1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
6 @settitle GNU Wget @value{VERSION} Manual
7 @c Disable the monstrous rectangles beside overfull hbox-es.
9 @c Use `odd' to print double-sided.
14 @c Remove this if you don't use A4 paper.
18 @c Title for man page. The weird way texi2pod.pl is written requires
19 @c the preceding @set.
21 @c man title Wget The non-interactive network downloader.
23 @dircategory Network Applications
25 * Wget: (wget). The non-interactive network downloader.
29 This file documents the GNU Wget utility for downloading network
32 @c man begin COPYRIGHT
33 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
34 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
37 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
38 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
39 are preserved on all copies.
43 Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the
44 results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission
45 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
46 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
48 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
49 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
50 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
51 Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
52 copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free
53 Documentation License''.
58 @title GNU Wget @value{VERSION}
59 @subtitle The non-interactive download utility
60 @subtitle Updated for Wget @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
61 @author by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} and others
65 Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>.
66 Currently maintained by Micah Cowan <micah@cowan.name>.
69 This is @strong{not} the complete manual for GNU Wget.
70 For more complete information, including more detailed explanations of
71 some of the options, and a number of commands available
72 for use with @file{.wgetrc} files and the @samp{-e} option, see the GNU
73 Info entry for @file{wget}.
78 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
85 @node Top, Overview, (dir), (dir)
86 @top Wget @value{VERSION}
92 * Overview:: Features of Wget.
93 * Invoking:: Wget command-line arguments.
94 * Recursive Download:: Downloading interlinked pages.
95 * Following Links:: The available methods of chasing links.
96 * Time-Stamping:: Mirroring according to time-stamps.
97 * Startup File:: Wget's initialization file.
98 * Examples:: Examples of usage.
99 * Various:: The stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
100 * Appendices:: Some useful references.
101 * Copying this manual:: You may give out copies of Wget and of this manual.
102 * Concept Index:: Topics covered by this manual.
105 @node Overview, Invoking, Top, Top
110 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
111 GNU Wget is a free utility for non-interactive download of files from
112 the Web. It supports @sc{http}, @sc{https}, and @sc{ftp} protocols, as
113 well as retrieval through @sc{http} proxies.
116 This chapter is a partial overview of Wget's features.
120 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
121 Wget is non-interactive, meaning that it can work in the background,
122 while the user is not logged on. This allows you to start a retrieval
123 and disconnect from the system, letting Wget finish the work. By
124 contrast, most of the Web browsers require constant user's presence,
125 which can be a great hindrance when transferring a lot of data.
130 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
134 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
135 Wget can follow links in @sc{html}, @sc{xhtml}, and @sc{css} pages, to
136 create local versions of remote web sites, fully recreating the
137 directory structure of the original site. This is sometimes referred to
138 as ``recursive downloading.'' While doing that, Wget respects the Robot
139 Exclusion Standard (@file{/robots.txt}). Wget can be instructed to
140 convert the links in downloaded files to point at the local files, for
145 File name wildcard matching and recursive mirroring of directories are
146 available when retrieving via @sc{ftp}. Wget can read the time-stamp
147 information given by both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} servers, and store it
148 locally. Thus Wget can see if the remote file has changed since last
149 retrieval, and automatically retrieve the new version if it has. This
150 makes Wget suitable for mirroring of @sc{ftp} sites, as well as home
155 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
159 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
160 Wget has been designed for robustness over slow or unstable network
161 connections; if a download fails due to a network problem, it will
162 keep retrying until the whole file has been retrieved. If the server
163 supports regetting, it will instruct the server to continue the
164 download from where it left off.
168 Wget supports proxy servers, which can lighten the network load, speed
169 up retrieval and provide access behind firewalls. Wget uses the passive
170 @sc{ftp} downloading by default, active @sc{ftp} being an option.
173 Wget supports IP version 6, the next generation of IP. IPv6 is
174 autodetected at compile-time, and can be disabled at either build or
175 run time. Binaries built with IPv6 support work well in both
176 IPv4-only and dual family environments.
179 Built-in features offer mechanisms to tune which links you wish to follow
180 (@pxref{Following Links}).
183 The progress of individual downloads is traced using a progress gauge.
184 Interactive downloads are tracked using a ``thermometer''-style gauge,
185 whereas non-interactive ones are traced with dots, each dot
186 representing a fixed amount of data received (1KB by default). Either
187 gauge can be customized to your preferences.
190 Most of the features are fully configurable, either through command line
191 options, or via the initialization file @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup
192 File}). Wget allows you to define @dfn{global} startup files
193 (@file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default) for site settings.
198 @item /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
199 Default location of the @dfn{global} startup file.
208 Finally, GNU Wget is free software. This means that everyone may use
209 it, redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
210 Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation (see the
211 file @file{COPYING} that came with GNU Wget, for details).
214 @node Invoking, Recursive Download, Overview, Top
221 By default, Wget is very simple to invoke. The basic syntax is:
224 @c man begin SYNOPSIS
225 wget [@var{option}]@dots{} [@var{URL}]@dots{}
229 Wget will simply download all the @sc{url}s specified on the command
230 line. @var{URL} is a @dfn{Uniform Resource Locator}, as defined below.
232 However, you may wish to change some of the default parameters of
233 Wget. You can do it two ways: permanently, adding the appropriate
234 command to @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup File}), or specifying it on
240 * Basic Startup Options::
241 * Logging and Input File Options::
243 * Directory Options::
245 * HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options::
247 * Recursive Retrieval Options::
248 * Recursive Accept/Reject Options::
251 @node URL Format, Option Syntax, Invoking, Invoking
256 @dfn{URL} is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A uniform
257 resource locator is a compact string representation for a resource
258 available via the Internet. Wget recognizes the @sc{url} syntax as per
259 @sc{rfc1738}. This is the most widely used form (square brackets denote
263 http://host[:port]/directory/file
264 ftp://host[:port]/directory/file
267 You can also encode your username and password within a @sc{url}:
270 ftp://user:password@@host/path
271 http://user:password@@host/path
274 Either @var{user} or @var{password}, or both, may be left out. If you
275 leave out either the @sc{http} username or password, no authentication
276 will be sent. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} username, @samp{anonymous}
277 will be used. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} password, your email
278 address will be supplied as a default password.@footnote{If you have a
279 @file{.netrc} file in your home directory, password will also be
282 @strong{Important Note}: if you specify a password-containing @sc{url}
283 on the command line, the username and password will be plainly visible
284 to all users on the system, by way of @code{ps}. On multi-user systems,
285 this is a big security risk. To work around it, use @code{wget -i -}
286 and feed the @sc{url}s to Wget's standard input, each on a separate
287 line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
289 You can encode unsafe characters in a @sc{url} as @samp{%xy}, @code{xy}
290 being the hexadecimal representation of the character's @sc{ascii}
291 value. Some common unsafe characters include @samp{%} (quoted as
292 @samp{%25}), @samp{:} (quoted as @samp{%3A}), and @samp{@@} (quoted as
293 @samp{%40}). Refer to @sc{rfc1738} for a comprehensive list of unsafe
296 Wget also supports the @code{type} feature for @sc{ftp} @sc{url}s. By
297 default, @sc{ftp} documents are retrieved in the binary mode (type
298 @samp{i}), which means that they are downloaded unchanged. Another
299 useful mode is the @samp{a} (@dfn{ASCII}) mode, which converts the line
300 delimiters between the different operating systems, and is thus useful
301 for text files. Here is an example:
304 ftp://host/directory/file;type=a
307 Two alternative variants of @sc{url} specification are also supported,
308 because of historical (hysterical?) reasons and their widespreaded use.
310 @sc{ftp}-only syntax (supported by @code{NcFTP}):
315 @sc{http}-only syntax (introduced by @code{Netscape}):
320 These two alternative forms are deprecated, and may cease being
321 supported in the future.
323 If you do not understand the difference between these notations, or do
324 not know which one to use, just use the plain ordinary format you use
325 with your favorite browser, like @code{Lynx} or @code{Netscape}.
329 @node Option Syntax, Basic Startup Options, URL Format, Invoking
330 @section Option Syntax
331 @cindex option syntax
332 @cindex syntax of options
334 Since Wget uses GNU getopt to process command-line arguments, every
335 option has a long form along with the short one. Long options are
336 more convenient to remember, but take time to type. You may freely
337 mix different option styles, or specify options after the command-line
338 arguments. Thus you may write:
341 wget -r --tries=10 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/ -o log
344 The space between the option accepting an argument and the argument may
345 be omitted. Instead of @samp{-o log} you can write @samp{-olog}.
347 You may put several options that do not require arguments together,
354 This is a complete equivalent of:
357 wget -d -r -c @var{URL}
360 Since the options can be specified after the arguments, you may
361 terminate them with @samp{--}. So the following will try to download
362 @sc{url} @samp{-x}, reporting failure to @file{log}:
368 The options that accept comma-separated lists all respect the convention
369 that specifying an empty list clears its value. This can be useful to
370 clear the @file{.wgetrc} settings. For instance, if your @file{.wgetrc}
371 sets @code{exclude_directories} to @file{/cgi-bin}, the following
372 example will first reset it, and then set it to exclude @file{/~nobody}
373 and @file{/~somebody}. You can also clear the lists in @file{.wgetrc}
374 (@pxref{Wgetrc Syntax}).
377 wget -X '' -X /~nobody,/~somebody
380 Most options that do not accept arguments are @dfn{boolean} options,
381 so named because their state can be captured with a yes-or-no
382 (``boolean'') variable. For example, @samp{--follow-ftp} tells Wget
383 to follow FTP links from HTML files and, on the other hand,
384 @samp{--no-glob} tells it not to perform file globbing on FTP URLs. A
385 boolean option is either @dfn{affirmative} or @dfn{negative}
386 (beginning with @samp{--no}). All such options share several
389 Unless stated otherwise, it is assumed that the default behavior is
390 the opposite of what the option accomplishes. For example, the
391 documented existence of @samp{--follow-ftp} assumes that the default
392 is to @emph{not} follow FTP links from HTML pages.
394 Affirmative options can be negated by prepending the @samp{--no-} to
395 the option name; negative options can be negated by omitting the
396 @samp{--no-} prefix. This might seem superfluous---if the default for
397 an affirmative option is to not do something, then why provide a way
398 to explicitly turn it off? But the startup file may in fact change
399 the default. For instance, using @code{follow_ftp = on} in
400 @file{.wgetrc} makes Wget @emph{follow} FTP links by default, and
401 using @samp{--no-follow-ftp} is the only way to restore the factory
402 default from the command line.
404 @node Basic Startup Options, Logging and Input File Options, Option Syntax, Invoking
405 @section Basic Startup Options
410 Display the version of Wget.
414 Print a help message describing all of Wget's command-line options.
418 Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is
419 specified via the @samp{-o}, output is redirected to @file{wget-log}.
421 @cindex execute wgetrc command
422 @item -e @var{command}
423 @itemx --execute @var{command}
424 Execute @var{command} as if it were a part of @file{.wgetrc}
425 (@pxref{Startup File}). A command thus invoked will be executed
426 @emph{after} the commands in @file{.wgetrc}, thus taking precedence over
427 them. If you need to specify more than one wgetrc command, use multiple
428 instances of @samp{-e}.
432 @node Logging and Input File Options, Download Options, Basic Startup Options, Invoking
433 @section Logging and Input File Options
438 @item -o @var{logfile}
439 @itemx --output-file=@var{logfile}
440 Log all messages to @var{logfile}. The messages are normally reported
443 @cindex append to log
444 @item -a @var{logfile}
445 @itemx --append-output=@var{logfile}
446 Append to @var{logfile}. This is the same as @samp{-o}, only it appends
447 to @var{logfile} instead of overwriting the old log file. If
448 @var{logfile} does not exist, a new file is created.
