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{modes}
908 Change which characters found in remote URLs must be escaped during
909 generation of local filenames. 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
912 character. This option may also be used to force all alphabetical
913 cases to be either lower- or uppercase.
915 By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid or safe as
916 part of file names on your operating system, as well as control
917 characters that are typically unprintable. This option is useful for
918 changing these defaults, perhaps because you are downloading to a
919 non-native partition, or because you want to disable escaping of the
920 control characters, or you want to further restrict characters to only
921 those in the @sc{ascii} range of values.
923 The @var{modes} are a comma-separated set of text values. The
924 acceptable values are @samp{unix}, @samp{windows}, @samp{nocontrol},
925 @samp{ascii}, @samp{lowercase}, and @samp{uppercase}. The values
926 @samp{unix} and @samp{windows} are mutually exclusive (one will
927 override the other), as are @samp{lowercase} and
928 @samp{uppercase}. Those last are special cases, as they do not change
929 the set of characters that would be escaped, but rather force local
930 file paths to be converted either to lower- or uppercase.
932 When ``unix'' is specified, Wget escapes the character @samp{/} and
933 the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159. This is the
934 default on Unix-like operating systems.
936 When ``windows'' is given, Wget escapes the characters @samp{\},
937 @samp{|}, @samp{/}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
938 @samp{>}, and the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159.
939 In addition to this, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead of
940 @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
941 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
942 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
943 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
944 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
945 mode. This mode is the default on Windows.
947 If you specify @samp{nocontrol}, then the escaping of the control
948 characters is also switched off. This option may make sense
949 when you are downloading URLs whose names contain UTF-8 characters, on
950 a system which can save and display filenames in UTF-8 (some possible
951 byte values used in UTF-8 byte sequences fall in the range of values
952 designated by Wget as ``controls'').
954 The @samp{ascii} mode is used to specify that any bytes whose values
955 are outside the range of @sc{ascii} characters (that is, greater than
956 127) shall be escaped. This can be useful when saving filenames
957 whose encoding does not match the one used locally.
964 Force connecting to IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. With @samp{--inet4-only}
965 or @samp{-4}, Wget will only connect to IPv4 hosts, ignoring AAAA
966 records in DNS, and refusing to connect to IPv6 addresses specified in
967 URLs. Conversely, with @samp{--inet6-only} or @samp{-6}, Wget will
968 only connect to IPv6 hosts and ignore A records and IPv4 addresses.
970 Neither options should be needed normally. By default, an IPv6-aware
971 Wget will use the address family specified by the host's DNS record.
972 If the DNS responds with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, Wget will try
973 them in sequence until it finds one it can connect to. (Also see
974 @code{--prefer-family} option described below.)
976 These options can be used to deliberately force the use of IPv4 or
977 IPv6 address families on dual family systems, usually to aid debugging
978 or to deal with broken network configuration. Only one of
979 @samp{--inet6-only} and @samp{--inet4-only} may be specified at the
980 same time. Neither option is available in Wget compiled without IPv6
983 @item --prefer-family=none/IPv4/IPv6
984 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
985 with specified address family first. The address order returned by
986 DNS is used without change by default.
988 This avoids spurious errors and connect attempts when accessing hosts
989 that resolve to both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses from IPv4 networks. For
990 example, @samp{www.kame.net} resolves to
991 @samp{2001:200:0:8002:203:47ff:fea5:3085} and to
992 @samp{203.178.141.194}. When the preferred family is @code{IPv4}, the
993 IPv4 address is used first; when the preferred family is @code{IPv6},
994 the IPv6 address is used first; if the specified value is @code{none},
995 the address order returned by DNS is used without change.
997 Unlike @samp{-4} and @samp{-6}, this option doesn't inhibit access to
998 any address family, it only changes the @emph{order} in which the
999 addresses are accessed. Also note that the reordering performed by
1000 this option is @dfn{stable}---it doesn't affect order of addresses of
1001 the same family. That is, the relative order of all IPv4 addresses
1002 and of all IPv6 addresses remains intact in all cases.
1004 @item --retry-connrefused
1005 Consider ``connection refused'' a transient error and try again.
1006 Normally Wget gives up on a URL when it is unable to connect to the
1007 site because failure to connect is taken as a sign that the server is
1008 not running at all and that retries would not help. This option is
1009 for mirroring unreliable sites whose servers tend to disappear for
1010 short periods of time.
1014 @cindex authentication
1015 @item --user=@var{user}
1016 @itemx --password=@var{password}
1017 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for both
1018 @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval. These parameters can be overridden
1019 using the @samp{--ftp-user} and @samp{--ftp-password} options for
1020 @sc{ftp} connections and the @samp{--http-user} and @samp{--http-password}
1021 options for @sc{http} connections.
1023 @item --ask-password
1024 Prompt for a password for each connection established. Cannot be specified
1025 when @samp{--password} is being used, because they are mutually exclusive.
1031 Turn off internationalized URI (IRI) support. Use @samp{--iri} to
1032 turn it on. IRI support is activated by default.
1034 You can set the default state of IRI support using the @code{iri}
1035 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
1038 @cindex local encoding
1039 @item --local-encoding=@var{encoding}
1041 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default system encoding. That affects
1042 how Wget converts URLs specified as arguments from locale to @sc{utf-8} for
1045 Wget use the function @code{nl_langinfo()} and then the @code{CHARSET}
1046 environment variable to get the locale. If it fails, @sc{ascii} is used.
1048 You can set the default local encoding using the @code{local_encoding}
1049 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
1052 @cindex remote encoding
1053 @item --remote-encoding=@var{encoding}
1055 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default remote server encoding.
1056 That affects how Wget converts URIs found in files from remote encoding
1057 to @sc{utf-8} during a recursive fetch. This options is only useful for
1058 IRI support, for the interpretation of non-@sc{ascii} characters.
1060 For HTTP, remote encoding can be found in HTTP @code{Content-Type}
1061 header and in HTML @code{Content-Type http-equiv} meta tag.
1063 You can set the default encoding using the @code{remoteencoding}
1064 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
1068 @node Directory Options, HTTP Options, Download Options, Invoking
1069 @section Directory Options
1073 @itemx --no-directories
1074 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
1075 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
1076 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
1077 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
1080 @itemx --force-directories
1081 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
1082 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
1083 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
1084 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
1087 @itemx --no-host-directories
1088 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
1089 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
1090 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
1093 @item --protocol-directories
1094 Use the protocol name as a directory component of local file names. For
1095 example, with this option, @samp{wget -r http://@var{host}} will save to
1096 @samp{http/@var{host}/...} rather than just to @samp{@var{host}/...}.
1098 @cindex cut directories
1099 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
1100 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
1101 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
1104 Take, for example, the directory at
1105 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
1106 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
1107 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
1108 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
1109 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
1110 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
1111 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
1115 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
1117 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
1118 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
1120 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
1125 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
1126 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
1127 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
1128 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
1129 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
1131 @cindex directory prefix
1132 @item -P @var{prefix}
1133 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
1134 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
1135 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
1136 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
1140 @node HTTP Options, HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options, Directory Options, Invoking
1141 @section HTTP Options
1144 @cindex default page name
1146 @item --default-page=@var{name}
1147 Use @var{name} as the default file name when it isn't known (i.e., for
1148 URLs that end in a slash), instead of @file{index.html}.
1150 @cindex .html extension
1152 @itemx --html-extension
1153 If a file of type @samp{application/xhtml+xml} or @samp{text/html} is
1154 downloaded and the URL does not end with the regexp
1155 @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause the suffix @samp{.html}
1156 to be appended to the local filename. This is useful, for instance, when
1157 you're mirroring a remote site that uses @samp{.asp} pages, but you want
1158 the mirrored pages to be viewable on your stock Apache server. Another
1159 good use for this is when you're downloading CGI-generated materials. A URL
1160 like @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
1161 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
1163 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
1164 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
1165 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
1166 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
1167 @samp{text/html} or @samp{application/xhtml+xml}. To prevent this
1168 re-downloading, you must use @samp{-k} and @samp{-K} so that the original
1169 version of the file will be saved as @file{@var{X}.orig} (@pxref{Recursive
1170 Retrieval Options}).
1172 As of version 1.12, Wget will also ensure that any downloaded files of
1173 type @samp{text/css} end in the suffix @samp{.css}. Obviously, this
1174 makes the name @samp{--html-extension} misleading; a better name is
1175 expected to be offered as an alternative in the near future.
