1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
7 @settitle GNU Wget @value{VERSION} Manual
8 @c Disable the monstrous rectangles beside overfull hbox-es.
10 @c Use `odd' to print double-sided.
15 @c Remove this if you don't use A4 paper.
19 @c Title for man page. The weird way texi2pod.pl is written requires
20 @c the preceding @set.
22 @c man title Wget The non-interactive network downloader.
24 @dircategory Network Applications
26 * Wget: (wget). The non-interactive network downloader.
30 This file documents the GNU Wget utility for downloading network
33 @c man begin COPYRIGHT
34 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
35 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
38 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
39 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
40 are preserved on all copies.
44 Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the
45 results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission
46 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
47 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
49 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
50 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
51 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
52 Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
53 copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free
54 Documentation License''.
59 @title GNU Wget @value{VERSION}
60 @subtitle The non-interactive download utility
61 @subtitle Updated for Wget @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
62 @author by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} and others
66 Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>.
67 Currently maintained by Micah Cowan <micah@cowan.name>.
70 This is @strong{not} the complete manual for GNU Wget.
71 For more complete information, including more detailed explanations of
72 some of the options, and a number of commands available
73 for use with @file{.wgetrc} files and the @samp{-e} option, see the GNU
74 Info entry for @file{wget}.
79 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
87 @top Wget @value{VERSION}
93 * Overview:: Features of Wget.
94 * Invoking:: Wget command-line arguments.
95 * Recursive Download:: Downloading interlinked pages.
96 * Following Links:: The available methods of chasing links.
97 * Time-Stamping:: Mirroring according to time-stamps.
98 * Startup File:: Wget's initialization file.
99 * Examples:: Examples of usage.
100 * Various:: The stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
101 * Appendices:: Some useful references.
102 * Copying this manual:: You may give out copies of Wget and of this manual.
103 * Concept Index:: Topics covered by this manual.
111 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
112 GNU Wget is a free utility for non-interactive download of files from
113 the Web. It supports @sc{http}, @sc{https}, and @sc{ftp} protocols, as
114 well as retrieval through @sc{http} proxies.
117 This chapter is a partial overview of Wget's features.
121 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
122 Wget is non-interactive, meaning that it can work in the background,
123 while the user is not logged on. This allows you to start a retrieval
124 and disconnect from the system, letting Wget finish the work. By
125 contrast, most of the Web browsers require constant user's presence,
126 which can be a great hindrance when transferring a lot of data.
131 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
135 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
136 Wget can follow links in @sc{html} and @sc{xhtml} pages and create local
137 versions of remote web sites, fully recreating the directory structure of
138 the original site. This is sometimes referred to as ``recursive
139 downloading.'' While doing that, Wget respects the Robot Exclusion
140 Standard (@file{/robots.txt}). Wget can be instructed to convert the
141 links in downloaded @sc{html} files to the local files for offline
146 File name wildcard matching and recursive mirroring of directories are
147 available when retrieving via @sc{ftp}. Wget can read the time-stamp
148 information given by both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} servers, and store it
149 locally. Thus Wget can see if the remote file has changed since last
150 retrieval, and automatically retrieve the new version if it has. This
151 makes Wget suitable for mirroring of @sc{ftp} sites, as well as home
156 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
160 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
161 Wget has been designed for robustness over slow or unstable network
162 connections; if a download fails due to a network problem, it will
163 keep retrying until the whole file has been retrieved. If the server
164 supports regetting, it will instruct the server to continue the
165 download from where it left off.
169 Wget supports proxy servers, which can lighten the network load, speed
170 up retrieval and provide access behind firewalls. Wget uses the passive
171 @sc{ftp} downloading by default, active @sc{ftp} being an option.
174 Wget supports IP version 6, the next generation of IP. IPv6 is
175 autodetected at compile-time, and can be disabled at either build or
176 run time. Binaries built with IPv6 support work well in both
177 IPv4-only and dual family environments.
180 Built-in features offer mechanisms to tune which links you wish to follow
181 (@pxref{Following Links}).
184 The progress of individual downloads is traced using a progress gauge.
185 Interactive downloads are tracked using a ``thermometer''-style gauge,
186 whereas non-interactive ones are traced with dots, each dot
187 representing a fixed amount of data received (1KB by default). Either
188 gauge can be customized to your preferences.
191 Most of the features are fully configurable, either through command line
192 options, or via the initialization file @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup
193 File}). Wget allows you to define @dfn{global} startup files
194 (@file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default) for site settings.
199 @item /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
200 Default location of the @dfn{global} startup file.
209 Finally, GNU Wget is free software. This means that everyone may use
210 it, redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
211 Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation (see the
212 file @file{COPYING} that came with GNU Wget, for details).
222 By default, Wget is very simple to invoke. The basic syntax is:
225 @c man begin SYNOPSIS
226 wget [@var{option}]@dots{} [@var{URL}]@dots{}
230 Wget will simply download all the @sc{url}s specified on the command
231 line. @var{URL} is a @dfn{Uniform Resource Locator}, as defined below.
233 However, you may wish to change some of the default parameters of
234 Wget. You can do it two ways: permanently, adding the appropriate
235 command to @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup File}), or specifying it on
241 * Basic Startup Options::
242 * Logging and Input File Options::
244 * Directory Options::
246 * HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options::
248 * Recursive Retrieval Options::
249 * Recursive Accept/Reject Options::
257 @dfn{URL} is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A uniform
258 resource locator is a compact string representation for a resource
259 available via the Internet. Wget recognizes the @sc{url} syntax as per
260 @sc{rfc1738}. This is the most widely used form (square brackets denote
264 http://host[:port]/directory/file
265 ftp://host[:port]/directory/file
268 You can also encode your username and password within a @sc{url}:
271 ftp://user:password@@host/path
272 http://user:password@@host/path
275 Either @var{user} or @var{password}, or both, may be left out. If you
276 leave out either the @sc{http} username or password, no authentication
277 will be sent. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} username, @samp{anonymous}
278 will be used. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} password, your email
279 address will be supplied as a default password.@footnote{If you have a
280 @file{.netrc} file in your home directory, password will also be
283 @strong{Important Note}: if you specify a password-containing @sc{url}
284 on the command line, the username and password will be plainly visible
285 to all users on the system, by way of @code{ps}. On multi-user systems,
286 this is a big security risk. To work around it, use @code{wget -i -}
287 and feed the @sc{url}s to Wget's standard input, each on a separate
288 line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
290 You can encode unsafe characters in a @sc{url} as @samp{%xy}, @code{xy}
291 being the hexadecimal representation of the character's @sc{ascii}
292 value. Some common unsafe characters include @samp{%} (quoted as
293 @samp{%25}), @samp{:} (quoted as @samp{%3A}), and @samp{@@} (quoted as
294 @samp{%40}). Refer to @sc{rfc1738} for a comprehensive list of unsafe
297 Wget also supports the @code{type} feature for @sc{ftp} @sc{url}s. By
298 default, @sc{ftp} documents are retrieved in the binary mode (type
299 @samp{i}), which means that they are downloaded unchanged. Another
300 useful mode is the @samp{a} (@dfn{ASCII}) mode, which converts the line
301 delimiters between the different operating systems, and is thus useful
302 for text files. Here is an example:
305 ftp://host/directory/file;type=a
308 Two alternative variants of @sc{url} specification are also supported,
309 because of historical (hysterical?) reasons and their widespreaded use.
311 @sc{ftp}-only syntax (supported by @code{NcFTP}):
316 @sc{http}-only syntax (introduced by @code{Netscape}):
321 These two alternative forms are deprecated, and may cease being
322 supported in the future.
324 If you do not understand the difference between these notations, or do
325 not know which one to use, just use the plain ordinary format you use
326 with your favorite browser, like @code{Lynx} or @code{Netscape}.
331 @section Option Syntax
332 @cindex option syntax
333 @cindex syntax of options
335 Since Wget uses GNU getopt to process command-line arguments, every
336 option has a long form along with the short one. Long options are
337 more convenient to remember, but take time to type. You may freely
338 mix different option styles, or specify options after the command-line
339 arguments. Thus you may write:
342 wget -r --tries=10 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/ -o log
345 The space between the option accepting an argument and the argument may
346 be omitted. Instead of @samp{-o log} you can write @samp{-olog}.
348 You may put several options that do not require arguments together,
355 This is a complete equivalent of:
358 wget -d -r -c @var{URL}
361 Since the options can be specified after the arguments, you may
362 terminate them with @samp{--}. So the following will try to download
363 @sc{url} @samp{-x}, reporting failure to @file{log}:
369 The options that accept comma-separated lists all respect the convention
370 that specifying an empty list clears its value. This can be useful to
371 clear the @file{.wgetrc} settings. For instance, if your @file{.wgetrc}
372 sets @code{exclude_directories} to @file{/cgi-bin}, the following
373 example will first reset it, and then set it to exclude @file{/~nobody}
374 and @file{/~somebody}. You can also clear the lists in @file{.wgetrc}
375 (@pxref{Wgetrc Syntax}).
378 wget -X '' -X /~nobody,/~somebody
381 Most options that do not accept arguments are @dfn{boolean} options,
382 so named because their state can be captured with a yes-or-no
383 (``boolean'') variable. For example, @samp{--follow-ftp} tells Wget
384 to follow FTP links from HTML files and, on the other hand,
385 @samp{--no-glob} tells it not to perform file globbing on FTP URLs. A
386 boolean option is either @dfn{affirmative} or @dfn{negative}
387 (beginning with @samp{--no}). All such options share several
390 Unless stated otherwise, it is assumed that the default behavior is
391 the opposite of what the option accomplishes. For example, the
392 documented existence of @samp{--follow-ftp} assumes that the default
393 is to @emph{not} follow FTP links from HTML pages.
395 Affirmative options can be negated by prepending the @samp{--no-} to
396 the option name; negative options can be negated by omitting the
397 @samp{--no-} prefix. This might seem superfluous---if the default for
398 an affirmative option is to not do something, then why provide a way
399 to explicitly turn it off? But the startup file may in fact change
400 the default. For instance, using @code{follow_ftp = off} in
401 @file{.wgetrc} makes Wget @emph{not} follow FTP links by default, and
402 using @samp{--no-follow-ftp} is the only way to restore the factory
403 default from the command line.
405 @node Basic Startup Options
406 @section Basic Startup Options
411 Display the version of Wget.
415 Print a help message describing all of Wget's command-line options.
419 Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is
420 specified via the @samp{-o}, output is redirected to @file{wget-log}.
