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: 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
79 backup_converted = on/off
80 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix `.orig'
81 - the same as `-K' (which enables it).
84 Set base for relative URLs, the same as `-B'.
87 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the `-C' option.
89 convert links = on/off
90 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as `-k'.
93 Ignore N remote directory components.
96 Debug mode, same as `-d'.
99 Delete after download, the same as `--delete-after'.
102 Top of directory tree, the same as `-P'.
105 Turning dirstruct on or off, the same as `-x' or `-nd',
109 Same as `-D' (*Note Domain Acceptance::).
112 Specify the number of bytes "contained" in a dot, as seen
113 throughout the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the
114 value with `k' or `m', representing kilobytes and megabytes,
115 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval
116 to suit your needs, or you can use the predefined "styles" (*Note
120 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line
121 throughout the retrieval (50 by default).
124 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
127 Specify the dot retrieval "style", as with `--dot-style'.
129 exclude_directories = STRING
130 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude
131 from download, the same as `-X' (*Note Directory-Based Limits::).
133 exclude_domains = STRING
134 Same as `--exclude-domains' (*Note Domain Acceptance::).
137 Follow FTP links from HTML documents, the same as `-f'.
140 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an HTML
141 document, the same as `-F'.
144 Use STRING as FTP proxy, instead of the one specified in
148 Turn globbing on/off, the same as `-g'.
151 Define an additional header, like `--header'.
157 Use STRING as HTTP proxy, instead of the one specified in
161 Set HTTP user to STRING.
163 ignore_length = on/off
164 When set to on, ignore `Content-Length' header; the same as
167 include_directories = STRING
168 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow
169 when downloading, the same as `-I'.
172 Read the URLs from STRING, like `-i'.
175 Consider data longer than specified in content-length header as
176 invalid (and retry getting it). The default behaviour is to save
177 as much data as there is, provided there is more than or equal to
178 the value in `Content-Length'.
181 Set logfile, the same as `-o'.
184 Your user name on the remote machine, for FTP. Defaults to
188 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as `-m'.
191 Turn reading netrc on or off.
197 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
198 `--no-parent' (*Note Directory-Based Limits::).
201 Use STRING as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
202 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
204 output_document = STRING
205 Set the output filename, the same as `-O'.
208 Set passive FTP, the same as `--passive-ftp'.
211 Set your FTP password to PASSWORD. Without this setting, the
212 password defaults to `username@hostname.domainname'.
215 Set proxy authentication user name to STRING, like `--proxy-user'.
217 proxy_passwd = STRING
218 Set proxy authentication password to STRING, like `--proxy-passwd'.
221 Quiet mode, the same as `-q'.
224 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in global
225 wgetrc. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop retrieving
226 after the download sum has become greater than quota. The quota
227 can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes `k' appended) or mbytes
228 (`m' appended). Thus `quota = 5m' will set the quota to 5 mbytes.
229 Note that the user's startup file overrides system settings.
232 Recursion level, the same as `-l'.
235 Recursive on/off, the same as `-r'.
237 relative_only = on/off
238 Follow only relative links, the same as `-L' (*Note Relative
241 remove_listing = on/off
242 If set to on, remove FTP listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
243 to off is the same as `-nr'.
245 retr_symlinks = on/off
246 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain
247 files; the same as `--retr-symlinks'.
250 Use (or not) `/robots.txt' file (*Note Robots::). Be sure to know
251 what you are doing before changing the default (which is `on').
253 server_response = on/off
254 Choose whether or not to print the HTTP and FTP server responses,
257 simple_host_check = on/off
258 Same as `-nh' (*Note Host Checking::).
264 Set timeout value, the same as `-T'.
266 timestamping = on/off
267 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as `-N' (*Note Time-Stamping::).