1178 @cindex http password
1179 @cindex authentication
1180 @item --http-user=@var{user}
1181 @itemx --http-password=@var{password}
1182 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1183 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
1184 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure),
1185 the @code{digest}, or the Windows @code{NTLM} authentication scheme.
1187 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1188 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1189 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1190 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1191 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1192 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1193 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1196 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1200 @cindex Keep-Alive, turning off
1201 @cindex Persistent Connections, disabling
1202 @item --no-http-keep-alive
1203 Turn off the ``keep-alive'' feature for HTTP downloads. Normally, Wget
1204 asks the server to keep the connection open so that, when you download
1205 more than one document from the same server, they get transferred over
1206 the same TCP connection. This saves time and at the same time reduces
1207 the load on the server.
1209 This option is useful when, for some reason, persistent (keep-alive)
1210 connections don't work for you, for example due to a server bug or due
1211 to the inability of server-side scripts to cope with the connections.
1216 Disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will send the remote
1217 server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma: no-cache}) to get the
1218 file from the remote service, rather than returning the cached version.
1219 This is especially useful for retrieving and flushing out-of-date
1220 documents on proxy servers.
1222 Caching is allowed by default.
1226 Disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism for maintaining
1227 server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie using the
1228 @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the same cookie
1229 upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server owners to keep
1230 track of visitors and for sites to exchange this information, some
1231 consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to use cookies;
1232 however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
1234 @cindex loading cookies
1235 @cindex cookies, loading
1236 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
1237 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
1238 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
1239 @file{cookies.txt} file.
1241 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
1242 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
1243 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
1244 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
1245 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
1246 proves your identity.
1248 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
1249 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
1250 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
1251 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
1252 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
1253 cookie files in different locations:
1257 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1259 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1260 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1261 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1262 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1263 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1265 @item Internet Explorer.
1266 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1267 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1268 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1270 @item Other browsers.
1271 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1272 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1273 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1276 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1277 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1278 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1279 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1280 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1283 wget --no-cookies --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1286 @cindex saving cookies
1287 @cindex cookies, saving
1288 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1289 Save cookies to @var{file} before exiting. This will not save cookies
1290 that have expired or that have no expiry time (so-called ``session
1291 cookies''), but also see @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
1293 @cindex cookies, session
1294 @cindex session cookies
1295 @item --keep-session-cookies
1296 When specified, causes @samp{--save-cookies} to also save session
1297 cookies. Session cookies are normally not saved because they are
1298 meant to be kept in memory and forgotten when you exit the browser.
1299 Saving them is useful on sites that require you to log in or to visit
1300 the home page before you can access some pages. With this option,
1301 multiple Wget runs are considered a single browser session as far as
1302 the site is concerned.
1304 Since the cookie file format does not normally carry session cookies,
1305 Wget marks them with an expiry timestamp of 0. Wget's
1306 @samp{--load-cookies} recognizes those as session cookies, but it might
1307 confuse other browsers. Also note that cookies so loaded will be
1308 treated as other session cookies, which means that if you want
1309 @samp{--save-cookies} to preserve them again, you must use
1310 @samp{--keep-session-cookies} again.
1312 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1313 @cindex ignore length
1314 @item --ignore-length
1315 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1316 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1317 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1318 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1319 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1322 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1323 if it never existed.
1326 @item --header=@var{header-line}
1327 Send @var{header-line} along with the rest of the headers in each
1328 @sc{http} request. The supplied header is sent as-is, which means it
1329 must contain name and value separated by colon, and must not contain
1332 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1333 @samp{--header} more than once.
1337 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1338 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1339 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1343 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1344 previous user-defined headers.
1346 As of Wget 1.10, this option can be used to override headers otherwise
1347 generated automatically. This example instructs Wget to connect to
1348 localhost, but to specify @samp{foo.bar} in the @code{Host} header:
1351 wget --header="Host: foo.bar" http://localhost/
1354 In versions of Wget prior to 1.10 such use of @samp{--header} caused
1355 sending of duplicate headers.
1358 @item --max-redirect=@var{number}
1359 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
1360 The default is 20, which is usually far more than necessary. However, on
1361 those occasions where you want to allow more (or fewer), this is the
1365 @cindex proxy password
1366 @cindex proxy authentication
1367 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1368 @itemx --proxy-password=@var{password}
1369 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1370 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1371 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1373 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-password}
1374 pertain here as well.
1376 @cindex http referer
1377 @cindex referer, http
1378 @item --referer=@var{url}
1379 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1380 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1381 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1382 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1384 @cindex server response, save
1385 @item --save-headers
1386 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1387 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1390 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1391 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1392 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1394 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1395 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1396 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1397 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1398 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1401 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1402 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1403 While this is not such a bad idea in theory, it has been abused by
1404 servers denying information to clients other than (historically)
1405 Netscape or, more frequently, Microsoft Internet Explorer. This
1406 option allows you to change the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget.
1407 Use of this option is discouraged, unless you really know what you are
1410 Specifying empty user agent with @samp{--user-agent=""} instructs Wget
1411 not to send the @code{User-Agent} header in @sc{http} requests.
1414 @item --post-data=@var{string}
1415 @itemx --post-file=@var{file}
1416 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the specified
1417 data in the request body. @samp{--post-data} sends @var{string} as
1418 data, whereas @samp{--post-file} sends the contents of @var{file}.
1419 Other than that, they work in exactly the same way. In particular,
1420 they @emph{both} expect content of the form @code{key1=value1&key2=value2},
1421 with percent-encoding for special characters; the only difference is
1422 that one expects its content as a command-line paramter and the other
1423 accepts its content from a file. In particular, @samp{--post-file} is
1424 @emph{not} for transmitting files as form attachments: those must
1425 appear as @code{key=value} data (with appropriate percent-coding) just
1426 like everything else. Wget does not currently support
1427 @code{multipart/form-data} for transmitting POST data; only
1428 @code{application/x-www-form-urlencoded}. Only one of
1429 @samp{--post-data} and @samp{--post-file} should be specified.
1431 Please be aware that Wget needs to know the size of the POST data in
1432 advance. Therefore the argument to @code{--post-file} must be a regular
1433 file; specifying a FIFO or something like @file{/dev/stdin} won't work.
1434 It's not quite clear how to work around this limitation inherent in
1435 HTTP/1.0. Although HTTP/1.1 introduces @dfn{chunked} transfer that
1436 doesn't require knowing the request length in advance, a client can't
1437 use chunked unless it knows it's talking to an HTTP/1.1 server. And it
1438 can't know that until it receives a response, which in turn requires the
1439 request to have been completed -- a chicken-and-egg problem.
1441 Note: if Wget is redirected after the POST request is completed, it
1442 will not send the POST data to the redirected URL. This is because
1443 URLs that process POST often respond with a redirection to a regular
1444 page, which does not desire or accept POST. It is not completely
1445 clear that this behavior is optimal; if it doesn't work out, it might
1446 be changed in the future.
