1 This is Info file wget.info, produced by Makeinfo version 1.68 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, 2000 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: Startup File, Next: Examples, Prev: Time-Stamping, Up: Top
32 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
33 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
34 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
37 Besides `.wgetrc' is the "main" initialization file, it is
38 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
39 reads and interprets the contents of `$HOME/.netrc', if it finds it.
40 You can find `.netrc' format in your system manuals.
42 Wget reads `.wgetrc' upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
47 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
48 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
49 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
50 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
53 File: wget.info, Node: Wgetrc Location, Next: Wgetrc Syntax, Prev: Startup File, Up: Startup File
58 When initializing, Wget will look for a "global" startup file,
59 `/usr/local/etc/wgetrc' by default (or some prefix other than
60 `/usr/local', if Wget was not installed there) and read commands from
63 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
64 `WGETRC' is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
65 further attempts will be made.
67 If `WGETRC' is not set, Wget will try to load `$HOME/.wgetrc'.
69 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
70 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc *overrides* the
71 system-wide wgetrc (in `/usr/local/etc/wgetrc' by default). Fascist
75 File: wget.info, Node: Wgetrc Syntax, Next: Wgetrc Commands, Prev: Wgetrc Location, Up: Startup File
80 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
84 The "variable" will also be called "command". Valid "values" are
85 different for different commands.
87 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
88 `DIr__PrefiX' is the same as `dirprefix'. Empty lines, lines beginning
89 with `#' and lines containing white-space only are discarded.
91 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
92 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
93 global `wgetrc', you can do it with:
98 File: wget.info, Node: Wgetrc Commands, Next: Sample Wgetrc, Prev: Wgetrc Syntax, Up: Startup File
103 The complete set of commands is listed below, the letter after `='
104 denoting the value the command takes. It is `on/off' for `on' or `off'
105 (which can also be `1' or `0'), STRING for any non-empty string or N
106 for a positive integer. For example, you may specify `use_proxy = off'
107 to disable use of proxy servers by default. You may use `inf' for
108 infinite values, where appropriate.
110 Most of the commands have their equivalent command-line option
111 (*Note Invoking::), except some more obscure or rarely used ones.
113 accept/reject = STRING
114 Same as `-A'/`-R' (*Note Types of Files::).
117 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. `-nH' disables it.
120 Enable/disable continuation of the retrieval, the same as `-c'
124 Enable/disable going to background, the same as `-b' (which enables
127 backup_converted = on/off
128 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix `.orig'
129 - the same as `-K' (which enables it).
132 Set base for relative URLs, the same as `-B'.
135 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the `-C' option.
137 convert links = on/off
138 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as `-k'.
141 Ignore N remote directory components.
144 Debug mode, same as `-d'.
146 delete_after = on/off
147 Delete after download, the same as `--delete-after'.
150 Top of directory tree, the same as `-P'.
153 Turning dirstruct on or off, the same as `-x' or `-nd',
157 Same as `-D' (*Note Domain Acceptance::).
160 Specify the number of bytes "contained" in a dot, as seen
161 throughout the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the
162 value with `k' or `m', representing kilobytes and megabytes,
163 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval
164 to suit your needs, or you can use the predefined "styles" (*Note
168 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line
169 throughout the retrieval (50 by default).
172 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
175 Specify the dot retrieval "style", as with `--dot-style'.
177 exclude_directories = STRING
178 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude
179 from download, the same as `-X' (*Note Directory-Based Limits::).
181 exclude_domains = STRING
182 Same as `--exclude-domains' (*Note Domain Acceptance::).
185 Follow FTP links from HTML documents, the same as `-f'.
188 Only follow certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval,
189 just like `--follow-tags'.
192 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an HTML
193 document, the same as `-F'.
196 Use STRING as FTP proxy, instead of the one specified in
200 Turn globbing on/off, the same as `-g'.
203 Define an additional header, like `--header'.
209 Use STRING as HTTP proxy, instead of the one specified in
213 Set HTTP user to STRING.
215 ignore_length = on/off
216 When set to on, ignore `Content-Length' header; the same as
220 Ignore certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just
221 like `-G' / `--ignore-tags'.
223 include_directories = STRING
224 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow
225 when downloading, the same as `-I'.
228 Read the URLs from STRING, like `-i'.
231 Consider data longer than specified in content-length header as
232 invalid (and retry getting it). The default behaviour is to save
233 as much data as there is, provided there is more than or equal to
234 the value in `Content-Length'.