422 @cindex execute wgetrc command
423 @item -e @var{command}
424 @itemx --execute @var{command}
425 Execute @var{command} as if it were a part of @file{.wgetrc}
426 (@pxref{Startup File}). A command thus invoked will be executed
427 @emph{after} the commands in @file{.wgetrc}, thus taking precedence over
428 them. If you need to specify more than one wgetrc command, use multiple
429 instances of @samp{-e}.
433 @node Logging and Input File Options
434 @section Logging and Input File Options
439 @item -o @var{logfile}
440 @itemx --output-file=@var{logfile}
441 Log all messages to @var{logfile}. The messages are normally reported
444 @cindex append to log
445 @item -a @var{logfile}
446 @itemx --append-output=@var{logfile}
447 Append to @var{logfile}. This is the same as @samp{-o}, only it appends
448 to @var{logfile} instead of overwriting the old log file. If
449 @var{logfile} does not exist, a new file is created.
454 Turn on debug output, meaning various information important to the
455 developers of Wget if it does not work properly. Your system
456 administrator may have chosen to compile Wget without debug support, in
457 which case @samp{-d} will not work. Please note that compiling with
458 debug support is always safe---Wget compiled with the debug support will
459 @emph{not} print any debug info unless requested with @samp{-d}.
460 @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information on how to use @samp{-d} for
466 Turn off Wget's output.
471 Turn on verbose output, with all the available data. The default output
476 Turn off verbose without being completely quiet (use @samp{-q} for
477 that), which means that error messages and basic information still get
482 @itemx --input-file=@var{file}
483 Read @sc{url}s from @var{file}. If @samp{-} is specified as
484 @var{file}, @sc{url}s are read from the standard input. (Use
485 @samp{./-} to read from a file literally named @samp{-}.)
487 If this function is used, no @sc{url}s need be present on the command
488 line. If there are @sc{url}s both on the command line and in an input
489 file, those on the command lines will be the first ones to be
490 retrieved. The @var{file} need not be an @sc{html} document (but no
491 harm if it is)---it is enough if the @sc{url}s are just listed
494 However, if you specify @samp{--force-html}, the document will be
495 regarded as @samp{html}. In that case you may have problems with
496 relative links, which you can solve either by adding @code{<base
497 href="@var{url}">} to the documents or by specifying
498 @samp{--base=@var{url}} on the command line.
503 When input is read from a file, force it to be treated as an @sc{html}
504 file. This enables you to retrieve relative links from existing
505 @sc{html} files on your local disk, by adding @code{<base
506 href="@var{url}">} to @sc{html}, or using the @samp{--base} command-line
509 @cindex base for relative links in input file
511 @itemx --base=@var{URL}
512 Prepends @var{URL} to relative links read from the file specified with
513 the @samp{-i} option.
516 @node Download Options
517 @section Download Options
521 @cindex client IP address
522 @cindex IP address, client
523 @item --bind-address=@var{ADDRESS}
524 When making client TCP/IP connections, bind to @var{ADDRESS} on
525 the local machine. @var{ADDRESS} may be specified as a hostname or IP
526 address. This option can be useful if your machine is bound to multiple
531 @cindex number of retries
532 @item -t @var{number}
533 @itemx --tries=@var{number}
534 Set number of retries to @var{number}. Specify 0 or @samp{inf} for
535 infinite retrying. The default is to retry 20 times, with the exception
536 of fatal errors like ``connection refused'' or ``not found'' (404),
537 which are not retried.
540 @itemx --output-document=@var{file}
541 The documents will not be written to the appropriate files, but all
542 will be concatenated together and written to @var{file}. If @samp{-}
543 is used as @var{file}, documents will be printed to standard output,
544 disabling link conversion. (Use @samp{./-} to print to a file
545 literally named @samp{-}.)
547 Use of @samp{-O} is @emph{not} intended to mean simply ``use the name
548 @var{file} instead of the one in the URL;'' rather, it is
549 analogous to shell redirection:
550 @samp{wget -O file http://foo} is intended to work like
551 @samp{wget -O - http://foo > file}; @file{file} will be truncated
552 immediately, and @emph{all} downloaded content will be written there.
554 Note that a combination with @samp{-k} is only permitted when
555 downloading a single document, and combination with any of @samp{-r},
556 @samp{-p}, or @samp{-N} is not allowed.
558 @cindex clobbering, file
559 @cindex downloading multiple times
563 If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget's
564 behavior depends on a few options, including @samp{-nc}. In certain
565 cases, the local file will be @dfn{clobbered}, or overwritten, upon
566 repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
568 When running Wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, @samp{-r}, or @samp{p},
569 downloading the same file in the same directory will result in the
570 original copy of @var{file} being preserved and the second copy being
571 named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet again, the
572 third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on. When
573 @samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior is suppressed, and Wget will
574 refuse to download newer copies of @samp{@var{file}}. Therefore,
575 ``@code{no-clobber}'' is actually a misnomer in this mode---it's not
576 clobbering that's prevented (as the numeric suffixes were already
577 preventing clobbering), but rather the multiple version saving that's
580 When running Wget with @samp{-r} or @samp{-p}, but without @samp{-N}
581 or @samp{-nc}, re-downloading a file will result in the new copy
582 simply overwriting the old. Adding @samp{-nc} will prevent this
583 behavior, instead causing the original version to be preserved and any
584 newer copies on the server to be ignored.
586 When running Wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r} or
587 @samp{-p}, the decision as to whether or not to download a newer copy
588 of a file depends on the local and remote timestamp and size of the
589 file (@pxref{Time-Stamping}). @samp{-nc} may not be specified at the
590 same time as @samp{-N}.
592 Note that when @samp{-nc} is specified, files with the suffixes
593 @samp{.html} or @samp{.htm} will be loaded from the local disk and
594 parsed as if they had been retrieved from the Web.
596 @cindex continue retrieval
597 @cindex incomplete downloads
598 @cindex resume download
601 Continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you
602 want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or
603 by another program. For instance:
606 wget -c ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ls-lR.Z
609 If there is a file named @file{ls-lR.Z} in the current directory, Wget
610 will assume that it is the first portion of the remote file, and will
611 ask the server to continue the retrieval from an offset equal to the
612 length of the local file.
614 Note that you don't need to specify this option if you just want the
615 current invocation of Wget to retry downloading a file should the
616 connection be lost midway through. This is the default behavior.
617 @samp{-c} only affects resumption of downloads started @emph{prior} to
618 this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are still sitting around.
620 Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just download the remote
621 file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}, leaving the truncated @file{ls-lR.Z} file
624 Beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a non-empty file, and
625 it turns out that the server does not support continued downloading,
626 Wget will refuse to start the download from scratch, which would
627 effectively ruin existing contents. If you really want the download to
628 start from scratch, remove the file.
630 Also beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a file which is of
631 equal size as the one on the server, Wget will refuse to download the
632 file and print an explanatory message. The same happens when the file
633 is smaller on the server than locally (presumably because it was changed
634 on the server since your last download attempt)---because ``continuing''
635 is not meaningful, no download occurs.
637 On the other side of the coin, while using @samp{-c}, any file that's
638 bigger on the server than locally will be considered an incomplete
639 download and only @code{(length(remote) - length(local))} bytes will be
640 downloaded and tacked onto the end of the local file. This behavior can
641 be desirable in certain cases---for instance, you can use @samp{wget -c}
642 to download just the new portion that's been appended to a data
643 collection or log file.
645 However, if the file is bigger on the server because it's been
646 @emph{changed}, as opposed to just @emph{appended} to, you'll end up
647 with a garbled file. Wget has no way of verifying that the local file
648 is really a valid prefix of the remote file. You need to be especially
649 careful of this when using @samp{-c} in conjunction with @samp{-r},
650 since every file will be considered as an "incomplete download" candidate.
652 Another instance where you'll get a garbled file if you try to use
653 @samp{-c} is if you have a lame @sc{http} proxy that inserts a
654 ``transfer interrupted'' string into the local file. In the future a
655 ``rollback'' option may be added to deal with this case.
657 Note that @samp{-c} only works with @sc{ftp} servers and with @sc{http}
658 servers that support the @code{Range} header.
660 @cindex progress indicator
662 @item --progress=@var{type}
663 Select the type of the progress indicator you wish to use. Legal
664 indicators are ``dot'' and ``bar''.
666 The ``bar'' indicator is used by default. It draws an @sc{ascii} progress
667 bar graphics (a.k.a ``thermometer'' display) indicating the status of
668 retrieval. If the output is not a TTY, the ``dot'' bar will be used by
671 Use @samp{--progress=dot} to switch to the ``dot'' display. It traces
672 the retrieval by printing dots on the screen, each dot representing a
673 fixed amount of downloaded data.
675 When using the dotted retrieval, you may also set the @dfn{style} by
676 specifying the type as @samp{dot:@var{style}}. Different styles assign
677 different meaning to one dot. With the @code{default} style each dot
678 represents 1K, there are ten dots in a cluster and 50 dots in a line.
679 The @code{binary} style has a more ``computer''-like orientation---8K
680 dots, 16-dots clusters and 48 dots per line (which makes for 384K
681 lines). The @code{mega} style is suitable for downloading very large
682 files---each dot represents 64K retrieved, there are eight dots in a
683 cluster, and 48 dots on each line (so each line contains 3M).
685 Note that you can set the default style using the @code{progress}
686 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
687 command line. The exception is that, when the output is not a TTY, the
688 ``dot'' progress will be favored over ``bar''. To force the bar output,
689 use @samp{--progress=bar:force}.
692 @itemx --timestamping
693 Turn on time-stamping. @xref{Time-Stamping}, for details.
695 @cindex server response, print
697 @itemx --server-response
698 Print the headers sent by @sc{http} servers and responses sent by
701 @cindex Wget as spider
704 When invoked with this option, Wget will behave as a Web @dfn{spider},
705 which means that it will not download the pages, just check that they
706 are there. For example, you can use Wget to check your bookmarks:
709 wget --spider --force-html -i bookmarks.html
712 This feature needs much more work for Wget to get close to the
713 functionality of real web spiders.
717 @itemx --timeout=@var{seconds}
718 Set the network timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. This is equivalent
719 to specifying @samp{--dns-timeout}, @samp{--connect-timeout}, and
720 @samp{--read-timeout}, all at the same time.
722 When interacting with the network, Wget can check for timeout and
723 abort the operation if it takes too long. This prevents anomalies
724 like hanging reads and infinite connects. The only timeout enabled by
725 default is a 900-second read timeout. Setting a timeout to 0 disables
726 it altogether. Unless you know what you are doing, it is best not to
727 change the default timeout settings.