1448 This example shows how to log to a server using POST and then proceed to
1449 download the desired pages, presumably only accessible to authorized
1454 # @r{Log in to the server. This can be done only once.}
1455 wget --save-cookies cookies.txt \
1456 --post-data 'user=foo&password=bar' \
1457 http://server.com/auth.php
1459 # @r{Now grab the page or pages we care about.}
1460 wget --load-cookies cookies.txt \
1461 -p http://server.com/interesting/article.php
1465 If the server is using session cookies to track user authentication,
1466 the above will not work because @samp{--save-cookies} will not save
1467 them (and neither will browsers) and the @file{cookies.txt} file will
1468 be empty. In that case use @samp{--keep-session-cookies} along with
1469 @samp{--save-cookies} to force saving of session cookies.
1471 @cindex Content-Disposition
1472 @item --content-disposition
1474 If this is set to on, experimental (not fully-functional) support for
1475 @code{Content-Disposition} headers is enabled. This can currently result in
1476 extra round-trips to the server for a @code{HEAD} request, and is known
1477 to suffer from a few bugs, which is why it is not currently enabled by default.
1479 This option is useful for some file-downloading CGI programs that use
1480 @code{Content-Disposition} headers to describe what the name of a
1481 downloaded file should be.
1483 @cindex authentication
1484 @item --auth-no-challenge
1486 If this option is given, Wget will send Basic HTTP authentication
1487 information (plaintext username and password) for all requests, just
1488 like Wget 1.10.2 and prior did by default.
1490 Use of this option is not recommended, and is intended only to support
1491 some few obscure servers, which never send HTTP authentication
1492 challenges, but accept unsolicited auth info, say, in addition to
1493 form-based authentication.
1497 @node HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options, FTP Options, HTTP Options, Invoking
1498 @section HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
1501 To support encrypted HTTP (HTTPS) downloads, Wget must be compiled
1502 with an external SSL library, currently OpenSSL. If Wget is compiled
1503 without SSL support, none of these options are available.
1506 @cindex SSL protocol, choose
1507 @item --secure-protocol=@var{protocol}
1508 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto},
1509 @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. If @samp{auto} is used,
1510 the SSL library is given the liberty of choosing the appropriate
1511 protocol automatically, which is achieved by sending an SSLv2 greeting
1512 and announcing support for SSLv3 and TLSv1. This is the default.
1514 Specifying @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, or @samp{TLSv1} forces the use
1515 of the corresponding protocol. This is useful when talking to old and
1516 buggy SSL server implementations that make it hard for OpenSSL to
1517 choose the correct protocol version. Fortunately, such servers are
1520 @cindex SSL certificate, check
1521 @item --no-check-certificate
1522 Don't check the server certificate against the available certificate
1523 authorities. Also don't require the URL host name to match the common
1524 name presented by the certificate.
1526 As of Wget 1.10, the default is to verify the server's certificate
1527 against the recognized certificate authorities, breaking the SSL
1528 handshake and aborting the download if the verification fails.
1529 Although this provides more secure downloads, it does break
1530 interoperability with some sites that worked with previous Wget
1531 versions, particularly those using self-signed, expired, or otherwise
1532 invalid certificates. This option forces an ``insecure'' mode of
1533 operation that turns the certificate verification errors into warnings
1534 and allows you to proceed.
1536 If you encounter ``certificate verification'' errors or ones saying
1537 that ``common name doesn't match requested host name'', you can use
1538 this option to bypass the verification and proceed with the download.
1539 @emph{Only use this option if you are otherwise convinced of the
1540 site's authenticity, or if you really don't care about the validity of
1541 its certificate.} It is almost always a bad idea not to check the
1542 certificates when transmitting confidential or important data.
1544 @cindex SSL certificate
1545 @item --certificate=@var{file}
1546 Use the client certificate stored in @var{file}. This is needed for
1547 servers that are configured to require certificates from the clients
1548 that connect to them. Normally a certificate is not required and this
1551 @cindex SSL certificate type, specify
1552 @item --certificate-type=@var{type}
1553 Specify the type of the client certificate. Legal values are
1554 @samp{PEM} (assumed by default) and @samp{DER}, also known as
1557 @item --private-key=@var{file}
1558 Read the private key from @var{file}. This allows you to provide the
1559 private key in a file separate from the certificate.
1561 @item --private-key-type=@var{type}
1562 Specify the type of the private key. Accepted values are @samp{PEM}
1563 (the default) and @samp{DER}.
1565 @item --ca-certificate=@var{file}
1566 Use @var{file} as the file with the bundle of certificate authorities
1567 (``CA'') to verify the peers. The certificates must be in PEM format.
1569 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1570 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1572 @cindex SSL certificate authority
1573 @item --ca-directory=@var{directory}
1574 Specifies directory containing CA certificates in PEM format. Each
1575 file contains one CA certificate, and the file name is based on a hash
1576 value derived from the certificate. This is achieved by processing a
1577 certificate directory with the @code{c_rehash} utility supplied with
1578 OpenSSL. Using @samp{--ca-directory} is more efficient than
1579 @samp{--ca-certificate} when many certificates are installed because
1580 it allows Wget to fetch certificates on demand.
1582 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1583 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1585 @cindex entropy, specifying source of
1586 @cindex randomness, specifying source of
1587 @item --random-file=@var{file}
1588 Use @var{file} as the source of random data for seeding the
1589 pseudo-random number generator on systems without @file{/dev/random}.
1591 On such systems the SSL library needs an external source of randomness
1592 to initialize. Randomness may be provided by EGD (see
1593 @samp{--egd-file} below) or read from an external source specified by
1594 the user. If this option is not specified, Wget looks for random data
1595 in @code{$RANDFILE} or, if that is unset, in @file{$HOME/.rnd}. If
1596 none of those are available, it is likely that SSL encryption will not
1599 If you're getting the ``Could not seed OpenSSL PRNG; disabling SSL.''
1600 error, you should provide random data using some of the methods
1604 @item --egd-file=@var{file}
1605 Use @var{file} as the EGD socket. EGD stands for @dfn{Entropy
1606 Gathering Daemon}, a user-space program that collects data from
1607 various unpredictable system sources and makes it available to other
1608 programs that might need it. Encryption software, such as the SSL
1609 library, needs sources of non-repeating randomness to seed the random
1610 number generator used to produce cryptographically strong keys.
1612 OpenSSL allows the user to specify his own source of entropy using the
1613 @code{RAND_FILE} environment variable. If this variable is unset, or
1614 if the specified file does not produce enough randomness, OpenSSL will
1615 read random data from EGD socket specified using this option.
1617 If this option is not specified (and the equivalent startup command is
1618 not used), EGD is never contacted. EGD is not needed on modern Unix
1619 systems that support @file{/dev/random}.
1622 @node FTP Options, Recursive Retrieval Options, HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options, Invoking
1623 @section FTP Options
1627 @cindex ftp password
1628 @cindex ftp authentication
1629 @item --ftp-user=@var{user}
1630 @itemx --ftp-password=@var{password}
1631 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1632 @sc{ftp} server. Without this, or the corresponding startup option,
1633 the password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, normally used for anonymous
1636 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1637 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1638 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1639 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1640 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1641 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1642 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1645 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1649 @cindex .listing files, removing
1650 @item --no-remove-listing
1651 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1652 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1653 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1654 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1655 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1656 you're running is complete).
1658 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1659 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1660 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1661 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1662 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1663 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1664 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1665 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1666 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1668 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1669 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1670 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1671 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1672 will be overwritten.
1674 @cindex globbing, toggle
1676 Turn off @sc{ftp} globbing. Globbing refers to the use of shell-like
1677 special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[}
1678 and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the same directory at
1682 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1685 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1686 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1689 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1690 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1691 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1692 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1695 @item --no-passive-ftp
1696 Disable the use of the @dfn{passive} FTP transfer mode. Passive FTP
1697 mandates that the client connect to the server to establish the data
1698 connection rather than the other way around.