270 Set number of retries per URL, the same as `-t'.
273 Turn proxy support on/off. The same as `-Y'.
276 Turn verbose on/off, the same as `-v'/`-nv'.
279 Wait N seconds between retrievals, the same as `-w'.
282 File: wget.info, Node: Sample Wgetrc, Prev: Wgetrc Commands, Up: Startup File
287 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
288 It is divided in two section--one for global usage (suitable for global
289 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for `$HOME/.wgetrc').
290 Be careful about the things you change.
292 Note that all the lines are commented out. For any line to have
293 effect, you must remove the `#' prefix at the beginning of line.
296 ### Sample Wget initialization file .wgetrc
299 ## You can use this file to change the default behaviour of wget or to
300 ## avoid having to type many many command-line options. This file does
301 ## not contain a comprehensive list of commands -- look at the manual
302 ## to find out what you can put into this file.
304 ## Wget initialization file can reside in /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
305 ## (global, for all users) or $HOME/.wgetrc (for a single user).
307 ## To use any of the settings in this file, you will have to uncomment
308 ## them (and probably change them).
312 ## Global settings (useful for setting up in /usr/local/etc/wgetrc).
313 ## Think well before you change them, since they may reduce wget's
314 ## functionality, and make it behave contrary to the documentation:
317 # You can set retrieve quota for beginners by specifying a value
318 # optionally followed by 'K' (kilobytes) or 'M' (megabytes). The
319 # default quota is unlimited.
322 # You can lower (or raise) the default number of retries when
323 # downloading a file (default is 20).
326 # Lowering the maximum depth of the recursive retrieval is handy to
327 # prevent newbies from going too "deep" when they unwittingly start
328 # the recursive retrieval. The default is 5.
331 # Many sites are behind firewalls that do not allow initiation of
332 # connections from the outside. On these sites you have to use the
333 # `passive' feature of FTP. If you are behind such a firewall, you
334 # can turn this on to make Wget use passive FTP by default.
339 ## Local settings (for a user to set in his $HOME/.wgetrc). It is
340 ## *highly* undesirable to put these settings in the global file, since
341 ## they are potentially dangerous to "normal" users.
343 ## Even when setting up your own ~/.wgetrc, you should know what you
344 ## are doing before doing so.
347 # Set this to on to use timestamping by default:
350 # It is a good idea to make Wget send your email address in a `From:'
351 # header with your request (so that server administrators can contact
352 # you in case of errors). Wget does *not* send `From:' by default.
353 #header = From: Your Name <username@site.domain>
355 # You can set up other headers, like Accept-Language. Accept-Language
356 # is *not* sent by default.
357 #header = Accept-Language: en
359 # You can set the default proxy for Wget to use. It will override the
360 # value in the environment.
361 #http_proxy = http://proxy.yoyodyne.com:18023/
363 # If you do not want to use proxy at all, set this to off.
366 # You can customize the retrieval outlook. Valid options are default,
367 # binary, mega and micro.
370 # Setting this to off makes Wget not download /robots.txt. Be sure to
371 # know *exactly* what /robots.txt is and how it is used before changing
375 # It can be useful to make Wget wait between connections. Set this to
376 # the number of seconds you want Wget to wait.
379 # You can force creating directory structure, even if a single is being
380 # retrieved, by setting this to on.
383 # You can turn on recursive retrieving by default (don't do this if
384 # you are not sure you know what it means) by setting this to on.
387 # To have Wget follow FTP links from HTML files by default, set this
392 File: wget.info, Node: Examples, Next: Various, Prev: Startup File, Up: Top
397 The examples are classified into three sections, because of clarity.
398 The first section is a tutorial for beginners. The second section
399 explains some of the more complex program features. The third section
400 contains advice for mirror administrators, as well as even more complex
401 features (that some would call perverted).
405 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
406 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced techniques of usage.
407 * Guru Usage:: Mirroring and the hairy stuff.