453 Turn on debug output, meaning various information important to the
454 developers of Wget if it does not work properly. Your system
455 administrator may have chosen to compile Wget without debug support, in
456 which case @samp{-d} will not work. Please note that compiling with
457 debug support is always safe---Wget compiled with the debug support will
458 @emph{not} print any debug info unless requested with @samp{-d}.
459 @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information on how to use @samp{-d} for
465 Turn off Wget's output.
470 Turn on verbose output, with all the available data. The default output
475 Turn off verbose without being completely quiet (use @samp{-q} for
476 that), which means that error messages and basic information still get
481 @itemx --input-file=@var{file}
482 Read @sc{url}s from a local or external @var{file}. If @samp{-} is
483 specified as @var{file}, @sc{url}s are read from the standard input.
484 (Use @samp{./-} to read from a file literally named @samp{-}.)
486 If this function is used, no @sc{url}s need be present on the command
487 line. If there are @sc{url}s both on the command line and in an input
488 file, those on the command lines will be the first ones to be
489 retrieved. If @samp{--force-html} is not specified, then @var{file}
490 should consist of a series of URLs, one per line.
492 However, if you specify @samp{--force-html}, the document will be
493 regarded as @samp{html}. In that case you may have problems with
494 relative links, which you can solve either by adding @code{<base
495 href="@var{url}">} to the documents or by specifying
496 @samp{--base=@var{url}} on the command line.
498 If the @var{file} is an external one, the document will be automatically
499 treated as @samp{html} if the Content-Type matches @samp{text/html}.
500 Furthermore, the @var{file}'s location will be implicitly used as base
501 href if none was specified.
506 When input is read from a file, force it to be treated as an @sc{html}
507 file. This enables you to retrieve relative links from existing
508 @sc{html} files on your local disk, by adding @code{<base
509 href="@var{url}">} to @sc{html}, or using the @samp{--base} command-line
512 @cindex base for relative links in input file
514 @itemx --base=@var{URL}
515 Resolves relative links using @var{URL} as the point of reference,
516 when reading links from an HTML file specified via the
517 @samp{-i}/@samp{--input-file} option (together with
518 @samp{--force-html}, or when the input file was fetched remotely from
519 a server describing it as @sc{html}). This is equivalent to the
520 presence of a @code{BASE} tag in the @sc{html} input file, with
521 @var{URL} as the value for the @code{href} attribute.
523 For instance, if you specify @samp{http://foo/bar/a.html} for
524 @var{URL}, and Wget reads @samp{../baz/b.html} from the input file, it
525 would be resolved to @samp{http://foo/baz/b.html}.
528 @node Download Options, Directory Options, Logging and Input File Options, Invoking
529 @section Download Options
533 @cindex client IP address
534 @cindex IP address, client
535 @item --bind-address=@var{ADDRESS}
536 When making client TCP/IP connections, bind to @var{ADDRESS} on
537 the local machine. @var{ADDRESS} may be specified as a hostname or IP
538 address. This option can be useful if your machine is bound to multiple
543 @cindex number of retries
544 @item -t @var{number}
545 @itemx --tries=@var{number}
546 Set number of retries to @var{number}. Specify 0 or @samp{inf} for
547 infinite retrying. The default is to retry 20 times, with the exception
548 of fatal errors like ``connection refused'' or ``not found'' (404),
549 which are not retried.
552 @itemx --output-document=@var{file}
553 The documents will not be written to the appropriate files, but all
554 will be concatenated together and written to @var{file}. If @samp{-}
555 is used as @var{file}, documents will be printed to standard output,
556 disabling link conversion. (Use @samp{./-} to print to a file
557 literally named @samp{-}.)
559 Use of @samp{-O} is @emph{not} intended to mean simply ``use the name
560 @var{file} instead of the one in the URL;'' rather, it is
561 analogous to shell redirection:
562 @samp{wget -O file http://foo} is intended to work like
563 @samp{wget -O - http://foo > file}; @file{file} will be truncated
564 immediately, and @emph{all} downloaded content will be written there.
566 For this reason, @samp{-N} (for timestamp-checking) is not supported
567 in combination with @samp{-O}: since @var{file} is always newly
568 created, it will always have a very new timestamp. A warning will be
569 issued if this combination is used.
571 Similarly, using @samp{-r} or @samp{-p} with @samp{-O} may not work as
572 you expect: Wget won't just download the first file to @var{file} and
573 then download the rest to their normal names: @emph{all} downloaded
574 content will be placed in @var{file}. This was disabled in version
575 1.11, but has been reinstated (with a warning) in 1.11.2, as there are
576 some cases where this behavior can actually have some use.
578 Note that a combination with @samp{-k} is only permitted when
579 downloading a single document, as in that case it will just convert
580 all relative URIs to external ones; @samp{-k} makes no sense for
581 multiple URIs when they're all being downloaded to a single file.
583 @cindex clobbering, file
584 @cindex downloading multiple times
588 If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget's
589 behavior depends on a few options, including @samp{-nc}. In certain
590 cases, the local file will be @dfn{clobbered}, or overwritten, upon
591 repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
593 When running Wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, @samp{-r}, or
594 @samp{-p}, downloading the same file in the same directory will result
595 in the original copy of @var{file} being preserved and the second copy
596 being named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet
597 again, the third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on.
598 (This is also the behavior with @samp{-nd}, even if @samp{-r} or
599 @samp{-p} are in effect.) When @samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior
600 is suppressed, and Wget will refuse to download newer copies of
601 @samp{@var{file}}. Therefore, ``@code{no-clobber}'' is actually a
602 misnomer in this mode---it's not clobbering that's prevented (as the
603 numeric suffixes were already preventing clobbering), but rather the
604 multiple version saving that's prevented.
606 When running Wget with @samp{-r} or @samp{-p}, but without @samp{-N},
607 @samp{-nd}, or @samp{-nc}, re-downloading a file will result in the
608 new copy simply overwriting the old. Adding @samp{-nc} will prevent
609 this behavior, instead causing the original version to be preserved
610 and any newer copies on the server to be ignored.
612 When running Wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r} or
613 @samp{-p}, the decision as to whether or not to download a newer copy
614 of a file depends on the local and remote timestamp and size of the
615 file (@pxref{Time-Stamping}). @samp{-nc} may not be specified at the
616 same time as @samp{-N}.
618 Note that when @samp{-nc} is specified, files with the suffixes
619 @samp{.html} or @samp{.htm} will be loaded from the local disk and
620 parsed as if they had been retrieved from the Web.
622 @cindex continue retrieval
623 @cindex incomplete downloads
624 @cindex resume download
627 Continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you
628 want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or
629 by another program. For instance:
632 wget -c ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ls-lR.Z
635 If there is a file named @file{ls-lR.Z} in the current directory, Wget
636 will assume that it is the first portion of the remote file, and will
637 ask the server to continue the retrieval from an offset equal to the
638 length of the local file.
640 Note that you don't need to specify this option if you just want the
641 current invocation of Wget to retry downloading a file should the
642 connection be lost midway through. This is the default behavior.
643 @samp{-c} only affects resumption of downloads started @emph{prior} to
644 this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are still sitting around.
646 Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just download the remote
647 file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}, leaving the truncated @file{ls-lR.Z} file
650 Beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a non-empty file, and
651 it turns out that the server does not support continued downloading,
652 Wget will refuse to start the download from scratch, which would
653 effectively ruin existing contents. If you really want the download to
654 start from scratch, remove the file.
656 Also beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a file which is of
657 equal size as the one on the server, Wget will refuse to download the
658 file and print an explanatory message. The same happens when the file
659 is smaller on the server than locally (presumably because it was changed
660 on the server since your last download attempt)---because ``continuing''
661 is not meaningful, no download occurs.
663 On the other side of the coin, while using @samp{-c}, any file that's
664 bigger on the server than locally will be considered an incomplete
665 download and only @code{(length(remote) - length(local))} bytes will be
666 downloaded and tacked onto the end of the local file. This behavior can
667 be desirable in certain cases---for instance, you can use @samp{wget -c}
668 to download just the new portion that's been appended to a data
669 collection or log file.
671 However, if the file is bigger on the server because it's been
672 @emph{changed}, as opposed to just @emph{appended} to, you'll end up
673 with a garbled file. Wget has no way of verifying that the local file
674 is really a valid prefix of the remote file. You need to be especially
675 careful of this when using @samp{-c} in conjunction with @samp{-r},
676 since every file will be considered as an "incomplete download" candidate.
678 Another instance where you'll get a garbled file if you try to use
679 @samp{-c} is if you have a lame @sc{http} proxy that inserts a
680 ``transfer interrupted'' string into the local file. In the future a
681 ``rollback'' option may be added to deal with this case.
683 Note that @samp{-c} only works with @sc{ftp} servers and with @sc{http}
684 servers that support the @code{Range} header.
686 @cindex progress indicator
688 @item --progress=@var{type}
689 Select the type of the progress indicator you wish to use. Legal
690 indicators are ``dot'' and ``bar''.
692 The ``bar'' indicator is used by default. It draws an @sc{ascii} progress
693 bar graphics (a.k.a ``thermometer'' display) indicating the status of
694 retrieval. If the output is not a TTY, the ``dot'' bar will be used by
697 Use @samp{--progress=dot} to switch to the ``dot'' display. It traces
698 the retrieval by printing dots on the screen, each dot representing a
699 fixed amount of downloaded data.
701 When using the dotted retrieval, you may also set the @dfn{style} by
702 specifying the type as @samp{dot:@var{style}}. Different styles assign
703 different meaning to one dot. With the @code{default} style each dot
704 represents 1K, there are ten dots in a cluster and 50 dots in a line.
705 The @code{binary} style has a more ``computer''-like orientation---8K
706 dots, 16-dots clusters and 48 dots per line (which makes for 384K
707 lines). The @code{mega} style is suitable for downloading very large
708 files---each dot represents 64K retrieved, there are eight dots in a
709 cluster, and 48 dots on each line (so each line contains 3M).
711 Note that you can set the default style using the @code{progress}
712 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
713 command line. The exception is that, when the output is not a TTY, the
714 ``dot'' progress will be favored over ``bar''. To force the bar output,
715 use @samp{--progress=bar:force}.
718 @itemx --timestamping
719 Turn on time-stamping. @xref{Time-Stamping}, for details.
721 @cindex server response, print
723 @itemx --server-response
724 Print the headers sent by @sc{http} servers and responses sent by
727 @cindex Wget as spider
730 When invoked with this option, Wget will behave as a Web @dfn{spider},
731 which means that it will not download the pages, just check that they
732 are there. For example, you can use Wget to check your bookmarks:
735 wget --spider --force-html -i bookmarks.html
738 This feature needs much more work for Wget to get close to the
739 functionality of real web spiders.
743 @itemx --timeout=@var{seconds}
744 Set the network timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. This is equivalent
745 to specifying @samp{--dns-timeout}, @samp{--connect-timeout}, and
746 @samp{--read-timeout}, all at the same time.
748 When interacting with the network, Wget can check for timeout and
749 abort the operation if it takes too long. This prevents anomalies
750 like hanging reads and infinite connects. The only timeout enabled by
751 default is a 900-second read timeout. Setting a timeout to 0 disables
752 it altogether. Unless you know what you are doing, it is best not to
753 change the default timeout settings.
755 All timeout-related options accept decimal values, as well as
756 subsecond values. For example, @samp{0.1} seconds is a legal (though
757 unwise) choice of timeout. Subsecond timeouts are useful for checking
758 server response times or for testing network latency.