1700 If the machine is connected to the Internet directly, both passive and
1701 active FTP should work equally well. Behind most firewall and NAT
1702 configurations passive FTP has a better chance of working. However,
1703 in some rare firewall configurations, active FTP actually works when
1704 passive FTP doesn't. If you suspect this to be the case, use this
1705 option, or set @code{passive_ftp=off} in your init file.
1707 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1708 @item --retr-symlinks
1709 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1710 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1711 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1712 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1713 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1715 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1716 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1717 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1718 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1721 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1722 specified on the command-line, rather than because it was recursed to,
1723 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1727 @node Recursive Retrieval Options, Recursive Accept/Reject Options, FTP Options, Invoking
1728 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1733 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Download}, for more
1736 @item -l @var{depth}
1737 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1738 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1739 Download}). The default maximum depth is 5.
1741 @cindex proxy filling
1742 @cindex delete after retrieval
1743 @cindex filling proxy cache
1744 @item --delete-after
1745 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1746 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1747 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1750 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1753 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1756 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1757 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1758 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1759 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1760 created in the first place.
1762 @cindex conversion of links
1763 @cindex link conversion
1765 @itemx --convert-links
1766 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1767 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1768 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1769 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-@sc{html}
1772 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1776 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1777 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1779 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1780 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1781 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1782 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1785 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1786 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1788 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1789 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1790 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1791 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1794 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1795 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1796 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1797 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1798 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1801 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1802 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1803 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1805 @cindex backing up converted files
1807 @itemx --backup-converted
1808 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1809 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1814 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1815 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1816 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1817 @samp{-r -N -l inf --no-remove-listing}.
1819 @cindex page requisites
1820 @cindex required images, downloading
1822 @itemx --page-requisites
1823 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
1824 properly display a given @sc{html} page. This includes such things as
1825 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
1827 Ordinarily, when downloading a single @sc{html} page, any requisite documents
1828 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
1829 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
1830 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
1831 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
1834 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
1835 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
1836 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
1837 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
1838 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
1840 If one executes the command:
1843 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
1846 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
1847 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
1848 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
1849 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
1850 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
1853 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1856 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
1857 will be downloaded. Similarly,
1860 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1863 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
1864 to be downloaded. One might think that:
1867 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1870 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
1871 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
1872 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single @sc{html}
1873 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the command-line or in a
1874 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
1875 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
1878 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1881 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
1882 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
1883 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
1884 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
1885 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
1886 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
1889 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1892 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
1893 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
1894 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
1897 @cindex @sc{html} comments
1898 @cindex comments, @sc{html}
1899 @item --strict-comments
1900 Turn on strict parsing of @sc{html} comments. The default is to terminate
1901 comments at the first occurrence of @samp{-->}.
1903 According to specifications, @sc{html} comments are expressed as @sc{sgml}
1904 @dfn{declarations}. Declaration is special markup that begins with
1905 @samp{<!} and ends with @samp{>}, such as @samp{<!DOCTYPE ...>}, that
1906 may contain comments between a pair of @samp{--} delimiters. @sc{html}
1907 comments are ``empty declarations'', @sc{sgml} declarations without any
1908 non-comment text. Therefore, @samp{<!--foo-->} is a valid comment, and
1909 so is @samp{<!--one-- --two-->}, but @samp{<!--1--2-->} is not.
1911 On the other hand, most @sc{html} writers don't perceive comments as anything
1912 other than text delimited with @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}, which is not
1913 quite the same. For example, something like @samp{<!------------>}
1914 works as a valid comment as long as the number of dashes is a multiple
1915 of four (!). If not, the comment technically lasts until the next
1916 @samp{--}, which may be at the other end of the document. Because of
1917 this, many popular browsers completely ignore the specification and
1918 implement what users have come to expect: comments delimited with
1919 @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}.
1921 Until version 1.9, Wget interpreted comments strictly, which resulted in
1922 missing links in many web pages that displayed fine in browsers, but had
1923 the misfortune of containing non-compliant comments. Beginning with
1924 version 1.9, Wget has joined the ranks of clients that implements
1925 ``naive'' comments, terminating each comment at the first occurrence of
1928 If, for whatever reason, you want strict comment parsing, use this
1929 option to turn it on.
1932 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options, , Recursive Retrieval Options, Invoking
1933 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1936 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
1937 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
1938 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
1939 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files}). Note that if
1940 any of the wildcard characters, @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[} or
1941 @samp{]}, appear in an element of @var{acclist} or @var{rejlist},
1942 it will be treated as a pattern, rather than a suffix.
1944 @item -D @var{domain-list}
1945 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
1946 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
1947 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
1949 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
1950 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed.
1951 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1953 @cindex follow FTP links
1955 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
1956 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
1958 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
1959 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
1960 Wget has an internal table of @sc{html} tag / attribute pairs that it
1961 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
1962 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
1963 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
1964 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
1966 @item --ignore-tags=@var{list}
1967 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
1968 certain @sc{html} tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
1969 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
1971 In the past, this option was the best bet for downloading a single page
1972 and its requisites, using a command-line like:
1975 wget --ignore-tags=a,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1978 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
1979 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
1980 specifying tags to ignore was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to
1981 ignore @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded.
1982 Now the best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
1983 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
1988 Ignore case when matching files and directories. This influences the
1989 behavior of -R, -A, -I, and -X options, as well as globbing
1990 implemented when downloading from FTP sites. For example, with this
1991 option, @samp{-A *.txt} will match @samp{file1.txt}, but also
1992 @samp{file2.TXT}, @samp{file3.TxT}, and so on.
1996 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
1997 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2001 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
2002 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
2003 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
2006 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
2007 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2008 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements
2009 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
2012 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
2013 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2014 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements of
2015 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
2019 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
2020 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
2021 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
2022 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
2027 @node Recursive Download, Following Links, Invoking, Top
2028 @chapter Recursive Download
2031 @cindex recursive download
2033 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
2034 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
2035 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieval}, or @dfn{recursion}.
2037 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} or
2038 @sc{css} from the given @sc{url}, retrieving the files the document
2039 refers to, through markup like @code{href} or @code{src}, or @sc{css}
2040 @sc{uri} values specified using the @samp{url()} functional notation.
2041 If the freshly downloaded file is also of type @code{text/html},
2042 @code{application/xhtml+xml}, or @code{text/css}, it will be parsed
2043 and followed further.
2045 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html}/@sc{css} content is
2046 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
2047 document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
2048 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
2049 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
2050 until the specified maximum depth.
2052 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
2053 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
2055 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
2056 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
2057 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
2058 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
2059 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
2062 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
2063 the one found on the remote server.
2065 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
2066 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
2067 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
2068 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
2070 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
2071 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
2072 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
2073 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
2074 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
2075 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
2076 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
2078 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
2079 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
2080 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
2081 consume memory and CPU.
2083 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
2084 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
2085 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
2086 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
2087 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
2088 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
2089 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
2092 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
2095 @node Following Links, Time-Stamping, Recursive Download, Top
2096 @chapter Following Links
2098 @cindex following links
2100 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
2101 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
2102 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
2104 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
2105 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
2106 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
2108 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
2109 links it will follow.
2112 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
2113 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
2114 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
2115 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
2116 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
2119 @node Spanning Hosts, Types of Files, Following Links, Following Links
2120 @section Spanning Hosts
2121 @cindex spanning hosts
2122 @cindex hosts, spanning
2124 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
2125 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
2126 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
2127 your Wget into a small version of google.