410 File: wget.info, Node: Simple Usage, Next: Advanced Usage, Prev: Examples, Up: Examples
415 * Say you want to download a URL. Just type:
417 wget http://fly.cc.fer.hr/
419 The response will be something like:
421 --13:30:45-- http://fly.cc.fer.hr:80/en/
423 Connecting to fly.cc.fer.hr:80... connected!
424 HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
425 Length: 4,694 [text/html]
429 13:30:46 (23.75 KB/s) - `index.html' saved [4694/4694]
431 * But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is
432 lengthy? The connection will probably fail before the whole file
433 is retrieved, more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting
434 the file until it either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the
435 default number of retries (this being 20). It is easy to change
436 the number of tries to 45, to insure that the whole file will
439 wget --tries=45 http://fly.cc.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
441 * Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its
442 progress to log file `log'. It is tiring to type `--tries', so we
445 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.cc.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
447 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in
448 the background. To unlimit the number of retries, use `-t inf'.
450 * The usage of FTP is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
453 $ wget ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr/welcome.msg
454 --10:08:47-- ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr:21/welcome.msg
456 Connecting to gnjilux.cc.fer.hr:21... connected!
457 Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
458 ==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD not needed.
459 ==> PORT ... done. ==> RETR welcome.msg ... done.
460 Length: 1,340 (unauthoritative)
464 10:08:48 (1.28 MB/s) - `welcome.msg' saved [1340]
466 * If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory
467 listing, parse it and convert it to HTML. Try:
469 wget ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/
473 File: wget.info, Node: Advanced Usage, Next: Guru Usage, Prev: Simple Usage, Up: Examples
478 * You would like to read the list of URLs from a file? Not a problem
483 If you specify `-' as file name, the URLs will be read from
486 * Create a mirror image of GNU WWW site (with the same directory
487 structure the original has) with only one try per document, saving
488 the log of the activities to `gnulog':
490 wget -r -t1 http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/ -o gnulog
492 * Retrieve the first layer of yahoo links:
494 wget -r -l1 http://www.yahoo.com/
496 * Retrieve the index.html of `www.lycos.com', showing the original
499 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
501 * Save the server headers with the file:
502 wget -s http://www.lycos.com/
505 * Retrieve the first two levels of `wuarchive.wustl.edu', saving them
508 wget -P/tmp -l2 ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
510 * You want to download all the GIFs from an HTTP directory. `wget
511 http://host/dir/*.gif' doesn't work, since HTTP retrieval does not
512 support globbing. In that case, use:
514 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://host/dir/
516 It is a bit of a kludge, but it works. `-r -l1' means to retrieve
517 recursively (*Note Recursive Retrieval::), with maximum depth of 1.
518 `--no-parent' means that references to the parent directory are
519 ignored (*Note Directory-Based Limits::), and `-A.gif' means to
520 download only the GIF files. `-A "*.gif"' would have worked too.
522 * Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
523 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already
524 present. It would be:
526 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
528 * If you want to encode your own username and password to HTTP or
529 FTP, use the appropriate URL syntax (*Note URL Format::).
531 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@jagor.srce.hr/.emacs
533 * If you do not like the default retrieval visualization (1K dots
534 with 10 dots per cluster and 50 dots per line), you can customize
535 it through dot settings (*Note Wgetrc Commands::). For example,
536 many people like the "binary" style of retrieval, with 8K dots and
539 wget --dot-style=binary ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/README
541 You can experiment with other styles, like:
543 wget --dot-style=mega ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/xemacs-20.4/xemacs-20.4.tar.gz
544 wget --dot-style=micro http://fly.cc.fer.hr/
546 To make these settings permanent, put them in your `.wgetrc', as
547 described before (*Note Sample Wgetrc::).
550 File: wget.info, Node: Guru Usage, Prev: Advanced Usage, Up: Examples
555 * If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or FTP
556 subdirectories), use `--mirror' (`-m'), which is the shorthand for
557 `-r -N'. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it to
558 recheck a site each Sunday:
561 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/ -o /home/me/weeklog
563 * You may wish to do the same with someone's home page. But you do
564 not want to download all those images--you're only interested in
567 wget --mirror -A.html http://www.w3.org/
569 * But what about mirroring the hosts networkologically close to you?