762 @item --dns-timeout=@var{seconds}
763 Set the DNS lookup timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. DNS lookups that
764 don't complete within the specified time will fail. By default, there
765 is no timeout on DNS lookups, other than that implemented by system
768 @cindex connect timeout
769 @cindex timeout, connect
770 @item --connect-timeout=@var{seconds}
771 Set the connect timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. TCP connections that
772 take longer to establish will be aborted. By default, there is no
773 connect timeout, other than that implemented by system libraries.
776 @cindex timeout, read
777 @item --read-timeout=@var{seconds}
778 Set the read (and write) timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. The
779 ``time'' of this timeout refers to @dfn{idle time}: if, at any point in
780 the download, no data is received for more than the specified number
781 of seconds, reading fails and the download is restarted. This option
782 does not directly affect the duration of the entire download.
784 Of course, the remote server may choose to terminate the connection
785 sooner than this option requires. The default read timeout is 900
788 @cindex bandwidth, limit
790 @cindex limit bandwidth
791 @item --limit-rate=@var{amount}
792 Limit the download speed to @var{amount} bytes per second. Amount may
793 be expressed in bytes, kilobytes with the @samp{k} suffix, or megabytes
794 with the @samp{m} suffix. For example, @samp{--limit-rate=20k} will
795 limit the retrieval rate to 20KB/s. This is useful when, for whatever
796 reason, you don't want Wget to consume the entire available bandwidth.
798 This option allows the use of decimal numbers, usually in conjunction
799 with power suffixes; for example, @samp{--limit-rate=2.5k} is a legal
802 Note that Wget implements the limiting by sleeping the appropriate
803 amount of time after a network read that took less time than specified
804 by the rate. Eventually this strategy causes the TCP transfer to slow
805 down to approximately the specified rate. However, it may take some
806 time for this balance to be achieved, so don't be surprised if limiting
807 the rate doesn't work well with very small files.
811 @item -w @var{seconds}
812 @itemx --wait=@var{seconds}
813 Wait the specified number of seconds between the retrievals. Use of
814 this option is recommended, as it lightens the server load by making the
815 requests less frequent. Instead of in seconds, the time can be
816 specified in minutes using the @code{m} suffix, in hours using @code{h}
817 suffix, or in days using @code{d} suffix.
819 Specifying a large value for this option is useful if the network or the
820 destination host is down, so that Wget can wait long enough to
821 reasonably expect the network error to be fixed before the retry. The
822 waiting interval specified by this function is influenced by
823 @code{--random-wait}, which see.
825 @cindex retries, waiting between
826 @cindex waiting between retries
827 @item --waitretry=@var{seconds}
828 If you don't want Wget to wait between @emph{every} retrieval, but only
829 between retries of failed downloads, you can use this option. Wget will
830 use @dfn{linear backoff}, waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
831 given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second failure on that
832 file, up to the maximum number of @var{seconds} you specify. Therefore,
833 a value of 10 will actually make Wget wait up to (1 + 2 + ... + 10) = 55
836 By default, Wget will assume a value of 10 seconds.
841 Some web sites may perform log analysis to identify retrieval programs
842 such as Wget by looking for statistically significant similarities in
843 the time between requests. This option causes the time between requests
844 to vary between 0.5 and 1.5 * @var{wait} seconds, where @var{wait} was
845 specified using the @samp{--wait} option, in order to mask Wget's
846 presence from such analysis.
848 A 2001 article in a publication devoted to development on a popular
849 consumer platform provided code to perform this analysis on the fly.
850 Its author suggested blocking at the class C address level to ensure
851 automated retrieval programs were blocked despite changing DHCP-supplied
854 The @samp{--random-wait} option was inspired by this ill-advised
855 recommendation to block many unrelated users from a web site due to the
860 Don't use proxies, even if the appropriate @code{*_proxy} environment
864 For more information about the use of proxies with Wget, @xref{Proxies}.
869 @itemx --quota=@var{quota}
870 Specify download quota for automatic retrievals. The value can be
871 specified in bytes (default), kilobytes (with @samp{k} suffix), or
872 megabytes (with @samp{m} suffix).
874 Note that quota will never affect downloading a single file. So if you
875 specify @samp{wget -Q10k ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/ls-lR.gz}, all of the
876 @file{ls-lR.gz} will be downloaded. The same goes even when several
877 @sc{url}s are specified on the command-line. However, quota is
878 respected when retrieving either recursively, or from an input file.
879 Thus you may safely type @samp{wget -Q2m -i sites}---download will be
880 aborted when the quota is exceeded.
882 Setting quota to 0 or to @samp{inf} unlimits the download quota.
885 @cindex caching of DNS lookups
887 Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the IP
888 addresses it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly
889 contact the DNS server for the same (typically small) set of hosts it
890 retrieves from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will
893 However, it has been reported that in some situations it is not
894 desirable to cache host names, even for the duration of a
895 short-running application like Wget. With this option Wget issues a
896 new DNS lookup (more precisely, a new call to @code{gethostbyname} or
897 @code{getaddrinfo}) each time it makes a new connection. Please note
898 that this option will @emph{not} affect caching that might be
899 performed by the resolving library or by an external caching layer,
902 If you don't understand exactly what this option does, you probably
905 @cindex file names, restrict
906 @cindex Windows file names
907 @item --restrict-file-names=@var{mode}
908 Change which characters found in remote URLs may show up in local file
909 names generated from those URLs. Characters that are @dfn{restricted}
910 by this option are escaped, i.e. replaced with @samp{%HH}, where
911 @samp{HH} is the hexadecimal number that corresponds to the restricted
914 By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid as part of
915 file names on your operating system, as well as control characters that
916 are typically unprintable. This option is useful for changing these
917 defaults, either because you are downloading to a non-native partition,
918 or because you want to disable escaping of the control characters.
920 When mode is set to ``unix'', Wget escapes the character @samp{/} and
921 the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159. This is the
922 default on Unix-like OS'es.
924 When mode is set to ``windows'', Wget escapes the characters @samp{\},
925 @samp{|}, @samp{/}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
926 @samp{>}, and the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159.
927 In addition to this, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead of
928 @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
929 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
930 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
931 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
932 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
933 mode. This mode is the default on Windows.
935 If you append @samp{,nocontrol} to the mode, as in
936 @samp{unix,nocontrol}, escaping of the control characters is also
937 switched off. You can use @samp{--restrict-file-names=nocontrol} to
938 turn off escaping of control characters without affecting the choice of
939 the OS to use as file name restriction mode.
946 Force connecting to IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. With @samp{--inet4-only}
947 or @samp{-4}, Wget will only connect to IPv4 hosts, ignoring AAAA
948 records in DNS, and refusing to connect to IPv6 addresses specified in
949 URLs. Conversely, with @samp{--inet6-only} or @samp{-6}, Wget will
950 only connect to IPv6 hosts and ignore A records and IPv4 addresses.
952 Neither options should be needed normally. By default, an IPv6-aware
953 Wget will use the address family specified by the host's DNS record.
954 If the DNS responds with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, Wget will try
955 them in sequence until it finds one it can connect to. (Also see
956 @code{--prefer-family} option described below.)
958 These options can be used to deliberately force the use of IPv4 or
959 IPv6 address families on dual family systems, usually to aid debugging
960 or to deal with broken network configuration. Only one of
961 @samp{--inet6-only} and @samp{--inet4-only} may be specified at the
962 same time. Neither option is available in Wget compiled without IPv6
965 @item --prefer-family=none/IPv4/IPv6
966 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
967 with specified address family first. The address order returned by
968 DNS is used without change by default.
970 This avoids spurious errors and connect attempts when accessing hosts
971 that resolve to both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses from IPv4 networks. For
972 example, @samp{www.kame.net} resolves to
973 @samp{2001:200:0:8002:203:47ff:fea5:3085} and to
974 @samp{203.178.141.194}. When the preferred family is @code{IPv4}, the
975 IPv4 address is used first; when the preferred family is @code{IPv6},
976 the IPv6 address is used first; if the specified value is @code{none},
977 the address order returned by DNS is used without change.
979 Unlike @samp{-4} and @samp{-6}, this option doesn't inhibit access to
980 any address family, it only changes the @emph{order} in which the
981 addresses are accessed. Also note that the reordering performed by
982 this option is @dfn{stable}---it doesn't affect order of addresses of
983 the same family. That is, the relative order of all IPv4 addresses
984 and of all IPv6 addresses remains intact in all cases.
986 @item --retry-connrefused
987 Consider ``connection refused'' a transient error and try again.
988 Normally Wget gives up on a URL when it is unable to connect to the
989 site because failure to connect is taken as a sign that the server is
990 not running at all and that retries would not help. This option is
991 for mirroring unreliable sites whose servers tend to disappear for
992 short periods of time.
996 @cindex authentication
997 @item --user=@var{user}
998 @itemx --password=@var{password}
999 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for both
1000 @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval. These parameters can be overridden
1001 using the @samp{--ftp-user} and @samp{--ftp-password} options for
1002 @sc{ftp} connections and the @samp{--http-user} and @samp{--http-password}
1003 options for @sc{http} connections.
1005 @item --ask-password
1006 Prompt for a password for each connection established. Cannot be specified
1007 when @samp{--password} is being used, because they are mutually exclusive.
1013 Turn off internationalized URI (IRI) support. Use @samp{--iri} to
1014 turn it on. IRI support is activated by default.
1016 You can set the default state of IRI support using the @code{iri}
1017 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
1020 @cindex local encoding
1021 @item --local-encoding=@var{encoding}
1023 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default system encoding. That affects
1024 how Wget converts URLs specified as arguments from locale to @sc{utf-8} for
1027 Wget use the function @code{nl_langinfo()} and then the @code{CHARSET}
1028 environment variable to get the locale. If it fails, @sc{ascii} is used.
1030 You can set the default local encoding using the @code{local_encoding}
1031 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
1034 @cindex remote encoding
1035 @item --remote-encoding=@var{encoding}
1037 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default remote server encoding.
1038 That affects how Wget converts URIs found in files from remote encoding
1039 to @sc{utf-8} during a recursive fetch. This options is only useful for
1040 IRI support, for the interpretation of non-@sc{ascii} characters.
1042 For HTTP, remote encoding can be found in HTTP @code{Content-Type}
1043 header and in HTML @code{Content-Type http-equiv} meta tag.
1045 You can set the default encoding using the @code{remoteencoding}
1046 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
1050 @node Directory Options, HTTP Options, Download Options, Invoking
1051 @section Directory Options
1055 @itemx --no-directories
1056 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
1057 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
1058 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
1059 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
1062 @itemx --force-directories
1063 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
1064 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
1065 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
1066 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
1069 @itemx --no-host-directories
1070 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
1071 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
1072 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
1075 @item --protocol-directories
1076 Use the protocol name as a directory component of local file names. For
1077 example, with this option, @samp{wget -r http://@var{host}} will save to
1078 @samp{http/@var{host}/...} rather than just to @samp{@var{host}/...}.