2129 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
2130 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
2131 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
2132 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the @sc{html}
2133 pages refer to both interchangeably.
2136 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
2138 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
2139 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
2140 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
2141 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
2142 up much more data than you have intended.
2144 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
2146 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
2147 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
2148 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
2149 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
2150 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
2151 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
2154 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
2157 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
2158 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
2160 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
2162 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
2163 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
2164 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
2165 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
2166 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
2170 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
2176 @node Types of Files, Directory-Based Limits, Spanning Hosts, Following Links
2177 @section Types of Files
2178 @cindex types of files
2180 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
2181 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
2182 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
2183 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
2185 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
2186 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
2189 @cindex accept wildcards
2190 @cindex accept suffixes
2191 @cindex wildcards, accept
2192 @cindex suffixes, accept
2194 @item -A @var{acclist}
2195 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
2196 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
2197 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
2198 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
2199 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
2200 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
2201 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
2203 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
2204 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
2205 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
2206 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
2207 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
2208 a description of how pattern matching works.
2210 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
2211 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
2213 @cindex reject wildcards
2214 @cindex reject suffixes
2215 @cindex wildcards, reject
2216 @cindex suffixes, reject
2217 @item -R @var{rejlist}
2218 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
2219 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
2220 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
2221 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
2222 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
2224 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
2225 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
2226 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
2227 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
2228 expansion by the shell.
2232 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
2233 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
2234 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
2235 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
2237 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
2238 files (as determined by a @samp{.htm} or @samp{.html} filename
2239 prefix). This behavior may not be desirable for all users, and may be
2240 changed for future versions of Wget.
2242 Note, too, that query strings (strings at the end of a URL beginning
2243 with a question mark (@samp{?}) are not included as part of the
2244 filename for accept/reject rules, even though these will actually
2245 contribute to the name chosen for the local file. It is expected that
2246 a future version of Wget will provide an option to allow matching
2247 against query strings.
2249 Finally, it's worth noting that the accept/reject lists are matched
2250 @emph{twice} against downloaded files: once against the URL's filename
2251 portion, to determine if the file should be downloaded in the first
2252 place; then, after it has been accepted and successfully downloaded,
2253 the local file's name is also checked against the accept/reject lists
2254 to see if it should be removed. The rationale was that, since
2255 @samp{.htm} and @samp{.html} files are always downloaded regardless of
2256 accept/reject rules, they should be removed @emph{after} being
2257 downloaded and scanned for links, if they did match the accept/reject
2258 lists. However, this can lead to unexpected results, since the local
2259 filenames can differ from the original URL filenames in the following
2260 ways, all of which can change whether an accept/reject rule matches:
2264 If the local file already exists and @samp{--no-directories} was
2265 specified, a numeric suffix will be appended to the original name.
2267 If @samp{--html-extension} was specified, the local filename will have
2268 @samp{.html} appended to it. If Wget is invoked with @samp{-E -A.php},
2269 a filename such as @samp{index.php} will match be accepted, but upon
2270 download will be named @samp{index.php.html}, which no longer matches,
2271 and so the file will be deleted.
2273 Query strings do not contribute to URL matching, but are included in
2274 local filenames, and so @emph{do} contribute to filename matching.
2278 This behavior, too, is considered less-than-desirable, and may change
2279 in a future version of Wget.
2281 @node Directory-Based Limits, Relative Links, Types of Files, Following Links
2282 @section Directory-Based Limits
2284 @cindex directory limits
2286 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
2287 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
2288 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
2289 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
2290 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
2291 @file{/dev} directories.
2293 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
2294 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
2295 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
2297 @cindex directories, include
2298 @cindex include directories
2299 @cindex accept directories
2302 @itemx --include @var{list}
2303 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
2304 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
2305 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
2306 directories are absolute paths.
2308 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
2309 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
2310 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
2313 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
2316 @cindex directories, exclude
2317 @cindex exclude directories
2318 @cindex reject directories
2320 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
2321 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
2322 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
2323 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
2324 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
2325 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
2327 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
2328 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
2329 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
2330 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
2335 @itemx no_parent = on
2336 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
2337 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
2338 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
2339 parent directory/directories.
2341 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
2342 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
2343 Supposing you issue Wget with:
2346 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
2349 You may rest assured that none of the references to
2350 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
2351 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
2352 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
2353 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
2354 intelligent fashion.
2356 @strong{Note} that, for HTTP (and HTTPS), the trailing slash is very
2357 important to @samp{--no-parent}. HTTP has no concept of a ``directory''---Wget
2358 relies on you to indicate what's a directory and what isn't. In
2359 @samp{http://foo/bar/}, Wget will consider @samp{bar} to be a
2360 directory, while in @samp{http://foo/bar} (no trailing slash),
2361 @samp{bar} will be considered a filename (so @samp{--no-parent} would be
2362 meaningless, as its parent is @samp{/}).
2365 @node Relative Links, FTP Links, Directory-Based Limits, Following Links
2366 @section Relative Links
2367 @cindex relative links
2369 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
2370 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
2371 server root. For example, these links are relative:
2375 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
2376 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
2379 These links are not relative:
2383 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
2384 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
2387 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
2388 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
2389 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
2391 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
2394 @node FTP Links, , Relative Links, Following Links
2395 @section Following FTP Links
2396 @cindex following ftp links
2398 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
2399 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
2400 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
2403 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
2404 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
2405 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
2406 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
2407 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
2408 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
2409 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
2411 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
2412 retrieved recursively further.
2414 @node Time-Stamping, Startup File, Following Links, Top
2415 @chapter Time-Stamping
2416 @cindex time-stamping
2417 @cindex timestamping
2418 @cindex updating the archives
2419 @cindex incremental updating
2421 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
2422 Internet is updating your archives.
2424 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
2425 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
2426 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
2427 offer the option of incremental updating.
2429 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
2430 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
2431 the place of the old ones.
2433 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
2437 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
2440 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
2441 recently than the local file.
2444 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
2445 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
2446 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
2448 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
2449 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
2450 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
2451 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
2452 does, and the remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
2454 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
2455 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
2459 * Time-Stamping Usage::
2460 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2461 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2464 @node Time-Stamping Usage, HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping, Time-Stamping
2465 @section Time-Stamping Usage
2466 @cindex time-stamping usage
2467 @cindex usage, time-stamping
2469 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
2470 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
2473 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2476 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
2477 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
2478 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
2479 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
2481 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
2482 changed, and download it if it has.
2485 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2488 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
2489 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
2490 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
2491 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
2493 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
2496 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
2499 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
2500 interpret the @samp{*}.)
2502 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
2503 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
2504 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
2505 since the last download.
2507 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
2508 command like the following, weekly:
2511 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2514 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
2515 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
2516 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
2517 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
2518 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
2520 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, FTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping Usage, Time-Stamping
2521 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2522 @cindex http time-stamping
2524 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
2525 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
2526 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
2527 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
2528 retrieved unconditionally.
2530 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
2531 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
2532 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
2535 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
2536 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
2537 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
2538 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
2539 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
2540 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
2543 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
2544 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
2545 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
2546 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
2547 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
2549 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
2550 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
2552 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals, , HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping
2553 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2554 @cindex ftp time-stamping
2556 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
2557 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
2560 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
2561 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
2562 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
2563 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
2564 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
2565 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
2566 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
2567 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
2569 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
2570 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
2571 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
2572 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
2573 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
2574 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
2576 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
2577 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
2578 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
2579 Wget may support this command in the future.
2581 @node Startup File, Examples, Time-Stamping, Top
2582 @chapter Startup File
2583 @cindex startup file
2589 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
2590 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
2591 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
2592 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
2594 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
2595 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
2596 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
2597 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
2599 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
2603 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
2604 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
2605 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
2606 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
2609 @node Wgetrc Location, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File, Startup File
2610 @section Wgetrc Location
2611 @cindex wgetrc location
2612 @cindex location of wgetrc
2614 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
2615 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
2616 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
2617 from there, if it exists.