729 All timeout-related options accept decimal values, as well as
730 subsecond values. For example, @samp{0.1} seconds is a legal (though
731 unwise) choice of timeout. Subsecond timeouts are useful for checking
732 server response times or for testing network latency.
736 @item --dns-timeout=@var{seconds}
737 Set the DNS lookup timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. DNS lookups that
738 don't complete within the specified time will fail. By default, there
739 is no timeout on DNS lookups, other than that implemented by system
742 @cindex connect timeout
743 @cindex timeout, connect
744 @item --connect-timeout=@var{seconds}
745 Set the connect timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. TCP connections that
746 take longer to establish will be aborted. By default, there is no
747 connect timeout, other than that implemented by system libraries.
750 @cindex timeout, read
751 @item --read-timeout=@var{seconds}
752 Set the read (and write) timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. The
753 ``time'' of this timeout refers to @dfn{idle time}: if, at any point in
754 the download, no data is received for more than the specified number
755 of seconds, reading fails and the download is restarted. This option
756 does not directly affect the duration of the entire download.
758 Of course, the remote server may choose to terminate the connection
759 sooner than this option requires. The default read timeout is 900
762 @cindex bandwidth, limit
764 @cindex limit bandwidth
765 @item --limit-rate=@var{amount}
766 Limit the download speed to @var{amount} bytes per second. Amount may
767 be expressed in bytes, kilobytes with the @samp{k} suffix, or megabytes
768 with the @samp{m} suffix. For example, @samp{--limit-rate=20k} will
769 limit the retrieval rate to 20KB/s. This is useful when, for whatever
770 reason, you don't want Wget to consume the entire available bandwidth.
772 This option allows the use of decimal numbers, usually in conjunction
773 with power suffixes; for example, @samp{--limit-rate=2.5k} is a legal
776 Note that Wget implements the limiting by sleeping the appropriate
777 amount of time after a network read that took less time than specified
778 by the rate. Eventually this strategy causes the TCP transfer to slow
779 down to approximately the specified rate. However, it may take some
780 time for this balance to be achieved, so don't be surprised if limiting
781 the rate doesn't work well with very small files.
785 @item -w @var{seconds}
786 @itemx --wait=@var{seconds}
787 Wait the specified number of seconds between the retrievals. Use of
788 this option is recommended, as it lightens the server load by making the
789 requests less frequent. Instead of in seconds, the time can be
790 specified in minutes using the @code{m} suffix, in hours using @code{h}
791 suffix, or in days using @code{d} suffix.
793 Specifying a large value for this option is useful if the network or the
794 destination host is down, so that Wget can wait long enough to
795 reasonably expect the network error to be fixed before the retry. The
796 waiting interval specified by this function is influenced by
797 @code{--random-wait}, which see.
799 @cindex retries, waiting between
800 @cindex waiting between retries
801 @item --waitretry=@var{seconds}
802 If you don't want Wget to wait between @emph{every} retrieval, but only
803 between retries of failed downloads, you can use this option. Wget will
804 use @dfn{linear backoff}, waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
805 given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second failure on that
806 file, up to the maximum number of @var{seconds} you specify. Therefore,
807 a value of 10 will actually make Wget wait up to (1 + 2 + ... + 10) = 55
810 Note that this option is turned on by default in the global
816 Some web sites may perform log analysis to identify retrieval programs
817 such as Wget by looking for statistically significant similarities in
818 the time between requests. This option causes the time between requests
819 to vary between 0.5 and 1.5 * @var{wait} seconds, where @var{wait} was
820 specified using the @samp{--wait} option, in order to mask Wget's
821 presence from such analysis.
823 A 2001 article in a publication devoted to development on a popular
824 consumer platform provided code to perform this analysis on the fly.
825 Its author suggested blocking at the class C address level to ensure
826 automated retrieval programs were blocked despite changing DHCP-supplied
829 The @samp{--random-wait} option was inspired by this ill-advised
830 recommendation to block many unrelated users from a web site due to the
835 Don't use proxies, even if the appropriate @code{*_proxy} environment
839 For more information about the use of proxies with Wget, @xref{Proxies}.
844 @itemx --quota=@var{quota}
845 Specify download quota for automatic retrievals. The value can be
846 specified in bytes (default), kilobytes (with @samp{k} suffix), or
847 megabytes (with @samp{m} suffix).
849 Note that quota will never affect downloading a single file. So if you
850 specify @samp{wget -Q10k ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/ls-lR.gz}, all of the
851 @file{ls-lR.gz} will be downloaded. The same goes even when several
852 @sc{url}s are specified on the command-line. However, quota is
853 respected when retrieving either recursively, or from an input file.
854 Thus you may safely type @samp{wget -Q2m -i sites}---download will be
855 aborted when the quota is exceeded.
857 Setting quota to 0 or to @samp{inf} unlimits the download quota.
860 @cindex caching of DNS lookups
862 Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the IP
863 addresses it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly
864 contact the DNS server for the same (typically small) set of hosts it
865 retrieves from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will
868 However, it has been reported that in some situations it is not
869 desirable to cache host names, even for the duration of a
870 short-running application like Wget. With this option Wget issues a
871 new DNS lookup (more precisely, a new call to @code{gethostbyname} or
872 @code{getaddrinfo}) each time it makes a new connection. Please note
873 that this option will @emph{not} affect caching that might be
874 performed by the resolving library or by an external caching layer,
877 If you don't understand exactly what this option does, you probably
880 @cindex file names, restrict
881 @cindex Windows file names
882 @item --restrict-file-names=@var{mode}
883 Change which characters found in remote URLs may show up in local file
884 names generated from those URLs. Characters that are @dfn{restricted}
885 by this option are escaped, i.e. replaced with @samp{%HH}, where
886 @samp{HH} is the hexadecimal number that corresponds to the restricted
889 By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid as part of
890 file names on your operating system, as well as control characters that
891 are typically unprintable. This option is useful for changing these
892 defaults, either because you are downloading to a non-native partition,
893 or because you want to disable escaping of the control characters.
895 When mode is set to ``unix'', Wget escapes the character @samp{/} and
896 the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159. This is the
897 default on Unix-like OS'es.
899 When mode is set to ``windows'', Wget escapes the characters @samp{\},
900 @samp{|}, @samp{/}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
901 @samp{>}, and the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159.
902 In addition to this, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead of
903 @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
904 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
905 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
906 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
907 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
908 mode. This mode is the default on Windows.
910 If you append @samp{,nocontrol} to the mode, as in
911 @samp{unix,nocontrol}, escaping of the control characters is also
912 switched off. You can use @samp{--restrict-file-names=nocontrol} to
913 turn off escaping of control characters without affecting the choice of
914 the OS to use as file name restriction mode.
921 Force connecting to IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. With @samp{--inet4-only}
922 or @samp{-4}, Wget will only connect to IPv4 hosts, ignoring AAAA
923 records in DNS, and refusing to connect to IPv6 addresses specified in
924 URLs. Conversely, with @samp{--inet6-only} or @samp{-6}, Wget will
925 only connect to IPv6 hosts and ignore A records and IPv4 addresses.
927 Neither options should be needed normally. By default, an IPv6-aware
928 Wget will use the address family specified by the host's DNS record.
929 If the DNS responds with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, Wget will try
930 them in sequence until it finds one it can connect to. (Also see
931 @code{--prefer-family} option described below.)
933 These options can be used to deliberately force the use of IPv4 or
934 IPv6 address families on dual family systems, usually to aid debugging
935 or to deal with broken network configuration. Only one of
936 @samp{--inet6-only} and @samp{--inet4-only} may be specified at the
937 same time. Neither option is available in Wget compiled without IPv6
940 @item --prefer-family=IPv4/IPv6/none
941 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
942 with specified address family first. IPv4 addresses are preferred by
945 This avoids spurious errors and connect attempts when accessing hosts
946 that resolve to both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses from IPv4 networks. For
947 example, @samp{www.kame.net} resolves to
948 @samp{2001:200:0:8002:203:47ff:fea5:3085} and to
949 @samp{203.178.141.194}. When the preferred family is @code{IPv4}, the
950 IPv4 address is used first; when the preferred family is @code{IPv6},
951 the IPv6 address is used first; if the specified value is @code{none},
952 the address order returned by DNS is used without change.
954 Unlike @samp{-4} and @samp{-6}, this option doesn't inhibit access to
955 any address family, it only changes the @emph{order} in which the
956 addresses are accessed. Also note that the reordering performed by
957 this option is @dfn{stable}---it doesn't affect order of addresses of
958 the same family. That is, the relative order of all IPv4 addresses
959 and of all IPv6 addresses remains intact in all cases.
961 @item --retry-connrefused
962 Consider ``connection refused'' a transient error and try again.
963 Normally Wget gives up on a URL when it is unable to connect to the
964 site because failure to connect is taken as a sign that the server is
965 not running at all and that retries would not help. This option is
966 for mirroring unreliable sites whose servers tend to disappear for
967 short periods of time.
971 @cindex authentication
972 @item --user=@var{user}
973 @itemx --password=@var{password}
974 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for both
975 @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval. These parameters can be overridden
976 using the @samp{--ftp-user} and @samp{--ftp-password} options for
977 @sc{ftp} connections and the @samp{--http-user} and @samp{--http-password}
978 options for @sc{http} connections.
981 @node Directory Options
982 @section Directory Options
986 @itemx --no-directories
987 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
988 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
989 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
990 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
993 @itemx --force-directories
994 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
995 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
996 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
997 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
1000 @itemx --no-host-directories
1001 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
1002 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
1003 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
1006 @item --protocol-directories
1007 Use the protocol name as a directory component of local file names. For
1008 example, with this option, @samp{wget -r http://@var{host}} will save to
1009 @samp{http/@var{host}/...} rather than just to @samp{@var{host}/...}.