1080 @cindex cut directories
1081 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
1082 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
1083 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
1086 Take, for example, the directory at
1087 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
1088 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
1089 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
1090 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
1091 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
1092 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
1093 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
1097 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
1099 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
1100 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
1102 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
1107 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
1108 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
1109 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
1110 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
1111 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
1113 @cindex directory prefix
1114 @item -P @var{prefix}
1115 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
1116 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
1117 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
1118 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
1122 @node HTTP Options, HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options, Directory Options, Invoking
1123 @section HTTP Options
1126 @cindex default page name
1128 @item --default-page=@var{name}
1129 Use @var{name} as the default file name when it isn't known (i.e., for
1130 URLs that end in a slash), instead of @file{index.html}.
1132 @cindex .html extension
1134 @itemx --html-extension
1135 If a file of type @samp{application/xhtml+xml} or @samp{text/html} is
1136 downloaded and the URL does not end with the regexp
1137 @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause the suffix @samp{.html}
1138 to be appended to the local filename. This is useful, for instance, when
1139 you're mirroring a remote site that uses @samp{.asp} pages, but you want
1140 the mirrored pages to be viewable on your stock Apache server. Another
1141 good use for this is when you're downloading CGI-generated materials. A URL
1142 like @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
1143 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
1145 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
1146 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
1147 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
1148 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
1149 @samp{text/html} or @samp{application/xhtml+xml}. To prevent this
1150 re-downloading, you must use @samp{-k} and @samp{-K} so that the original
1151 version of the file will be saved as @file{@var{X}.orig} (@pxref{Recursive
1152 Retrieval Options}).
1154 As of version 1.12, Wget will also ensure that any downloaded files of
1155 type @samp{text/css} end in the suffix @samp{.css}. Obviously, this
1156 makes the name @samp{--html-extension} misleading; a better name is
1157 expected to be offered as an alternative in the near future.
1160 @cindex http password
1161 @cindex authentication
1162 @item --http-user=@var{user}
1163 @itemx --http-password=@var{password}
1164 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1165 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
1166 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure),
1167 the @code{digest}, or the Windows @code{NTLM} authentication scheme.
1169 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1170 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1171 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1172 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1173 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1174 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1175 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1178 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1182 @cindex Keep-Alive, turning off
1183 @cindex Persistent Connections, disabling
1184 @item --no-http-keep-alive
1185 Turn off the ``keep-alive'' feature for HTTP downloads. Normally, Wget
1186 asks the server to keep the connection open so that, when you download
1187 more than one document from the same server, they get transferred over
1188 the same TCP connection. This saves time and at the same time reduces
1189 the load on the server.
1191 This option is useful when, for some reason, persistent (keep-alive)
1192 connections don't work for you, for example due to a server bug or due
1193 to the inability of server-side scripts to cope with the connections.
1198 Disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will send the remote
1199 server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma: no-cache}) to get the
1200 file from the remote service, rather than returning the cached version.
1201 This is especially useful for retrieving and flushing out-of-date
1202 documents on proxy servers.
1204 Caching is allowed by default.
1208 Disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism for maintaining
1209 server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie using the
1210 @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the same cookie
1211 upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server owners to keep
1212 track of visitors and for sites to exchange this information, some
1213 consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to use cookies;
1214 however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
1216 @cindex loading cookies
1217 @cindex cookies, loading
1218 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
1219 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
1220 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
1221 @file{cookies.txt} file.
1223 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
1224 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
1225 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
1226 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
1227 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
1228 proves your identity.
1230 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
1231 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
1232 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
1233 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
1234 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
1235 cookie files in different locations:
1239 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1241 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1242 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1243 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1244 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1245 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1247 @item Internet Explorer.
1248 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1249 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1250 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1252 @item Other browsers.
1253 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1254 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1255 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1258 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1259 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1260 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1261 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1262 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1265 wget --no-cookies --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1268 @cindex saving cookies
1269 @cindex cookies, saving
1270 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1271 Save cookies to @var{file} before exiting. This will not save cookies
1272 that have expired or that have no expiry time (so-called ``session
1273 cookies''), but also see @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
1275 @cindex cookies, session
1276 @cindex session cookies
1277 @item --keep-session-cookies
1278 When specified, causes @samp{--save-cookies} to also save session
1279 cookies. Session cookies are normally not saved because they are
1280 meant to be kept in memory and forgotten when you exit the browser.
1281 Saving them is useful on sites that require you to log in or to visit
1282 the home page before you can access some pages. With this option,
1283 multiple Wget runs are considered a single browser session as far as
1284 the site is concerned.
1286 Since the cookie file format does not normally carry session cookies,
1287 Wget marks them with an expiry timestamp of 0. Wget's
1288 @samp{--load-cookies} recognizes those as session cookies, but it might
1289 confuse other browsers. Also note that cookies so loaded will be
1290 treated as other session cookies, which means that if you want
1291 @samp{--save-cookies} to preserve them again, you must use
1292 @samp{--keep-session-cookies} again.
1294 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1295 @cindex ignore length
1296 @item --ignore-length
1297 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1298 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1299 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1300 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1301 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1304 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1305 if it never existed.
1308 @item --header=@var{header-line}
1309 Send @var{header-line} along with the rest of the headers in each
1310 @sc{http} request. The supplied header is sent as-is, which means it
1311 must contain name and value separated by colon, and must not contain
1314 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1315 @samp{--header} more than once.
1319 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1320 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1321 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1325 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1326 previous user-defined headers.
1328 As of Wget 1.10, this option can be used to override headers otherwise
1329 generated automatically. This example instructs Wget to connect to
1330 localhost, but to specify @samp{foo.bar} in the @code{Host} header:
1333 wget --header="Host: foo.bar" http://localhost/
1336 In versions of Wget prior to 1.10 such use of @samp{--header} caused
1337 sending of duplicate headers.
1340 @item --max-redirect=@var{number}
1341 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
1342 The default is 20, which is usually far more than necessary. However, on
1343 those occasions where you want to allow more (or fewer), this is the
1347 @cindex proxy password
1348 @cindex proxy authentication
1349 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1350 @itemx --proxy-password=@var{password}
1351 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1352 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1353 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1355 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-password}
1356 pertain here as well.
1358 @cindex http referer
1359 @cindex referer, http
1360 @item --referer=@var{url}
1361 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1362 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1363 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1364 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1366 @cindex server response, save
1367 @item --save-headers
1368 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1369 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1372 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1373 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1374 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1376 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1377 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1378 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1379 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1380 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1383 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1384 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1385 While this is not such a bad idea in theory, it has been abused by
1386 servers denying information to clients other than (historically)
1387 Netscape or, more frequently, Microsoft Internet Explorer. This
1388 option allows you to change the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget.
1389 Use of this option is discouraged, unless you really know what you are
1392 Specifying empty user agent with @samp{--user-agent=""} instructs Wget
1393 not to send the @code{User-Agent} header in @sc{http} requests.
1396 @item --post-data=@var{string}
1397 @itemx --post-file=@var{file}
1398 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the specified
1399 data in the request body. @samp{--post-data} sends @var{string} as
1400 data, whereas @samp{--post-file} sends the contents of @var{file}.
1401 Other than that, they work in exactly the same way. In particular,
1402 they @emph{both} expect content of the form @code{key1=value1&key2=value2},
1403 with percent-encoding for special characters; the only difference is
1404 that one expects its content as a command-line paramter and the other
1405 accepts its content from a file. In particular, @samp{--post-file} is
1406 @emph{not} for transmitting files as form attachments: those must
1407 appear as @code{key=value} data (with appropriate percent-coding) just
1408 like everything else. Wget does not currently support
1409 @code{multipart/form-data} for transmitting POST data; only
1410 @code{application/x-www-form-urlencoded}. Only one of
1411 @samp{--post-data} and @samp{--post-file} should be specified.
1413 Please be aware that Wget needs to know the size of the POST data in
1414 advance. Therefore the argument to @code{--post-file} must be a regular
1415 file; specifying a FIFO or something like @file{/dev/stdin} won't work.
1416 It's not quite clear how to work around this limitation inherent in
1417 HTTP/1.0. Although HTTP/1.1 introduces @dfn{chunked} transfer that
1418 doesn't require knowing the request length in advance, a client can't
1419 use chunked unless it knows it's talking to an HTTP/1.1 server. And it
1420 can't know that until it receives a response, which in turn requires the
1421 request to have been completed -- a chicken-and-egg problem.
1423 Note: if Wget is redirected after the POST request is completed, it
1424 will not send the POST data to the redirected URL. This is because
1425 URLs that process POST often respond with a redirection to a regular
1426 page, which does not desire or accept POST. It is not completely
1427 clear that this behavior is optimal; if it doesn't work out, it might
1428 be changed in the future.
1430 This example shows how to log to a server using POST and then proceed to
1431 download the desired pages, presumably only accessible to authorized
1436 # @r{Log in to the server. This can be done only once.}
1437 wget --save-cookies cookies.txt \
1438 --post-data 'user=foo&password=bar' \
1439 http://server.com/auth.php
1441 # @r{Now grab the page or pages we care about.}
1442 wget --load-cookies cookies.txt \
1443 -p http://server.com/interesting/article.php
1447 If the server is using session cookies to track user authentication,
1448 the above will not work because @samp{--save-cookies} will not save
1449 them (and neither will browsers) and the @file{cookies.txt} file will
1450 be empty. In that case use @samp{--keep-session-cookies} along with
1451 @samp{--save-cookies} to force saving of session cookies.
1453 @cindex Content-Disposition
1454 @item --content-disposition
1456 If this is set to on, experimental (not fully-functional) support for
1457 @code{Content-Disposition} headers is enabled. This can currently result in
1458 extra round-trips to the server for a @code{HEAD} request, and is known
1459 to suffer from a few bugs, which is why it is not currently enabled by default.
1461 This option is useful for some file-downloading CGI programs that use
1462 @code{Content-Disposition} headers to describe what the name of a
1463 downloaded file should be.
1465 @cindex authentication
1466 @item --auth-no-challenge
1468 If this option is given, Wget will send Basic HTTP authentication
1469 information (plaintext username and password) for all requests, just
1470 like Wget 1.10.2 and prior did by default.
1472 Use of this option is not recommended, and is intended only to support
1473 some few obscure servers, which never send HTTP authentication
1474 challenges, but accept unsolicited auth info, say, in addition to
1475 form-based authentication.
1479 @node HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options, FTP Options, HTTP Options, Invoking
1480 @section HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
1483 To support encrypted HTTP (HTTPS) downloads, Wget must be compiled
1484 with an external SSL library, currently OpenSSL. If Wget is compiled
1485 without SSL support, none of these options are available.
1488 @cindex SSL protocol, choose
1489 @item --secure-protocol=@var{protocol}
1490 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto},
1491 @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. If @samp{auto} is used,
1492 the SSL library is given the liberty of choosing the appropriate
1493 protocol automatically, which is achieved by sending an SSLv2 greeting
1494 and announcing support for SSLv3 and TLSv1. This is the default.
1496 Specifying @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, or @samp{TLSv1} forces the use
1497 of the corresponding protocol. This is useful when talking to old and
1498 buggy SSL server implementations that make it hard for OpenSSL to
1499 choose the correct protocol version. Fortunately, such servers are
1502 @cindex SSL certificate, check
1503 @item --no-check-certificate
1504 Don't check the server certificate against the available certificate
1505 authorities. Also don't require the URL host name to match the common
1506 name presented by the certificate.
1508 As of Wget 1.10, the default is to verify the server's certificate
1509 against the recognized certificate authorities, breaking the SSL
1510 handshake and aborting the download if the verification fails.
1511 Although this provides more secure downloads, it does break
1512 interoperability with some sites that worked with previous Wget
1513 versions, particularly those using self-signed, expired, or otherwise
1514 invalid certificates. This option forces an ``insecure'' mode of
1515 operation that turns the certificate verification errors into warnings
1516 and allows you to proceed.
1518 If you encounter ``certificate verification'' errors or ones saying
1519 that ``common name doesn't match requested host name'', you can use
1520 this option to bypass the verification and proceed with the download.
1521 @emph{Only use this option if you are otherwise convinced of the
1522 site's authenticity, or if you really don't care about the validity of
1523 its certificate.} It is almost always a bad idea not to check the
1524 certificates when transmitting confidential or important data.
