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 the GNU Wget utility for downloading network
33 @c man begin COPYRIGHT
34 Copyright @copyright{} 1996--2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
36 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
37 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
38 are preserved on all copies.
41 Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the
42 results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission
43 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
44 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
46 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
47 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
48 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
49 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
50 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
51 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
52 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
57 @title GNU Wget @value{VERSION}
58 @subtitle The non-interactive download utility
59 @subtitle Updated for Wget @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
60 @author by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} and the developers
64 Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>.
67 GNU Info entry for @file{wget}.
72 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
73 Copyright @copyright{} 1996--2005, Free Software Foundation, Inc.
75 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
76 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
77 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
78 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
79 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
80 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
81 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
86 @top Wget @value{VERSION}
88 This manual documents version @value{VERSION} of GNU Wget, the freely
89 available utility for network downloads.
91 Copyright @copyright{} 1996--2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
94 * Overview:: Features of Wget.
95 * Invoking:: Wget command-line arguments.
96 * Recursive Download:: Downloading interlinked pages.
97 * Following Links:: The available methods of chasing links.
98 * Time-Stamping:: Mirroring according to time-stamps.
99 * Startup File:: Wget's initialization file.
100 * Examples:: Examples of usage.
101 * Various:: The stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
102 * Appendices:: Some useful references.
103 * Copying:: You may give out copies of Wget and of this manual.
104 * Concept Index:: Topics covered by this manual.
113 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
114 GNU Wget is a free utility for non-interactive download of files from
115 the Web. It supports @sc{http}, @sc{https}, and @sc{ftp} protocols, as
116 well as retrieval through @sc{http} proxies.
119 This chapter is a partial overview of Wget's features.
123 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
124 Wget is non-interactive, meaning that it can work in the background,
125 while the user is not logged on. This allows you to start a retrieval
126 and disconnect from the system, letting Wget finish the work. By
127 contrast, most of the Web browsers require constant user's presence,
128 which can be a great hindrance when transferring a lot of data.
134 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
138 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
139 Wget can follow links in @sc{html} and @sc{xhtml} pages and create local
140 versions of remote web sites, fully recreating the directory structure of
141 the original site. This is sometimes referred to as ``recursive
142 downloading.'' While doing that, Wget respects the Robot Exclusion
143 Standard (@file{/robots.txt}). Wget can be instructed to convert the
144 links in downloaded @sc{html} files to the local files for offline
150 File name wildcard matching and recursive mirroring of directories are
151 available when retrieving via @sc{ftp}. Wget can read the time-stamp
152 information given by both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} servers, and store it
153 locally. Thus Wget can see if the remote file has changed since last
154 retrieval, and automatically retrieve the new version if it has. This
155 makes Wget suitable for mirroring of @sc{ftp} sites, as well as home
161 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
165 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
166 Wget has been designed for robustness over slow or unstable network
167 connections; if a download fails due to a network problem, it will
168 keep retrying until the whole file has been retrieved. If the server
169 supports regetting, it will instruct the server to continue the
170 download from where it left off.
175 Wget supports proxy servers, which can lighten the network load, speed
176 up retrieval and provide access behind firewalls. However, if you are
177 behind a firewall that requires that you use a socks style gateway,
178 you can get the socks library and build Wget with support for socks.
179 Wget uses the passive @sc{ftp} downloading by default, active @sc{ftp}
184 Wget supports IP version 6, the next generation of IP. IPv6 is
185 autodetected at compile-time, and can be disabled at either build or
186 run time. Binaries built with IPv6 support work well in both
187 IPv4-only and dual family environments.
191 Built-in features offer mechanisms to tune which links you wish to follow
192 (@pxref{Following Links}).
196 The progress of individual downloads is traced using a progress gauge.
197 Interactive downloads are tracked using a ``thermometer''-style gauge,
198 whereas non-interactive ones are traced with dots, each dot
199 representing a fixed amount of data received (1KB by default). Either
200 gauge can be customized to your preferences.
204 Most of the features are fully configurable, either through command line
205 options, or via the initialization file @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup
206 File}). Wget allows you to define @dfn{global} startup files
207 (@file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default) for site settings.
212 @item /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
213 Default location of the @dfn{global} startup file.
223 Finally, GNU Wget is free software. This means that everyone may use
224 it, redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
225 Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation
236 By default, Wget is very simple to invoke. The basic syntax is:
239 @c man begin SYNOPSIS
240 wget [@var{option}]@dots{} [@var{URL}]@dots{}
244 Wget will simply download all the @sc{url}s specified on the command
245 line. @var{URL} is a @dfn{Uniform Resource Locator}, as defined below.
247 However, you may wish to change some of the default parameters of
248 Wget. You can do it two ways: permanently, adding the appropriate
249 command to @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup File}), or specifying it on
255 * Basic Startup Options::
256 * Logging and Input File Options::
258 * Directory Options::
260 * HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options::
262 * Recursive Retrieval Options::
263 * Recursive Accept/Reject Options::
271 @dfn{URL} is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A uniform
272 resource locator is a compact string representation for a resource
273 available via the Internet. Wget recognizes the @sc{url} syntax as per
274 @sc{rfc1738}. This is the most widely used form (square brackets denote
278 http://host[:port]/directory/file
279 ftp://host[:port]/directory/file
282 You can also encode your username and password within a @sc{url}:
285 ftp://user:password@@host/path
286 http://user:password@@host/path
289 Either @var{user} or @var{password}, or both, may be left out. If you
290 leave out either the @sc{http} username or password, no authentication
291 will be sent. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} username, @samp{anonymous}
292 will be used. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} password, your email
293 address will be supplied as a default password.@footnote{If you have a
294 @file{.netrc} file in your home directory, password will also be
297 @strong{Important Note}: if you specify a password-containing @sc{url}
298 on the command line, the username and password will be plainly visible
299 to all users on the system, by way of @code{ps}. On multi-user systems,
300 this is a big security risk. To work around it, use @code{wget -i -}
301 and feed the @sc{url}s to Wget's standard input, each on a separate
302 line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
304 You can encode unsafe characters in a @sc{url} as @samp{%xy}, @code{xy}
305 being the hexadecimal representation of the character's @sc{ascii}
306 value. Some common unsafe characters include @samp{%} (quoted as
307 @samp{%25}), @samp{:} (quoted as @samp{%3A}), and @samp{@@} (quoted as
308 @samp{%40}). Refer to @sc{rfc1738} for a comprehensive list of unsafe
311 Wget also supports the @code{type} feature for @sc{ftp} @sc{url}s. By
312 default, @sc{ftp} documents are retrieved in the binary mode (type
313 @samp{i}), which means that they are downloaded unchanged. Another
314 useful mode is the @samp{a} (@dfn{ASCII}) mode, which converts the line
315 delimiters between the different operating systems, and is thus useful
316 for text files. Here is an example:
319 ftp://host/directory/file;type=a
322 Two alternative variants of @sc{url} specification are also supported,
323 because of historical (hysterical?) reasons and their widespreaded use.
325 @sc{ftp}-only syntax (supported by @code{NcFTP}):
330 @sc{http}-only syntax (introduced by @code{Netscape}):
335 These two alternative forms are deprecated, and may cease being
336 supported in the future.
338 If you do not understand the difference between these notations, or do
339 not know which one to use, just use the plain ordinary format you use
340 with your favorite browser, like @code{Lynx} or @code{Netscape}.
345 @section Option Syntax
346 @cindex option syntax
347 @cindex syntax of options
349 Since Wget uses GNU getopt to process command-line arguments, every
350 option has a long form along with the short one. Long options are
351 more convenient to remember, but take time to type. You may freely
352 mix different option styles, or specify options after the command-line
353 arguments. Thus you may write:
356 wget -r --tries=10 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/ -o log
359 The space between the option accepting an argument and the argument may
360 be omitted. Instead @samp{-o log} you can write @samp{-olog}.
362 You may put several options that do not require arguments together,
369 This is a complete equivalent of:
372 wget -d -r -c @var{URL}
375 Since the options can be specified after the arguments, you may
376 terminate them with @samp{--}. So the following will try to download
377 @sc{url} @samp{-x}, reporting failure to @file{log}:
383 The options that accept comma-separated lists all respect the convention
384 that specifying an empty list clears its value. This can be useful to
385 clear the @file{.wgetrc} settings. For instance, if your @file{.wgetrc}
386 sets @code{exclude_directories} to @file{/cgi-bin}, the following
387 example will first reset it, and then set it to exclude @file{/~nobody}
388 and @file{/~somebody}. You can also clear the lists in @file{.wgetrc}
389 (@pxref{Wgetrc Syntax}).
392 wget -X '' -X /~nobody,/~somebody
395 Most options that do not accept arguments are @dfn{boolean} options,
396 so named because their state can be captured with a yes-or-no
397 (``boolean'') variable. For example, @samp{--follow-ftp} tells Wget
398 to follow FTP links from HTML files and, on the other hand,
399 @samp{--no-glob} tells it not to perform file globbing on FTP URLs. A
400 boolean option is either @dfn{affirmative} or @dfn{negative}
401 (beginning with @samp{--no}). All such options share several
404 Unless stated otherwise, it is assumed that the default behavior is
405 the opposite of what the option accomplishes. For example, the
406 documented existence of @samp{--follow-ftp} assumes that the default
407 is to @emph{not} follow FTP links from HTML pages.
409 Affirmative options can be negated by prepending the @samp{--no-} to
410 the option name; negative options can be negated by omitting the
411 @samp{--no-} prefix. This might seem superfluous---if the default for
412 an affirmative option is to not do something, then why provide a way
413 to explicitly turn it off? But the startup file may in fact change
414 the default. For instance, using @code{follow_ftp = off} in
415 @file{.wgetrc} makes Wget @emph{not} follow FTP links by default, and
416 using @samp{--no-follow-ftp} is the only way to restore the factory
417 default from the command line.
419 @node Basic Startup Options
420 @section Basic Startup Options
425 Display the version of Wget.
429 Print a help message describing all of Wget's command-line options.
433 Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is
434 specified via the @samp{-o}, output is redirected to @file{wget-log}.