1011 @cindex cut directories
1012 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
1013 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
1014 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
1017 Take, for example, the directory at
1018 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
1019 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
1020 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
1021 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
1022 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
1023 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
1024 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
1028 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
1030 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
1031 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
1033 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
1038 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
1039 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
1040 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
1041 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
1042 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
1044 @cindex directory prefix
1045 @item -P @var{prefix}
1046 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
1047 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
1048 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
1049 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
1054 @section HTTP Options
1057 @cindex .html extension
1059 @itemx --html-extension
1060 If a file of type @samp{application/xhtml+xml} or @samp{text/html} is
1061 downloaded and the URL does not end with the regexp
1062 @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause the suffix @samp{.html}
1063 to be appended to the local filename. This is useful, for instance, when
1064 you're mirroring a remote site that uses @samp{.asp} pages, but you want
1065 the mirrored pages to be viewable on your stock Apache server. Another
1066 good use for this is when you're downloading CGI-generated materials. A URL
1067 like @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
1068 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
1070 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
1071 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
1072 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
1073 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
1074 @samp{text/html} or @samp{application/xhtml+xml}. To prevent this
1075 re-downloading, you must use @samp{-k} and @samp{-K} so that the original
1076 version of the file will be saved as @file{@var{X}.orig} (@pxref{Recursive
1077 Retrieval Options}).
1080 @cindex http password
1081 @cindex authentication
1082 @item --http-user=@var{user}
1083 @itemx --http-password=@var{password}
1084 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1085 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
1086 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure),
1087 the @code{digest}, or the Windows @code{NTLM} authentication scheme.
1089 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1090 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1091 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1092 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1093 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1094 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1095 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1098 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1105 Disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will send the remote
1106 server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma: no-cache}) to get the
1107 file from the remote service, rather than returning the cached version.
1108 This is especially useful for retrieving and flushing out-of-date
1109 documents on proxy servers.
1111 Caching is allowed by default.
1115 Disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism for maintaining
1116 server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie using the
1117 @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the same cookie
1118 upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server owners to keep
1119 track of visitors and for sites to exchange this information, some
1120 consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to use cookies;
1121 however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
1123 @cindex loading cookies
1124 @cindex cookies, loading
1125 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
1126 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
1127 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
1128 @file{cookies.txt} file.
1130 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
1131 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
1132 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
1133 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
1134 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
1135 proves your identity.
1137 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
1138 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
1139 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
1140 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
1141 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
1142 cookie files in different locations:
1146 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1148 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1149 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1150 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1151 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1152 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1154 @item Internet Explorer.
1155 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1156 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1157 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1159 @item Other browsers.
1160 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1161 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1162 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1165 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1166 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1167 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1168 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1169 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1172 wget --no-cookies --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1175 @cindex saving cookies
1176 @cindex cookies, saving
1177 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1178 Save cookies to @var{file} before exiting. This will not save cookies
1179 that have expired or that have no expiry time (so-called ``session
1180 cookies''), but also see @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
1182 @cindex cookies, session
1183 @cindex session cookies
1184 @item --keep-session-cookies
1185 When specified, causes @samp{--save-cookies} to also save session
1186 cookies. Session cookies are normally not saved because they are
1187 meant to be kept in memory and forgotten when you exit the browser.
1188 Saving them is useful on sites that require you to log in or to visit
1189 the home page before you can access some pages. With this option,
1190 multiple Wget runs are considered a single browser session as far as
1191 the site is concerned.
1193 Since the cookie file format does not normally carry session cookies,
1194 Wget marks them with an expiry timestamp of 0. Wget's
1195 @samp{--load-cookies} recognizes those as session cookies, but it might
1196 confuse other browsers. Also note that cookies so loaded will be
1197 treated as other session cookies, which means that if you want
1198 @samp{--save-cookies} to preserve them again, you must use
1199 @samp{--keep-session-cookies} again.
1201 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1202 @cindex ignore length
1203 @item --ignore-length
1204 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1205 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1206 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1207 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1208 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1211 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1212 if it never existed.
1215 @item --header=@var{header-line}
1216 Send @var{header-line} along with the rest of the headers in each
1217 @sc{http} request. The supplied header is sent as-is, which means it
1218 must contain name and value separated by colon, and must not contain
1221 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1222 @samp{--header} more than once.
1226 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1227 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1228 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1232 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1233 previous user-defined headers.
1235 As of Wget 1.10, this option can be used to override headers otherwise
1236 generated automatically. This example instructs Wget to connect to
1237 localhost, but to specify @samp{foo.bar} in the @code{Host} header:
1240 wget --header="Host: foo.bar" http://localhost/
1243 In versions of Wget prior to 1.10 such use of @samp{--header} caused
1244 sending of duplicate headers.
1247 @item --max-redirect=@var{number}
1248 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
1249 The default is 20, which is usually far more than necessary. However, on
1250 those occasions where you want to allow more (or fewer), this is the
1254 @cindex proxy password
1255 @cindex proxy authentication
1256 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1257 @itemx --proxy-password=@var{password}
1258 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1259 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1260 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1262 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-password}
1263 pertain here as well.
1265 @cindex http referer
1266 @cindex referer, http
1267 @item --referer=@var{url}
1268 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1269 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1270 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1271 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1273 @cindex server response, save
1274 @item --save-headers
1275 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1276 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1279 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1280 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1281 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1283 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1284 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1285 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1286 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1287 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1290 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1291 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1292 While this is not such a bad idea in theory, it has been abused by
1293 servers denying information to clients other than (historically)
1294 Netscape or, more frequently, Microsoft Internet Explorer. This
1295 option allows you to change the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget.
1296 Use of this option is discouraged, unless you really know what you are
1299 Specifying empty user agent with @samp{--user-agent=""} instructs Wget
1300 not to send the @code{User-Agent} header in @sc{http} requests.
1303 @item --post-data=@var{string}
1304 @itemx --post-file=@var{file}
1305 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the specified data
1306 in the request body. @code{--post-data} sends @var{string} as data,
1307 whereas @code{--post-file} sends the contents of @var{file}. Other than
1308 that, they work in exactly the same way.
1310 Please be aware that Wget needs to know the size of the POST data in
1311 advance. Therefore the argument to @code{--post-file} must be a regular
1312 file; specifying a FIFO or something like @file{/dev/stdin} won't work.
1313 It's not quite clear how to work around this limitation inherent in
1314 HTTP/1.0. Although HTTP/1.1 introduces @dfn{chunked} transfer that
1315 doesn't require knowing the request length in advance, a client can't
1316 use chunked unless it knows it's talking to an HTTP/1.1 server. And it
1317 can't know that until it receives a response, which in turn requires the
1318 request to have been completed -- a chicken-and-egg problem.
1320 Note: if Wget is redirected after the POST request is completed, it
1321 will not send the POST data to the redirected URL. This is because
1322 URLs that process POST often respond with a redirection to a regular
1323 page, which does not desire or accept POST. It is not completely
1324 clear that this behavior is optimal; if it doesn't work out, it might
1325 be changed in the future.
1327 This example shows how to log to a server using POST and then proceed to
1328 download the desired pages, presumably only accessible to authorized
1333 # @r{Log in to the server. This can be done only once.}
1334 wget --save-cookies cookies.txt \
1335 --post-data 'user=foo&password=bar' \
1336 http://server.com/auth.php
1338 # @r{Now grab the page or pages we care about.}
1339 wget --load-cookies cookies.txt \
1340 -p http://server.com/interesting/article.php
1344 If the server is using session cookies to track user authentication,
1345 the above will not work because @samp{--save-cookies} will not save
1346 them (and neither will browsers) and the @file{cookies.txt} file will
1347 be empty. In that case use @samp{--keep-session-cookies} along with
1348 @samp{--save-cookies} to force saving of session cookies.
1350 @cindex Content-Disposition
1351 @item --content-disposition
1353 If this is set to on, experimental (not fully-functional) support for
1354 @code{Content-Disposition} headers is enabled. This can currently result in
1355 extra round-trips to the server for a @code{HEAD} request, and is known
1356 to suffer from a few bugs, which is why it is not currently enabled by default.
1358 This option is useful for some file-downloading CGI programs that use
1359 @code{Content-Disposition} headers to describe what the name of a
1360 downloaded file should be.
1362 @cindex authentication
1363 @item --auth-no-challenge
1365 If this option is given, Wget will send Basic HTTP authentication
1366 information (plaintext username and password) for all requests, just
1367 like Wget 1.10.2 and prior did by default.
1369 Use of this option is not recommended, and is intended only to support
1370 some few obscure servers, which never send HTTP authentication
1371 challenges, but accept unsolicited auth info, say, in addition to
1372 form-based authentication.
1376 @node HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
1377 @section HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
1380 To support encrypted HTTP (HTTPS) downloads, Wget must be compiled
1381 with an external SSL library, currently OpenSSL. If Wget is compiled
1382 without SSL support, none of these options are available.
1385 @cindex SSL protocol, choose
1386 @item --secure-protocol=@var{protocol}
1387 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto},
1388 @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. If @samp{auto} is used,
1389 the SSL library is given the liberty of choosing the appropriate
1390 protocol automatically, which is achieved by sending an SSLv2 greeting
1391 and announcing support for SSLv3 and TLSv1. This is the default.
1393 Specifying @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, or @samp{TLSv1} forces the use
1394 of the corresponding protocol. This is useful when talking to old and
1395 buggy SSL server implementations that make it hard for OpenSSL to
1396 choose the correct protocol version. Fortunately, such servers are
1399 @cindex SSL certificate, check
1400 @item --no-check-certificate
1401 Don't check the server certificate against the available certificate
1402 authorities. Also don't require the URL host name to match the common
1403 name presented by the certificate.
1405 As of Wget 1.10, the default is to verify the server's certificate
1406 against the recognized certificate authorities, breaking the SSL
1407 handshake and aborting the download if the verification fails.
1408 Although this provides more secure downloads, it does break
1409 interoperability with some sites that worked with previous Wget
1410 versions, particularly those using self-signed, expired, or otherwise
1411 invalid certificates. This option forces an ``insecure'' mode of
1412 operation that turns the certificate verification errors into warnings
1413 and allows you to proceed.
1415 If you encounter ``certificate verification'' errors or ones saying
1416 that ``common name doesn't match requested host name'', you can use
1417 this option to bypass the verification and proceed with the download.
1418 @emph{Only use this option if you are otherwise convinced of the
1419 site's authenticity, or if you really don't care about the validity of
1420 its certificate.} It is almost always a bad idea not to check the
1421 certificates when transmitting confidential or important data.
1423 @cindex SSL certificate
1424 @item --certificate=@var{file}
1425 Use the client certificate stored in @var{file}. This is needed for
1426 servers that are configured to require certificates from the clients
1427 that connect to them. Normally a certificate is not required and this
1430 @cindex SSL certificate type, specify
1431 @item --certificate-type=@var{type}
1432 Specify the type of the client certificate. Legal values are
1433 @samp{PEM} (assumed by default) and @samp{DER}, also known as
1436 @item --private-key=@var{file}
1437 Read the private key from @var{file}. This allows you to provide the
1438 private key in a file separate from the certificate.
1440 @item --private-key-type=@var{type}
1441 Specify the type of the private key. Accepted values are @samp{PEM}
1442 (the default) and @samp{DER}.