237 Set logfile, the same as `-o'.
240 Your user name on the remote machine, for FTP. Defaults to
244 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as `-m'.
247 Turn reading netrc on or off.
253 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
254 `--no-parent' (*Note Directory-Based Limits::).
257 Use STRING as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
258 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
260 output_document = STRING
261 Set the output filename, the same as `-O'.
264 Set passive FTP, the same as `--passive-ftp'.
267 Set your FTP password to PASSWORD. Without this setting, the
268 password defaults to `username@hostname.domainname'.
271 Set proxy authentication user name to STRING, like `--proxy-user'.
273 proxy_passwd = STRING
274 Set proxy authentication password to STRING, like `--proxy-passwd'.
277 Quiet mode, the same as `-q'.
280 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in global
281 wgetrc. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop retrieving
282 after the download sum has become greater than quota. The quota
283 can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes `k' appended) or mbytes
284 (`m' appended). Thus `quota = 5m' will set the quota to 5 mbytes.
285 Note that the user's startup file overrides system settings.
288 Recursion level, the same as `-l'.
291 Recursive on/off, the same as `-r'.
293 relative_only = on/off
294 Follow only relative links, the same as `-L' (*Note Relative
297 remove_listing = on/off
298 If set to on, remove FTP listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
299 to off is the same as `-nr'.
301 retr_symlinks = on/off
302 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain
303 files; the same as `--retr-symlinks'.
306 Use (or not) `/robots.txt' file (*Note Robots::). Be sure to know
307 what you are doing before changing the default (which is `on').
309 server_response = on/off
310 Choose whether or not to print the HTTP and FTP server responses,
313 simple_host_check = on/off
314 Same as `-nh' (*Note Host Checking::).
320 Set timeout value, the same as `-T'.
322 timestamping = on/off
323 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as `-N' (*Note Time-Stamping::).
326 Set number of retries per URL, the same as `-t'.
329 Turn proxy support on/off. The same as `-Y'.
332 Turn verbose on/off, the same as `-v'/`-nv'.
335 Wait N seconds between retrievals, the same as `-w'.
338 Wait N seconds between retries of failed retrievals only - the
339 same as `--waitretry'.
342 File: wget.info, Node: Sample Wgetrc, Prev: Wgetrc Commands, Up: Startup File
347 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
348 It is divided in two section--one for global usage (suitable for global
349 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for `$HOME/.wgetrc').
350 Be careful about the things you change.
352 Note that all the lines are commented out. For any line to have
353 effect, you must remove the `#' prefix at the beginning of line.
356 ### Sample Wget initialization file .wgetrc
359 ## You can use this file to change the default behaviour of wget or to
360 ## avoid having to type many many command-line options. This file does
361 ## not contain a comprehensive list of commands -- look at the manual
362 ## to find out what you can put into this file.
364 ## Wget initialization file can reside in /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
365 ## (global, for all users) or $HOME/.wgetrc (for a single user).
367 ## To use any of the settings in this file, you will have to uncomment
368 ## them (and probably change them).
372 ## Global settings (useful for setting up in /usr/local/etc/wgetrc).
373 ## Think well before you change them, since they may reduce wget's
374 ## functionality, and make it behave contrary to the documentation:
377 # You can set retrieve quota for beginners by specifying a value
378 # optionally followed by 'K' (kilobytes) or 'M' (megabytes). The
379 # default quota is unlimited.
382 # You can lower (or raise) the default number of retries when
383 # downloading a file (default is 20).
386 # Lowering the maximum depth of the recursive retrieval is handy to
387 # prevent newbies from going too "deep" when they unwittingly start
388 # the recursive retrieval. The default is 5.
391 # Many sites are behind firewalls that do not allow initiation of
392 # connections from the outside. On these sites you have to use the
393 # `passive' feature of FTP. If you are behind such a firewall, you
394 # can turn this on to make Wget use passive FTP by default.
399 ## Local settings (for a user to set in his $HOME/.wgetrc). It is
400 ## *highly* undesirable to put these settings in the global file, since
401 ## they are potentially dangerous to "normal" users.
403 ## Even when setting up your own ~/.wgetrc, you should know what you
404 ## are doing before doing so.