436 @cindex execute wgetrc command
437 @item -e @var{command}
438 @itemx --execute @var{command}
439 Execute @var{command} as if it were a part of @file{.wgetrc}
440 (@pxref{Startup File}). A command thus invoked will be executed
441 @emph{after} the commands in @file{.wgetrc}, thus taking precedence over
442 them. If you need to specify more than one wgetrc command, use multiple
443 instances of @samp{-e}.
447 @node Logging and Input File Options
448 @section Logging and Input File Options
453 @item -o @var{logfile}
454 @itemx --output-file=@var{logfile}
455 Log all messages to @var{logfile}. The messages are normally reported
458 @cindex append to log
459 @item -a @var{logfile}
460 @itemx --append-output=@var{logfile}
461 Append to @var{logfile}. This is the same as @samp{-o}, only it appends
462 to @var{logfile} instead of overwriting the old log file. If
463 @var{logfile} does not exist, a new file is created.
468 Turn on debug output, meaning various information important to the
469 developers of Wget if it does not work properly. Your system
470 administrator may have chosen to compile Wget without debug support, in
471 which case @samp{-d} will not work. Please note that compiling with
472 debug support is always safe---Wget compiled with the debug support will
473 @emph{not} print any debug info unless requested with @samp{-d}.
474 @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information on how to use @samp{-d} for
480 Turn off Wget's output.
485 Turn on verbose output, with all the available data. The default output
490 Non-verbose output---turn off verbose without being completely quiet
491 (use @samp{-q} for that), which means that error messages and basic
492 information still get printed.
496 @itemx --input-file=@var{file}
497 Read @sc{url}s from @var{file}. If @samp{-} is specified as
498 @var{file}, @sc{url}s are read from the standard input. (Use
499 @samp{./-} to read from a file literally named @samp{-}.)
501 If this function is used, no @sc{url}s need be present on the command
502 line. If there are @sc{url}s both on the command line and in an input
503 file, those on the command lines will be the first ones to be
504 retrieved. The @var{file} need not be an @sc{html} document (but no
505 harm if it is)---it is enough if the @sc{url}s are just listed
508 However, if you specify @samp{--force-html}, the document will be
509 regarded as @samp{html}. In that case you may have problems with
510 relative links, which you can solve either by adding @code{<base
511 href="@var{url}">} to the documents or by specifying
512 @samp{--base=@var{url}} on the command line.
517 When input is read from a file, force it to be treated as an @sc{html}
518 file. This enables you to retrieve relative links from existing
519 @sc{html} files on your local disk, by adding @code{<base
520 href="@var{url}">} to @sc{html}, or using the @samp{--base} command-line
523 @cindex base for relative links in input file
525 @itemx --base=@var{URL}
526 When used in conjunction with @samp{-F}, prepends @var{URL} to relative
527 links in the file specified by @samp{-i}.
530 @node Download Options
531 @section Download Options
534 @cindex bind() address
535 @cindex client IP address
536 @cindex IP address, client
537 @item --bind-address=@var{ADDRESS}
538 When making client TCP/IP connections, @code{bind()} to @var{ADDRESS} on
539 the local machine. @var{ADDRESS} may be specified as a hostname or IP
540 address. This option can be useful if your machine is bound to multiple
545 @cindex number of retries
546 @item -t @var{number}
547 @itemx --tries=@var{number}
548 Set number of retries to @var{number}. Specify 0 or @samp{inf} for
549 infinite retrying. The default is to retry 20 times, with the exception
550 of fatal errors like ``connection refused'' or ``not found'' (404),
551 which are not retried.
554 @itemx --output-document=@var{file}
555 The documents will not be written to the appropriate files, but all
556 will be concatenated together and written to @var{file}. If @samp{-}
557 is used as @var{file}, documents will be printed to standard output,
558 disabling link conversion. (Use @samp{./-} to print to a file
559 literally named @samp{-}.)
561 Note that a combination with @samp{-k} is only well-defined for
562 downloading a single document.
564 @cindex clobbering, file
565 @cindex downloading multiple times
569 If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget's
570 behavior depends on a few options, including @samp{-nc}. In certain
571 cases, the local file will be @dfn{clobbered}, or overwritten, upon
572 repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
574 When running Wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, or @samp{-r},
575 downloading the same file in the same directory will result in the
576 original copy of @var{file} being preserved and the second copy being
577 named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet again, the
578 third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on. When
579 @samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior is suppressed, and Wget will
580 refuse to download newer copies of @samp{@var{file}}. Therefore,
581 ``@code{no-clobber}'' is actually a misnomer in this mode---it's not
582 clobbering that's prevented (as the numeric suffixes were already
583 preventing clobbering), but rather the multiple version saving that's
586 When running Wget with @samp{-r}, but without @samp{-N} or @samp{-nc},
587 re-downloading a file will result in the new copy simply overwriting the
588 old. Adding @samp{-nc} will prevent this behavior, instead causing the
589 original version to be preserved and any newer copies on the server to
592 When running Wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r}, the
593 decision as to whether or not to download a newer copy of a file depends
594 on the local and remote timestamp and size of the file
595 (@pxref{Time-Stamping}). @samp{-nc} may not be specified at the same
598 Note that when @samp{-nc} is specified, files with the suffixes
599 @samp{.html} or @samp{.htm} will be loaded from the local disk and
600 parsed as if they had been retrieved from the Web.
602 @cindex continue retrieval
603 @cindex incomplete downloads
604 @cindex resume download
607 Continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you
608 want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or
609 by another program. For instance:
612 wget -c ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ls-lR.Z
615 If there is a file named @file{ls-lR.Z} in the current directory, Wget
616 will assume that it is the first portion of the remote file, and will
617 ask the server to continue the retrieval from an offset equal to the
618 length of the local file.
620 Note that you don't need to specify this option if you just want the
621 current invocation of Wget to retry downloading a file should the
622 connection be lost midway through. This is the default behavior.
623 @samp{-c} only affects resumption of downloads started @emph{prior} to
624 this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are still sitting around.
626 Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just download the remote
627 file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}, leaving the truncated @file{ls-lR.Z} file
630 Beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a non-empty file, and
631 it turns out that the server does not support continued downloading,
632 Wget will refuse to start the download from scratch, which would
633 effectively ruin existing contents. If you really want the download to
634 start from scratch, remove the file.
636 Also beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a file which is of
637 equal size as the one on the server, Wget will refuse to download the
638 file and print an explanatory message. The same happens when the file
639 is smaller on the server than locally (presumably because it was changed
640 on the server since your last download attempt)---because ``continuing''
641 is not meaningful, no download occurs.
643 On the other side of the coin, while using @samp{-c}, any file that's
644 bigger on the server than locally will be considered an incomplete
645 download and only @code{(length(remote) - length(local))} bytes will be
646 downloaded and tacked onto the end of the local file. This behavior can
647 be desirable in certain cases---for instance, you can use @samp{wget -c}
648 to download just the new portion that's been appended to a data
649 collection or log file.
651 However, if the file is bigger on the server because it's been
652 @emph{changed}, as opposed to just @emph{appended} to, you'll end up
653 with a garbled file. Wget has no way of verifying that the local file
654 is really a valid prefix of the remote file. You need to be especially
655 careful of this when using @samp{-c} in conjunction with @samp{-r},
656 since every file will be considered as an "incomplete download" candidate.
658 Another instance where you'll get a garbled file if you try to use
659 @samp{-c} is if you have a lame @sc{http} proxy that inserts a
660 ``transfer interrupted'' string into the local file. In the future a
661 ``rollback'' option may be added to deal with this case.
663 Note that @samp{-c} only works with @sc{ftp} servers and with @sc{http}
664 servers that support the @code{Range} header.
666 @cindex progress indicator
668 @item --progress=@var{type}
669 Select the type of the progress indicator you wish to use. Legal
670 indicators are ``dot'' and ``bar''.
672 The ``bar'' indicator is used by default. It draws an @sc{ascii} progress
673 bar graphics (a.k.a ``thermometer'' display) indicating the status of
674 retrieval. If the output is not a TTY, the ``dot'' bar will be used by
677 Use @samp{--progress=dot} to switch to the ``dot'' display. It traces
678 the retrieval by printing dots on the screen, each dot representing a
679 fixed amount of downloaded data.
681 When using the dotted retrieval, you may also set the @dfn{style} by
682 specifying the type as @samp{dot:@var{style}}. Different styles assign
683 different meaning to one dot. With the @code{default} style each dot
684 represents 1K, there are ten dots in a cluster and 50 dots in a line.
685 The @code{binary} style has a more ``computer''-like orientation---8K
686 dots, 16-dots clusters and 48 dots per line (which makes for 384K
687 lines). The @code{mega} style is suitable for downloading very large
688 files---each dot represents 64K retrieved, there are eight dots in a
689 cluster, and 48 dots on each line (so each line contains 3M).
691 Note that you can set the default style using the @code{progress}
692 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
693 command line. The exception is that, when the output is not a TTY, the
694 ``dot'' progress will be favored over ``bar''. To force the bar output,
695 use @samp{--progress=bar:force}.
698 @itemx --timestamping
699 Turn on time-stamping. @xref{Time-Stamping}, for details.
701 @cindex server response, print
703 @itemx --server-response
704 Print the headers sent by @sc{http} servers and responses sent by
707 @cindex Wget as spider
710 When invoked with this option, Wget will behave as a Web @dfn{spider},
711 which means that it will not download the pages, just check that they
712 are there. For example, you can use Wget to check your bookmarks:
715 wget --spider --force-html -i bookmarks.html
718 This feature needs much more work for Wget to get close to the
719 functionality of real web spiders.
723 @itemx --timeout=@var{seconds}
724 Set the network timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. This is equivalent
725 to specifying @samp{--dns-timeout}, @samp{--connect-timeout}, and
726 @samp{--read-timeout}, all at the same time.
728 Whenever Wget connects to or reads from a remote host, it checks for a
729 timeout and aborts the operation if the time expires. This prevents
730 anomalous occurrences such as hanging reads or infinite connects. The
731 only timeout enabled by default is a 900-second timeout for reading.
732 Setting timeout to 0 disables checking for timeouts.
734 Unless you know what you are doing, it is best not to set any of the
735 timeout-related options.