570 It seems so awfully slow because of all that DNS resolving. Just
571 use `-D' (*Note Domain Acceptance::).
573 wget -rN -Dsrce.hr http://www.srce.hr/
575 Now Wget will correctly find out that `regoc.srce.hr' is the same
576 as `www.srce.hr', but will not even take into consideration the
577 link to `www.mit.edu'.
579 * You have a presentation and would like the dumb absolute links to
580 be converted to relative? Use `-k':
584 * You would like the output documents to go to standard output
585 instead of to files? OK, but Wget will automatically shut up
586 (turn on `--quiet') to prevent mixing of Wget output and the
589 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
591 You can also combine the two options and make weird pipelines to
592 retrieve the documents from remote hotlists:
594 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
597 File: wget.info, Node: Various, Next: Appendices, Prev: Examples, Up: Top
602 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
606 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers
607 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
608 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
609 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
610 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
611 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
614 File: wget.info, Node: Proxies, Next: Distribution, Prev: Various, Up: Various
619 "Proxies" are special-purpose HTTP servers designed to transfer data
620 from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies is
621 lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
622 achieved by channeling all HTTP and FTP requests through the proxy
623 which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is requested
624 again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for proxies
625 is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their internal
626 networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain information
627 from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data using an
630 Wget supports proxies for both HTTP and FTP retrievals. The
631 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
632 the following environment variables:
635 This variable should contain the URL of the proxy for HTTP
639 This variable should contain the URL of the proxy for HTTP
640 connections. It is quite common that HTTP_PROXY and FTP_PROXY are
644 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain
645 extensions proxy should *not* be used for. For instance, if the
646 value of `no_proxy' is `.mit.edu', proxy will not be used to
647 retrieve documents from MIT.
649 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
650 may be specified from within Wget itself.
655 This option may be used to turn the proxy support on or off. Proxy
656 support is on by default, provided that the appropriate environment
662 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy
663 settings specified by the environment.
665 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them.
666 The authorization consists of "username" and "password", which must be
667 sent by Wget. As with HTTP authorization, several authentication
668 schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the `Basic' authentication
669 scheme is currently implemented.
671 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
672 URL or through the command-line options. Assuming that the company's
673 proxy is located at `proxy.srce.hr' at port 8001, a proxy URL location
674 containing authorization data might look like this:
676 http://hniksic:mypassword@proxy.company.com:8001/
678 Alternatively, you may use the `proxy-user' and `proxy-password'
679 options, and the equivalent `.wgetrc' settings `proxy_user' and
680 `proxy_passwd' to set the proxy username and password.
683 File: wget.info, Node: Distribution, Next: Mailing List, Prev: Proxies, Up: Various
688 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at
689 the master GNU archive site prep.ai.mit.edu, and its mirrors. For
690 example, Wget 1.5.3+dev can be found at
691 `ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/wget-1.5.3+dev.tar.gz'
694 File: wget.info, Node: Mailing List, Next: Reporting Bugs, Prev: Distribution, Up: Various
699 Wget has its own mailing list at <wget@sunsite.auc.dk>, thanks to
700 Karsten Thygesen. The mailing list is for discussion of Wget features
701 and web, reporting Wget bugs (those that you think may be of interest
702 to the public) and mailing announcements. You are welcome to
703 subscribe. The more people on the list, the better!
705 To subscribe, send mail to <wget-subscribe@sunsite.auc.dk>. the
706 magic word `subscribe' in the subject line. Unsubscribe by mailing to
707 <wget-unsubscribe@sunsite.auc.dk>.
709 The mailing list is archived at `http://fly.cc.fer.hr/archive/wget'.
712 File: wget.info, Node: Reporting Bugs, Next: Portability, Prev: Mailing List, Up: Various
717 You are welcome to send bug reports about GNU Wget to
718 <bug-wget@gnu.org>. The bugs that you think are of the interest to the
719 public (i.e. more people should be informed about them) can be Cc-ed to
720 the mailing list at <wget@sunsite.auc.dk>.