407 # Set this to on to use timestamping by default:
410 # It is a good idea to make Wget send your email address in a `From:'
411 # header with your request (so that server administrators can contact
412 # you in case of errors). Wget does *not* send `From:' by default.
413 #header = From: Your Name <username@site.domain>
415 # You can set up other headers, like Accept-Language. Accept-Language
416 # is *not* sent by default.
417 #header = Accept-Language: en
419 # You can set the default proxy for Wget to use. It will override the
420 # value in the environment.
421 #http_proxy = http://proxy.yoyodyne.com:18023/
423 # If you do not want to use proxy at all, set this to off.
426 # You can customize the retrieval outlook. Valid options are default,
427 # binary, mega and micro.
430 # Setting this to off makes Wget not download /robots.txt. Be sure to
431 # know *exactly* what /robots.txt is and how it is used before changing
435 # It can be useful to make Wget wait between connections. Set this to
436 # the number of seconds you want Wget to wait.
439 # You can force creating directory structure, even if a single is being
440 # retrieved, by setting this to on.
443 # You can turn on recursive retrieving by default (don't do this if
444 # you are not sure you know what it means) by setting this to on.
447 # To have Wget follow FTP links from HTML files by default, set this
452 File: wget.info, Node: Examples, Next: Various, Prev: Startup File, Up: Top
457 The examples are classified into three sections, because of clarity.
458 The first section is a tutorial for beginners. The second section
459 explains some of the more complex program features. The third section
460 contains advice for mirror administrators, as well as even more complex
461 features (that some would call perverted).
465 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
466 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced techniques of usage.
467 * Guru Usage:: Mirroring and the hairy stuff.
470 File: wget.info, Node: Simple Usage, Next: Advanced Usage, Prev: Examples, Up: Examples
475 * Say you want to download a URL. Just type:
477 wget http://fly.cc.fer.hr/
479 The response will be something like:
481 --13:30:45-- http://fly.cc.fer.hr:80/en/
483 Connecting to fly.cc.fer.hr:80... connected!
484 HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
485 Length: 4,694 [text/html]
489 13:30:46 (23.75 KB/s) - `index.html' saved [4694/4694]
491 * But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is
492 lengthy? The connection will probably fail before the whole file
493 is retrieved, more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting
494 the file until it either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the
495 default number of retries (this being 20). It is easy to change
496 the number of tries to 45, to insure that the whole file will
499 wget --tries=45 http://fly.cc.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
501 * Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its
502 progress to log file `log'. It is tiring to type `--tries', so we
505 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.cc.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
507 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in
508 the background. To unlimit the number of retries, use `-t inf'.
510 * The usage of FTP is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
513 $ wget ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr/welcome.msg
514 --10:08:47-- ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr:21/welcome.msg
516 Connecting to gnjilux.cc.fer.hr:21... connected!
517 Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
518 ==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD not needed.
519 ==> PORT ... done. ==> RETR welcome.msg ... done.
520 Length: 1,340 (unauthoritative)
524 10:08:48 (1.28 MB/s) - `welcome.msg' saved [1340]
526 * If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory
527 listing, parse it and convert it to HTML. Try:
529 wget ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/
533 File: wget.info, Node: Advanced Usage, Next: Guru Usage, Prev: Simple Usage, Up: Examples
538 * You would like to read the list of URLs from a file? Not a problem
543 If you specify `-' as file name, the URLs will be read from
546 * Create a mirror image of GNU WWW site (with the same directory
547 structure the original has) with only one try per document, saving
548 the log of the activities to `gnulog':
550 wget -r -t1 http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/ -o gnulog
552 * Retrieve the first layer of yahoo links:
554 wget -r -l1 http://www.yahoo.com/
556 * Retrieve the index.html of `www.lycos.com', showing the original
559 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
561 * Save the server headers with the file:
562 wget -s http://www.lycos.com/
565 * Retrieve the first two levels of `wuarchive.wustl.edu', saving them
568 wget -P/tmp -l2 ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
570 * You want to download all the GIFs from an HTTP directory. `wget
571 http://host/dir/*.gif' doesn't work, since HTTP retrieval does not
572 support globbing. In that case, use:
574 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://host/dir/
576 It is a bit of a kludge, but it works. `-r -l1' means to retrieve
577 recursively (*Note Recursive Retrieval::), with maximum depth of 1.
578 `--no-parent' means that references to the parent directory are
579 ignored (*Note Directory-Based Limits::), and `-A.gif' means to
580 download only the GIF files. `-A "*.gif"' would have worked too.