739 @item --dns-timeout=@var{seconds}
740 Set the DNS lookup timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. DNS lookups that
741 don't complete within the specified time will fail. By default, there
742 is no timeout on DNS lookups, other than that implemented by system
745 @cindex connect timeout
746 @cindex timeout, connect
747 @item --connect-timeout=@var{seconds}
748 Set the connect timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. TCP connections that
749 take longer to establish will be aborted. By default, there is no
750 connect timeout, other than that implemented by system libraries.
753 @cindex timeout, read
754 @item --read-timeout=@var{seconds}
755 Set the read (and write) timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. Reads that
756 take longer will fail. The default value for read timeout is 900
759 @cindex bandwidth, limit
761 @cindex limit bandwidth
762 @item --limit-rate=@var{amount}
763 Limit the download speed to @var{amount} bytes per second. Amount may
764 be expressed in bytes, kilobytes with the @samp{k} suffix, or megabytes
765 with the @samp{m} suffix. For example, @samp{--limit-rate=20k} will
766 limit the retrieval rate to 20KB/s. This kind of thing is useful when,
767 for whatever reason, you don't want Wget to consume the entire available
770 Note that Wget implements the limiting by sleeping the appropriate
771 amount of time after a network read that took less time than specified
772 by the rate. Eventually this strategy causes the TCP transfer to slow
773 down to approximately the specified rate. However, it may take some
774 time for this balance to be achieved, so don't be surprised if limiting
775 the rate doesn't work well with very small files.
779 @item -w @var{seconds}
780 @itemx --wait=@var{seconds}
781 Wait the specified number of seconds between the retrievals. Use of
782 this option is recommended, as it lightens the server load by making the
783 requests less frequent. Instead of in seconds, the time can be
784 specified in minutes using the @code{m} suffix, in hours using @code{h}
785 suffix, or in days using @code{d} suffix.
787 Specifying a large value for this option is useful if the network or the
788 destination host is down, so that Wget can wait long enough to
789 reasonably expect the network error to be fixed before the retry.
791 @cindex retries, waiting between
792 @cindex waiting between retries
793 @item --waitretry=@var{seconds}
794 If you don't want Wget to wait between @emph{every} retrieval, but only
795 between retries of failed downloads, you can use this option. Wget will
796 use @dfn{linear backoff}, waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
797 given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second failure on that
798 file, up to the maximum number of @var{seconds} you specify. Therefore,
799 a value of 10 will actually make Wget wait up to (1 + 2 + ... + 10) = 55
802 Note that this option is turned on by default in the global
808 Some web sites may perform log analysis to identify retrieval programs
809 such as Wget by looking for statistically significant similarities in
810 the time between requests. This option causes the time between requests
811 to vary between 0 and 2 * @var{wait} seconds, where @var{wait} was
812 specified using the @samp{--wait} option, in order to mask Wget's
813 presence from such analysis.
815 A recent article in a publication devoted to development on a popular
816 consumer platform provided code to perform this analysis on the fly.
817 Its author suggested blocking at the class C address level to ensure
818 automated retrieval programs were blocked despite changing DHCP-supplied
821 The @samp{--random-wait} option was inspired by this ill-advised
822 recommendation to block many unrelated users from a web site due to the
829 Turn proxy support on or off. The proxy is on by default if the
830 appropriate environment variable is defined.
832 For more information about the use of proxies with Wget, @xref{Proxies}.
836 @itemx --quota=@var{quota}
837 Specify download quota for automatic retrievals. The value can be
838 specified in bytes (default), kilobytes (with @samp{k} suffix), or
839 megabytes (with @samp{m} suffix).
841 Note that quota will never affect downloading a single file. So if you
842 specify @samp{wget -Q10k ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/ls-lR.gz}, all of the
843 @file{ls-lR.gz} will be downloaded. The same goes even when several
844 @sc{url}s are specified on the command-line. However, quota is
845 respected when retrieving either recursively, or from an input file.
846 Thus you may safely type @samp{wget -Q2m -i sites}---download will be
847 aborted when the quota is exceeded.
849 Setting quota to 0 or to @samp{inf} unlimits the download quota.
852 @cindex caching of DNS lookups
854 Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the IP
855 addresses it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly
856 contact the DNS server for the same (typically small) set of hosts it
857 retrieves from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will
860 However, it has been reported that in some situations it is not
861 desirable to cache host names, even for the duration of a
862 short-running application like Wget. With this option Wget issues a
863 new DNS lookup (more precisely, a new call to @code{gethostbyname} or
864 @code{getaddrinfo}) each time it makes a new connection. Please note
865 that this option will @emph{not} affect caching that might be
866 performed by the resolving library or by an external caching layer,
869 If you don't understand exactly what this option does, you probably
872 @cindex file names, restrict
873 @cindex Windows file names
874 @item --restrict-file-names=@var{mode}
875 Change which characters found in remote URLs may show up in local file
876 names generated from those URLs. Characters that are @dfn{restricted}
877 by this option are escaped, i.e. replaced with @samp{%HH}, where
878 @samp{HH} is the hexadecimal number that corresponds to the restricted
881 By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid as part of
882 file names on your operating system, as well as control characters that
883 are typically unprintable. This option is useful for changing these
884 defaults, either because you are downloading to a non-native partition,
885 or because you want to disable escaping of the control characters.
887 When mode is set to ``unix'', Wget escapes the character @samp{/} and
888 the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159. This is the
889 default on Unix-like OS'es.
891 When mode is set to ``windows'', Wget escapes the characters @samp{\},
892 @samp{|}, @samp{/}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
893 @samp{>}, and the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159.
894 In addition to this, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead of
895 @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
896 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
897 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
898 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
899 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
900 mode. This mode is the default on Windows.
902 If you append @samp{,nocontrol} to the mode, as in
903 @samp{unix,nocontrol}, escaping of the control characters is also
904 switched off. You can use @samp{--restrict-file-names=nocontrol} to
905 turn off escaping of control characters without affecting the choice of
906 the OS to use as file name restriction mode.
913 Force connecting to IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. With @samp{--inet4-only}
914 or @samp{-4}, Wget will only connect to IPv4 hosts, ignoring AAAA
915 records in DNS, and refusing to connect to IPv6 addresses specified in
916 URLs. Conversely, with @samp{--inet6-only} or @samp{-6}, Wget will
917 only connect to IPv6 hosts and ignore A records and IPv4 addresses.
919 Neither options should be needed normally. By default, an IPv6-aware
920 Wget will use the address family specified by the host's DNS record.
921 If the DNS specifies both an A record and an AAAA record, Wget will
922 try them in sequence until it finds one it can connect to.
924 These options can be used to deliberately force the use of IPv4 or
925 IPv6 address families on dual family systems, usually to aid debugging
926 or to deal with broken network configuration. Only one of
927 @samp{--inet6-only} and @samp{--inet4-only} may be specified in the
928 same command. Neither option is available in Wget compiled without
931 @item --prefer-family=IPv4/IPv6/none
932 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
933 with specified address family first. IPv4 addresses are preferred by
936 This avoids spurious errors and connect attempts when accessing hosts
937 that resolve to both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses from IPv4 networks. For
938 example, @samp{www.kame.net} resolves to
939 @samp{2001:200:0:8002:203:47ff:fea5:3085} and to
940 @samp{203.178.141.194}. When the preferred family is @code{IPv4}, the
941 IPv4 address is used first; when the preferred family is @code{IPv6},
942 the IPv6 address is used first; if the specified value is @code{none},
943 the address order returned by DNS is used without change.
945 Unlike @samp{-4} and @samp{-6}, this option doesn't inhibit access to
946 any address family, it only changes the @emph{order} in which the
947 addresses are accessed. Also note that the reordering performed by
948 this option is @dfn{stable}---it doesn't affect order of addresses of
949 the same family. That is, the relative order of all IPv4 addresses
950 and of all IPv6 addresses remains intact in all cases.
952 @item --retry-connrefused
953 Consider ``connection refused'' a transient error and try again.
954 Normally Wget gives up on a URL when it is unable to connect to the
955 site because failure to connect is taken as a sign that the server is
956 not running at all and that retries would not help. This option is
957 for mirroring unreliable sites whose servers tend to disappear for
958 short periods of time.
961 @node Directory Options
962 @section Directory Options
966 @itemx --no-directories
967 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
968 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
969 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
970 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
973 @itemx --force-directories
974 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
975 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
976 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
977 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
980 @itemx --no-host-directories
981 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
982 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
983 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
986 @item --protocol-directories
987 Use the protocol name as a directory component of local file names. For
988 example, with this option, @samp{wget -r http://@var{host}} will save to
989 @samp{http/@var{host}/...} rather than just to @samp{@var{host}/...}.
991 @cindex cut directories
992 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
993 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
994 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
997 Take, for example, the directory at
998 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
999 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
1000 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
1001 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
1002 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
1003 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
1004 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
1008 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
1010 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
1011 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
1013 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
1018 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
1019 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
1020 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
1021 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
1022 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
1024 @cindex directory prefix
1025 @item -P @var{prefix}
1026 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
1027 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
1028 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
1029 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
1034 @section HTTP Options
1037 @cindex .html extension
1039 @itemx --html-extension
1040 If a file of type @samp{application/xhtml+xml} or @samp{text/html} is
1041 downloaded and the URL does not end with the regexp
1042 @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause the suffix @samp{.html}
1043 to be appended to the local filename. This is useful, for instance, when
1044 you're mirroring a remote site that uses @samp{.asp} pages, but you want
1045 the mirrored pages to be viewable on your stock Apache server. Another
1046 good use for this is when you're downloading CGI-generated materials. A URL
1047 like @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
1048 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
1050 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
1051 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
1052 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
1053 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
1054 @samp{text/html} or @samp{application/xhtml+xml}. To prevent this
1055 re-downloading, you must use @samp{-k} and @samp{-K} so that the original
1056 version of the file will be saved as @file{@var{X}.orig} (@pxref{Recursive
1057 Retrieval Options}).
1060 @cindex http password
1061 @cindex authentication
1062 @item --http-user=@var{user}
1063 @itemx --http-passwd=@var{password}
1064 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1065 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
1066 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure) or the
1067 @code{digest} authentication scheme.