1526 @cindex SSL certificate
1527 @item --certificate=@var{file}
1528 Use the client certificate stored in @var{file}. This is needed for
1529 servers that are configured to require certificates from the clients
1530 that connect to them. Normally a certificate is not required and this
1533 @cindex SSL certificate type, specify
1534 @item --certificate-type=@var{type}
1535 Specify the type of the client certificate. Legal values are
1536 @samp{PEM} (assumed by default) and @samp{DER}, also known as
1539 @item --private-key=@var{file}
1540 Read the private key from @var{file}. This allows you to provide the
1541 private key in a file separate from the certificate.
1543 @item --private-key-type=@var{type}
1544 Specify the type of the private key. Accepted values are @samp{PEM}
1545 (the default) and @samp{DER}.
1547 @item --ca-certificate=@var{file}
1548 Use @var{file} as the file with the bundle of certificate authorities
1549 (``CA'') to verify the peers. The certificates must be in PEM format.
1551 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1552 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1554 @cindex SSL certificate authority
1555 @item --ca-directory=@var{directory}
1556 Specifies directory containing CA certificates in PEM format. Each
1557 file contains one CA certificate, and the file name is based on a hash
1558 value derived from the certificate. This is achieved by processing a
1559 certificate directory with the @code{c_rehash} utility supplied with
1560 OpenSSL. Using @samp{--ca-directory} is more efficient than
1561 @samp{--ca-certificate} when many certificates are installed because
1562 it allows Wget to fetch certificates on demand.
1564 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1565 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1567 @cindex entropy, specifying source of
1568 @cindex randomness, specifying source of
1569 @item --random-file=@var{file}
1570 Use @var{file} as the source of random data for seeding the
1571 pseudo-random number generator on systems without @file{/dev/random}.
1573 On such systems the SSL library needs an external source of randomness
1574 to initialize. Randomness may be provided by EGD (see
1575 @samp{--egd-file} below) or read from an external source specified by
1576 the user. If this option is not specified, Wget looks for random data
1577 in @code{$RANDFILE} or, if that is unset, in @file{$HOME/.rnd}. If
1578 none of those are available, it is likely that SSL encryption will not
1581 If you're getting the ``Could not seed OpenSSL PRNG; disabling SSL.''
1582 error, you should provide random data using some of the methods
1586 @item --egd-file=@var{file}
1587 Use @var{file} as the EGD socket. EGD stands for @dfn{Entropy
1588 Gathering Daemon}, a user-space program that collects data from
1589 various unpredictable system sources and makes it available to other
1590 programs that might need it. Encryption software, such as the SSL
1591 library, needs sources of non-repeating randomness to seed the random
1592 number generator used to produce cryptographically strong keys.
1594 OpenSSL allows the user to specify his own source of entropy using the
1595 @code{RAND_FILE} environment variable. If this variable is unset, or
1596 if the specified file does not produce enough randomness, OpenSSL will
1597 read random data from EGD socket specified using this option.
1599 If this option is not specified (and the equivalent startup command is
1600 not used), EGD is never contacted. EGD is not needed on modern Unix
1601 systems that support @file{/dev/random}.
1604 @node FTP Options, Recursive Retrieval Options, HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options, Invoking
1605 @section FTP Options
1609 @cindex ftp password
1610 @cindex ftp authentication
1611 @item --ftp-user=@var{user}
1612 @itemx --ftp-password=@var{password}
1613 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1614 @sc{ftp} server. Without this, or the corresponding startup option,
1615 the password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, normally used for anonymous
1618 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1619 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1620 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1621 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1622 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1623 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1624 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1627 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1631 @cindex .listing files, removing
1632 @item --no-remove-listing
1633 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1634 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1635 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1636 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1637 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1638 you're running is complete).
1640 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1641 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1642 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1643 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1644 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1645 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1646 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1647 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1648 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1650 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1651 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1652 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1653 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1654 will be overwritten.
1656 @cindex globbing, toggle
1658 Turn off @sc{ftp} globbing. Globbing refers to the use of shell-like
1659 special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[}
1660 and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the same directory at
1664 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1667 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1668 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1671 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1672 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1673 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1674 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1677 @item --no-passive-ftp
1678 Disable the use of the @dfn{passive} FTP transfer mode. Passive FTP
1679 mandates that the client connect to the server to establish the data
1680 connection rather than the other way around.
1682 If the machine is connected to the Internet directly, both passive and
1683 active FTP should work equally well. Behind most firewall and NAT
1684 configurations passive FTP has a better chance of working. However,
1685 in some rare firewall configurations, active FTP actually works when
1686 passive FTP doesn't. If you suspect this to be the case, use this
1687 option, or set @code{passive_ftp=off} in your init file.
1689 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1690 @item --retr-symlinks
1691 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1692 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1693 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1694 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1695 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1697 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1698 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1699 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1700 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1703 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1704 specified on the command-line, rather than because it was recursed to,
1705 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1709 @node Recursive Retrieval Options, Recursive Accept/Reject Options, FTP Options, Invoking
1710 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1715 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Download}, for more
1718 @item -l @var{depth}
1719 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1720 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1721 Download}). The default maximum depth is 5.
1723 @cindex proxy filling
1724 @cindex delete after retrieval
1725 @cindex filling proxy cache
1726 @item --delete-after
1727 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1728 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1729 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1732 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1735 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1738 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1739 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1740 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1741 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1742 created in the first place.
1744 @cindex conversion of links
1745 @cindex link conversion
1747 @itemx --convert-links
1748 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1749 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1750 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1751 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-@sc{html}
1754 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1758 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1759 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1761 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1762 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1763 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1764 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1767 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1768 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1770 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1771 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1772 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1773 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1776 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1777 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1778 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1779 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1780 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1783 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1784 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1785 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1787 @cindex backing up converted files
1789 @itemx --backup-converted
1790 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1791 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1796 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1797 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1798 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1799 @samp{-r -N -l inf --no-remove-listing}.
1801 @cindex page requisites
1802 @cindex required images, downloading
1804 @itemx --page-requisites
1805 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
1806 properly display a given @sc{html} page. This includes such things as
1807 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
1809 Ordinarily, when downloading a single @sc{html} page, any requisite documents
1810 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
1811 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
1812 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
1813 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
1816 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
1817 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
1818 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
1819 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
1820 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
1822 If one executes the command:
1825 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
1828 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
1829 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
1830 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
1831 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
1832 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
1835 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1838 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
1839 will be downloaded. Similarly,
1842 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1845 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
1846 to be downloaded. One might think that:
1849 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1852 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
1853 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
1854 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single @sc{html}
1855 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the command-line or in a
1856 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
1857 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
1860 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1863 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
1864 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
1865 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
1866 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
1867 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
1868 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
1871 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1874 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
1875 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
1876 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
1879 @cindex @sc{html} comments
1880 @cindex comments, @sc{html}
1881 @item --strict-comments
1882 Turn on strict parsing of @sc{html} comments. The default is to terminate
1883 comments at the first occurrence of @samp{-->}.
1885 According to specifications, @sc{html} comments are expressed as @sc{sgml}
1886 @dfn{declarations}. Declaration is special markup that begins with
1887 @samp{<!} and ends with @samp{>}, such as @samp{<!DOCTYPE ...>}, that
1888 may contain comments between a pair of @samp{--} delimiters. @sc{html}
1889 comments are ``empty declarations'', @sc{sgml} declarations without any
1890 non-comment text. Therefore, @samp{<!--foo-->} is a valid comment, and
1891 so is @samp{<!--one-- --two-->}, but @samp{<!--1--2-->} is not.
1893 On the other hand, most @sc{html} writers don't perceive comments as anything
1894 other than text delimited with @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}, which is not
1895 quite the same. For example, something like @samp{<!------------>}
1896 works as a valid comment as long as the number of dashes is a multiple
1897 of four (!). If not, the comment technically lasts until the next
1898 @samp{--}, which may be at the other end of the document. Because of
1899 this, many popular browsers completely ignore the specification and
1900 implement what users have come to expect: comments delimited with
1901 @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}.
1903 Until version 1.9, Wget interpreted comments strictly, which resulted in
1904 missing links in many web pages that displayed fine in browsers, but had
1905 the misfortune of containing non-compliant comments. Beginning with
1906 version 1.9, Wget has joined the ranks of clients that implements
1907 ``naive'' comments, terminating each comment at the first occurrence of
1910 If, for whatever reason, you want strict comment parsing, use this
1911 option to turn it on.
1914 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options, , Recursive Retrieval Options, Invoking
1915 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1918 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
1919 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
1920 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
1921 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files}). Note that if
1922 any of the wildcard characters, @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[} or
1923 @samp{]}, appear in an element of @var{acclist} or @var{rejlist},
1924 it will be treated as a pattern, rather than a suffix.
1926 @item -D @var{domain-list}
1927 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
1928 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
1929 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
1931 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
1932 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed.
1933 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1935 @cindex follow FTP links
1937 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
1938 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
1940 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
1941 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
1942 Wget has an internal table of @sc{html} tag / attribute pairs that it
1943 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
1944 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
1945 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
1946 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
1948 @item --ignore-tags=@var{list}
1949 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
1950 certain @sc{html} tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
1951 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
1953 In the past, this option was the best bet for downloading a single page
1954 and its requisites, using a command-line like:
1957 wget --ignore-tags=a,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1960 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
1961 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
1962 specifying tags to ignore was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to
1963 ignore @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded.
1964 Now the best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
1965 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
1970 Ignore case when matching files and directories. This influences the
1971 behavior of -R, -A, -I, and -X options, as well as globbing
1972 implemented when downloading from FTP sites. For example, with this
1973 option, @samp{-A *.txt} will match @samp{file1.txt}, but also
1974 @samp{file2.TXT}, @samp{file3.TxT}, and so on.
1978 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
1979 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1983 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
1984 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
1985 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
1988 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
1989 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
1990 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements
1991 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1994 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
1995 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
1996 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements of
1997 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
2001 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
2002 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
2003 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
2004 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
2009 @node Recursive Download, Following Links, Invoking, Top
2010 @chapter Recursive Download
2013 @cindex recursive download
2015 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
2016 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
2017 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieval}, or @dfn{recursion}.
2019 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} or
2020 @sc{css} from the given @sc{url}, retrieving the files the document
2021 refers to, through markup like @code{href} or @code{src}, or @sc{css}
2022 @sc{uri} values specified using the @samp{url()} functional notation.
2023 If the freshly downloaded file is also of type @code{text/html},
2024 @code{application/xhtml+xml}, or @code{text/css}, it will be parsed
2025 and followed further.
2027 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html}/@sc{css} content is
2028 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
2029 document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
2030 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
2031 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
2032 until the specified maximum depth.
2034 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
2035 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
2037 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
2038 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
2039 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
2040 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
2041 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
2044 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
2045 the one found on the remote server.
2047 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
2048 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
2049 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
2050 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
2052 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
2053 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
2054 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
2055 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
2056 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
2057 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
2058 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
2060 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
2061 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
2062 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
2063 consume memory and CPU.
2065 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
2066 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
2067 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
2068 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
2069 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
2070 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
2071 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
2074 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
2077 @node Following Links, Time-Stamping, Recursive Download, Top
2078 @chapter Following Links
2080 @cindex following links
2082 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
2083 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
2084 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
2086 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
2087 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
2088 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
2090 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
2091 links it will follow.
2094 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
2095 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
2096 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
2097 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
2098 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
2101 @node Spanning Hosts, Types of Files, Following Links, Following Links
2102 @section Spanning Hosts
2103 @cindex spanning hosts
2104 @cindex hosts, spanning
2106 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
2107 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
2108 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
2109 your Wget into a small version of google.
2111 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
2112 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
2113 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
2114 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the @sc{html}
2115 pages refer to both interchangeably.