1444 @item --ca-certificate=@var{file}
1445 Use @var{file} as the file with the bundle of certificate authorities
1446 (``CA'') to verify the peers. The certificates must be in PEM format.
1448 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1449 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1451 @cindex SSL certificate authority
1452 @item --ca-directory=@var{directory}
1453 Specifies directory containing CA certificates in PEM format. Each
1454 file contains one CA certificate, and the file name is based on a hash
1455 value derived from the certificate. This is achieved by processing a
1456 certificate directory with the @code{c_rehash} utility supplied with
1457 OpenSSL. Using @samp{--ca-directory} is more efficient than
1458 @samp{--ca-certificate} when many certificates are installed because
1459 it allows Wget to fetch certificates on demand.
1461 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1462 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1464 @cindex entropy, specifying source of
1465 @cindex randomness, specifying source of
1466 @item --random-file=@var{file}
1467 Use @var{file} as the source of random data for seeding the
1468 pseudo-random number generator on systems without @file{/dev/random}.
1470 On such systems the SSL library needs an external source of randomness
1471 to initialize. Randomness may be provided by EGD (see
1472 @samp{--egd-file} below) or read from an external source specified by
1473 the user. If this option is not specified, Wget looks for random data
1474 in @code{$RANDFILE} or, if that is unset, in @file{$HOME/.rnd}. If
1475 none of those are available, it is likely that SSL encryption will not
1478 If you're getting the ``Could not seed OpenSSL PRNG; disabling SSL.''
1479 error, you should provide random data using some of the methods
1483 @item --egd-file=@var{file}
1484 Use @var{file} as the EGD socket. EGD stands for @dfn{Entropy
1485 Gathering Daemon}, a user-space program that collects data from
1486 various unpredictable system sources and makes it available to other
1487 programs that might need it. Encryption software, such as the SSL
1488 library, needs sources of non-repeating randomness to seed the random
1489 number generator used to produce cryptographically strong keys.
1491 OpenSSL allows the user to specify his own source of entropy using the
1492 @code{RAND_FILE} environment variable. If this variable is unset, or
1493 if the specified file does not produce enough randomness, OpenSSL will
1494 read random data from EGD socket specified using this option.
1496 If this option is not specified (and the equivalent startup command is
1497 not used), EGD is never contacted. EGD is not needed on modern Unix
1498 systems that support @file{/dev/random}.
1502 @section FTP Options
1506 @cindex ftp password
1507 @cindex ftp authentication
1508 @item --ftp-user=@var{user}
1509 @itemx --ftp-password=@var{password}
1510 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1511 @sc{ftp} server. Without this, or the corresponding startup option,
1512 the password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, normally used for anonymous
1515 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1516 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1517 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1518 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1519 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1520 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1521 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1524 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1528 @cindex .listing files, removing
1529 @item --no-remove-listing
1530 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1531 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1532 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1533 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1534 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1535 you're running is complete).
1537 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1538 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1539 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1540 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1541 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1542 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1543 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1544 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1545 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1547 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1548 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1549 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1550 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1551 will be overwritten.
1553 @cindex globbing, toggle
1555 Turn off @sc{ftp} globbing. Globbing refers to the use of shell-like
1556 special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[}
1557 and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the same directory at
1561 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1564 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1565 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1568 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1569 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1570 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1571 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1574 @item --no-passive-ftp
1575 Disable the use of the @dfn{passive} FTP transfer mode. Passive FTP
1576 mandates that the client connect to the server to establish the data
1577 connection rather than the other way around.
1579 If the machine is connected to the Internet directly, both passive and
1580 active FTP should work equally well. Behind most firewall and NAT
1581 configurations passive FTP has a better chance of working. However,
1582 in some rare firewall configurations, active FTP actually works when
1583 passive FTP doesn't. If you suspect this to be the case, use this
1584 option, or set @code{passive_ftp=off} in your init file.
1586 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1587 @item --retr-symlinks
1588 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1589 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1590 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1591 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1592 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1594 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1595 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1596 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1597 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1600 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1601 specified on the command-line, rather than because it was recursed to,
1602 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1605 @cindex Keep-Alive, turning off
1606 @cindex Persistent Connections, disabling
1607 @item --no-http-keep-alive
1608 Turn off the ``keep-alive'' feature for HTTP downloads. Normally, Wget
1609 asks the server to keep the connection open so that, when you download
1610 more than one document from the same server, they get transferred over
1611 the same TCP connection. This saves time and at the same time reduces
1612 the load on the server.
1614 This option is useful when, for some reason, persistent (keep-alive)
1615 connections don't work for you, for example due to a server bug or due
1616 to the inability of server-side scripts to cope with the connections.
1619 @node Recursive Retrieval Options
1620 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1625 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Download}, for more
1628 @item -l @var{depth}
1629 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1630 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1631 Download}). The default maximum depth is 5.
1633 @cindex proxy filling
1634 @cindex delete after retrieval
1635 @cindex filling proxy cache
1636 @item --delete-after
1637 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1638 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1639 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1642 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1645 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1648 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1649 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1650 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1651 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1652 created in the first place.
1654 @cindex conversion of links
1655 @cindex link conversion
1657 @itemx --convert-links
1658 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1659 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1660 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1661 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-@sc{html}
1664 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1668 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1669 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1671 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1672 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1673 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1674 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1677 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1678 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1680 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1681 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1682 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1683 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1686 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1687 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1688 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1689 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1690 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1693 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1694 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1695 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1697 @cindex backing up converted files
1699 @itemx --backup-converted
1700 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1701 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1706 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1707 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1708 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1709 @samp{-r -N -l inf --no-remove-listing}.
1711 @cindex page requisites
1712 @cindex required images, downloading
1714 @itemx --page-requisites
1715 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
1716 properly display a given @sc{html} page. This includes such things as
1717 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
1719 Ordinarily, when downloading a single @sc{html} page, any requisite documents
1720 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
1721 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
1722 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
1723 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
1726 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
1727 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
1728 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
1729 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
1730 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
1732 If one executes the command:
1735 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
1738 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
1739 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
1740 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
1741 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
1742 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
1745 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1748 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
1749 will be downloaded. Similarly,
1752 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1755 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
1756 to be downloaded. One might think that:
1759 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1762 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
1763 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
1764 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single @sc{html}
1765 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the command-line or in a
1766 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
1767 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
1770 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1773 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
1774 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
1775 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
1776 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
1777 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
1778 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
1781 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1784 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
1785 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
1786 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
1789 @cindex @sc{html} comments
1790 @cindex comments, @sc{html}
1791 @item --strict-comments
1792 Turn on strict parsing of @sc{html} comments. The default is to terminate
1793 comments at the first occurrence of @samp{-->}.
1795 According to specifications, @sc{html} comments are expressed as @sc{sgml}
1796 @dfn{declarations}. Declaration is special markup that begins with
1797 @samp{<!} and ends with @samp{>}, such as @samp{<!DOCTYPE ...>}, that
1798 may contain comments between a pair of @samp{--} delimiters. @sc{html}
1799 comments are ``empty declarations'', @sc{sgml} declarations without any
1800 non-comment text. Therefore, @samp{<!--foo-->} is a valid comment, and
1801 so is @samp{<!--one-- --two-->}, but @samp{<!--1--2-->} is not.
1803 On the other hand, most @sc{html} writers don't perceive comments as anything
1804 other than text delimited with @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}, which is not
1805 quite the same. For example, something like @samp{<!------------>}
1806 works as a valid comment as long as the number of dashes is a multiple
1807 of four (!). If not, the comment technically lasts until the next
1808 @samp{--}, which may be at the other end of the document. Because of
1809 this, many popular browsers completely ignore the specification and
1810 implement what users have come to expect: comments delimited with
1811 @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}.
1813 Until version 1.9, Wget interpreted comments strictly, which resulted in
1814 missing links in many web pages that displayed fine in browsers, but had
1815 the misfortune of containing non-compliant comments. Beginning with
1816 version 1.9, Wget has joined the ranks of clients that implements
1817 ``naive'' comments, terminating each comment at the first occurrence of
1820 If, for whatever reason, you want strict comment parsing, use this
1821 option to turn it on.
1824 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1825 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1828 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
1829 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
1830 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
1831 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files}). Note that if
1832 any of the wildcard characters, @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[} or
1833 @samp{]}, appear in an element of @var{acclist} or @var{rejlist},
1834 it will be treated as a pattern, rather than a suffix.
1836 @item -D @var{domain-list}
1837 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
1838 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
1839 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
1841 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
1842 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed.
1843 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1845 @cindex follow FTP links
1847 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
1848 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
1850 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
1851 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
1852 Wget has an internal table of @sc{html} tag / attribute pairs that it
1853 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
1854 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
1855 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
1856 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
1858 @item --ignore-tags=@var{list}
1859 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
1860 certain @sc{html} tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
1861 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
1863 In the past, this option was the best bet for downloading a single page
1864 and its requisites, using a command-line like:
1867 wget --ignore-tags=a,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1870 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
1871 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
1872 specifying tags to ignore was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to
1873 ignore @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded.
1874 Now the best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
1875 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
1880 Ignore case when matching files and directories. This influences the
1881 behavior of -R, -A, -I, and -X options, as well as globbing
1882 implemented when downloading from FTP sites. For example, with this
1883 option, @samp{-A *.txt} will match @samp{file1.txt}, but also
1884 @samp{file2.TXT}, @samp{file3.TxT}, and so on.
1888 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
1889 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1893 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
1894 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
1895 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
1898 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
1899 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
1900 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements
1901 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1904 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
1905 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
1906 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements of
1907 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1911 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
1912 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
1913 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
1914 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
1919 @node Recursive Download
1920 @chapter Recursive Download
1923 @cindex recursive download
1925 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
1926 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
1927 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieval}, or @dfn{recursion}.
1929 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} from
1930 the given @sc{url}, documents, retrieving the files the @sc{html}
1931 document was referring to, through markup like @code{href}, or
1932 @code{src}. If the freshly downloaded file is also of type
1933 @code{text/html} or @code{application/xhtml+xml}, it will be parsed and
1936 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html} content is
1937 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
1938 @sc{html} document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
1939 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
1940 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
1941 until the specified maximum depth.
1943 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
1944 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
1946 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
1947 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
1948 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
1949 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
1950 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
1953 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
1954 the one found on the remote server.
1956 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
1957 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
1958 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
1959 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
1961 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
1962 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
1963 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
1964 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
1965 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
1966 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
1967 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
1969 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
1970 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
1971 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
1972 consume memory and CPU.