2619 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
2620 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
2621 further attempts will be made.
2623 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
2625 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
2626 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
2627 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
2628 Fascist admins, away!
2630 @node Wgetrc Syntax, Wgetrc Commands, Wgetrc Location, Startup File
2631 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2632 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2633 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2635 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2641 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2642 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2644 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2645 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2646 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2649 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2650 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2651 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2657 @node Wgetrc Commands, Sample Wgetrc, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File
2658 @section Wgetrc Commands
2659 @cindex wgetrc commands
2661 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2662 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2663 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}.
2665 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2666 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2667 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2668 values can be any non-empty string.
2670 Most of these commands have direct command-line equivalents. Also, any
2671 wgetrc command can be specified on the command line using the
2672 @samp{--execute} switch (@pxref{Basic Startup Options}.)
2675 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2676 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2678 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2679 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2681 @item ask_password = on/off
2682 Prompt for a password for each connection established. Cannot be specified
2683 when @samp{--password} is being used, because they are mutually
2684 exclusive. Equivalent to @samp{--ask-password}.
2686 @item auth_no_challenge = on/off
2687 If this option is given, Wget will send Basic HTTP authentication
2688 information (plaintext username and password) for all requests. See
2689 @samp{--auth-no-challenge}.
2691 @item background = on/off
2692 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2695 @item backup_converted = on/off
2696 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2697 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2699 @c @item backups = @var{number}
2700 @c #### Document me!
2702 @item base = @var{string}
2703 Consider relative @sc{url}s in input files (specified via the
2704 @samp{input} command or the @samp{--input-file}/@samp{-i} option,
2705 together with @samp{force_html} or @samp{--force-html})
2706 as being relative to @var{string}---the same as @samp{--base=@var{string}}.
2708 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2709 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address=@var{address}}.
2711 @item ca_certificate = @var{file}
2712 Set the certificate authority bundle file to @var{file}. The same
2713 as @samp{--ca-certificate=@var{file}}.
2715 @item ca_directory = @var{directory}
2716 Set the directory used for certificate authorities. The same as
2717 @samp{--ca-directory=@var{directory}}.
2719 @item cache = on/off
2720 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{--no-cache}
2723 @item certificate = @var{file}
2724 Set the client certificate file name to @var{file}. The same as
2725 @samp{--certificate=@var{file}}.
2727 @item certificate_type = @var{string}
2728 Specify the type of the client certificate, legal values being
2729 @samp{PEM} (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2730 @samp{--certificate-type=@var{string}}.
2732 @item check_certificate = on/off
2733 If this is set to off, the server certificate is not checked against
2734 the specified client authorities. The default is ``on''. The same as
2735 @samp{--check-certificate}.
2737 @item connect_timeout = @var{n}
2738 Set the connect timeout---the same as @samp{--connect-timeout}.
2740 @item content_disposition = on/off
2741 Turn on recognition of the (non-standard) @samp{Content-Disposition}
2742 HTTP header---if set to @samp{on}, the same as @samp{--content-disposition}.
2744 @item continue = on/off
2745 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
2746 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
2748 @item convert_links = on/off
2749 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
2751 @item cookies = on/off
2752 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
2754 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
2755 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components. Equivalent to
2756 @samp{--cut-dirs=@var{n}}.
2758 @item debug = on/off
2759 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
2761 @item default_page = @var{string}
2762 Default page name---the same as @samp{--default-page=@var{string}}.
2764 @item delete_after = on/off
2765 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
2767 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
2768 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P @var{string}}.
2770 @item dirstruct = on/off
2771 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
2774 @item dns_cache = on/off
2775 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
2776 option is normally used to turn it off and is equivalent to
2777 @samp{--no-dns-cache}.
2779 @item dns_timeout = @var{n}
2780 Set the DNS timeout---the same as @samp{--dns-timeout}.
2782 @item domains = @var{string}
2783 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2785 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
2786 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
2787 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
2788 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
2789 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
2790 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
2791 (@pxref{Download Options}).
2793 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
2794 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
2796 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
2797 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
2798 the retrieval (50 by default).
2800 @item egd_file = @var{file}
2801 Use @var{string} as the EGD socket file name. The same as
2802 @samp{--egd-file=@var{file}}.
2804 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
2805 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2806 download---the same as @samp{-X @var{string}} (@pxref{Directory-Based
2809 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
2810 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains=@var{string}} (@pxref{Spanning
2813 @item follow_ftp = on/off
2814 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
2815 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
2817 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
2818 Only follow certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval,
2819 just like @samp{--follow-tags=@var{string}}.
2821 @item force_html = on/off
2822 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
2823 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
2825 @item ftp_password = @var{string}
2826 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{string}. Without this setting, the
2827 password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, which is a useful default for
2828 anonymous @sc{ftp} access.
2830 This command used to be named @code{passwd} prior to Wget 1.10.
2832 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
2833 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2836 @item ftp_user = @var{string}
2837 Set @sc{ftp} user to @var{string}.
2839 This command used to be named @code{login} prior to Wget 1.10.
2842 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{--glob} and @samp{--no-glob}.
2844 @item header = @var{string}
2845 Define a header for HTTP downloads, like using
2846 @samp{--header=@var{string}}.
2848 @item html_extension = on/off
2849 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} or
2850 @samp{application/xhtml+xml} files without it, or a @samp{.css}
2851 extension to @samp{text/css} files without it, like @samp{-E}.
2853 @item http_keep_alive = on/off
2854 Turn the keep-alive feature on or off (defaults to on). Turning it
2855 off is equivalent to @samp{--no-http-keep-alive}.
2857 @item http_password = @var{string}
2858 Set @sc{http} password, equivalent to
2859 @samp{--http-password=@var{string}}.
2861 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
2862 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2865 @item http_user = @var{string}
2866 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}, equivalent to
2867 @samp{--http-user=@var{string}}.
2869 @item https_proxy = @var{string}
2870 Use @var{string} as @sc{https} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2873 @item ignore_case = on/off
2874 When set to on, match files and directories case insensitively; the
2875 same as @samp{--ignore-case}.
2877 @item ignore_length = on/off
2878 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
2879 @samp{--ignore-length}.
2881 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
2882 Ignore certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval, like
2883 @samp{--ignore-tags=@var{string}}.
2885 @item include_directories = @var{string}
2886 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2887 downloading---the same as @samp{-I @var{string}}.
2890 When set to on, enable internationalized URI (IRI) support; the same as
2893 @item inet4_only = on/off
2894 Force connecting to IPv4 addresses, off by default. You can put this
2895 in the global init file to disable Wget's attempts to resolve and
2896 connect to IPv6 hosts. Available only if Wget was compiled with IPv6
2897 support. The same as @samp{--inet4-only} or @samp{-4}.
2899 @item inet6_only = on/off
2900 Force connecting to IPv6 addresses, off by default. Available only if
2901 Wget was compiled with IPv6 support. The same as @samp{--inet6-only}
2904 @item input = @var{file}
2905 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i @var{file}}.
2907 @item keep_session_cookies = on/off
2908 When specified, causes @samp{save_cookies = on} to also save session
2909 cookies. See @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
2911 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
2912 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
2913 The same as @samp{--limit-rate=@var{rate}}.
2915 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
2916 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies @var{file}}.
2918 @item local_encoding = @var{encoding}
2919 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default system encoding. See
2920 @samp{--local-encoding}.