1069 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1070 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1071 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1072 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1073 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1074 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1075 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1077 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1083 Disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will send the remote
1084 server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma: no-cache}) to get the
1085 file from the remote service, rather than returning the cached version.
1086 This is especially useful for retrieving and flushing out-of-date
1087 documents on proxy servers.
1089 Caching is allowed by default.
1093 Disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism for maintaining
1094 server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie using the
1095 @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the same cookie
1096 upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server owners to keep
1097 track of visitors and for sites to exchange this information, some
1098 consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to use cookies;
1099 however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
1101 @cindex loading cookies
1102 @cindex cookies, loading
1103 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
1104 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
1105 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
1106 @file{cookies.txt} file.
1108 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
1109 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
1110 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
1111 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
1112 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
1113 proves your identity.
1115 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
1116 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
1117 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
1118 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
1119 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
1120 cookie files in different locations:
1124 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1126 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1127 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1128 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1129 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1130 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1132 @item Internet Explorer.
1133 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1134 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1135 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1137 @item Other browsers.
1138 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1139 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1140 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1143 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1144 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1145 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1146 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1147 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1150 wget --no-cookies --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1153 @cindex saving cookies
1154 @cindex cookies, saving
1155 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1156 Save cookies to @var{file} before exiting. This will not save cookies
1157 that have expired or that have no expiry time (so-called ``session
1158 cookies''), but also see @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
1160 @cindex cookies, session
1161 @cindex session cookies
1162 @item --keep-session-cookies
1163 When specified, causes @samp{--save-cookies} to also save session
1164 cookies. Session cookies are normally not saved because they are
1165 meant to be kept in memory and forgotten when you exit the browser.
1166 Saving them is useful on sites that require you to log in or to visit
1167 the home page before you can access some pages. With this option,
1168 multiple Wget runs are considered a single browser session as far as
1169 the site is concerned.
1171 Since the cookie file format does not normally carry session cookies,
1172 Wget marks them with an expiry timestamp of 0. Wget's
1173 @samp{--load-cookies} recognizes those as session cookies, but it might
1174 confuse other browsers. Also note that cookies so loaded will be
1175 treated as other session cookies, which means that if you want
1176 @samp{--save-cookies} to preserve them again, you must use
1177 @samp{--keep-session-cookies} again.
1179 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1180 @cindex ignore length
1181 @item --ignore-length
1182 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1183 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1184 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1185 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1186 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1189 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1190 if it never existed.
1193 @item --header=@var{header-line}
1194 Send @var{header-line} along with the rest of the headers in each
1195 @sc{http} request. The supplied header is sent as-is, which means it
1196 must contain name and value separated by colon, and must not contain
1199 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1200 @samp{--header} more than once.
1204 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1205 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1206 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1210 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1211 previous user-defined headers.
1213 As of Wget 1.10, this option can be used to override headers otherwise
1214 generated automatically. This example instructs Wget to connect to
1215 localhost, but to specify @samp{foo.bar} in the @code{Host} header:
1218 wget --header="Host: foo.bar" http://localhost/
1221 In versions of Wget prior to 1.10 such use of @samp{--header} caused
1222 sending of duplicate headers.
1225 @cindex proxy password
1226 @cindex proxy authentication
1227 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1228 @itemx --proxy-passwd=@var{password}
1229 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1230 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1231 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1233 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-passwd}
1234 pertain here as well.
1236 @cindex http referer
1237 @cindex referer, http
1238 @item --referer=@var{url}
1239 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1240 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1241 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1242 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1244 @cindex server response, save
1245 @item --save-headers
1246 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1247 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1250 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1251 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1252 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1254 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1255 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1256 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1257 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1258 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1261 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1262 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1263 While conceptually this is not such a bad idea, it has been abused by
1264 servers denying information to clients other than @code{Mozilla} or
1265 Microsoft @code{Internet Explorer}. This option allows you to change
1266 the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget. Use of this option is
1267 discouraged, unless you really know what you are doing.
1270 @item --post-data=@var{string}
1271 @itemx --post-file=@var{file}
1272 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the specified data
1273 in the request body. @code{--post-data} sends @var{string} as data,
1274 whereas @code{--post-file} sends the contents of @var{file}. Other than
1275 that, they work in exactly the same way.
1277 Please be aware that Wget needs to know the size of the POST data in
1278 advance. Therefore the argument to @code{--post-file} must be a regular
1279 file; specifying a FIFO or something like @file{/dev/stdin} won't work.
1280 It's not quite clear how to work around this limitation inherent in
1281 HTTP/1.0. Although HTTP/1.1 introduces @dfn{chunked} transfer that
1282 doesn't require knowing the request length in advance, a client can't
1283 use chunked unless it knows it's talking to an HTTP/1.1 server. And it
1284 can't know that until it receives a response, which in turn requires the
1285 request to have been completed -- a chicken-and-egg problem.
1287 Note: if Wget is redirected after the POST request is completed, it will
1288 not send the POST data to the redirected URL. This is because URLs that
1289 process POST often respond with a redirection to a regular page
1290 (although that's technically disallowed), which does not desire or
1291 accept POST. It is not yet clear that this behavior is optimal; if it
1292 doesn't work out, it will be changed.
1294 This example shows how to log to a server using POST and then proceed to
1295 download the desired pages, presumably only accessible to authorized
1300 # @r{Log in to the server. This can be done only once.}
1301 wget --save-cookies cookies.txt \
1302 --post-data 'user=foo&password=bar' \
1303 http://server.com/auth.php
1305 # @r{Now grab the page or pages we care about.}
1306 wget --load-cookies cookies.txt \
1307 -p http://server.com/interesting/article.php
1311 If the server is using session cookies to track user authentication,
1312 the above will not work because @samp{--save-cookies} will not save
1313 them (and neither will browsers) and the @file{cookies.txt} file will
1314 be empty. In that case use @samp{--keep-session-cookies} along with
1315 @samp{--save-cookies} to force saving of session cookies.
1318 @node HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
1319 @section HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
1322 To support encrypted HTTP (HTTPS) downloads, Wget must be compiled
1323 with an external SSL library, currently OpenSSL. If Wget is compiled
1324 without SSL support, none of these options are available.
1327 @cindex SSL protocol, choose
1328 @item --secure-protocol=@var{protocol}
1329 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto},
1330 @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. If @samp{auto} is used,
1331 the SSL library is given the liberty of choosing the appropriate
1332 protocol automatically, which is achieved by sending an SSLv2 greeting
1333 and announcing support for SSLv3 and TLSv1. This is the default.
1335 Specifying @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, or @samp{TLSv1} forces the use
1336 of the corresponding protocol. This is useful when talking to old and
1337 buggy SSL server implementations that make it hard for OpenSSL to
1338 choose the correct protocol version. Fortunately, such servers are
1341 @cindex SSL certificate, check
1342 @item --no-check-certificate
1343 Don't check the server certificate against the available client
1344 authorities. If this is not specified, Wget will break the SSL
1345 handshake if the server certificate is not valid.
1347 @cindex SSL certificate
1348 @item --certificate=@var{file}
1349 Use the client certificate stored in @var{file}. This is needed for
1350 servers that are configured to require certificates from the clients
1351 that connect to them. Normally a certificate is not required and this
1354 @cindex SSL certificate type, specify
1355 @item --certificate-type=@var{type}
1356 Specify the type of the client certificate. Legal values are
1357 @samp{PEM} (assumed by default) and @samp{DER}, also known as
1360 @item --private-key=@var{file}
1361 Read the private key from @var{file}. This allows you to provide the
1362 private key in a file separate from the certificate.
1364 @item --private-key-type=@var{type}
1365 Specify the type of the private key. Accepted values are @samp{PEM}
1366 (the default) and @samp{DER}.
1368 @item --ca-certificate=@var{file}
1369 Use @var{file} as the file with the bundle of certificate authorities
1370 (``CA'') to verify the peers. The certificates must be in PEM format.
1372 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1373 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1375 @cindex SSL certificate authority
1376 @item --ca-directory=@var{directory}
1377 Specifies directory containing CA certificates in PEM format. Each
1378 file contains one CA certificate, and the file name is based on a hash
1379 value derived from the certificate. This is achieved by processing a
1380 certificate directory with the @code{c_rehash} utility supplied with
1381 OpenSSL. Using @samp{--ca-directory} is more efficient than
1382 @samp{--ca-certificate} when many certificates are installed because
1383 it allows Wget to fetch certificates on demand.
1385 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1386 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1388 @cindex entropy, specifying source of
1389 @cindex randomness, specifying source of
1390 @item --random-file=@var{file}
1391 Use @var{file} as the source of random data for seeding the
1392 pseudo-random number generator on systems without @file{/dev/random}.
1394 On such systems the SSL library needs an external source of randomness
1395 to initialize. Randomness may be provided by EGD (see
1396 @samp{--egd-file} below) or read from an external source specified by
1397 the user. If this option is not specified, Wget looks for random data
1398 in @code{$RANDFILE} or, if that is unset, in @file{$HOME/.rnd}. If
1399 none of those are available, it is likely that SSL encryption will not
1402 If you're getting the ``Could not seed OpenSSL PRNG; disabling SSL.''
1403 error, you should provide random data using some of the methods
1407 @item --egd-file=@var{file}
1408 Use @var{file} as the EGD socket. EGD stands for @dfn{Entropy
1409 Gathering Daemon}, a user-space program that collects data from
1410 various unpredictable system sources and makes it available to other
1411 programs that might need it. Encryption software, such as the SSL
1412 library, needs sources of non-repeating randomness to seed the random
1413 number generator used to produce cryptographically strong keys.
1415 OpenSSL allows the user to specify his own source of entropy using the
1416 @code{RAND_FILE} environment variable. If this variable is unset, or
1417 if the specified file does not produce enough randomness, OpenSSL will
1418 read random data from EGD socket specified using this option.
1420 If this option is not specified (and the equivalent startup command is
1421 not used), EGD is never contacted. EGD is not needed on modern Unix
1422 systems that support @file{/dev/random}.