582 * Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
583 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already
584 present. It would be:
586 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
588 * If you want to encode your own username and password to HTTP or
589 FTP, use the appropriate URL syntax (*Note URL Format::).
591 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@jagor.srce.hr/.emacs
593 * If you do not like the default retrieval visualization (1K dots
594 with 10 dots per cluster and 50 dots per line), you can customize
595 it through dot settings (*Note Wgetrc Commands::). For example,
596 many people like the "binary" style of retrieval, with 8K dots and
599 wget --dot-style=binary ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/README
601 You can experiment with other styles, like:
603 wget --dot-style=mega ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/xemacs-20.4/xemacs-20.4.tar.gz
604 wget --dot-style=micro http://fly.cc.fer.hr/
606 To make these settings permanent, put them in your `.wgetrc', as
607 described before (*Note Sample Wgetrc::).
610 File: wget.info, Node: Guru Usage, Prev: Advanced Usage, Up: Examples
615 * If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or FTP
616 subdirectories), use `--mirror' (`-m'), which is the shorthand for
617 `-r -N'. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it to
618 recheck a site each Sunday:
621 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/ -o /home/me/weeklog
623 * You may wish to do the same with someone's home page. But you do
624 not want to download all those images--you're only interested in
627 wget --mirror -A.html http://www.w3.org/
629 * But what about mirroring the hosts networkologically close to you?
630 It seems so awfully slow because of all that DNS resolving. Just
631 use `-D' (*Note Domain Acceptance::).
633 wget -rN -Dsrce.hr http://www.srce.hr/
635 Now Wget will correctly find out that `regoc.srce.hr' is the same
636 as `www.srce.hr', but will not even take into consideration the
637 link to `www.mit.edu'.
639 * You have a presentation and would like the dumb absolute links to
640 be converted to relative? Use `-k':
644 * You would like the output documents to go to standard output
645 instead of to files? OK, but Wget will automatically shut up
646 (turn on `--quiet') to prevent mixing of Wget output and the
649 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
651 You can also combine the two options and make weird pipelines to
652 retrieve the documents from remote hotlists:
654 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
657 File: wget.info, Node: Various, Next: Appendices, Prev: Examples, Up: Top
662 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
666 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers
667 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
668 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
669 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
670 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
671 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
674 File: wget.info, Node: Proxies, Next: Distribution, Prev: Various, Up: Various
679 "Proxies" are special-purpose HTTP servers designed to transfer data
680 from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies is
681 lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
682 achieved by channeling all HTTP and FTP requests through the proxy
683 which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is requested
684 again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for proxies
685 is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their internal
686 networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain information
687 from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data using an
690 Wget supports proxies for both HTTP and FTP retrievals. The
691 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
692 the following environment variables:
695 This variable should contain the URL of the proxy for HTTP
699 This variable should contain the URL of the proxy for HTTP
700 connections. It is quite common that HTTP_PROXY and FTP_PROXY are
704 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain
705 extensions proxy should *not* be used for. For instance, if the
706 value of `no_proxy' is `.mit.edu', proxy will not be used to
707 retrieve documents from MIT.
709 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
710 may be specified from within Wget itself.
715 This option may be used to turn the proxy support on or off. Proxy
716 support is on by default, provided that the appropriate environment
722 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy
723 settings specified by the environment.
725 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them.
726 The authorization consists of "username" and "password", which must be
727 sent by Wget. As with HTTP authorization, several authentication
728 schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the `Basic' authentication
729 scheme is currently implemented.
731 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
732 URL or through the command-line options. Assuming that the company's
733 proxy is located at `proxy.srce.hr' at port 8001, a proxy URL location
734 containing authorization data might look like this:
736 http://hniksic:mypassword@proxy.company.com:8001/
738 Alternatively, you may use the `proxy-user' and `proxy-password'
739 options, and the equivalent `.wgetrc' settings `proxy_user' and
740 `proxy_passwd' to set the proxy username and password.