2118 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
2120 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
2121 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
2122 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
2123 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
2124 up much more data than you have intended.
2126 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
2128 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
2129 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
2130 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
2131 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
2132 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
2133 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
2136 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
2139 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
2140 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
2142 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
2144 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
2145 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
2146 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
2147 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
2148 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
2152 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
2158 @node Types of Files, Directory-Based Limits, Spanning Hosts, Following Links
2159 @section Types of Files
2160 @cindex types of files
2162 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
2163 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
2164 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
2165 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
2167 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
2168 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
2171 @cindex accept wildcards
2172 @cindex accept suffixes
2173 @cindex wildcards, accept
2174 @cindex suffixes, accept
2176 @item -A @var{acclist}
2177 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
2178 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
2179 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
2180 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
2181 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
2182 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
2183 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
2185 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
2186 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
2187 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
2188 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
2189 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
2190 a description of how pattern matching works.
2192 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
2193 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
2195 @cindex reject wildcards
2196 @cindex reject suffixes
2197 @cindex wildcards, reject
2198 @cindex suffixes, reject
2199 @item -R @var{rejlist}
2200 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
2201 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
2202 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
2203 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
2204 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
2206 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
2207 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
2208 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
2209 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
2210 expansion by the shell.
2214 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
2215 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
2216 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
2217 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
2219 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
2220 files (as determined by a @samp{.htm} or @samp{.html} filename
2221 prefix). This behavior may not be desirable for all users, and may be
2222 changed for future versions of Wget.
2224 Note, too, that query strings (strings at the end of a URL beginning
2225 with a question mark (@samp{?}) are not included as part of the
2226 filename for accept/reject rules, even though these will actually
2227 contribute to the name chosen for the local file. It is expected that
2228 a future version of Wget will provide an option to allow matching
2229 against query strings.
2231 Finally, it's worth noting that the accept/reject lists are matched
2232 @emph{twice} against downloaded files: once against the URL's filename
2233 portion, to determine if the file should be downloaded in the first
2234 place; then, after it has been accepted and successfully downloaded,
2235 the local file's name is also checked against the accept/reject lists
2236 to see if it should be removed. The rationale was that, since
2237 @samp{.htm} and @samp{.html} files are always downloaded regardless of
2238 accept/reject rules, they should be removed @emph{after} being
2239 downloaded and scanned for links, if they did match the accept/reject
2240 lists. However, this can lead to unexpected results, since the local
2241 filenames can differ from the original URL filenames in the following
2242 ways, all of which can change whether an accept/reject rule matches:
2246 If the local file already exists and @samp{--no-directories} was
2247 specified, a numeric suffix will be appended to the original name.
2249 If @samp{--html-extension} was specified, the local filename will have
2250 @samp{.html} appended to it. If Wget is invoked with @samp{-E -A.php},
2251 a filename such as @samp{index.php} will match be accepted, but upon
2252 download will be named @samp{index.php.html}, which no longer matches,
2253 and so the file will be deleted.
2255 Query strings do not contribute to URL matching, but are included in
2256 local filenames, and so @emph{do} contribute to filename matching.
2260 This behavior, too, is considered less-than-desirable, and may change
2261 in a future version of Wget.
2263 @node Directory-Based Limits, Relative Links, Types of Files, Following Links
2264 @section Directory-Based Limits
2266 @cindex directory limits
2268 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
2269 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
2270 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
2271 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
2272 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
2273 @file{/dev} directories.
2275 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
2276 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
2277 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
2279 @cindex directories, include
2280 @cindex include directories
2281 @cindex accept directories
2284 @itemx --include @var{list}
2285 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
2286 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
2287 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
2288 directories are absolute paths.
2290 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
2291 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
2292 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
2295 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
2298 @cindex directories, exclude
2299 @cindex exclude directories
2300 @cindex reject directories
2302 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
2303 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
2304 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
2305 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
2306 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
2307 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
2309 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
2310 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
2311 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
2312 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
2317 @itemx no_parent = on
2318 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
2319 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
2320 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
2321 parent directory/directories.
2323 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
2324 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
2325 Supposing you issue Wget with:
2328 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
2331 You may rest assured that none of the references to
2332 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
2333 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
2334 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
2335 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
2336 intelligent fashion.
2338 @strong{Note} that, for HTTP (and HTTPS), the trailing slash is very
2339 important to @samp{--no-parent}. HTTP has no concept of a ``directory''---Wget
2340 relies on you to indicate what's a directory and what isn't. In
2341 @samp{http://foo/bar/}, Wget will consider @samp{bar} to be a
2342 directory, while in @samp{http://foo/bar} (no trailing slash),
2343 @samp{bar} will be considered a filename (so @samp{--no-parent} would be
2344 meaningless, as its parent is @samp{/}).
2347 @node Relative Links, FTP Links, Directory-Based Limits, Following Links
2348 @section Relative Links
2349 @cindex relative links
2351 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
2352 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
2353 server root. For example, these links are relative:
2357 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
2358 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
2361 These links are not relative:
2365 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
2366 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
2369 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
2370 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
2371 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
2373 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
2376 @node FTP Links, , Relative Links, Following Links
2377 @section Following FTP Links
2378 @cindex following ftp links
2380 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
2381 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
2382 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
2385 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
2386 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
2387 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
2388 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
2389 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
2390 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
2391 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
2393 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
2394 retrieved recursively further.
2396 @node Time-Stamping, Startup File, Following Links, Top
2397 @chapter Time-Stamping
2398 @cindex time-stamping
2399 @cindex timestamping
2400 @cindex updating the archives
2401 @cindex incremental updating
2403 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
2404 Internet is updating your archives.
2406 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
2407 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
2408 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
2409 offer the option of incremental updating.
2411 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
2412 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
2413 the place of the old ones.
2415 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
2419 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
2422 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
2423 recently than the local file.
2426 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
2427 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
2428 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
2430 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
2431 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
2432 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
2433 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
2434 does, and the remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
2436 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
2437 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
2441 * Time-Stamping Usage::
2442 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2443 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2446 @node Time-Stamping Usage, HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping, Time-Stamping
2447 @section Time-Stamping Usage
2448 @cindex time-stamping usage
2449 @cindex usage, time-stamping
2451 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
2452 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
2455 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2458 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
2459 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
2460 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
2461 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
2463 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
2464 changed, and download it if it has.
2467 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2470 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
2471 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
2472 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
2473 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
2475 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
2478 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
2481 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
2482 interpret the @samp{*}.)
2484 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
2485 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
2486 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
2487 since the last download.
2489 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
2490 command like the following, weekly:
2493 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2496 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
2497 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
2498 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
2499 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
2500 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
2502 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, FTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping Usage, Time-Stamping
2503 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2504 @cindex http time-stamping
2506 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
2507 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
2508 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
2509 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
2510 retrieved unconditionally.
2512 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
2513 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
2514 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
2517 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
2518 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
2519 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
2520 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
2521 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
2522 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
2525 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
2526 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
2527 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
2528 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
2529 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
2531 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
2532 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
2534 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals, , HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping
2535 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2536 @cindex ftp time-stamping
2538 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
2539 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
2542 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
2543 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
2544 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
2545 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
2546 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
2547 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
2548 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
2549 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
2551 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
2552 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
2553 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
2554 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
2555 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
2556 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
2558 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
2559 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
2560 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
2561 Wget may support this command in the future.
2563 @node Startup File, Examples, Time-Stamping, Top
2564 @chapter Startup File
2565 @cindex startup file
2571 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
2572 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
2573 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
2574 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
2576 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
2577 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
2578 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
2579 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
2581 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
2585 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
2586 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
2587 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
2588 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
2591 @node Wgetrc Location, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File, Startup File
2592 @section Wgetrc Location
2593 @cindex wgetrc location
2594 @cindex location of wgetrc
2596 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
2597 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
2598 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
2599 from there, if it exists.
2601 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
2602 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
2603 further attempts will be made.
2605 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
2607 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
2608 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
2609 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
2610 Fascist admins, away!
2612 @node Wgetrc Syntax, Wgetrc Commands, Wgetrc Location, Startup File
2613 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2614 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2615 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2617 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2623 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2624 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2626 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2627 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2628 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2631 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2632 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2633 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2639 @node Wgetrc Commands, Sample Wgetrc, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File
2640 @section Wgetrc Commands
2641 @cindex wgetrc commands
2643 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2644 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2645 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}.
2647 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2648 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2649 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2650 values can be any non-empty string.
2652 Most of these commands have direct command-line equivalents. Also, any
2653 wgetrc command can be specified on the command line using the
2654 @samp{--execute} switch (@pxref{Basic Startup Options}.)
2657 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2658 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2660 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2661 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2663 @item ask_password = on/off
2664 Prompt for a password for each connection established. Cannot be specified
2665 when @samp{--password} is being used, because they are mutually
2666 exclusive. Equivalent to @samp{--ask-password}.
2668 @item auth_no_challenge = on/off
2669 If this option is given, Wget will send Basic HTTP authentication
2670 information (plaintext username and password) for all requests. See
2671 @samp{--auth-no-challenge}.
2673 @item background = on/off
2674 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2677 @item backup_converted = on/off
2678 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2679 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2681 @c @item backups = @var{number}
2682 @c #### Document me!
2684 @item base = @var{string}
2685 Consider relative @sc{url}s in input files (specified via the
2686 @samp{input} command or the @samp{--input-file}/@samp{-i} option,
2687 together with @samp{force_html} or @samp{--force-html})
2688 as being relative to @var{string}---the same as @samp{--base=@var{string}}.
2690 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2691 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address=@var{address}}.
2693 @item ca_certificate = @var{file}
2694 Set the certificate authority bundle file to @var{file}. The same
2695 as @samp{--ca-certificate=@var{file}}.
2697 @item ca_directory = @var{directory}
2698 Set the directory used for certificate authorities. The same as
2699 @samp{--ca-directory=@var{directory}}.
2701 @item cache = on/off
2702 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{--no-cache}
2705 @item certificate = @var{file}
2706 Set the client certificate file name to @var{file}. The same as
2707 @samp{--certificate=@var{file}}.
2709 @item certificate_type = @var{string}
2710 Specify the type of the client certificate, legal values being
2711 @samp{PEM} (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2712 @samp{--certificate-type=@var{string}}.
2714 @item check_certificate = on/off
2715 If this is set to off, the server certificate is not checked against
2716 the specified client authorities. The default is ``on''. The same as
2717 @samp{--check-certificate}.
2719 @item connect_timeout = @var{n}
2720 Set the connect timeout---the same as @samp{--connect-timeout}.
2722 @item content_disposition = on/off
2723 Turn on recognition of the (non-standard) @samp{Content-Disposition}
2724 HTTP header---if set to @samp{on}, the same as @samp{--content-disposition}.
2726 @item continue = on/off
2727 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
2728 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
2730 @item convert_links = on/off
2731 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
2733 @item cookies = on/off
2734 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
2736 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
2737 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components. Equivalent to
2738 @samp{--cut-dirs=@var{n}}.
2740 @item debug = on/off
2741 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
2743 @item default_page = @var{string}
2744 Default page name---the same as @samp{--default-page=@var{string}}.
2746 @item delete_after = on/off
2747 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
2749 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
2750 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P @var{string}}.
2752 @item dirstruct = on/off
2753 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
2756 @item dns_cache = on/off
2757 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
2758 option is normally used to turn it off and is equivalent to
2759 @samp{--no-dns-cache}.
2761 @item dns_timeout = @var{n}
2762 Set the DNS timeout---the same as @samp{--dns-timeout}.
2764 @item domains = @var{string}
2765 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2767 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
2768 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
2769 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
2770 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
2771 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
2772 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
2773 (@pxref{Download Options}).