2922 @item logfile = @var{file}
2923 Set logfile to @var{file}, the same as @samp{-o @var{file}}.
2925 @item max_redirect = @var{number}
2926 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
2927 See @samp{--max-redirect=@var{number}}.
2929 @item mirror = on/off
2930 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
2932 @item netrc = on/off
2933 Turn reading netrc on or off.
2935 @item no_clobber = on/off
2938 @item no_parent = on/off
2939 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
2940 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2942 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
2943 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
2944 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
2946 @item output_document = @var{file}
2947 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O @var{file}}.
2949 @item page_requisites = on/off
2950 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single @sc{html} page to
2951 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
2953 @item passive_ftp = on/off
2954 Change setting of passive @sc{ftp}, equivalent to the
2955 @samp{--passive-ftp} option.
2957 @itemx password = @var{string}
2958 Specify password @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
2959 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_password} and
2960 @samp{http_password} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
2962 @item post_data = @var{string}
2963 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send @var{string} in
2964 the request body. The same as @samp{--post-data=@var{string}}.
2966 @item post_file = @var{file}
2967 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the contents of
2968 @var{file} in the request body. The same as
2969 @samp{--post-file=@var{file}}.
2971 @item prefer_family = none/IPv4/IPv6
2972 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
2973 with specified address family first. The address order returned by
2974 DNS is used without change by default. The same as @samp{--prefer-family},
2975 which see for a detailed discussion of why this is useful.
2977 @item private_key = @var{file}
2978 Set the private key file to @var{file}. The same as
2979 @samp{--private-key=@var{file}}.
2981 @item private_key_type = @var{string}
2982 Specify the type of the private key, legal values being @samp{PEM}
2983 (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2984 @samp{--private-type=@var{string}}.
2986 @item progress = @var{string}
2987 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are @samp{dot}
2988 and @samp{bar}. Equivalent to @samp{--progress=@var{string}}.
2990 @item protocol_directories = on/off
2991 When set, use the protocol name as a directory component of local file
2992 names. The same as @samp{--protocol-directories}.
2994 @item proxy_password = @var{string}
2995 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like
2996 @samp{--proxy-password=@var{string}}.
2998 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
2999 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like
3000 @samp{--proxy-user=@var{string}}.
3002 @item quiet = on/off
3003 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
3005 @item quota = @var{quota}
3006 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
3007 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
3008 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
3009 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
3010 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
3011 to 5 megabytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
3014 @item random_file = @var{file}
3015 Use @var{file} as a source of randomness on systems lacking
3018 @item random_wait = on/off
3019 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
3020 @samp{--random-wait}.
3022 @item read_timeout = @var{n}
3023 Set the read (and write) timeout---the same as
3024 @samp{--read-timeout=@var{n}}.
3026 @item reclevel = @var{n}
3027 Recursion level (depth)---the same as @samp{-l @var{n}}.
3029 @item recursive = on/off
3030 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
3032 @item referer = @var{string}
3033 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like
3034 @samp{--referer=@var{string}}. (Note that it was the folks who wrote
3035 the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of ``referrer'' wrong.)
3037 @item relative_only = on/off
3038 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
3041 @item remote_encoding = @var{encoding}
3042 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default remote server encoding.
3043 See @samp{--remote-encoding}.
3045 @item remove_listing = on/off
3046 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
3047 to off is the same as @samp{--no-remove-listing}.
3049 @item restrict_file_names = unix/windows
3050 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
3051 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
3053 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
3054 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
3055 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
3057 @item retry_connrefused = on/off
3058 When set to on, consider ``connection refused'' a transient
3059 error---the same as @samp{--retry-connrefused}.
3061 @item robots = on/off
3062 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
3063 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
3064 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
3065 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
3068 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
3069 Save cookies to @var{file}. The same as @samp{--save-cookies
3072 @item save_headers = on/off
3073 Same as @samp{--save-headers}.
3075 @item secure_protocol = @var{string}
3076 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto}
3077 (the default), @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. The same
3078 as @samp{--secure-protocol=@var{string}}.
3080 @item server_response = on/off
3081 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
3082 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
3084 @item span_hosts = on/off
3087 @item spider = on/off
3088 Same as @samp{--spider}.
3090 @item strict_comments = on/off
3091 Same as @samp{--strict-comments}.
3093 @item timeout = @var{n}
3094 Set all applicable timeout values to @var{n}, the same as @samp{-T
3097 @item timestamping = on/off
3098 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
3100 @item tries = @var{n}
3101 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t @var{n}}.
3103 @item use_proxy = on/off
3104 When set to off, don't use proxy even when proxy-related environment
3105 variables are set. In that case it is the same as using
3108 @item user = @var{string}
3109 Specify username @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
3110 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_user} and
3111 @samp{http_user} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
3113 @item user_agent = @var{string}
3114 User agent identification sent to the HTTP Server---the same as
3115 @samp{--user-agent=@var{string}}.
3117 @item verbose = on/off
3118 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
3120 @item wait = @var{n}
3121 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w
3124 @item wait_retry = @var{n}
3125 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
3126 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry=@var{n}}. Note that this is
3127 turned on by default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
3130 @node Sample Wgetrc, , Wgetrc Commands, Startup File
3131 @section Sample Wgetrc
3132 @cindex sample wgetrc
3134 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
3135 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
3136 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
3137 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
3139 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
3140 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
3144 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
3147 @node Examples, Various, Startup File, Top
3151 @c man begin EXAMPLES
3152 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
3156 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
3157 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
3158 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
3161 @node Simple Usage, Advanced Usage, Examples, Examples
3162 @section Simple Usage
3166 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
3169 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
3173 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
3174 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
3175 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
3176 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
3177 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
3178 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
3181 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
3185 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
3186 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
3187 shall use @samp{-t}.
3190 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
3193 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
3194 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
3197 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
3201 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
3205 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
3206 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
3209 wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
3214 @node Advanced Usage, Very Advanced Usage, Simple Usage, Examples
3215 @section Advanced Usage
3219 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
3226 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
3230 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
3231 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
3232 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
3235 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3239 The same as the above, but convert the links in the downloaded files to
3240 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
3243 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3247 Retrieve only one @sc{html} page, but make sure that all the elements needed
3248 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
3249 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
3250 references the downloaded links.
3253 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3256 The @sc{html} page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
3257 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
3258 depending on where they were on the remote server.
3261 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
3262 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
3263 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
3264 subdirectory of the current directory.
3267 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
3268 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3272 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
3276 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
3280 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
3283 wget --save-headers http://www.lycos.com/
3288 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
3292 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
3296 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
3297 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
3298 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
3302 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
3305 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
3306 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Download}), with maximum depth
3307 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
3308 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
3309 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
3313 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
3314 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
3318 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
3322 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
3323 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
3326 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
3329 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
3330 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
3333 @cindex redirecting output
3335 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
3339 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
3342 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
3343 documents from remote hotlists:
3346 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
3350 @node Very Advanced Usage, , Advanced Usage, Examples
3351 @section Very Advanced Usage
3356 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
3357 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
3358 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
3359 to recheck a site each Sunday:
3363 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3367 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
3368 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
3369 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
3370 back up the original @sc{html} files before the conversion. Wget invocation
3371 would look like this:
3374 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3375 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3379 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
3380 when @sc{html} files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
3381 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
3382 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
3383 or @samp{application/xhtml+xml} to @file{@var{name}.html}.
3386 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3387 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
3391 Or, with less typing:
3394 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3399 @node Various, Appendices, Examples, Top
3403 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
3406 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers.
3407 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
3408 * Web Site:: GNU Wget's presence on the World Wide Web.
3409 * Mailing Lists:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
3410 * Internet Relay Chat:: Wget's presence on IRC.
3411 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
3412 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
3413 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
3416 @node Proxies, Distribution, Various, Various
3420 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
3421 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
3422 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
3423 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
3424 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
3425 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
3426 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
3427 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
3428 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
3429 using an authorized proxy.