743 File: wget.info, Node: Distribution, Next: Mailing List, Prev: Proxies, Up: Various
748 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at
749 the master GNU archive site prep.ai.mit.edu, and its mirrors. For
750 example, Wget 1.5.3+dev can be found at
751 `ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/gnu/wget/wget-1.5.3+dev.tar.gz'
754 File: wget.info, Node: Mailing List, Next: Reporting Bugs, Prev: Distribution, Up: Various
759 Wget has its own mailing list at <wget@sunsite.auc.dk>, thanks to
760 Karsten Thygesen. The mailing list is for discussion of Wget features
761 and web, reporting Wget bugs (those that you think may be of interest
762 to the public) and mailing announcements. You are welcome to
763 subscribe. The more people on the list, the better!
765 To subscribe, send mail to <wget-subscribe@sunsite.auc.dk>. the
766 magic word `subscribe' in the subject line. Unsubscribe by mailing to
767 <wget-unsubscribe@sunsite.auc.dk>.
769 The mailing list is archived at `http://fly.cc.fer.hr/archive/wget'.
772 File: wget.info, Node: Reporting Bugs, Next: Portability, Prev: Mailing List, Up: Various
777 You are welcome to send bug reports about GNU Wget to
778 <bug-wget@gnu.org>. The bugs that you think are of the interest to the
779 public (i.e. more people should be informed about them) can be Cc-ed to
780 the mailing list at <wget@sunsite.auc.dk>.
782 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
785 1. Please try to ascertain that the behaviour you see really is a
786 bug. If Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as
787 documented, it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not
788 sure about the way they are supposed to work, it might well be a
791 2. Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible.
792 E.g. if Wget crashes on `wget -rLl0 -t5 -Y0 http://yoyodyne.com -o
793 /tmp/log', you should try to see if it will crash with a simpler
796 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of
797 your `.wgetrc' file, just dumping it into the debug message is
798 probably a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the
799 bug repeats with `.wgetrc' moved out of the way. Only if it turns
800 out that `.wgetrc' settings affect the bug, should you mail me the
801 relevant parts of the file.
803 3. Please start Wget with `-d' option and send the log (or the
804 relevant parts of it). If Wget was compiled without debug support,
805 recompile it. It is *much* easier to trace bugs with debug support
808 4. If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. `gdb `which
809 wget` core' and type `where' to get the backtrace.
811 5. Find where the bug is, fix it and send me the patches. :-)
814 File: wget.info, Node: Portability, Next: Signals, Prev: Reporting Bugs, Up: Various
819 Since Wget uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and avoids
820 using "special" ultra-mega-cool features of any particular Unix, it
821 should compile (and work) on all common Unix flavors.
823 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds
824 of Unix systems, including Solaris, Linux, SunOS, OSF (aka Digital
825 Unix), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, and others; refer to the file `MACHINES' in
826 the distribution directory for a comprehensive list. If you compile it
827 on an architecture not listed there, please let me know so I can update
830 Wget should also compile on the other Unix systems, not listed in
831 `MACHINES'. If it doesn't, please let me know.
833 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works
834 on Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. It has been compiled
835 successfully using MS Visual C++ 4.0, Watcom, and Borland C compilers,
836 with Winsock as networking software. Naturally, it is crippled of some
837 features available on Unix, but it should work as a substitute for
838 people stuck with Windows. Note that the Windows port is *neither
839 tested nor maintained* by me--all questions and problems should be
840 reported to Wget mailing list at <wget@sunsite.auc.dk> where the
841 maintainers will look at them.
844 File: wget.info, Node: Signals, Prev: Portability, Up: Various
849 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
850 signal (`SIGHUP') and ignores it. If the output was on standard
851 output, it will be redirected to a file named `wget-log'. Otherwise,
852 `SIGHUP' is ignored. This is convenient when you wish to redirect the
853 output of Wget after having started it.
855 $ wget http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/gnus.tar.gz &
856 $ kill -HUP %% # Redirect the output to wget-log
858 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any
859 way. `C-c', `kill -TERM' and `kill -KILL' should kill it alike.
862 File: wget.info, Node: Appendices, Next: Copying, Prev: Various, Up: Top
867 This chapter contains some references I consider useful, like the
868 Robots Exclusion Standard specification, as well as a list of
869 contributors to GNU Wget.
873 * Robots:: Wget as a WWW robot.
874 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
875 * Contributors:: People who helped.
878 File: wget.info, Node: Robots, Next: Security Considerations, Prev: Appendices, Up: Appendices
883 Since Wget is able to traverse the web, it counts as one of the Web
884 "robots". Thus Wget understands "Robots Exclusion Standard"
885 (RES)--contents of `/robots.txt', used by server administrators to
886 shield parts of their systems from wanderings of Wget.