1426 @section FTP Options
1429 @cindex password, FTP
1430 @item --ftp-passwd=@var{string}
1431 Set the default FTP password to @var{string}. Without this, or the
1432 corresponding startup option, the password defaults to @samp{-wget@@},
1433 normally used for anonymous FTP.
1435 @cindex .listing files, removing
1436 @item --no-remove-listing
1437 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1438 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1439 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1440 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1441 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1442 you're running is complete).
1444 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1445 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1446 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1447 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1448 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1449 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1450 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1451 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1452 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1454 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1455 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1456 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1457 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1458 will be overwritten.
1460 @cindex globbing, toggle
1462 Turn off @sc{ftp} globbing. Globbing refers to the use of shell-like
1463 special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[}
1464 and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the same directory at
1468 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1471 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1472 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1475 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1476 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1477 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1478 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1481 @item --no-passive-ftp
1482 Disable the use of the @dfn{passive} FTP transfer mode. Passive FTP
1483 mandates that the client connect to the server to establish the data
1484 connection rather than the other way around.
1486 If the machine is connected to the Internet directly, both passive and
1487 active FTP should work equally well. Behind most firewall and NAT
1488 configurations passive FTP has a better chance of working. However,
1489 in some rare firewall configurations, active FTP actually works when
1490 passive FTP doesn't. If you suspect this to be the case, use this
1491 option, or set @code{passive_ftp=off} in your init file.
1493 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1494 @item --retr-symlinks
1495 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1496 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1497 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1498 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1499 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1501 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1502 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1503 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1504 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1507 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1508 specified on the command-line, rather than because it was recursed to,
1509 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1512 @cindex Keep-Alive, turning off
1513 @cindex Persistent Connections, disabling
1514 @item --no-http-keep-alive
1515 Turn off the ``keep-alive'' feature for HTTP downloads. Normally, Wget
1516 asks the server to keep the connection open so that, when you download
1517 more than one document from the same server, they get transferred over
1518 the same TCP connection. This saves time and at the same time reduces
1519 the load on the server.
1521 This option is useful when, for some reason, persistent (keep-alive)
1522 connections don't work for you, for example due to a server bug or due
1523 to the inability of server-side scripts to cope with the connections.
1526 @node Recursive Retrieval Options
1527 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1532 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Download}, for more
1535 @item -l @var{depth}
1536 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1537 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1538 Download}). The default maximum depth is 5.
1540 @cindex proxy filling
1541 @cindex delete after retrieval
1542 @cindex filling proxy cache
1543 @item --delete-after
1544 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1545 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1546 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1549 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1552 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1555 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1556 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1557 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1558 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1559 created in the first place.
1561 @cindex conversion of links
1562 @cindex link conversion
1564 @itemx --convert-links
1565 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1566 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1567 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1568 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-@sc{html}
1571 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1575 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1576 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1578 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1579 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1580 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1581 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1584 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1585 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1587 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1588 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1589 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1590 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1593 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1594 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1595 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1596 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1597 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1600 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1601 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1602 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1604 @cindex backing up converted files
1606 @itemx --backup-converted
1607 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1608 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1613 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1614 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1615 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1616 @samp{-r -N -l inf --no-remove-listing}.
1618 @cindex page requisites
1619 @cindex required images, downloading
1621 @itemx --page-requisites
1622 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
1623 properly display a given @sc{html} page. This includes such things as
1624 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
1626 Ordinarily, when downloading a single @sc{html} page, any requisite documents
1627 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
1628 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
1629 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
1630 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
1633 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
1634 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
1635 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
1636 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
1637 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
1639 If one executes the command:
1642 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
1645 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
1646 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
1647 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
1648 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
1649 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
1652 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1655 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
1656 will be downloaded. Similarly,
1659 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1662 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
1663 to be downloaded. One might think that:
1666 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1669 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
1670 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
1671 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single @sc{html}
1672 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the command-line or in a
1673 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
1674 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
1677 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1680 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
1681 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
1682 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
1683 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
1684 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
1685 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
1688 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1691 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
1692 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
1693 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
1696 @cindex @sc{html} comments
1697 @cindex comments, @sc{html}
1698 @item --strict-comments
1699 Turn on strict parsing of @sc{html} comments. The default is to terminate
1700 comments at the first occurrence of @samp{-->}.
1702 According to specifications, @sc{html} comments are expressed as @sc{sgml}
1703 @dfn{declarations}. Declaration is special markup that begins with
1704 @samp{<!} and ends with @samp{>}, such as @samp{<!DOCTYPE ...>}, that
1705 may contain comments between a pair of @samp{--} delimiters. @sc{html}
1706 comments are ``empty declarations'', @sc{sgml} declarations without any
1707 non-comment text. Therefore, @samp{<!--foo-->} is a valid comment, and
1708 so is @samp{<!--one-- --two-->}, but @samp{<!--1--2-->} is not.
1710 On the other hand, most @sc{html} writers don't perceive comments as anything
1711 other than text delimited with @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}, which is not
1712 quite the same. For example, something like @samp{<!------------>}
1713 works as a valid comment as long as the number of dashes is a multiple
1714 of four (!). If not, the comment technically lasts until the next
1715 @samp{--}, which may be at the other end of the document. Because of
1716 this, many popular browsers completely ignore the specification and
1717 implement what users have come to expect: comments delimited with
1718 @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}.
1720 Until version 1.9, Wget interpreted comments strictly, which resulted in
1721 missing links in many web pages that displayed fine in browsers, but had
1722 the misfortune of containing non-compliant comments. Beginning with
1723 version 1.9, Wget has joined the ranks of clients that implements
1724 ``naive'' comments, terminating each comment at the first occurrence of
1727 If, for whatever reason, you want strict comment parsing, use this
1728 option to turn it on.
1731 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1732 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1735 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
1736 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
1737 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
1738 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files} for more details).
1740 @item -D @var{domain-list}
1741 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
1742 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
1743 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
1745 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
1746 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed.
1747 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1749 @cindex follow FTP links
1751 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
1752 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
1754 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
1755 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
1756 Wget has an internal table of @sc{html} tag / attribute pairs that it
1757 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
1758 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
1759 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
1760 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
1762 @item --ignore-tags=@var{list}
1763 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
1764 certain @sc{html} tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
1765 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
1767 In the past, this option was the best bet for downloading a single page
1768 and its requisites, using a command-line like:
1771 wget --ignore-tags=a,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1774 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
1775 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
1776 specifying tags to ignore was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to
1777 ignore @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded.
1778 Now the best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
1779 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
1783 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
1784 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1788 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
1789 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
1790 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
1793 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
1794 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
1795 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements
1796 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1799 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
1800 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
1801 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements of
1802 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1806 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
1807 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
1808 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
1809 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
1814 @node Recursive Download
1815 @chapter Recursive Download
1818 @cindex recursive download
1820 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
1821 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
1822 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieval}, or @dfn{recursion}.
1824 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} from
1825 the given @sc{url}, documents, retrieving the files the @sc{html}
1826 document was referring to, through markup like @code{href}, or
1827 @code{src}. If the freshly downloaded file is also of type
1828 @code{text/html} or @code{application/xhtml+xml}, it will be parsed and
1831 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html} content is
1832 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
1833 @sc{html} document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
1834 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
1835 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
1836 until the specified maximum depth.
1838 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
1839 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
1841 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
1842 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
1843 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
1844 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
1845 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
1848 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
1849 the one found on the remote server.
1851 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
1852 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
1853 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
1854 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
1856 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
1857 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
1858 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
1859 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
1860 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
1861 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
1862 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
1864 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
1865 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
1866 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
1867 consume memory and CPU.
1869 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
1870 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
1871 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
1872 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
1873 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
1874 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
1875 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
1878 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
1881 @node Following Links
1882 @chapter Following Links
1884 @cindex following links
1886 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
1887 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
1888 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
1890 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
1891 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
1892 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
1894 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
1895 links it will follow.
1898 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
1899 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
1900 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
1901 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
1902 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
1905 @node Spanning Hosts
1906 @section Spanning Hosts
1907 @cindex spanning hosts
1908 @cindex hosts, spanning
1910 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
1911 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
1912 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
1913 your Wget into a small version of google.
1915 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
1916 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
1917 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
1918 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the @sc{html}
1919 pages refer to both interchangeably.
1922 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
1924 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
1925 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
1926 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
1927 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
1928 up much more data than you have intended.
1930 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
1932 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
1933 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
1934 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
1935 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
1936 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
1937 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
1940 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
1943 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
1944 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
1946 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
1948 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
1949 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
1950 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
1951 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
1952 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
1956 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
1962 @node Types of Files
1963 @section Types of Files
1964 @cindex types of files
1966 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
1967 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
1968 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
1969 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
1971 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
1972 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
1975 @cindex accept wildcards
1976 @cindex accept suffixes
1977 @cindex wildcards, accept
1978 @cindex suffixes, accept
1980 @item -A @var{acclist}
1981 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
1982 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
1983 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
1984 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
1985 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
1986 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
1987 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
1989 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
1990 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
1991 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
1992 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
1993 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
1994 a description of how pattern matching works.
1996 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
1997 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
1999 @cindex reject wildcards
2000 @cindex reject suffixes
2001 @cindex wildcards, reject
2002 @cindex suffixes, reject
2003 @item -R @var{rejlist}
2004 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
2005 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
2006 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
2007 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
2008 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
2010 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
2011 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
2012 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
2013 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
2014 expansion by the shell.
2017 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
2018 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
2019 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
2020 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
2022 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
2023 files; Wget must load all the @sc{html}s to know where to go at
2024 all---recursive retrieval would make no sense otherwise.
2026 @node Directory-Based Limits
2027 @section Directory-Based Limits
2029 @cindex directory limits
2031 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
2032 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
2033 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
2034 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
2035 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
2036 @file{/dev} directories.
2038 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
2039 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
2040 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
2042 @cindex directories, include
2043 @cindex include directories
2044 @cindex accept directories
2047 @itemx --include @var{list}
2048 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
2049 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
2050 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
2051 directories are absolute paths.
2053 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
2054 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
2055 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
2058 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
2061 @cindex directories, exclude
2062 @cindex exclude directories
2063 @cindex reject directories
2065 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
2066 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
2067 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
2068 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
2069 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
2070 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
2072 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
2073 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
2074 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
2075 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
2080 @itemx no_parent = on
2081 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
2082 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
2083 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
2084 parent directory/directories.