1974 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
1975 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
1976 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
1977 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
1978 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
1979 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
1980 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
1983 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
1986 @node Following Links
1987 @chapter Following Links
1989 @cindex following links
1991 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
1992 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
1993 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
1995 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
1996 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
1997 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
1999 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
2000 links it will follow.
2003 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
2004 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
2005 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
2006 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
2007 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
2010 @node Spanning Hosts
2011 @section Spanning Hosts
2012 @cindex spanning hosts
2013 @cindex hosts, spanning
2015 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
2016 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
2017 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
2018 your Wget into a small version of google.
2020 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
2021 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
2022 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
2023 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the @sc{html}
2024 pages refer to both interchangeably.
2027 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
2029 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
2030 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
2031 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
2032 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
2033 up much more data than you have intended.
2035 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
2037 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
2038 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
2039 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
2040 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
2041 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
2042 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
2045 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
2048 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
2049 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
2051 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
2053 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
2054 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
2055 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
2056 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
2057 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
2061 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
2067 @node Types of Files
2068 @section Types of Files
2069 @cindex types of files
2071 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
2072 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
2073 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
2074 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
2076 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
2077 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
2080 @cindex accept wildcards
2081 @cindex accept suffixes
2082 @cindex wildcards, accept
2083 @cindex suffixes, accept
2085 @item -A @var{acclist}
2086 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
2087 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
2088 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
2089 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
2090 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
2091 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
2092 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
2094 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
2095 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
2096 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
2097 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
2098 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
2099 a description of how pattern matching works.
2101 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
2102 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
2104 @cindex reject wildcards
2105 @cindex reject suffixes
2106 @cindex wildcards, reject
2107 @cindex suffixes, reject
2108 @item -R @var{rejlist}
2109 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
2110 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
2111 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
2112 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
2113 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
2115 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
2116 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
2117 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
2118 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
2119 expansion by the shell.
2122 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
2123 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
2124 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
2125 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
2127 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
2128 files (as determined by a @samp{.htm} or @samp{.html} filename
2129 prefix). This behavior may not be desirable for all users, and may be
2130 changed for future versions of Wget.
2132 Note, too, that query strings (strings at the end of a URL beginning
2133 with a question mark (@samp{?}) are not included as part of the
2134 filename for accept/reject rules, even though these will actually
2135 contribute to the name chosen for the local file. It is expected that
2136 a future version of Wget will provide an option to allow matching
2137 against query strings.
2139 Finally, it's worth noting that the accept/reject lists are matched
2140 @emph{twice} against downloaded files: once against the URL's filename
2141 portion, to determine if the file should be downloaded in the first
2142 place; then, after it has been accepted and successfully downloaded,
2143 the local file's name is also checked against the accept/reject lists
2144 to see if it should be removed. The rationale was that, since
2145 @samp{.htm} and @samp{.html} files are always downloaded regardless of
2146 accept/reject rules, they should be removed @emph{after} being
2147 downloaded and scanned for links, if they did match the accept/reject
2148 lists. However, this can lead to unexpected results, since the local
2149 filenames can differ from the original URL filenames in the following
2150 ways, all of which can change whether an accept/reject rule matches:
2154 If the local file already exists and @samp{--no-directories} was
2155 specified, a numeric suffix will be appended to the original name.
2157 If @samp{--html-extension} was specified, the local filename will have
2158 @samp{.html} appended to it. If Wget is invoked with @samp{-E -A.php},
2159 a filename such as @samp{index.php} will match be accepted, but upon
2160 download will be named @samp{index.php.html}, which no longer matches,
2161 and so the file will be deleted.
2163 Query strings do not contribute to URL matching, but are included in
2164 local filenames, and so @emph{do} contribute to filename matching.
2167 This behavior, too, is considered less-than-desirable, and may change
2168 in a future version of Wget.
2170 @node Directory-Based Limits
2171 @section Directory-Based Limits
2173 @cindex directory limits
2175 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
2176 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
2177 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
2178 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
2179 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
2180 @file{/dev} directories.
2182 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
2183 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
2184 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
2186 @cindex directories, include
2187 @cindex include directories
2188 @cindex accept directories
2191 @itemx --include @var{list}
2192 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
2193 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
2194 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
2195 directories are absolute paths.
2197 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
2198 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
2199 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
2202 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
2205 @cindex directories, exclude
2206 @cindex exclude directories
2207 @cindex reject directories
2209 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
2210 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
2211 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
2212 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
2213 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
2214 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
2216 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
2217 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
2218 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
2219 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
2224 @itemx no_parent = on
2225 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
2226 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
2227 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
2228 parent directory/directories.
2230 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
2231 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
2232 Supposing you issue Wget with:
2235 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
2238 You may rest assured that none of the references to
2239 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
2240 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
2241 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
2242 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
2243 intelligent fashion.
2245 @strong{Note} that, for HTTP (and HTTPS), the trailing slash is very
2246 important to @samp{--no-parent}. HTTP has no concept of a ``directory''---Wget
2247 relies on you to indicate what's a directory and what isn't. In
2248 @samp{http://foo/bar/}, Wget will consider @samp{bar} to be a
2249 directory, while in @samp{http://foo/bar} (no trailing slash),
2250 @samp{bar} will be considered a filename (so @samp{--no-parent} would be
2251 meaningless, as its parent is @samp{/}).
2254 @node Relative Links
2255 @section Relative Links
2256 @cindex relative links
2258 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
2259 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
2260 server root. For example, these links are relative:
2264 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
2265 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
2268 These links are not relative:
2272 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
2273 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
2276 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
2277 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
2278 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
2280 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
2284 @section Following FTP Links
2285 @cindex following ftp links
2287 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
2288 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
2289 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
2292 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
2293 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
2294 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
2295 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
2296 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
2297 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
2298 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
2300 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
2301 retrieved recursively further.
2304 @chapter Time-Stamping
2305 @cindex time-stamping
2306 @cindex timestamping
2307 @cindex updating the archives
2308 @cindex incremental updating
2310 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
2311 Internet is updating your archives.
2313 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
2314 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
2315 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
2316 offer the option of incremental updating.
2318 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
2319 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
2320 the place of the old ones.
2322 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
2326 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
2329 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
2330 recently than the local file.
2333 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
2334 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
2335 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
2337 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
2338 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
2339 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
2340 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
2341 does, and the remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
2343 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
2344 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
2348 * Time-Stamping Usage::
2349 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2350 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2353 @node Time-Stamping Usage
2354 @section Time-Stamping Usage
2355 @cindex time-stamping usage
2356 @cindex usage, time-stamping
2358 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
2359 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
2362 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2365 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
2366 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
2367 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
2368 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
2370 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
2371 changed, and download it if it has.
2374 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2377 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
2378 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
2379 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
2380 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
2382 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
2385 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
2388 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
2389 interpret the @samp{*}.)
2391 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
2392 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
2393 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
2394 since the last download.
2396 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
2397 command like the following, weekly:
2400 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2403 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
2404 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
2405 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
2406 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
2407 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
2409 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2410 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2411 @cindex http time-stamping
2413 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
2414 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
2415 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
2416 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
2417 retrieved unconditionally.
2419 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
2420 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
2421 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
2424 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
2425 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
2426 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
2427 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
2428 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
2429 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
2432 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
2433 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
2434 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
2435 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
2436 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
2438 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
2439 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
2441 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2442 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2443 @cindex ftp time-stamping
2445 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
2446 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
2449 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
2450 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
2451 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
2452 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
2453 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
2454 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
2455 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
2456 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
2458 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
2459 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
2460 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
2461 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
2462 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
2463 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
2465 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
2466 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
2467 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
2468 Wget may support this command in the future.
2471 @chapter Startup File
2472 @cindex startup file
2478 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
2479 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
2480 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
2481 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
2483 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
2484 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
2485 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
2486 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
2488 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
2492 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
2493 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
2494 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
2495 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
2498 @node Wgetrc Location
2499 @section Wgetrc Location
2500 @cindex wgetrc location
2501 @cindex location of wgetrc
2503 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
2504 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
2505 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
2506 from there, if it exists.
2508 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
2509 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
2510 further attempts will be made.
2512 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
2514 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
2515 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
2516 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
2517 Fascist admins, away!
2520 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2521 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2522 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2524 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2530 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2531 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2533 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2534 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2535 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2538 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2539 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2540 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2546 @node Wgetrc Commands
2547 @section Wgetrc Commands
2548 @cindex wgetrc commands
2550 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2551 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2552 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}.
2554 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2555 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2556 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2557 values can be any non-empty string.
2559 Most of these commands have direct command-line equivalents. Also, any
2560 wgetrc command can be specified on the command line using the
2561 @samp{--execute} switch (@pxref{Basic Startup Options}.)
2564 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2565 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2567 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2568 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2570 @item background = on/off
2571 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2574 @item backup_converted = on/off
2575 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2576 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2578 @c @item backups = @var{number}
2579 @c #### Document me!
2581 @item base = @var{string}
2582 Consider relative @sc{url}s in @sc{url} input files forced to be
2583 interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string}---the same as
2584 @samp{--base=@var{string}}.
2586 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2587 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address=@var{address}}.
2589 @item ca_certificate = @var{file}
2590 Set the certificate authority bundle file to @var{file}. The same
2591 as @samp{--ca-certificate=@var{file}}.
2593 @item ca_directory = @var{directory}
2594 Set the directory used for certificate authorities. The same as
2595 @samp{--ca-directory=@var{directory}}.
2597 @item cache = on/off
2598 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{--no-cache}
2601 @item certificate = @var{file}
2602 Set the client certificate file name to @var{file}. The same as
2603 @samp{--certificate=@var{file}}.
2605 @item certificate_type = @var{string}
2606 Specify the type of the client certificate, legal values being
2607 @samp{PEM} (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2608 @samp{--certificate-type=@var{string}}.
2610 @item check_certificate = on/off
2611 If this is set to off, the server certificate is not checked against
2612 the specified client authorities. The default is ``on''. The same as
2613 @samp{--check-certificate}.
2615 @item connect_timeout = @var{n}
2616 Set the connect timeout---the same as @samp{--connect-timeout}.
2618 @item content_disposition = on/off
2619 Turn on recognition of the (non-standard) @samp{Content-Disposition}
2620 HTTP header---if set to @samp{on}, the same as @samp{--content-disposition}.
2622 @item continue = on/off
2623 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
2624 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
2626 @item convert_links = on/off
2627 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
2629 @item cookies = on/off
2630 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
2632 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
2633 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components. Equivalent to
2634 @samp{--cut-dirs=@var{n}}.