2775 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
2776 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
2778 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
2779 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
2780 the retrieval (50 by default).
2782 @item egd_file = @var{file}
2783 Use @var{string} as the EGD socket file name. The same as
2784 @samp{--egd-file=@var{file}}.
2786 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
2787 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2788 download---the same as @samp{-X @var{string}} (@pxref{Directory-Based
2791 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
2792 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains=@var{string}} (@pxref{Spanning
2795 @item follow_ftp = on/off
2796 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
2797 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
2799 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
2800 Only follow certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval,
2801 just like @samp{--follow-tags=@var{string}}.
2803 @item force_html = on/off
2804 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
2805 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
2807 @item ftp_password = @var{string}
2808 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{string}. Without this setting, the
2809 password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, which is a useful default for
2810 anonymous @sc{ftp} access.
2812 This command used to be named @code{passwd} prior to Wget 1.10.
2814 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
2815 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2818 @item ftp_user = @var{string}
2819 Set @sc{ftp} user to @var{string}.
2821 This command used to be named @code{login} prior to Wget 1.10.
2824 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{--glob} and @samp{--no-glob}.
2826 @item header = @var{string}
2827 Define a header for HTTP downloads, like using
2828 @samp{--header=@var{string}}.
2830 @item html_extension = on/off
2831 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} or
2832 @samp{application/xhtml+xml} files without it, or a @samp{.css}
2833 extension to @samp{text/css} files without it, like @samp{-E}.
2835 @item http_keep_alive = on/off
2836 Turn the keep-alive feature on or off (defaults to on). Turning it
2837 off is equivalent to @samp{--no-http-keep-alive}.
2839 @item http_password = @var{string}
2840 Set @sc{http} password, equivalent to
2841 @samp{--http-password=@var{string}}.
2843 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
2844 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2847 @item http_user = @var{string}
2848 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}, equivalent to
2849 @samp{--http-user=@var{string}}.
2851 @item https_proxy = @var{string}
2852 Use @var{string} as @sc{https} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2855 @item ignore_case = on/off
2856 When set to on, match files and directories case insensitively; the
2857 same as @samp{--ignore-case}.
2859 @item ignore_length = on/off
2860 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
2861 @samp{--ignore-length}.
2863 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
2864 Ignore certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval, like
2865 @samp{--ignore-tags=@var{string}}.
2867 @item include_directories = @var{string}
2868 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2869 downloading---the same as @samp{-I @var{string}}.
2872 When set to on, enable internationalized URI (IRI) support; the same as
2875 @item inet4_only = on/off
2876 Force connecting to IPv4 addresses, off by default. You can put this
2877 in the global init file to disable Wget's attempts to resolve and
2878 connect to IPv6 hosts. Available only if Wget was compiled with IPv6
2879 support. The same as @samp{--inet4-only} or @samp{-4}.
2881 @item inet6_only = on/off
2882 Force connecting to IPv6 addresses, off by default. Available only if
2883 Wget was compiled with IPv6 support. The same as @samp{--inet6-only}
2886 @item input = @var{file}
2887 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i @var{file}}.
2889 @item keep_session_cookies = on/off
2890 When specified, causes @samp{save_cookies = on} to also save session
2891 cookies. See @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
2893 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
2894 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
2895 The same as @samp{--limit-rate=@var{rate}}.
2897 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
2898 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies @var{file}}.
2900 @item local_encoding = @var{encoding}
2901 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default system encoding. See
2902 @samp{--local-encoding}.
2904 @item logfile = @var{file}
2905 Set logfile to @var{file}, the same as @samp{-o @var{file}}.
2907 @item max_redirect = @var{number}
2908 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
2909 See @samp{--max-redirect=@var{number}}.
2911 @item mirror = on/off
2912 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
2914 @item netrc = on/off
2915 Turn reading netrc on or off.
2917 @item no_clobber = on/off
2920 @item no_parent = on/off
2921 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
2922 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2924 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
2925 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
2926 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
2928 @item output_document = @var{file}
2929 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O @var{file}}.
2931 @item page_requisites = on/off
2932 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single @sc{html} page to
2933 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
2935 @item passive_ftp = on/off
2936 Change setting of passive @sc{ftp}, equivalent to the
2937 @samp{--passive-ftp} option.
2939 @itemx password = @var{string}
2940 Specify password @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
2941 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_password} and
2942 @samp{http_password} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
2944 @item post_data = @var{string}
2945 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send @var{string} in
2946 the request body. The same as @samp{--post-data=@var{string}}.
2948 @item post_file = @var{file}
2949 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the contents of
2950 @var{file} in the request body. The same as
2951 @samp{--post-file=@var{file}}.
2953 @item prefer_family = none/IPv4/IPv6
2954 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
2955 with specified address family first. The address order returned by
2956 DNS is used without change by default. The same as @samp{--prefer-family},
2957 which see for a detailed discussion of why this is useful.
2959 @item private_key = @var{file}
2960 Set the private key file to @var{file}. The same as
2961 @samp{--private-key=@var{file}}.
2963 @item private_key_type = @var{string}
2964 Specify the type of the private key, legal values being @samp{PEM}
2965 (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2966 @samp{--private-type=@var{string}}.
2968 @item progress = @var{string}
2969 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are @samp{dot}
2970 and @samp{bar}. Equivalent to @samp{--progress=@var{string}}.
2972 @item protocol_directories = on/off
2973 When set, use the protocol name as a directory component of local file
2974 names. The same as @samp{--protocol-directories}.
2976 @item proxy_password = @var{string}
2977 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like
2978 @samp{--proxy-password=@var{string}}.
2980 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
2981 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like
2982 @samp{--proxy-user=@var{string}}.
2984 @item quiet = on/off
2985 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
2987 @item quota = @var{quota}
2988 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
2989 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
2990 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
2991 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
2992 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
2993 to 5 megabytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
2996 @item random_file = @var{file}
2997 Use @var{file} as a source of randomness on systems lacking
3000 @item random_wait = on/off
3001 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
3002 @samp{--random-wait}.
3004 @item read_timeout = @var{n}
3005 Set the read (and write) timeout---the same as
3006 @samp{--read-timeout=@var{n}}.
3008 @item reclevel = @var{n}
3009 Recursion level (depth)---the same as @samp{-l @var{n}}.
3011 @item recursive = on/off
3012 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
3014 @item referer = @var{string}
3015 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like
3016 @samp{--referer=@var{string}}. (Note that it was the folks who wrote
3017 the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of ``referrer'' wrong.)
3019 @item relative_only = on/off
3020 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
3023 @item remote_encoding = @var{encoding}
3024 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default remote server encoding.
3025 See @samp{--remote-encoding}.
3027 @item remove_listing = on/off
3028 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
3029 to off is the same as @samp{--no-remove-listing}.
3031 @item restrict_file_names = unix/windows
3032 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
3033 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
3035 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
3036 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
3037 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
3039 @item retry_connrefused = on/off
3040 When set to on, consider ``connection refused'' a transient
3041 error---the same as @samp{--retry-connrefused}.
3043 @item robots = on/off
3044 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
3045 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
3046 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
3047 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
3050 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
3051 Save cookies to @var{file}. The same as @samp{--save-cookies
3054 @item save_headers = on/off
3055 Same as @samp{--save-headers}.
3057 @item secure_protocol = @var{string}
3058 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto}
3059 (the default), @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. The same
3060 as @samp{--secure-protocol=@var{string}}.
3062 @item server_response = on/off
3063 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
3064 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
3066 @item span_hosts = on/off
3069 @item spider = on/off
3070 Same as @samp{--spider}.
3072 @item strict_comments = on/off
3073 Same as @samp{--strict-comments}.
3075 @item timeout = @var{n}
3076 Set all applicable timeout values to @var{n}, the same as @samp{-T
3079 @item timestamping = on/off
3080 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
3082 @item tries = @var{n}
3083 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t @var{n}}.
3085 @item use_proxy = on/off
3086 When set to off, don't use proxy even when proxy-related environment
3087 variables are set. In that case it is the same as using
3090 @item user = @var{string}
3091 Specify username @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
3092 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_user} and
3093 @samp{http_user} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
3095 @item user_agent = @var{string}
3096 User agent identification sent to the HTTP Server---the same as
3097 @samp{--user-agent=@var{string}}.
3099 @item verbose = on/off
3100 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
3102 @item wait = @var{n}
3103 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w
3106 @item wait_retry = @var{n}
3107 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
3108 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry=@var{n}}. Note that this is
3109 turned on by default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
3112 @node Sample Wgetrc, , Wgetrc Commands, Startup File
3113 @section Sample Wgetrc
3114 @cindex sample wgetrc
3116 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
3117 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
3118 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
3119 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
3121 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
3122 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
3126 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
3129 @node Examples, Various, Startup File, Top
3133 @c man begin EXAMPLES
3134 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
3138 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
3139 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
3140 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
3143 @node Simple Usage, Advanced Usage, Examples, Examples
3144 @section Simple Usage
3148 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
3151 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
3155 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
3156 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
3157 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
3158 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
3159 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
3160 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
3163 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
3167 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
3168 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
3169 shall use @samp{-t}.
3172 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
3175 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
3176 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
3179 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
3183 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
3187 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
3188 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
3191 wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
3196 @node Advanced Usage, Very Advanced Usage, Simple Usage, Examples
3197 @section Advanced Usage
3201 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
3208 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
3212 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
3213 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
3214 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
3217 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3221 The same as the above, but convert the links in the downloaded files to
3222 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
3225 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3229 Retrieve only one @sc{html} page, but make sure that all the elements needed
3230 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
3231 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
3232 references the downloaded links.
3235 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3238 The @sc{html} page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
3239 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
3240 depending on where they were on the remote server.
3243 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
3244 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
3245 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
3246 subdirectory of the current directory.
3249 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
3250 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3254 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
3258 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
3262 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
3265 wget --save-headers http://www.lycos.com/
3270 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
3274 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
3278 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
3279 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
3280 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
3284 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
3287 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
3288 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Download}), with maximum depth
3289 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
3290 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
3291 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
3295 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
3296 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
3300 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
3304 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
3305 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
3308 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
3311 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
3312 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
3315 @cindex redirecting output
3317 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
3321 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
3324 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
3325 documents from remote hotlists:
3328 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
3332 @node Very Advanced Usage, , Advanced Usage, Examples
3333 @section Very Advanced Usage
3338 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
3339 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
3340 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
3341 to recheck a site each Sunday:
3345 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3349 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
3350 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
3351 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
3352 back up the original @sc{html} files before the conversion. Wget invocation
3353 would look like this:
3356 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3357 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3361 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
3362 when @sc{html} files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
3363 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
3364 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
3365 or @samp{application/xhtml+xml} to @file{@var{name}.html}.
3368 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3369 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
3373 Or, with less typing:
3376 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3381 @node Various, Appendices, Examples, Top
3385 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
3388 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers.
3389 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
3390 * Web Site:: GNU Wget's presence on the World Wide Web.
3391 * Mailing Lists:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
3392 * Internet Relay Chat:: Wget's presence on IRC.
3393 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
3394 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
3395 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
3398 @node Proxies, Distribution, Various, Various
3402 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
3403 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
3404 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
3405 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
3406 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
3407 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
3408 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
3409 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
3410 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
3411 using an authorized proxy.
3413 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
3414 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
3415 the following environment variables:
3420 If set, the @code{http_proxy} and @code{https_proxy} variables should
3421 contain the @sc{url}s of the proxies for @sc{http} and @sc{https}
3422 connections respectively.
3425 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
3426 connections. It is quite common that @code{http_proxy} and
3427 @code{ftp_proxy} are set to the same @sc{url}.