722 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
725 1. Please try to ascertain that the behaviour you see really is a
726 bug. If Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as
727 documented, it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not
728 sure about the way they are supposed to work, it might well be a
731 2. Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible.
732 E.g. if Wget crashes on `wget -rLl0 -t5 -Y0 http://yoyodyne.com -o
733 /tmp/log', you should try to see if it will crash with a simpler
736 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of
737 your `.wgetrc' file, just dumping it into the debug message is
738 probably a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the
739 bug repeats with `.wgetrc' moved out of the way. Only if it turns
740 out that `.wgetrc' settings affect the bug, should you mail me the
741 relevant parts of the file.
743 3. Please start Wget with `-d' option and send the log (or the
744 relevant parts of it). If Wget was compiled without debug support,
745 recompile it. It is *much* easier to trace bugs with debug support
748 4. If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. `gdb `which
749 wget` core' and type `where' to get the backtrace.
751 5. Find where the bug is, fix it and send me the patches. :-)
754 File: wget.info, Node: Portability, Next: Signals, Prev: Reporting Bugs, Up: Various
759 Since Wget uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and avoids
760 using "special" ultra-mega-cool features of any particular Unix, it
761 should compile (and work) on all common Unix flavors.
763 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds
764 of Unix systems, including Solaris, Linux, SunOS, OSF (aka Digital
765 Unix), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, and others; refer to the file `MACHINES' in
766 the distribution directory for a comprehensive list. If you compile it
767 on an architecture not listed there, please let me know so I can update
770 Wget should also compile on the other Unix systems, not listed in
771 `MACHINES'. If it doesn't, please let me know.
773 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works
774 on Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. It has been compiled
775 successfully using MS Visual C++ 4.0, Watcom, and Borland C compilers,
776 with Winsock as networking software. Naturally, it is crippled of some
777 features available on Unix, but it should work as a substitute for
778 people stuck with Windows. Note that the Windows port is *neither
779 tested nor maintained* by me--all questions and problems should be
780 reported to Wget mailing list at <wget@sunsite.auc.dk> where the
781 maintainers will look at them.
784 File: wget.info, Node: Signals, Prev: Portability, Up: Various
789 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
790 signal (`SIGHUP') and ignores it. If the output was on standard
791 output, it will be redirected to a file named `wget-log'. Otherwise,
792 `SIGHUP' is ignored. This is convenient when you wish to redirect the
793 output of Wget after having started it.
795 $ wget http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/gnus.tar.gz &
796 $ kill -HUP %% # Redirect the output to wget-log
798 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any
799 way. `C-c', `kill -TERM' and `kill -KILL' should kill it alike.
802 File: wget.info, Node: Appendices, Next: Copying, Prev: Various, Up: Top
807 This chapter contains some references I consider useful, like the
808 Robots Exclusion Standard specification, as well as a list of
809 contributors to GNU Wget.
813 * Robots:: Wget as a WWW robot.
814 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
815 * Contributors:: People who helped.
818 File: wget.info, Node: Robots, Next: Security Considerations, Prev: Appendices, Up: Appendices
823 Since Wget is able to traverse the web, it counts as one of the Web
824 "robots". Thus Wget understands "Robots Exclusion Standard"
825 (RES)--contents of `/robots.txt', used by server administrators to
826 shield parts of their systems from wanderings of Wget.
828 Norobots support is turned on only when retrieving recursively, and
829 *never* for the first page. Thus, you may issue:
831 wget -r http://fly.cc.fer.hr/
833 First the index of fly.cc.fer.hr will be downloaded. If Wget finds
834 anything worth downloading on the same host, only *then* will it load
835 the robots, and decide whether or not to load the links after all.