2636 @item debug = on/off
2637 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
2639 @item delete_after = on/off
2640 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
2642 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
2643 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P @var{string}}.
2645 @item dirstruct = on/off
2646 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
2649 @item dns_cache = on/off
2650 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
2651 option is normally used to turn it off and is equivalent to
2652 @samp{--no-dns-cache}.
2654 @item dns_timeout = @var{n}
2655 Set the DNS timeout---the same as @samp{--dns-timeout}.
2657 @item domains = @var{string}
2658 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2660 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
2661 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
2662 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
2663 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
2664 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
2665 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
2666 (@pxref{Download Options}).
2668 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
2669 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
2671 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
2672 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
2673 the retrieval (50 by default).
2675 @item egd_file = @var{file}
2676 Use @var{string} as the EGD socket file name. The same as
2677 @samp{--egd-file=@var{file}}.
2679 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
2680 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2681 download---the same as @samp{-X @var{string}} (@pxref{Directory-Based
2684 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
2685 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains=@var{string}} (@pxref{Spanning
2688 @item follow_ftp = on/off
2689 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
2690 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
2692 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
2693 Only follow certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval,
2694 just like @samp{--follow-tags=@var{string}}.
2696 @item force_html = on/off
2697 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
2698 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
2700 @item ftp_password = @var{string}
2701 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{string}. Without this setting, the
2702 password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, which is a useful default for
2703 anonymous @sc{ftp} access.
2705 This command used to be named @code{passwd} prior to Wget 1.10.
2707 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
2708 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2711 @item ftp_user = @var{string}
2712 Set @sc{ftp} user to @var{string}.
2714 This command used to be named @code{login} prior to Wget 1.10.
2717 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{--glob} and @samp{--no-glob}.
2719 @item header = @var{string}
2720 Define a header for HTTP downloads, like using
2721 @samp{--header=@var{string}}.
2723 @item html_extension = on/off
2724 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} or
2725 @samp{application/xhtml+xml} files without it, like @samp{-E}.
2727 @item http_keep_alive = on/off
2728 Turn the keep-alive feature on or off (defaults to on). Turning it
2729 off is equivalent to @samp{--no-http-keep-alive}.
2731 @item http_password = @var{string}
2732 Set @sc{http} password, equivalent to
2733 @samp{--http-password=@var{string}}.
2735 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
2736 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2739 @item http_user = @var{string}
2740 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}, equivalent to
2741 @samp{--http-user=@var{string}}.
2743 @item https_proxy = @var{string}
2744 Use @var{string} as @sc{https} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2747 @item ignore_case = on/off
2748 When set to on, match files and directories case insensitively; the
2749 same as @samp{--ignore-case}.
2751 @item ignore_length = on/off
2752 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
2753 @samp{--ignore-length}.
2755 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
2756 Ignore certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval, like
2757 @samp{--ignore-tags=@var{string}}.
2759 @item include_directories = @var{string}
2760 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2761 downloading---the same as @samp{-I @var{string}}.
2763 @item inet4_only = on/off
2764 Force connecting to IPv4 addresses, off by default. You can put this
2765 in the global init file to disable Wget's attempts to resolve and
2766 connect to IPv6 hosts. Available only if Wget was compiled with IPv6
2767 support. The same as @samp{--inet4-only} or @samp{-4}.
2769 @item inet6_only = on/off
2770 Force connecting to IPv6 addresses, off by default. Available only if
2771 Wget was compiled with IPv6 support. The same as @samp{--inet6-only}
2774 @item input = @var{file}
2775 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i @var{file}}.
2777 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
2778 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
2779 The same as @samp{--limit-rate=@var{rate}}.
2781 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
2782 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies @var{file}}.
2784 @item logfile = @var{file}
2785 Set logfile to @var{file}, the same as @samp{-o @var{file}}.
2787 @item max_redirect = @var{number}
2788 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
2789 See @samp{--max-redirect=@var{number}}.
2791 @item mirror = on/off
2792 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
2794 @item netrc = on/off
2795 Turn reading netrc on or off.
2797 @item no_clobber = on/off
2800 @item no_parent = on/off
2801 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
2802 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2804 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
2805 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
2806 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
2808 @item output_document = @var{file}
2809 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O @var{file}}.
2811 @item page_requisites = on/off
2812 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single @sc{html} page to
2813 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
2815 @item passive_ftp = on/off
2816 Change setting of passive @sc{ftp}, equivalent to the
2817 @samp{--passive-ftp} option.
2819 @itemx password = @var{string}
2820 Specify password @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
2821 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_password} and
2822 @samp{http_password} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
2824 @item post_data = @var{string}
2825 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send @var{string} in
2826 the request body. The same as @samp{--post-data=@var{string}}.
2828 @item post_file = @var{file}
2829 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the contents of
2830 @var{file} in the request body. The same as
2831 @samp{--post-file=@var{file}}.
2833 @item prefer_family = IPv4/IPv6/none
2834 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
2835 with specified address family first. IPv4 addresses are preferred by
2836 default. The same as @samp{--prefer-family}, which see for a detailed
2837 discussion of why this is useful.
2839 @item private_key = @var{file}
2840 Set the private key file to @var{file}. The same as
2841 @samp{--private-key=@var{file}}.
2843 @item private_key_type = @var{string}
2844 Specify the type of the private key, legal values being @samp{PEM}
2845 (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2846 @samp{--private-type=@var{string}}.
2848 @item progress = @var{string}
2849 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are @samp{dot}
2850 and @samp{bar}. Equivalent to @samp{--progress=@var{string}}.
2852 @item protocol_directories = on/off
2853 When set, use the protocol name as a directory component of local file
2854 names. The same as @samp{--protocol-directories}.
2856 @item proxy_password = @var{string}
2857 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like
2858 @samp{--proxy-password=@var{string}}.
2860 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
2861 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like
2862 @samp{--proxy-user=@var{string}}.
2864 @item quiet = on/off
2865 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
2867 @item quota = @var{quota}
2868 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
2869 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
2870 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
2871 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
2872 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
2873 to 5 megabytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
2876 @item random_file = @var{file}
2877 Use @var{file} as a source of randomness on systems lacking
2880 @item random_wait = on/off
2881 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
2882 @samp{--random-wait}.
2884 @item read_timeout = @var{n}
2885 Set the read (and write) timeout---the same as
2886 @samp{--read-timeout=@var{n}}.
2888 @item reclevel = @var{n}
2889 Recursion level (depth)---the same as @samp{-l @var{n}}.
2891 @item recursive = on/off
2892 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
2894 @item referer = @var{string}
2895 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like
2896 @samp{--referer=@var{string}}. (Note that it was the folks who wrote
2897 the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of ``referrer'' wrong.)
2899 @item relative_only = on/off
2900 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
2903 @item remove_listing = on/off
2904 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
2905 to off is the same as @samp{--no-remove-listing}.
2907 @item restrict_file_names = unix/windows
2908 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
2909 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
2911 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
2912 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
2913 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
2915 @item retry_connrefused = on/off
2916 When set to on, consider ``connection refused'' a transient
2917 error---the same as @samp{--retry-connrefused}.
2919 @item robots = on/off
2920 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
2921 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
2922 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
2923 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
2926 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
2927 Save cookies to @var{file}. The same as @samp{--save-cookies
2930 @item secure_protocol = @var{string}
2931 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto}
2932 (the default), @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. The same
2933 as @samp{--secure-protocol=@var{string}}.
2935 @item server_response = on/off
2936 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
2937 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
2939 @item span_hosts = on/off
2942 @item strict_comments = on/off
2943 Same as @samp{--strict-comments}.
2945 @item timeout = @var{n}
2946 Set all applicable timeout values to @var{n}, the same as @samp{-T
2949 @item timestamping = on/off
2950 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
2952 @item tries = @var{n}
2953 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t @var{n}}.
2955 @item use_proxy = on/off
2956 When set to off, don't use proxy even when proxy-related environment
2957 variables are set. In that case it is the same as using
2960 @item user = @var{string}
2961 Specify username @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
2962 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_user} and
2963 @samp{http_user} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
2965 @item verbose = on/off
2966 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
2968 @item wait = @var{n}
2969 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w
2972 @item wait_retry = @var{n}
2973 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
2974 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry=@var{n}}. Note that this is
2975 turned on by default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
2979 @section Sample Wgetrc
2980 @cindex sample wgetrc
2982 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
2983 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
2984 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
2985 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
2987 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
2988 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
2992 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
2999 @c man begin EXAMPLES
3000 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
3004 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
3005 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
3006 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
3010 @section Simple Usage
3014 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
3017 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
3021 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
3022 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
3023 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
3024 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
3025 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
3026 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
3029 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
3033 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
3034 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
3035 shall use @samp{-t}.
3038 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
3041 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
3042 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
3045 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
3049 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
3053 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
3054 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
3057 wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
3062 @node Advanced Usage
3063 @section Advanced Usage
3067 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
3074 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
3078 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
3079 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
3080 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
3083 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3087 The same as the above, but convert the links in the @sc{html} files to
3088 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
3091 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3095 Retrieve only one @sc{html} page, but make sure that all the elements needed
3096 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
3097 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
3098 references the downloaded links.
3101 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3104 The @sc{html} page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
3105 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
3106 depending on where they were on the remote server.
3109 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
3110 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
3111 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
3112 subdirectory of the current directory.
3115 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
3116 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3120 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
3124 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
3128 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
3131 wget --save-headers http://www.lycos.com/
3136 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
3140 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
3144 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
3145 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
3146 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
3150 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
3153 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
3154 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Download}), with maximum depth
3155 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
3156 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
3157 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
3161 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
3162 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
3166 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
3170 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
3171 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
3174 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
3177 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
3178 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
3181 @cindex redirecting output
3183 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
3187 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
3190 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
3191 documents from remote hotlists:
3194 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
3198 @node Very Advanced Usage
3199 @section Very Advanced Usage
3204 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
3205 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
3206 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
3207 to recheck a site each Sunday:
3211 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3215 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
3216 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
3217 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
3218 back up the original @sc{html} files before the conversion. Wget invocation
3219 would look like this:
3222 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3223 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3227 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
3228 when @sc{html} files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
3229 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
3230 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
3231 or @samp{application/xhtml+xml} to @file{@var{name}.html}.
3234 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3235 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
3239 Or, with less typing:
3242 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3251 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
3254 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers.
3255 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
3256 * Web Site:: GNU Wget's presence on the World Wide Web.