2086 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
2087 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
2088 Supposing you issue Wget with:
2091 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
2094 You may rest assured that none of the references to
2095 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
2096 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
2097 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
2098 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
2099 intelligent fashion.
2102 @node Relative Links
2103 @section Relative Links
2104 @cindex relative links
2106 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
2107 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
2108 server root. For example, these links are relative:
2112 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
2113 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
2116 These links are not relative:
2120 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
2121 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
2124 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
2125 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
2126 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
2128 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
2132 @section Following FTP Links
2133 @cindex following ftp links
2135 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
2136 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
2137 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
2140 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
2141 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
2142 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
2143 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
2144 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
2145 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
2146 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
2148 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
2149 retrieved recursively further.
2152 @chapter Time-Stamping
2153 @cindex time-stamping
2154 @cindex timestamping
2155 @cindex updating the archives
2156 @cindex incremental updating
2158 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
2159 Internet is updating your archives.
2161 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
2162 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
2163 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
2164 offer the option of incremental updating.
2166 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
2167 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
2168 the place of the old ones.
2170 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
2174 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
2177 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
2178 recently than the local file.
2181 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
2182 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
2183 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
2185 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
2186 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
2187 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
2188 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
2189 does, and the remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
2191 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
2192 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
2196 * Time-Stamping Usage::
2197 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2198 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2201 @node Time-Stamping Usage
2202 @section Time-Stamping Usage
2203 @cindex time-stamping usage
2204 @cindex usage, time-stamping
2206 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
2207 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
2210 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2213 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
2214 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
2215 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
2216 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
2218 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
2219 changed, and download it if it has.
2222 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2225 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
2226 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
2227 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
2228 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
2230 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
2233 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
2236 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
2237 interpret the @samp{*}.)
2239 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
2240 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
2241 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
2242 since the last download.
2244 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
2245 command like the following, weekly:
2248 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2251 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
2252 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
2253 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
2254 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
2255 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
2257 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2258 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2259 @cindex http time-stamping
2261 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
2262 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
2263 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
2264 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
2265 retrieved unconditionally.
2267 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
2268 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
2269 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
2272 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
2273 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
2274 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
2275 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
2276 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
2277 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
2280 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
2281 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
2282 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
2283 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
2284 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
2286 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
2287 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
2289 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2290 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2291 @cindex ftp time-stamping
2293 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
2294 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
2297 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
2298 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
2299 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
2300 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
2301 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
2302 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
2303 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
2304 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
2306 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
2307 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
2308 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
2309 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
2310 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
2311 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
2313 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
2314 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
2315 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
2316 Wget may support this command in the future.
2319 @chapter Startup File
2320 @cindex startup file
2326 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
2327 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
2328 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
2329 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
2331 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
2332 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
2333 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
2334 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
2336 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
2340 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
2341 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
2342 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
2343 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
2346 @node Wgetrc Location
2347 @section Wgetrc Location
2348 @cindex wgetrc location
2349 @cindex location of wgetrc
2351 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
2352 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
2353 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
2354 from there, if it exists.
2356 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
2357 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
2358 further attempts will be made.
2360 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
2362 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
2363 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
2364 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
2365 Fascist admins, away!
2368 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2369 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2370 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2372 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2378 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2379 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2381 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2382 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2383 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2386 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2387 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2388 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2394 @node Wgetrc Commands
2395 @section Wgetrc Commands
2396 @cindex wgetrc commands
2398 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2399 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2400 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}. A fancier kind of
2401 Boolean allowed in some cases is the @dfn{lockable Boolean}, which may
2402 be set to @samp{on}, @samp{off}, @samp{always}, or @samp{never}. If an
2403 option is set to @samp{always} or @samp{never}, that value will be
2404 locked in for the duration of the Wget invocation---command-line options
2407 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2408 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2409 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2410 values can be any non-empty string.
2412 Most of these commands have direct command-line equivalents. Also, any
2413 wgetrc command can be specified on the command line using the
2414 @samp{--execute} switch (@pxref{Basic Startup Options}.)
2417 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2418 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2420 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2421 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2423 @item continue = on/off
2424 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
2425 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
2427 @item background = on/off
2428 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2431 @item backup_converted = on/off
2432 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2433 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2435 @c @item backups = @var{number}
2436 @c #### Document me!
2438 @item base = @var{string}
2439 Consider relative @sc{url}s in @sc{url} input files forced to be
2440 interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string}---the same as
2441 @samp{--base=@var{string}}.
2443 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2444 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address=@var{address}}.
2446 @item ca_certificate = @var{file}
2447 Set the certificate authority bundle file to @var{file}. The same
2448 as @samp{--ca-certificate=@var{file}}.
2450 @item ca_directory = @var{directory}
2451 Set the directory used for certificate authorities. The same as
2452 @samp{--ca-directory=@var{directory}}.
2454 @item cache = on/off
2455 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{--no-cache}
2458 @item certificate = @var{file}
2459 Set the client certificate file name to @var{file}. The same as
2460 @samp{--certificate=@var{file}}.
2462 @item certificate_type = @var{string}
2463 Specify the type of the client certificate, legal values being
2464 @samp{PEM} (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2465 @samp{--certificate-type=@var{string}}.
2467 @item check_certificate = on/off
2468 If this is set to off, the server certificate is not checked against
2469 the specified client authorities. The default is ``on''. The same as
2470 @samp{--check-certificate}.
2472 @item convert_links = on/off
2473 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
2475 @item cookies = on/off
2476 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
2478 @item connect_timeout = @var{n}
2479 Set the connect timeout---the same as @samp{--connect-timeout}.
2481 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
2482 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components. Equivalent to
2483 @samp{--cut-dirs=@var{n}}.
2485 @item debug = on/off
2486 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
2488 @item delete_after = on/off
2489 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
2491 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
2492 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P @var{string}}.
2494 @item dirstruct = on/off
2495 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
2498 @item dns_cache = on/off
2499 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
2500 option is normally used to turn it off and is equivalent to
2501 @samp{--no-dns-cache}.
2503 @item dns_timeout = @var{n}
2504 Set the DNS timeout---the same as @samp{--dns-timeout}.
2506 @item domains = @var{string}
2507 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2509 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
2510 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
2511 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
2512 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
2513 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
2514 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
2515 (@pxref{Download Options}).
2517 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
2518 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
2519 the retrieval (50 by default).
2521 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
2522 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
2524 @item egd_file = @var{file}
2525 Use @var{string} as the EGD socket file name. The same as
2526 @samp{--egd-file=@var{file}}.
2528 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
2529 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2530 download---the same as @samp{-X @var{string}} (@pxref{Directory-Based
2533 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
2534 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains=@var{string}} (@pxref{Spanning
2537 @item follow_ftp = on/off
2538 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
2539 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
2541 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
2542 Only follow certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval,
2543 just like @samp{--follow-tags=@var{string}}.
2545 @item force_html = on/off
2546 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
2547 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
2549 @item ftp_passwd = @var{string}
2550 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{string}. Without this setting, the
2551 password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, which is a useful default for
2552 anonymous @sc{ftp} access.
2554 This command used to be named @code{passwd} prior to Wget 1.10.
2556 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
2557 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2561 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{--glob} and @samp{--no-glob}.
2563 @item header = @var{string}
2564 Define a header for HTTP doewnloads, like using
2565 @samp{--header=@var{string}}.
2567 @item html_extension = on/off
2568 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} or
2569 @samp{application/xhtml+xml} files without it, like @samp{-E}.
2571 @item http_keep_alive = on/off
2572 Turn the keep-alive feature on or off (defaults to on). Turning it
2573 off is equivalent to @samp{--no-http-keep-alive}.
2575 @item http_passwd = @var{string}
2576 Set @sc{http} password, equivalent to
2577 @samp{--http-passwd=@var{string}}.
2579 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
2580 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2583 @item http_user = @var{string}
2584 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}, equivalent to
2585 @samp{--http-user=@var{string}}.
2587 @item ignore_length = on/off
2588 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
2589 @samp{--ignore-length}.
2591 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
2592 Ignore certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval, like
2593 @samp{--ignore-tags=@var{string}}.
2595 @item include_directories = @var{string}
2596 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2597 downloading---the same as @samp{-I @var{string}}.
2599 @item inet4_only = on/off
2600 Force connecting to IPv4 addresses, off by default. You can put this
2601 in the global init file to disable Wget's attempts to resolve and
2602 connect to IPv6 hosts. Available only if Wget was compiled with IPv6
2603 support. The same as @samp{--inet4-only} or @samp{-4}.
2605 @item inet6_only = on/off
2606 Force connecting to IPv6 addresses, off by default. Available only if
2607 Wget was compiled with IPv6 support. The same as @samp{--inet6-only}
2610 @item input = @var{file}
2611 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i @var{file}}.
2613 @item kill_longer = on/off
2614 Consider data longer than specified in content-length header as invalid
2615 (and retry getting it). The default behavior is to save as much data
2616 as there is, provided there is more than or equal to the value in
2617 @code{Content-Length}.
2619 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
2620 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
2621 The same as @samp{--limit-rate=@var{rate}}.
2623 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
2624 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies @var{file}}.
2626 @item logfile = @var{file}
2627 Set logfile to @var{file}, the same as @samp{-o @var{file}}.
2629 @item login = @var{string}
2630 Your user name on the remote machine, for @sc{ftp}. Defaults to
2633 @item mirror = on/off
2634 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
2636 @item netrc = on/off
2637 Turn reading netrc on or off.
2639 @item noclobber = on/off
2642 @item no_parent = on/off
2643 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
2644 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2646 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
2647 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
2648 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
2650 @item output_document = @var{file}
2651 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O @var{file}}.
2653 @item page_requisites = on/off
2654 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single @sc{html} page to
2655 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
2657 @item passive_ftp = on/off/always/never
2658 Change setting of passive @sc{ftp}, equivalent to the
2659 @samp{--passive-ftp} option. Some scripts and @samp{.pm} (Perl
2660 module) files download files using @samp{wget --passive-ftp}. If your
2661 firewall does not allow this, you can set @samp{passive_ftp = never}
2662 to override the command-line.