836 `/robots.txt' is loaded only once per host. Wget does not support the
839 The description of the norobots standard was written, and is
840 maintained by Martijn Koster <m.koster@webcrawler.com>. With his
841 permission, I contribute a (slightly modified) texified version of the
846 * Introduction to RES::
850 * Norobots Examples::
853 File: wget.info, Node: Introduction to RES, Next: RES Format, Prev: Robots, Up: Robots
858 "WWW Robots" (also called "wanderers" or "spiders") are programs
859 that traverse many pages in the World Wide Web by recursively
860 retrieving linked pages. For more information see the robots page.
862 In 1993 and 1994 there have been occasions where robots have visited
863 WWW servers where they weren't welcome for various reasons. Sometimes
864 these reasons were robot specific, e.g. certain robots swamped servers
865 with rapid-fire requests, or retrieved the same files repeatedly. In
866 other situations robots traversed parts of WWW servers that weren't
867 suitable, e.g. very deep virtual trees, duplicated information,
868 temporary information, or cgi-scripts with side-effects (such as
871 These incidents indicated the need for established mechanisms for
872 WWW servers to indicate to robots which parts of their server should
873 not be accessed. This standard addresses this need with an operational
876 This document represents a consensus on 30 June 1994 on the robots
877 mailing list (`robots@webcrawler.com'), between the majority of robot
878 authors and other people with an interest in robots. It has also been
879 open for discussion on the Technical World Wide Web mailing list
880 (`www-talk@info.cern.ch'). This document is based on a previous working
881 draft under the same title.
883 It is not an official standard backed by a standards body, or owned
884 by any commercial organization. It is not enforced by anybody, and there
885 no guarantee that all current and future robots will use it. Consider
886 it a common facility the majority of robot authors offer the WWW
887 community to protect WWW server against unwanted accesses by their
890 The latest version of this document can be found at
891 `http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/norobots.html'.
894 File: wget.info, Node: RES Format, Next: User-Agent Field, Prev: Introduction to RES, Up: Robots
899 The format and semantics of the `/robots.txt' file are as follows:
901 The file consists of one or more records separated by one or more
902 blank lines (terminated by `CR', `CR/NL', or `NL'). Each record
903 contains lines of the form:
905 <field>:<optionalspace><value><optionalspace>
907 The field name is case insensitive.
909 Comments can be included in file using UNIX bourne shell conventions:
910 the `#' character is used to indicate that preceding space (if any) and
911 the remainder of the line up to the line termination is discarded.
912 Lines containing only a comment are discarded completely, and therefore
913 do not indicate a record boundary.
915 The record starts with one or more User-agent lines, followed by one
916 or more Disallow lines, as detailed below. Unrecognized headers are
919 The presence of an empty `/robots.txt' file has no explicit
920 associated semantics, it will be treated as if it was not present, i.e.
921 all robots will consider themselves welcome.
924 File: wget.info, Node: User-Agent Field, Next: Disallow Field, Prev: RES Format, Up: Robots
929 The value of this field is the name of the robot the record is
930 describing access policy for.
932 If more than one User-agent field is present the record describes an
933 identical access policy for more than one robot. At least one field
934 needs to be present per record.
936 The robot should be liberal in interpreting this field. A case
937 insensitive substring match of the name without version information is
940 If the value is `*', the record describes the default access policy
941 for any robot that has not matched any of the other records. It is not
942 allowed to have multiple such records in the `/robots.txt' file.
945 File: wget.info, Node: Disallow Field, Next: Norobots Examples, Prev: User-Agent Field, Up: Robots
950 The value of this field specifies a partial URL that is not to be
951 visited. This can be a full path, or a partial path; any URL that
952 starts with this value will not be retrieved. For example,
953 `Disallow: /help' disallows both `/help.html' and `/help/index.html',
954 whereas `Disallow: /help/' would disallow `/help/index.html' but allow
957 Any empty value, indicates that all URLs can be retrieved. At least
958 one Disallow field needs to be present in a record.
