards body, or owned
880 by any commercial organization. It is not enforced by anybody, and there
881 no guarantee that all current and future robots will use it. Consider
882 it a common facility the majority of robot authors offer the WWW
883 community to protect WWW server against unwanted accesses by their
886 The latest version of this document can be found at
887 `http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/norobots.html'.
890 File: wget.info, Node: RES Format, Next: User-Agent Field, Prev: Introduction to RES, Up: Robots
895 The format and semantics of the `/robots.txt' file are as follows:
897 The file consists of one or more records separated by one or more
898 blank lines (terminated by `CR', `CR/NL', or `NL'). Each record
899 contains lines of the form:
901 <field>:<optionalspace><value><optionalspace>
903 The field name is case insensitive.
905 Comments can be included in file using UNIX bourne shell conventions:
906 the `#' character is used to indicate that preceding space (if any) and
907 the remainder of the line up to the line termination is discarded.
908 Lines containing only a comment are discarded completely, and therefore
909 do not indicate a record boundary.
911 The record starts with one or more User-agent lines, followed by one
912 or more Disallow lines, as detailed below. Unrecognized headers are
915 The presence of an empty `/robots.txt' file has no explicit
916 associated semantics, it will be treated as if it was not present, i.e.
917 all robots will consider themselves welcome.
920 File: wget.info, Node: User-Agent Field, Next: Disallow Field, Prev: RES Format, Up: Robots
925 The value of this field is the name of the robot the record is
926 describing access policy for.
928 If more than one User-agent field is present the record describes an
929 identical access policy for more than one robot. At least one field
930 needs to be present per record.
932 The robot should be liberal in interpreting this field. A case
933 insensitive substring match of the name without version information is
936 If the value is `*', the record describes the default access policy
937 for any robot that has not matched any of the other records. It is not
938 allowed to have multiple such records in the `/robots.txt' file.
941 File: wget.info, Node: Disallow Field, Next: Norobots Examples, Prev: User-Agent Field, Up: Robots
946 The value of this field specifies a partial URL that is not to be
947 visited. This can be a full path, or a partial path; any URL that
948 starts with this value will not be retrieved. For example,
949 `Disallow: /help' disallows both `/help.html' and `/help/index.html',
950 whereas `Disallow: /help/' would disallow `/help/index.html' but allow
953 Any empty value, indicates that all URLs can be retrieved. At least
954 one Disallow field needs to be present in a record.
957 File: wget.info, Node: Norobots Examples, Prev: Disallow Field, Up: Robots
962 The following example `/robots.txt' file specifies that no robots
963 should visit any URL starting with `/cyberworld/map/' or `/tmp/':
965 # robots.txt for http://www.site.com/
968 Disallow: /cyberworld/map/ # This is an infinite virtual URL space
969 Disallow: /tmp/ # these will soon disappear
971 This example `/robots.txt' file specifies that no robots should
972 visit any URL starting with `/cyberworld/map/', except the robot called
975 # robots.txt for http://www.site.com/
978 Disallow: /cyberworld/map/ # This is an infinite virtual URL space
980 # Cybermapper knows where to go.
981 User-agent: cybermapper
984 This example indicates that no robots should visit this site further:
991 File: wget.info, Node: Security Considerations, Next: Contributors, Prev: Robots, Up: Appendices
993 Security Considerations
994 =======================
996 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted
997 passwords through the network, which may present a security problem.
998 Here are the main issues, and some solutions.
1000 1. The passwords on the command line are visible using `ps'. If this
1001 is a problem, avoid putting passwords from the command line--e.g.
1002 you can use `.netrc' for this.
1004 2. Using the insecure "basic" authentication scheme, unencrypted
1005 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
1007 3. The FTP passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
1008 solution for this at the moment.
1010 4. Although the "normal" output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
1011 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
1012 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send
1016 File: wget.info, Node: Contributors, Prev: Security Considerations, Up: Appendices
1021 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr>. However,
1022 its development could never have gone as far as it has, were it not for
1023 the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature proposals,
1024 patches, or letters saying "Thanks!".
1026 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
1028 * Karsten Thygesen--donated the mailing list and the initial FTP
1031 * Shawn McHorse--bug reports and patches.
1033 * Kaveh R. Ghazi--on-the-fly `ansi2knr'-ization.
1035 * Gordon Matzigkeit--`.netrc' support.
1037 * Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar--feature
1038 suggestions and "philosophical" discussions.
1040 * Darko Budor--initial port to Windows.
1042 * Antonio Rosella--help and suggestions, plust the Italian
1045 * Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic--many bug reports and
1048 * Francois Pinard--many thorough bug reports and discussions.
1050 * Karl Eichwalder--lots of help with internationalization and other
1053 * Junio Hamano--donated support for Opie and HTTP `Digest'
1056 * Brian Gough--a generous donation.
1058 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
1059 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
1060 that make maintenance so much fun:
1062 Tim Adam, Martin Baehr, Dieter Baron, Roger Beeman and the Gurus at
1063 Cisco, Mark Boyns, John Burden, Wanderlei Cavassin, Gilles Cedoc, Tim
1064 Charron, Noel Cragg, Kristijan Conkas, Damir Dzeko, Andrew Davison,
1065 Ulrich Drepper, Marc Duponcheel, Aleksandar Erkalovic, Andy Eskilsson,
1066 Masashi Fujita, Howard Gayle, Marcel Gerrits, Hans Grobler, Mathieu
1067 Guillaume, Karl Heuer, Gregor Hoffleit, Erik Magnus Hulthen, Richard
1068 Huveneers, Simon Josefsson, Mario Juric, Goran Kezunovic, Robert Kleine,
1069 Fila Kolodny, Alexander Kourakos, Martin Kraemer, Simos KSenitellis,
1070 Tage Stabell-Kulo, Hrvoje Lacko, Dave Love, Jordan Mendelson, Lin Zhe
1071 Min, Charlie Negyesi, Andrew Pollock, Steve Pothier, Marin Purgar, Jan
1072 Prikryl, Keith Refson, Tobias Ringstrom, Juan Jose Rodrigues, Heinz
1073 Salzmann, Robert Schmidt, Toomas Soome, Sven Sternberger, Markus
1074 Strasser, Szakacsits Szabolcs, Mike Thomas, Russell Vincent, Douglas E.
1075 Wegscheid, Jasmin Zainul, Bojan Zdrnja, Kristijan Zimmer.
1077 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all
1078 the subscribers of the Wget mailing list.