2664 @item post_data = @var{string}
2665 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send @var{string} in
2666 the request body. The same as @samp{--post-data=@var{string}}.
2668 @item post_file = @var{file}
2669 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the contents of
2670 @var{file} in the request body. The same as
2671 @samp{--post-file=@var{file}}.
2673 @item prefer_family = IPv4/IPv6/none
2674 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
2675 with specified address family first. IPv4 addresses are preferred by
2676 default. The same as @samp{--prefer-family}, which see for a detailed
2677 discussion of why this is useful.
2679 @item private_key = @var{file}
2680 Set the private key file to @var{file}. The same as
2681 @samp{--private-key=@var{file}}.
2683 @item private_key_type = @var{string}
2684 Specify the type of the private key, legal values being @samp{PEM}
2685 (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2686 @samp{--private-type=@var{string}}.
2688 @item progress = @var{string}
2689 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are @samp{dot}
2690 and @samp{bar}. Equivalent to @samp{--progress=@var{string}}.
2692 @item protocol_directories = on/off
2693 When set, use the protocol name as a directory component of local file
2694 names. The same as @samp{--protocol-directories}.
2696 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
2697 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like
2698 @samp{--proxy-user=@var{string}}.
2700 @item proxy_passwd = @var{string}
2701 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like
2702 @samp{--proxy-passwd=@var{string}}.
2704 @item quiet = on/off
2705 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
2707 @item quota = @var{quota}
2708 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
2709 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
2710 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
2711 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
2712 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
2713 to 5 megabytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
2716 @item random_file = @var{file}
2717 Use @var{file} as a source of randomness on systems lacking
2720 @item read_timeout = @var{n}
2721 Set the read (and write) timeout---the same as
2722 @samp{--read-timeout=@var{n}}.
2724 @item reclevel = @var{n}
2725 Recursion level (depth)---the same as @samp{-l @var{n}}.
2727 @item recursive = on/off
2728 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
2730 @item referer = @var{string}
2731 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like
2732 @samp{--referer=@var{string}}. (Note it was the folks who wrote the
2733 @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of ``referrer'' wrong.)
2735 @item relative_only = on/off
2736 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
2739 @item remove_listing = on/off
2740 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
2741 to off is the same as @samp{--no-remove-listing}.
2743 @item restrict_file_names = unix/windows
2744 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
2745 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
2747 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
2748 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
2749 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
2751 @item retry_connrefused = on/off
2752 When set to on, consider ``connection refused'' a transient
2753 error---the same as @samp{--retry-connrefused}.
2755 @item robots = on/off
2756 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
2757 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
2758 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
2759 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
2762 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
2763 Save cookies to @var{file}. The same as @samp{--save-cookies
2766 @item secure_protocol = @var{string}
2767 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto}
2768 (the default), @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. The same
2769 as @samp{--secure-protocol=@var{string}}.
2771 @item server_response = on/off
2772 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
2773 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
2775 @item span_hosts = on/off
2778 @item strict_comments = on/off
2779 Same as @samp{--strict-comments}.
2781 @item timeout = @var{n}
2782 Set all applicable timeout values to @var{n}, the same as @samp{-T
2785 @item timestamping = on/off
2786 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
2788 @item tries = @var{n}
2789 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t @var{n}}.
2791 @item use_proxy = on/off
2792 When set to off, don't use proxy even when proxy-related environment
2793 variables are set. In that case it is the same as using
2796 @item verbose = on/off
2797 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
2799 @item wait = @var{n}
2800 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w
2803 @item waitretry = @var{n}
2804 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
2805 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry=@var{n}}. Note that this is
2806 turned on by default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
2808 @item randomwait = on/off
2809 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
2810 @samp{--random-wait}.
2814 @section Sample Wgetrc
2815 @cindex sample wgetrc
2817 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
2818 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
2819 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
2820 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
2822 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
2823 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
2827 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
2834 @c man begin EXAMPLES
2835 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
2839 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
2840 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
2841 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
2845 @section Simple Usage
2849 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
2852 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
2856 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
2857 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
2858 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
2859 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
2860 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
2861 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
2864 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
2868 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
2869 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
2870 shall use @samp{-t}.
2873 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
2876 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
2877 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
2880 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
2884 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
2888 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
2889 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
2892 wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2897 @node Advanced Usage
2898 @section Advanced Usage
2902 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
2909 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
2913 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
2914 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
2915 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
2918 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2922 The same as the above, but convert the links in the @sc{html} files to
2923 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
2926 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2930 Retrieve only one @sc{html} page, but make sure that all the elements needed
2931 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
2932 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
2933 references the downloaded links.
2936 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2939 The @sc{html} page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
2940 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
2941 depending on where they were on the remote server.
2944 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
2945 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
2946 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
2947 subdirectory of the current directory.
2950 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
2951 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2955 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
2959 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
2963 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
2966 wget --save-headers http://www.lycos.com/
2971 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
2975 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
2979 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
2980 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
2981 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
2985 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
2988 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
2989 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Download}), with maximum depth
2990 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
2991 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
2992 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
2996 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
2997 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
3001 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
3005 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
3006 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
3009 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
3012 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
3013 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
3016 @cindex redirecting output
3018 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
3022 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
3025 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
3026 documents from remote hotlists:
3029 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
3033 @node Very Advanced Usage
3034 @section Very Advanced Usage
3039 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
3040 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
3041 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
3042 to recheck a site each Sunday:
3046 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3050 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
3051 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
3052 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
3053 back up the original @sc{html} files before the conversion. Wget invocation
3054 would look like this:
3057 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3058 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3062 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
3063 when @sc{html} files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
3064 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
3065 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
3066 or @samp{application/xhtml+xml} to @file{@var{name}.html}.
3069 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3070 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
3074 Or, with less typing:
3077 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3086 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
3089 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers
3090 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
3091 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
3092 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
3093 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
3094 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
3101 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
3102 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
3103 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
3104 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
3105 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
3106 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
3107 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
3108 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
3109 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
3110 using an authorized proxy.
3112 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
3113 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
3114 the following environment variables:
3118 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{http}
3122 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
3123 connections. It is quite common that @sc{http_proxy} and @sc{ftp_proxy}
3124 are set to the same @sc{url}.
3127 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
3128 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
3129 @code{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
3133 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
3134 may be specified from within Wget itself.
3140 @itemx proxy = on/off
3141 This option may be used to turn the proxy support on or off. Proxy
3142 support is on by default, provided that the appropriate environment
3145 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
3146 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
3147 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
3148 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
3149 specified by the environment.
3152 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
3153 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
3154 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
3155 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
3156 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
3158 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
3159 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
3160 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
3161 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
3165 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
3168 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
3169 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
3170 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_passwd} to set the proxy
3171 username and password.
3174 @section Distribution
3175 @cindex latest version
3177 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
3178 master GNU archive site ftp.gnu.org, and its mirrors. For example,
3179 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
3180 @url{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
3183 @section Mailing List
3184 @cindex mailing list
3187 There are several Wget-related mailing lists, all hosted by
3188 SunSITE.dk. The general discussion list is at
3189 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}. It is the preferred place for bug reports
3190 and suggestions, as well as for discussion of development. You are
3191 invited to subscribe.
3193 To subscribe, simply send mail to @email{wget-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}
3194 and follow the instructions. Unsubscribe by mailing to
3195 @email{wget-unsubscribe@@sunsite.dk}. The mailing list is archived at
3196 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.dk/} and at
3197 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.general}.
3199 The second mailing list is at @email{wget-patches@@sunsite.dk}, and is
3200 used to submit patches for review by Wget developers. A ``patch'' is
3201 a textual representation of change to source code, readable by both
3202 humans and programs. The file @file{PATCHES} that comes with Wget
3203 covers the creation and submitting of patches in detail. Please don't
3204 send general suggestions or bug reports to @samp{wget-patches}; use it
3205 only for patch submissions.
3207 To subscribe, simply send mail to @email{wget-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}
3208 and follow the instructions. Unsubscribe by mailing to
3209 @email{wget-unsubscribe@@sunsite.dk}. The mailing list is archived at
3210 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.patches}.
3212 Finally, there is a read-only list at @email{wget-cvs@@sunsite.dk}
3213 that tracks commits to the Wget CVS repository. To subscribe to that
3214 list, send mail to @email{wget-cvs-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}. The list
3217 @node Reporting Bugs
3218 @section Reporting Bugs
3220 @cindex reporting bugs
3224 You are welcome to send bug reports about GNU Wget to
3225 @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}.
3227 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
3232 Please try to ascertain that the behavior you see really is a bug. If
3233 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
3234 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
3235 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug.
3238 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
3239 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 -Y0
3240 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
3241 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
3242 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
3243 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
3245 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
3246 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
3247 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
3248 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
3249 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
3253 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send us the resulting
3254 output (or relevant parts thereof). If Wget was compiled without
3255 debug support, recompile it---it is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs
3256 with debug support on.
3258 Note: please make sure to remove any potentially sensitive information
3259 from the debug log before sending it to the bug address. The
3260 @code{-d} won't go out of its way to collect sensitive information,
3261 but the log @emph{will} contain a fairly complete transcript of Wget's
3262 communication with the server, which may include passwords and pieces
3263 of downloaded data. Since the bug address is publically archived, you
3264 may assume that all bug reports are visible to the public.
3267 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
3268 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace. This may not
3269 work if the system administrator has disabled core files, but it is
3275 @section Portability
3277 @cindex operating systems
3279 Like all GNU software, Wget works on the GNU system. However, since it
3280 uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and mostly avoids using
3281 ``special'' features of any particular Unix, it should compile (and
3282 work) on all common Unix flavors.
3284 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds
3285 of Unix systems, including GNU/Linux, Solaris, SunOS 4.x, OSF (aka
3286 Digital Unix or Tru64), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, AIX, and others. Some of
3287 those systems are no longer in widespread use and may not be able to
3288 support recent versions of Wget. If Wget fails to compile on your
3289 system, we would like to know about it.