961 File: wget.info, Node: Norobots Examples, Prev: Disallow Field, Up: Robots
966 The following example `/robots.txt' file specifies that no robots
967 should visit any URL starting with `/cyberworld/map/' or `/tmp/':
969 # robots.txt for http://www.site.com/
972 Disallow: /cyberworld/map/ # This is an infinite virtual URL space
973 Disallow: /tmp/ # these will soon disappear
975 This example `/robots.txt' file specifies that no robots should
976 visit any URL starting with `/cyberworld/map/', except the robot called
979 # robots.txt for http://www.site.com/
982 Disallow: /cyberworld/map/ # This is an infinite virtual URL space
984 # Cybermapper knows where to go.
985 User-agent: cybermapper
988 This example indicates that no robots should visit this site further:
995 File: wget.info, Node: Security Considerations, Next: Contributors, Prev: Robots, Up: Appendices
997 Security Considerations
998 =======================
1000 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted
1001 passwords through the network, which may present a security problem.
1002 Here are the main issues, and some solutions.
1004 1. The passwords on the command line are visible using `ps'. If this
1005 is a problem, avoid putting passwords from the command line--e.g.
1006 you can use `.netrc' for this.
1008 2. Using the insecure "basic" authentication scheme, unencrypted
1009 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
1011 3. The FTP passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
1012 solution for this at the moment.
1014 4. Although the "normal" output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
1015 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
1016 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send
1020 File: wget.info, Node: Contributors, Prev: Security Considerations, Up: Appendices
1025 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@iskon.hr>. However,
1026 its development could never have gone as far as it has, were it not for
1027 the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature proposals,
1028 patches, or letters saying "Thanks!".
1030 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
1032 * Karsten Thygesen--donated the mailing list and the initial FTP
1035 * Shawn McHorse--bug reports and patches.
1037 * Kaveh R. Ghazi--on-the-fly `ansi2knr'-ization.
1039 * Gordon Matzigkeit--`.netrc' support.
1041 * Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar--feature
1042 suggestions and "philosophical" discussions.
1044 * Darko Budor--initial port to Windows.
1046 * Antonio Rosella--help and suggestions, plust the Italian
1049 * Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic--many bug reports and
1052 * Francois Pinard--many thorough bug reports and discussions.
1054 * Karl Eichwalder--lots of help with internationalization and other
1057 * Junio Hamano--donated support for Opie and HTTP `Digest'
1060 * Brian Gough--a generous donation.
1062 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
1063 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
1064 that make maintenance so much fun:
1066 Tim Adam, Martin Baehr, Dieter Baron, Roger Beeman and the Gurus at
1067 Cisco, Mark Boyns, John Burden, Wanderlei Cavassin, Gilles Cedoc, Tim
1068 Charron, Noel Cragg, Kristijan Conkas, Damir Dzeko, Andrew Davison,
1069 Ulrich Drepper, Marc Duponcheel, Aleksandar Erkalovic, Andy Eskilsson,
1070 Masashi Fujita, Howard Gayle, Marcel Gerrits, Hans Grobler, Mathieu
1071 Guillaume, Karl Heuer, Gregor Hoffleit, Erik Magnus Hulthen, Richard
1072 Huveneers, Simon Josefsson, Mario Juric, Goran Kezunovic, Robert Kleine,
1073 Fila Kolodny, Alexander Kourakos, Martin Kraemer, Simos KSenitellis,
1074 Tage Stabell-Kulo, Hrvoje Lacko, Dave Love, Jordan Mendelson, Lin Zhe
1075 Min, Charlie Negyesi, Andrew Pollock, Steve Pothier, Marin Purgar, Jan
1076 Prikryl, Keith Refson, Tobias Ringstrom, Juan Jose Rodrigues, Heinz
1077 Salzmann, Robert Schmidt, Toomas Soome, Sven Sternberger, Markus
1078 Strasser, Szakacsits Szabolcs, Mike Thomas, Russell Vincent, Douglas E.
1079 Wegscheid, Jasmin Zainul, Bojan Zdrnja, Kristijan Zimmer.
1081 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all
1082 the subscribers of the Wget mailing list.