3257 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
3258 * Internet Relay Chat:: Wget's presence on IRC.
3259 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
3260 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
3261 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
3268 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
3269 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
3270 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
3271 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
3272 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
3273 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
3274 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
3275 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
3276 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
3277 using an authorized proxy.
3279 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
3280 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
3281 the following environment variables:
3286 If set, the @code{http_proxy} and @code{https_proxy} variables should
3287 contain the @sc{url}s of the proxies for @sc{http} and @sc{https}
3288 connections respectively.
3291 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
3292 connections. It is quite common that @code{http_proxy} and
3293 @code{ftp_proxy} are set to the same @sc{url}.
3296 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
3297 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
3298 @code{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
3302 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
3303 may be specified from within Wget itself.
3307 @itemx proxy = on/off
3308 This option and the corresponding command may be used to suppress the
3309 use of proxy, even if the appropriate environment variables are set.
3311 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
3312 @itemx https_proxy = @var{URL}
3313 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
3314 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
3315 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
3316 specified by the environment.
3319 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
3320 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
3321 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
3322 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
3323 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
3325 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
3326 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
3327 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
3328 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
3332 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
3335 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
3336 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
3337 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_password} to set the proxy
3338 username and password.
3341 @section Distribution
3342 @cindex latest version
3344 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
3345 master GNU archive site ftp.gnu.org, and its mirrors. For example,
3346 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
3347 @url{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
3353 The official web site for GNU Wget is at
3354 @url{http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/}. However, most useful
3355 information resides at ``The Wget Wgiki'',
3356 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/}.
3359 @section Mailing List
3360 @cindex mailing list
3363 There are several Wget-related mailing lists. The general discussion
3364 list is at @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}. It is the preferred place for
3365 support requests and suggestions, as well as for discussion of
3366 development. You are invited to subscribe.
3368 To subscribe, simply send mail to @email{wget-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}
3369 and follow the instructions. Unsubscribe by mailing to
3370 @email{wget-unsubscribe@@sunsite.dk}. The mailing list is archived at
3371 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.dk/} and at
3372 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.general}.
3374 Another mailing list is at @email{wget-patches@@sunsite.dk}, and is
3375 used to submit patches for review by Wget developers. A ``patch'' is
3376 a textual representation of change to source code, readable by both
3377 humans and programs. The
3378 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/PatchGuidelines} page
3379 covers the creation and submitting of patches in detail. Please don't
3380 send general suggestions or bug reports to @samp{wget-patches}; use it
3381 only for patch submissions.
3383 Subscription is the same as above for @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}, except
3384 that you send to @email{wget-patches-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}, instead.
3385 The mailing list is archived at
3386 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.patches}.
3388 Finally, there is the @email{wget-notify@@addictivecode.org} mailing
3389 list. This is a non-discussion list that receives commit notifications
3390 from the source repository, and also bug report-change notifications.
3391 This is the highest-traffic list for Wget, and is recommended only for
3392 people who are seriously interested in ongoing Wget development.
3393 Subscription is through the @code{mailman} interface at
3394 @url{http://addictivecode.org/mailman/listinfo/wget-notify}.
3396 @node Internet Relay Chat
3397 @section Internet Relay Chat
3398 @cindex Internet Relay Chat
3402 While, at the time of this writing, there is very low activity, we do
3403 have a support channel set up via IRC at @code{irc.freenode.org},
3404 @code{#wget}. Come check it out!
3406 @node Reporting Bugs
3407 @section Reporting Bugs
3409 @cindex reporting bugs
3413 You are welcome to submit bug reports via the GNU Wget bug tracker (see
3414 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/BugTracker}).
3416 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
3421 Please try to ascertain that the behavior you see really is a bug. If
3422 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
3423 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
3424 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug, but you might want to
3425 double-check the documentation and the mailing lists (@pxref{Mailing
3429 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
3430 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 --no-proxy
3431 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
3432 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
3433 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
3434 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
3436 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
3437 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
3438 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
3439 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
3440 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
3444 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send us the resulting
3445 output (or relevant parts thereof). If Wget was compiled without
3446 debug support, recompile it---it is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs
3447 with debug support on.
3449 Note: please make sure to remove any potentially sensitive information
3450 from the debug log before sending it to the bug address. The
3451 @code{-d} won't go out of its way to collect sensitive information,
3452 but the log @emph{will} contain a fairly complete transcript of Wget's
3453 communication with the server, which may include passwords and pieces
3454 of downloaded data. Since the bug address is publically archived, you
3455 may assume that all bug reports are visible to the public.
3458 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
3459 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace. This may not
3460 work if the system administrator has disabled core files, but it is
3466 @section Portability
3468 @cindex operating systems
3470 Like all GNU software, Wget works on the GNU system. However, since it
3471 uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and mostly avoids using
3472 ``special'' features of any particular Unix, it should compile (and
3473 work) on all common Unix flavors.
3475 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
3476 Unix systems, including GNU/Linux, Solaris, SunOS 4.x, Mac OS X, OSF
3477 (aka Digital Unix or Tru64), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, AIX, and others. Some
3478 of those systems are no longer in widespread use and may not be able to
3479 support recent versions of Wget. If Wget fails to compile on your
3480 system, we would like to know about it.
3482 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works
3483 on 32-bit Microsoft Windows platforms. It has been compiled
3484 successfully using MS Visual C++ 6.0, Watcom, Borland C, and GCC
3485 compilers. Naturally, it is crippled of some features available on
3486 Unix, but it should work as a substitute for people stuck with
3487 Windows. Note that Windows-specific portions of Wget are not
3488 guaranteed to be supported in the future, although this has been the
3489 case in practice for many years now. All questions and problems in
3490 Windows usage should be reported to Wget mailing list at
3491 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the volunteers who maintain the
3492 Windows-related features might look at them.
3494 Support for building on MS-DOS via DJGPP has been contributed by Gisle
3495 Vanem; a port to VMS is maintained by Steven Schweda, and is available
3496 at @url{http://antinode.org/}.
3500 @cindex signal handling
3503 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
3504 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
3505 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
3506 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
3507 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
3510 $ wget http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz &
3513 SIGHUP received, redirecting output to `wget-log'.
3516 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
3517 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
3522 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
3525 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
3526 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
3527 * Contributors:: People who helped.
3530 @node Robot Exclusion
3531 @section Robot Exclusion
3532 @cindex robot exclusion
3534 @cindex server maintenance
3536 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
3537 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
3538 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
3540 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
3541 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
3542 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
3543 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
3544 section handled by a CGI Perl script that converts Info files to @sc{html} on
3545 the fly. The script is slow, but works well enough for human users
3546 viewing an occasional Info file. However, when someone's recursive Wget
3547 download stumbles upon the index page that links to all the Info files
3548 through the script, the system is brought to its knees without providing
3549 anything useful to the user (This task of converting Info files could be
3550 done locally and access to Info documentation for all installed GNU
3551 software on a system is available from the @code{info} command).
3553 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
3554 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
3555 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} was invented. The idea is that
3556 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
3557 portions of the site they wish to protect from robots and those
3558 they will permit access.
3560 The most popular mechanism, and the @i{de facto} standard supported by
3561 all the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written
3562 by Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text
3563 file containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to
3564 avoid. To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
3565 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are expected to
3568 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
3569 can downloads large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
3570 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
3571 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
3574 wget -r http://www.server.com/
3577 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
3578 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
3579 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
3580 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
3583 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
3584 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
3585 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
3586 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
3587 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
3588 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
3589 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
3590 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
3592 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
3594 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
3595 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
3596 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
3600 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
3603 This is explained in some detail at
3604 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
3605 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
3608 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
3609 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
3610 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
3611 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
3613 @node Security Considerations
3614 @section Security Considerations
3617 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
3618 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
3619 main issues, and some solutions.
3623 The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}. The best
3624 way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s to
3625 Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
3626 Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store passwords; however,
3627 storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a security risk.
3630 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
3631 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
3634 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
3635 solution for this at the moment.
3638 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
3639 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
3640 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
3645 @section Contributors
3646 @cindex contributors
3649 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org},
3652 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org},
3654 and it is currently maintained by Micah Cowan @email{micah@@cowan.name}.
3656 However, the development of Wget could never have gone as far as it has, were
3657 it not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature proposals,
3658 patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
3660 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
3663 @item Dan Harkless---contributed a lot of code and documentation of
3664 extremely high quality, as well as the @code{--page-requisites} and
3665 related options. He was the principal maintainer for some time and
3668 @item Ian Abbott---contributed bug fixes, Windows-related fixes, and
3669 provided a prototype implementation of the breadth-first recursive
3670 download. Co-maintained Wget during the 1.8 release cycle.
3673 The dotsrc.org crew, in particular Karsten Thygesen---donated system
3674 resources such as the mailing list, web space, @sc{ftp} space, and
3675 version control repositories, along with a lot of time to make these
3676 actually work. Christian Reiniger was of invaluable help with setting
3680 Heiko Herold---provided high-quality Windows builds and contributed
3681 bug and build reports for many years.
3684 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
3687 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
3691 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
3695 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
3696 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3699 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
3700 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3704 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
3707 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the initial Italian
3712 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
3716 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
3721 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3724 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3728 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization, Makefile
3729 layout and many other things.
3732 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
3736 Mauro Tortonesi---Improved IPv6 support, adding support for dual
3737 family systems. Refactored and enhanced FTP IPv6 code. Maintained GNU
3738 Wget from 2004--2007.
3741 Christopher G.@: Lewis---Maintenance of the Windows version of GNU WGet.
3744 Gisle Vanem---Many helpful patches and improvements, especially for
3745 Windows and MS-DOS support.
3748 Ralf Wildenhues---Contributed patches to convert Wget to use Automake as
3749 part of its build process, and various bugfixes.
3752 People who provided donations for development---including Brian Gough.
3755 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
3756 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
3757 that make maintenance so much fun:
3776 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
3785 Bertrand Demiddelaer,
3798 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
3801 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
3820 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
3839 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
3852 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
3853 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
3854 (Simos KSenitellis),
3863 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
3869 Alexander V.@: Lukyanov,
3878 Matthew J.@: Mellon,
3910 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
3912 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}guez,
3915 Juan Jose Rodriguez,
3917 Maciej W.@: Rozycki,
3923 Steven M.@: Schweda,
3933 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
3947 Douglas E.@: Wegscheid,
3949 Joshua David Williams,
3960 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
3961 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
3963 @node Copying this manual
3964 @appendix Copying this manual
3967 * GNU Free Documentation License:: Licnse for copying this manual.
3974 @unnumbered Concept Index