3291 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works
3292 on 32-bit Microsoft Windows platforms. It has been compiled
3293 successfully using MS Visual C++ 6.0, Watcom, Borland C, and GCC
3294 compilers. Naturally, it is crippled of some features available on
3295 Unix, but it should work as a substitute for people stuck with
3296 Windows. Note that Windows-specific portions of Wget are not
3297 guaranteed to be supported in the future, although this has been the
3298 case in practice for many years now. All questions and problems in
3299 Windows usage should be reported to Wget mailing list at
3300 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the volunteers who maintain the
3301 Windows-related features might look at them.
3305 @cindex signal handling
3308 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
3309 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
3310 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
3311 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
3312 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
3315 $ wget http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz &
3318 SIGHUP received, redirecting output to `wget-log'.
3321 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
3322 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
3327 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
3330 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
3331 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
3332 * Contributors:: People who helped.
3335 @node Robot Exclusion
3336 @section Robot Exclusion
3337 @cindex robot exclusion
3339 @cindex server maintenance
3341 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
3342 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
3343 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
3345 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
3346 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
3347 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
3348 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
3349 section handled by a CGI Perl script that converts Info files to @sc{html} on
3350 the fly. The script is slow, but works well enough for human users
3351 viewing an occasional Info file. However, when someone's recursive Wget
3352 download stumbles upon the index page that links to all the Info files
3353 through the script, the system is brought to its knees without providing
3354 anything useful to the user (This task of converting Info files could be
3355 done locally and access to Info documentation for all installed GNU
3356 software on a system is available from the @code{info} command).
3358 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
3359 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
3360 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} was invented. The idea is that
3361 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
3362 portions of the site they wish to protect from robots and those
3363 they will permit access.
3365 The most popular mechanism, and the @i{de facto} standard supported by
3366 all the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written
3367 by Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text
3368 file containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to
3369 avoid. To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
3370 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are expected to
3373 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
3374 can downloads large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
3375 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
3376 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
3379 wget -r http://www.server.com/
3382 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
3383 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
3384 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
3385 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
3388 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
3389 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
3390 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
3391 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
3392 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
3393 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
3394 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
3395 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
3397 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
3399 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
3400 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
3401 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
3405 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
3408 This is explained in some detail at
3409 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
3410 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
3413 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
3414 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
3415 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
3416 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
3418 @node Security Considerations
3419 @section Security Considerations
3422 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
3423 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
3424 main issues, and some solutions.
3428 The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}. The best
3429 way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s to
3430 Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
3431 Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store passwords; however,
3432 storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a security risk.
3435 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
3436 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
3439 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
3440 solution for this at the moment.
3443 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
3444 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
3445 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
3450 @section Contributors
3451 @cindex contributors
3454 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org}.
3457 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org}.
3459 However, its development could never have gone as far as it has, were it
3460 not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature
3461 proposals, patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
3463 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
3467 Karsten Thygesen---donated system resources such as the mailing list,
3468 web space, and @sc{ftp} space, along with a lot of time to make these
3472 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
3475 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
3479 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
3483 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
3484 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3487 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
3488 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3492 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
3495 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the Italian translation.
3499 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
3503 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
3508 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3511 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3515 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization and other
3519 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
3523 The people who provided donations for development, including Brian
3527 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
3528 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
3529 that make maintenance so much fun:
3549 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
3569 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
3572 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
3592 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
3611 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
3623 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
3624 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
3625 (Simos KSenitellis),
3633 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
3639 Alexander V. Lukyanov,
3670 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
3672 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}gues,
3675 Juan Jose Rodrigues,
3689 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
3703 Douglas E. Wegscheid,
3714 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
3715 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
3722 @cindex free software
3724 GNU Wget is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL),
3725 which makes it @dfn{free software}. Please note that ``free'' in ``free
3726 software'' refers to liberty, not price. As some people like to point
3727 out, it's the ``free'' of ``free speech'', not the ``free'' of ``free
3730 The exact and legally binding distribution terms are spelled out below.
3731 The GPL guarantees that you have the right (freedom) to run and change
3732 GNU Wget and distribute it to others, and even---if you want---charge
3733 money for doing any of those things. With these rights comes the
3734 obligation to distribute the source code along with the software and to
3735 grant your recipients the same rights and impose the same restrictions.
3737 This licensing model is also known as @dfn{open source} because it,
3738 among other things, makes sure that all recipients will receive the
3739 source code along with the program, and be able to improve it. The GNU
3740 project prefers the term ``free software'' for reasons outlined at
3741 @url{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html}.
3743 The exact license terms are defined by this paragraph and the GNU
3744 General Public License it refers to:
3747 GNU Wget is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
3748 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
3749 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
3750 option) any later version.
3752 GNU Wget is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
3753 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
3754 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
3757 A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as part of this
3758 manual; if you did not receive it, write to the Free Software
3759 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3762 In addition to this, this manual is free in the same sense:
3765 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
3766 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
3767 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
3768 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
3769 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
3770 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
3771 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
3774 @c #### Maybe we should wrap these licenses in ifinfo? Stallman says
3775 @c that the GFDL needs to be present in the manual, and to me it would
3776 @c suck to include the license for the manual and not the license for
3779 The full texts of the GNU General Public License and of the GNU Free
3780 Documentation License are available below.
3783 * GNU General Public License::
3784 * GNU Free Documentation License::
3787 @node GNU General Public License
3788 @section GNU General Public License
3789 @center Version 2, June 1991
3792 Copyright @copyright{} 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3793 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
3795 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
3796 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
3799 @unnumberedsec Preamble
3801 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
3802 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
3803 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
3804 software---to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
3805 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
3806 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
3807 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
3808 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
3811 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
3812 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
3813 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
3814 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
3815 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
3816 in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
3818 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
3819 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
3820 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
3821 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
3823 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
3824 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
3825 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
3826 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
3829 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
3830 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
3831 distribute and/or modify the software.
3833 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
3834 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
3835 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
3836 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
3837 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
3838 authors' reputations.
3840 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
3841 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
3842 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
3843 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
3844 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
3846 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
3847 modification follow.
3850 @unnumberedsec TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3853 @center TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3858 This License applies to any program or other work which contains
3859 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
3860 under the terms of this General Public License. The ``Program'', below,
3861 refers to any such program or work, and a ``work based on the Program''
3862 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
3863 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
3864 either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
3865 language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
3866 the term ``modification''.) Each licensee is addressed as ``you''.
3868 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
3869 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
3870 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
3871 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
3872 Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
3873 Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
3876 You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
3877 source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
3878 conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
3879 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
3880 notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
3881 and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
3882 along with the Program.
3884 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
3885 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
3888 You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
3889 of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
3890 distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
3891 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
3895 You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
3896 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
3899 You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
3900 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
3901 part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
3902 parties under the terms of this License.
3905 If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
3906 when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
3907 interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
3908 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
3909 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
3910 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
3911 these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
3912 License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
3913 does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
3914 the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
3917 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
3918 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
3919 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
3920 themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
3921 sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
3922 distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
3923 on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
3924 this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
3925 entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
3927 Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
3928 your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
3929 exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
3930 collective works based on the Program.
3932 In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
3933 with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
3934 a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
3935 the scope of this License.
3938 You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
3939 under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
3940 Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
3944 Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
3945 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
3946 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
3949 Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
3950 years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
3951 cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
3952 machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
3953 distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
3954 customarily used for software interchange; or,
3957 Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
3958 to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
3959 allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
3960 received the program in object code or executable form with such
3961 an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
3964 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
3965 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
3966 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
3967 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
3968 control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
3969 special exception, the source code distributed need not include
3970 anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
3971 form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
3972 operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
3973 itself accompanies the executable.
3975 If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
3976 access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
3977 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
3978 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
3979 compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
3982 You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
3983 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
3984 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
3985 void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
3986 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
3987 this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
3988 parties remain in full compliance.
3991 You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
3992 signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
3993 distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
3994 prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
3995 modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
3996 Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
3997 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
3998 the Program or works based on it.
4001 Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
4002 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
4003 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
4004 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
4005 restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
4006 You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
4010 If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
4011 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
4012 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
4013 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
4014 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
4015 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
4016 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
4017 may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
4018 license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
4019 all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
4020 the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
4021 refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
4023 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
4024 any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
4025 apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
4028 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
4029 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
4030 such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
4031 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
4032 implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
4033 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
4034 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
4035 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
4036 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
4039 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
4040 be a consequence of the rest of this License.
4043 If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
4044 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
4045 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
4046 may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
4047 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
4048 countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
4049 the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
4052 The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
4053 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
4054 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
4055 address new problems or concerns.
4057 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
4058 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and ``any
4059 later version'', you have the option of following the terms and conditions
4060 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
4061 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
4062 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
4066 If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
4067 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
4068 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
4069 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
4070 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
4071 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
4072 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
4075 @heading NO WARRANTY
4083 BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
4084 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
4085 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
4086 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
4087 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
4088 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
4089 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
4090 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
4091 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
4094 IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
4095 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
4096 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
4097 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
4098 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
4099 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
4100 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
4101 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
4102 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
4106 @heading END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
4109 @center END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
4113 @unnumberedsec How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
4115 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
4116 possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
4117 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
4119 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
4120 to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
4121 convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
4122 the ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
4125 @var{one line to give the program's name and an idea of what it does.}
4126 Copyright (C) 20@var{yy} @var{name of author}
4128 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
4129 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
4130 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
4131 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
4133 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
4134 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
4135 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
4136 GNU General Public License for more details.
4138 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
4139 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
4140 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
4143 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
4145 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
4146 when it starts in an interactive mode:
4149 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 20@var{yy} @var{name of author}
4150 Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
4151 type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome
4152 to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c'
4156 The hypothetical commands @samp{show w} and @samp{show c} should show
4157 the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
4158 commands you use may be called something other than @samp{show w} and
4159 @samp{show c}; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items---whatever
4162 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
4163 school, if any, to sign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if
4164 necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
4168 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright
4169 interest in the program `Gnomovision'
4170 (which makes passes at compilers) written
4173 @var{signature of Ty Coon}, 1 April 1989
4174 Ty Coon, President of Vice
4178 This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
4179 proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
4180 consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
4181 library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
4182 Public License instead of this License.
4187 @unnumbered Concept Index