3430 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
3431 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
3432 @code{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
3436 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
3437 may be specified from within Wget itself.
3441 @itemx proxy = on/off
3442 This option and the corresponding command may be used to suppress the
3443 use of proxy, even if the appropriate environment variables are set.
3445 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
3446 @itemx https_proxy = @var{URL}
3447 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
3448 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
3449 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
3450 specified by the environment.
3453 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
3454 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
3455 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
3456 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
3457 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
3459 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
3460 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
3461 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
3462 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
3466 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
3469 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
3470 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
3471 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_password} to set the proxy
3472 username and password.
3474 @node Distribution, Web Site, Proxies, Various
3475 @section Distribution
3476 @cindex latest version
3478 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
3479 master GNU archive site ftp.gnu.org, and its mirrors. For example,
3480 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
3481 @url{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
3483 @node Web Site, Mailing Lists, Distribution, Various
3487 The official web site for GNU Wget is at
3488 @url{http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/}. However, most useful
3489 information resides at ``The Wget Wgiki'',
3490 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/}.
3492 @node Mailing Lists, Internet Relay Chat, Web Site, Various
3493 @section Mailing Lists
3494 @cindex mailing list
3497 @unnumberedsubsec Primary List
3499 The primary mailinglist for discussion, bug-reports, or questions
3500 about GNU Wget is at @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}. To subscribe, send an
3501 email to @email{bug-wget-join@@gnu.org}, or visit
3502 @url{http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-wget}.
3504 You do not need to subscribe to send a message to the list; however,
3505 please note that unsubscribed messages are moderated, and may take a
3506 while before they hit the list---@strong{usually around a day}. If
3507 you want your message to show up immediately, please subscribe to the
3508 list before posting. Archives for the list may be found at
3509 @url{http://lists.gnu.org/pipermail/bug-wget/}.
3511 An NNTP/Usenettish gateway is also available via
3512 @uref{http://gmane.org/about.php,Gmane}. You can see the Gmane
3514 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.general}. Note that the
3515 Gmane archives conveniently include messages from both the current
3516 list, and the previous one. Messages also show up in the Gmane
3517 archives sooner than they do at @url{lists.gnu.org}.
3519 @unnumberedsubsec Bug Notices List
3521 Additionally, there is the @email{wget-notify@@addictivecode.org} mailing
3522 list. This is a non-discussion list that receives bug report
3523 notifications from the bug-tracker. To subscribe to this list,
3524 send an email to @email{wget-notify-join@@addictivecode.org},
3525 or visit @url{http://addictivecode.org/mailman/listinfo/wget-notify}.
3527 @unnumberedsubsec Obsolete Lists
3529 Previously, the mailing list @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} was used as the
3530 main discussion list, and another list,
3531 @email{wget-patches@@sunsite.dk} was used for submitting and
3532 discussing patches to GNU Wget.
3534 Messages from @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} are archived at
3537 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.dk/} and at
3539 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.general} (which also
3540 continues to archive the current list, @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}).
3543 Messages from @email{wget-patches@@sunsite.dk} are archived at
3546 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.patches}.
3549 @node Internet Relay Chat, Reporting Bugs, Mailing Lists, Various
3550 @section Internet Relay Chat
3551 @cindex Internet Relay Chat
3555 In addition to the mailinglists, we also have a support channel set up
3556 via IRC at @code{irc.freenode.org}, @code{#wget}. Come check it out!
3558 @node Reporting Bugs, Portability, Internet Relay Chat, Various
3559 @section Reporting Bugs
3561 @cindex reporting bugs
3565 You are welcome to submit bug reports via the GNU Wget bug tracker (see
3566 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/BugTracker}).
3568 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
3573 Please try to ascertain that the behavior you see really is a bug. If
3574 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
3575 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
3576 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug, but you might want to
3577 double-check the documentation and the mailing lists (@pxref{Mailing
3581 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
3582 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 --no-proxy
3583 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
3584 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
3585 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
3586 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
3588 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
3589 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
3590 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
3591 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
3592 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
3596 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send us the resulting
3597 output (or relevant parts thereof). If Wget was compiled without
3598 debug support, recompile it---it is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs
3599 with debug support on.
3601 Note: please make sure to remove any potentially sensitive information
3602 from the debug log before sending it to the bug address. The
3603 @code{-d} won't go out of its way to collect sensitive information,
3604 but the log @emph{will} contain a fairly complete transcript of Wget's
3605 communication with the server, which may include passwords and pieces
3606 of downloaded data. Since the bug address is publically archived, you
3607 may assume that all bug reports are visible to the public.
3610 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
3611 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace. This may not
3612 work if the system administrator has disabled core files, but it is
3617 @node Portability, Signals, Reporting Bugs, Various
3618 @section Portability
3620 @cindex operating systems
3622 Like all GNU software, Wget works on the GNU system. However, since it
3623 uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and mostly avoids using
3624 ``special'' features of any particular Unix, it should compile (and
3625 work) on all common Unix flavors.
3627 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
3628 Unix systems, including GNU/Linux, Solaris, SunOS 4.x, Mac OS X, OSF
3629 (aka Digital Unix or Tru64), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, AIX, and others. Some
3630 of those systems are no longer in widespread use and may not be able to
3631 support recent versions of Wget. If Wget fails to compile on your
3632 system, we would like to know about it.
3634 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works
3635 on 32-bit Microsoft Windows platforms. It has been compiled
3636 successfully using MS Visual C++ 6.0, Watcom, Borland C, and GCC
3637 compilers. Naturally, it is crippled of some features available on
3638 Unix, but it should work as a substitute for people stuck with
3639 Windows. Note that Windows-specific portions of Wget are not
3640 guaranteed to be supported in the future, although this has been the
3641 case in practice for many years now. All questions and problems in
3642 Windows usage should be reported to Wget mailing list at
3643 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the volunteers who maintain the
3644 Windows-related features might look at them.
3646 Support for building on MS-DOS via DJGPP has been contributed by Gisle
3647 Vanem; a port to VMS is maintained by Steven Schweda, and is available
3648 at @url{http://antinode.org/}.
3650 @node Signals, , Portability, Various
3652 @cindex signal handling
3655 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
3656 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
3657 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
3658 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
3659 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
3662 $ wget http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz &
3665 SIGHUP received, redirecting output to `wget-log'.
3668 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
3669 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
3671 @node Appendices, Copying this manual, Various, Top
3674 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
3677 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
3678 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
3679 * Contributors:: People who helped.
3682 @node Robot Exclusion, Security Considerations, Appendices, Appendices
3683 @section Robot Exclusion
3684 @cindex robot exclusion
3686 @cindex server maintenance
3688 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
3689 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
3690 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
3692 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
3693 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
3694 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
3695 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
3696 section handled by a CGI Perl script that converts Info files to @sc{html} on
3697 the fly. The script is slow, but works well enough for human users
3698 viewing an occasional Info file. However, when someone's recursive Wget
3699 download stumbles upon the index page that links to all the Info files
3700 through the script, the system is brought to its knees without providing
3701 anything useful to the user (This task of converting Info files could be
3702 done locally and access to Info documentation for all installed GNU
3703 software on a system is available from the @code{info} command).
3705 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
3706 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
3707 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} was invented. The idea is that
3708 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
3709 portions of the site they wish to protect from robots and those
3710 they will permit access.
3712 The most popular mechanism, and the @i{de facto} standard supported by
3713 all the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written
3714 by Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text
3715 file containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to
3716 avoid. To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
3717 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are expected to
3720 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
3721 can download large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
3722 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
3723 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
3726 wget -r http://www.server.com/
3729 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
3730 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
3731 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
3732 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
3735 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
3736 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
3737 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
3738 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
3739 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
3740 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
3741 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
3742 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
3744 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
3746 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
3747 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
3748 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
3752 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
3755 This is explained in some detail at
3756 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
3757 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
3760 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
3761 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
3762 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
3763 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
3765 @node Security Considerations, Contributors, Robot Exclusion, Appendices
3766 @section Security Considerations
3769 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
3770 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
3771 main issues, and some solutions.
3775 The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}. The best
3776 way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s to
3777 Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
3778 Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store passwords; however,
3779 storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a security risk.
3782 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
3783 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
3786 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
3787 solution for this at the moment.
3790 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
3791 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
3792 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
3796 @node Contributors, , Security Considerations, Appendices
3797 @section Contributors
3798 @cindex contributors
3801 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org},
3804 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org},
3806 and it is currently maintained by Micah Cowan @email{micah@@cowan.name}.
3808 However, the development of Wget could never have gone as far as it has, were
3809 it not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature proposals,
3810 patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
3812 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
3815 @item Dan Harkless---contributed a lot of code and documentation of
3816 extremely high quality, as well as the @code{--page-requisites} and
3817 related options. He was the principal maintainer for some time and
3820 @item Ian Abbott---contributed bug fixes, Windows-related fixes, and
3821 provided a prototype implementation of the breadth-first recursive
3822 download. Co-maintained Wget during the 1.8 release cycle.
3825 The dotsrc.org crew, in particular Karsten Thygesen---donated system
3826 resources such as the mailing list, web space, @sc{ftp} space, and
3827 version control repositories, along with a lot of time to make these
3828 actually work. Christian Reiniger was of invaluable help with setting
3832 Heiko Herold---provided high-quality Windows builds and contributed
3833 bug and build reports for many years.
3836 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
3839 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
3843 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
3847 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
3848 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3851 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
3852 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3856 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
3859 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the initial Italian
3864 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
3868 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
3873 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3876 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3880 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization, Makefile
3881 layout and many other things.
3884 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
3888 Mauro Tortonesi---improved IPv6 support, adding support for dual
3889 family systems. Refactored and enhanced FTP IPv6 code. Maintained GNU
3890 Wget from 2004--2007.
3893 Christopher G.@: Lewis---maintenance of the Windows version of GNU WGet.
3896 Gisle Vanem---many helpful patches and improvements, especially for
3897 Windows and MS-DOS support.
3900 Ralf Wildenhues---contributed patches to convert Wget to use Automake as
3901 part of its build process, and various bugfixes.
3904 Steven Schubiger---Many helpful patches, bugfixes and improvements.
3905 Notably, conversion of Wget to use the Gnulib quotes and quoteargs
3906 modules, and the addition of password prompts at the console, via the
3907 Gnulib getpasswd-gnu module.
3910 Ted Mielczarek---donated support for CSS.
3913 Saint Xavier---Support for IRIs (RFC 3987).
3916 People who provided donations for development---including Brian Gough.
3919 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
3920 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
3921 that make maintenance so much fun:
3941 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
3950 Bertrand Demiddelaer,
3951 Alexander Dergachev,
3964 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
3967 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
3991 Madhusudan Hosaagrahara,
3995 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
4014 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
4028 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
4029 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
4030 (Simos KSenitellis),
4039 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
4045 Alexander V.@: Lukyanov,
4054 Matthew J.@: Mellon,
4090 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
4092 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}guez,
4095 Juan Jose Rodriguez,
4097 Maciej W.@: Rozycki,
4104 Steven M.@: Schweda,
4115 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
4130 Douglas E.@: Wegscheid,
4132 Joshua David Williams,
4146 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
4147 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
4149 @node Copying this manual, Concept Index, Appendices, Top
4150 @appendix Copying this manual
4153 * GNU Free Documentation License:: Licnse for copying this manual.
4156 @node GNU Free Documentation License, , Copying this manual, Copying this manual
4157 @appendixsec GNU Free Documentation License
4158 @cindex FDL, GNU Free Documentation License
4163 @node Concept Index, , Copying this manual, Top
4164 @unnumbered Concept Index