888 Norobots support is turned on only when retrieving recursively, and
889 *never* for the first page. Thus, you may issue:
891 wget -r http://fly.cc.fer.hr/
893 First the index of fly.cc.fer.hr will be downloaded. If Wget finds
894 anything worth downloading on the same host, only *then* will it load
895 the robots, and decide whether or not to load the links after all.
896 `/robots.txt' is loaded only once per host. Wget does not support the
899 The description of the norobots standard was written, and is
900 maintained by Martijn Koster <m.koster@webcrawler.com>. With his
901 permission, I contribute a (slightly modified) TeXified version of the
906 * Introduction to RES::
910 * Norobots Examples::
913 File: wget.info, Node: Introduction to RES, Next: RES Format, Prev: Robots, Up: Robots
918 "WWW Robots" (also called "wanderers" or "spiders") are programs
919 that traverse many pages in the World Wide Web by recursively
920 retrieving linked pages. For more information see the robots page.
922 In 1993 and 1994 there have been occasions where robots have visited
923 WWW servers where they weren't welcome for various reasons. Sometimes
924 these reasons were robot specific, e.g. certain robots swamped servers
925 with rapid-fire requests, or retrieved the same files repeatedly. In
926 other situations robots traversed parts of WWW servers that weren't
927 suitable, e.g. very deep virtual trees, duplicated information,
928 temporary information, or cgi-scripts with side-effects (such as
931 These incidents indicated the need for established mechanisms for
932 WWW servers to indicate to robots which parts of their server should
933 not be accessed. This standard addresses this need with an operational
936 This document represents a consensus on 30 June 1994 on the robots
937 mailing list (`robots@webcrawler.com'), between the majority of robot
938 authors and other people with an interest in robots. It has also been
939 open for discussion on the Technical World Wide Web mailing list
940 (`www-talk@info.cern.ch'). This document is based on a previous working
941 draft under the same title.
943 It is not an official standard backed by a standards body, or owned
944 by any commercial organization. It is not enforced by anybody, and there
945 no guarantee that all current and future robots will use it. Consider
946 it a common facility the majority of robot authors offer the WWW
947 community to protect WWW server against unwanted accesses by their
950 The latest version of this document can be found at
951 `http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/norobots.html'.
954 File: wget.info, Node: RES Format, Next: User-Agent Field, Prev: Introduction to RES, Up: Robots
959 The format and semantics of the `/robots.txt' file are as follows:
961 The file consists of one or more records separated by one or more
962 blank lines (terminated by `CR', `CR/NL', or `NL'). Each record
963 contains lines of the form:
965 <field>:<optionalspace><value><optionalspace>
967 The field name is case insensitive.
969 Comments can be included in file using UNIX Bourne shell conventions:
970 the `#' character is used to indicate that preceding space (if any) and
971 the remainder of the line up to the line termination is discarded.
972 Lines containing only a comment are discarded completely, and therefore
973 do not indicate a record boundary.
975 The record starts with one or more User-agent lines, followed by one
976 or more Disallow lines, as detailed below. Unrecognized headers are
979 The presence of an empty `/robots.txt' file has no explicit
980 associated semantics, it will be treated as if it was not present, i.e.
981 all robots will consider themselves welcome.
984 File: wget.info, Node: User-Agent Field, Next: Disallow Field, Prev: RES Format, Up: Robots
989 The value of this field is the name of the robot the record is
990 describing access policy for.
992 If more than one User-agent field is present the record describes an
993 identical access policy for more than one robot. At least one field
994 needs to be present per record.
996 The robot should be liberal in interpreting this field. A case
997 insensitive substring match of the name without version information is
1000 If the value is `*', the record describes the default access policy
1001 for any robot that has not matched any of the other records. It is not
1002 allowed to have multiple such records in the `/robots.txt' file.
1005 File: wget.info, Node: Disallow Field, Next: Norobots Examples, Prev: User-Agent Field, Up: Robots
1010 The value of this field specifies a partial URL that is not to be
1011 visited. This can be a full path, or a partial path; any URL that
1012 starts with this value will not be retrieved. For example,
1013 `Disallow: /help' disallows both `/help.html' and `/help/index.html',
1014 whereas `Disallow: /help/' would disallow `/help/index.html' but allow
1017 Any empty value, indicates that all URLs can be retrieved. At least
1018 one Disallow field needs to be present in a record.
1021 File: wget.info, Node: Norobots Examples, Prev: Disallow Field, Up: Robots
1026 The following example `/robots.txt' file specifies that no robots
1027 should visit any URL starting with `/cyberworld/map/' or `/tmp/':
1029 # robots.txt for http://www.site.com/
1032 Disallow: /cyberworld/map/ # This is an infinite virtual URL space
1033 Disallow: /tmp/ # these will soon disappear
1035 This example `/robots.txt' file specifies that no robots should
1036 visit any URL starting with `/cyberworld/map/', except the robot called
1039 # robots.txt for http://www.site.com/
1042 Disallow: /cyberworld/map/ # This is an infinite virtual URL space
1044 # Cybermapper knows where to go.
1045 User-agent: cybermapper
1048 This example indicates that no robots should visit this site further:
1055 File: wget.info, Node: Security Considerations, Next: Contributors, Prev: Robots, Up: Appendices
1057 Security Considerations
1058 =======================
1060 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted
1061 passwords through the network, which may present a security problem.
1062 Here are the main issues, and some solutions.
1064 1. The passwords on the command line are visible using `ps'. If this
1065 is a problem, avoid putting passwords from the command line--e.g.
1066 you can use `.netrc' for this.
1068 2. Using the insecure "basic" authentication scheme, unencrypted
1069 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
1071 3. The FTP passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
1072 solution for this at the moment.
1074 4. Although the "normal" output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
1075 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
1076 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send
1080 File: wget.info, Node: Contributors, Prev: Security Considerations, Up: Appendices
1085 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@iskon.hr>. However,
1086 its development could never have gone as far as it has, were it not for
1087 the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature proposals,
1088 patches, or letters saying "Thanks!".
1090 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
1092 * Karsten Thygesen--donated the mailing list and the initial FTP
1095 * Shawn McHorse--bug reports and patches.
1097 * Kaveh R. Ghazi--on-the-fly `ansi2knr'-ization.
1099 * Gordon Matzigkeit--`.netrc' support.
1101 * Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar--feature
1102 suggestions and "philosophical" discussions.
1104 * Darko Budor--initial port to Windows.
1106 * Antonio Rosella--help and suggestions, plus the Italian
1109 * Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic--many bug reports and
1112 * Francois Pinard--many thorough bug reports and discussions.
1114 * Karl Eichwalder--lots of help with internationalization and other
1117 * Junio Hamano--donated support for Opie and HTTP `Digest'
1120 * Brian Gough--a generous donation.
1122 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
1123 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
1124 that make maintenance so much fun:
1126 Tim Adam, Martin Baehr, Dieter Baron, Roger Beeman and the Gurus at
1127 Cisco, Dan Berger, Mark Boyns, John Burden, Wanderlei Cavassin, Gilles
1128 Cedoc, Tim Charron, Noel Cragg, Kristijan Conkas, Andrew Deryabin,
1129 Damir Dzeko, Andrew Davison, Ulrich Drepper, Marc Duponcheel,
1130 Aleksandar Erkalovic, Andy Eskilsson, Masashi Fujita, Howard Gayle,
1131 Marcel Gerrits, Hans Grobler, Mathieu Guillaume, Dan Harkless, Heiko
1132 Herold, Karl Heuer, HIROSE Masaaki, Gregor Hoffleit, Erik Magnus
1133 Hulthen, Richard Huveneers, Simon Josefsson, Mario Juric, Goran
1134 Kezunovic, Robert Kleine, Fila Kolodny, Alexander Kourakos, Martin
1135 Kraemer, Simos KSenitellis, Hrvoje Lacko, Daniel S. Lewart, Dave Love,
1136 Jordan Mendelson, Lin Zhe Min, Charlie Negyesi, Andrew Pollock, Steve
1137 Pothier, Jan Prikryl, Marin Purgar, Keith Refson, Tobias Ringstrom,
1138 Juan Jose Rodrigues, Edward J. Sabol, Heinz Salzmann, Robert Schmidt,
1139 Toomas Soome, Tage Stabell-Kulo, Sven Sternberger, Markus Strasser,
1140 Szakacsits Szabolcs, Mike Thomas, Russell Vincent, Charles G Waldman,
1141 Douglas E. Wegscheid, Jasmin Zainul, Bojan Zdrnja, Kristijan Zimmer.
1143 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all
1144 the subscribers of the Wget mailing list.