3431 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
3432 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
3433 the following environment variables:
3438 If set, the @code{http_proxy} and @code{https_proxy} variables should
3439 contain the @sc{url}s of the proxies for @sc{http} and @sc{https}
3440 connections respectively.
3443 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
3444 connections. It is quite common that @code{http_proxy} and
3445 @code{ftp_proxy} are set to the same @sc{url}.
3448 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
3449 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
3450 @code{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
3454 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
3455 may be specified from within Wget itself.
3459 @itemx proxy = on/off
3460 This option and the corresponding command may be used to suppress the
3461 use of proxy, even if the appropriate environment variables are set.
3463 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
3464 @itemx https_proxy = @var{URL}
3465 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
3466 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
3467 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
3468 specified by the environment.
3471 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
3472 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
3473 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
3474 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
3475 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
3477 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
3478 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
3479 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
3480 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
3484 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
3487 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
3488 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
3489 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_password} to set the proxy
3490 username and password.
3492 @node Distribution, Web Site, Proxies, Various
3493 @section Distribution
3494 @cindex latest version
3496 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
3497 master GNU archive site ftp.gnu.org, and its mirrors. For example,
3498 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
3499 @url{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
3501 @node Web Site, Mailing Lists, Distribution, Various
3505 The official web site for GNU Wget is at
3506 @url{http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/}. However, most useful
3507 information resides at ``The Wget Wgiki'',
3508 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/}.
3510 @node Mailing Lists, Internet Relay Chat, Web Site, Various
3511 @section Mailing Lists
3512 @cindex mailing list
3515 @unnumberedsubsec Primary List
3517 The primary mailinglist for discussion, bug-reports, or questions
3518 about GNU Wget is at @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}. To subscribe, send an
3519 email to @email{bug-wget-join@@gnu.org}, or visit
3520 @url{http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-wget}.
3522 You do not need to subscribe to send a message to the list; however,
3523 please note that unsubscribed messages are moderated, and may take a
3524 while before they hit the list---@strong{usually around a day}. If
3525 you want your message to show up immediately, please subscribe to the
3526 list before posting. Archives for the list may be found at
3527 @url{http://lists.gnu.org/pipermail/bug-wget/}.
3529 An NNTP/Usenettish gateway is also available via
3530 @uref{http://gmane.org/about.php,Gmane}. You can see the Gmane
3532 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.general}. Note that the
3533 Gmane archives conveniently include messages from both the current
3534 list, and the previous one. Messages also show up in the Gmane
3535 archives sooner than they do at @url{lists.gnu.org}.
3537 @unnumberedsubsec Bug Notices List
3539 Additionally, there is the @email{wget-notify@@addictivecode.org} mailing
3540 list. This is a non-discussion list that receives bug report
3541 notifications from the bug-tracker. To subscribe to this list,
3542 send an email to @email{wget-notify-join@@addictivecode.org},
3543 or visit @url{http://addictivecode.org/mailman/listinfo/wget-notify}.
3545 @unnumberedsubsec Obsolete Lists
3547 Previously, the mailing list @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} was used as the
3548 main discussion list, and another list,
3549 @email{wget-patches@@sunsite.dk} was used for submitting and
3550 discussing patches to GNU Wget.
3552 Messages from @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} are archived at
3555 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.dk/} and at
3557 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.general} (which also
3558 continues to archive the current list, @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}).
3561 Messages from @email{wget-patches@@sunsite.dk} are archived at
3564 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.patches}.
3567 @node Internet Relay Chat, Reporting Bugs, Mailing Lists, Various
3568 @section Internet Relay Chat
3569 @cindex Internet Relay Chat
3573 In addition to the mailinglists, we also have a support channel set up
3574 via IRC at @code{irc.freenode.org}, @code{#wget}. Come check it out!
3576 @node Reporting Bugs, Portability, Internet Relay Chat, Various
3577 @section Reporting Bugs
3579 @cindex reporting bugs
3583 You are welcome to submit bug reports via the GNU Wget bug tracker (see
3584 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/BugTracker}).
3586 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
3591 Please try to ascertain that the behavior you see really is a bug. If
3592 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
3593 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
3594 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug, but you might want to
3595 double-check the documentation and the mailing lists (@pxref{Mailing
3599 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
3600 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 --no-proxy
3601 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
3602 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
3603 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
3604 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
3606 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
3607 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
3608 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
3609 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
3610 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
3614 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send us the resulting
3615 output (or relevant parts thereof). If Wget was compiled without
3616 debug support, recompile it---it is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs
3617 with debug support on.
3619 Note: please make sure to remove any potentially sensitive information
3620 from the debug log before sending it to the bug address. The
3621 @code{-d} won't go out of its way to collect sensitive information,
3622 but the log @emph{will} contain a fairly complete transcript of Wget's
3623 communication with the server, which may include passwords and pieces
3624 of downloaded data. Since the bug address is publically archived, you
3625 may assume that all bug reports are visible to the public.
3628 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
3629 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace. This may not
3630 work if the system administrator has disabled core files, but it is
3635 @node Portability, Signals, Reporting Bugs, Various
3636 @section Portability
3638 @cindex operating systems
3640 Like all GNU software, Wget works on the GNU system. However, since it
3641 uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and mostly avoids using
3642 ``special'' features of any particular Unix, it should compile (and
3643 work) on all common Unix flavors.
3645 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
3646 Unix systems, including GNU/Linux, Solaris, SunOS 4.x, Mac OS X, OSF
3647 (aka Digital Unix or Tru64), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, AIX, and others. Some
3648 of those systems are no longer in widespread use and may not be able to
3649 support recent versions of Wget. If Wget fails to compile on your
3650 system, we would like to know about it.
3652 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works
3653 on 32-bit Microsoft Windows platforms. It has been compiled
3654 successfully using MS Visual C++ 6.0, Watcom, Borland C, and GCC
3655 compilers. Naturally, it is crippled of some features available on
3656 Unix, but it should work as a substitute for people stuck with
3657 Windows. Note that Windows-specific portions of Wget are not
3658 guaranteed to be supported in the future, although this has been the
3659 case in practice for many years now. All questions and problems in
3660 Windows usage should be reported to Wget mailing list at
3661 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the volunteers who maintain the
3662 Windows-related features might look at them.
3664 Support for building on MS-DOS via DJGPP has been contributed by Gisle
3665 Vanem; a port to VMS is maintained by Steven Schweda, and is available
3666 at @url{http://antinode.org/}.
3668 @node Signals, , Portability, Various
3670 @cindex signal handling
3673 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
3674 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
3675 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
3676 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
3677 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
3680 $ wget http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz &
3683 SIGHUP received, redirecting output to `wget-log'.
3686 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
3687 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
3689 @node Appendices, Copying this manual, Various, Top
3692 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
3695 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
3696 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
3697 * Contributors:: People who helped.
3700 @node Robot Exclusion, Security Considerations, Appendices, Appendices
3701 @section Robot Exclusion
3702 @cindex robot exclusion
3704 @cindex server maintenance
3706 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
3707 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
3708 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
3710 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
3711 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
3712 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
3713 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
3714 section handled by a CGI Perl script that converts Info files to @sc{html} on
3715 the fly. The script is slow, but works well enough for human users
3716 viewing an occasional Info file. However, when someone's recursive Wget
3717 download stumbles upon the index page that links to all the Info files
3718 through the script, the system is brought to its knees without providing
3719 anything useful to the user (This task of converting Info files could be
3720 done locally and access to Info documentation for all installed GNU
3721 software on a system is available from the @code{info} command).
3723 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
3724 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
3725 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} was invented. The idea is that
3726 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
3727 portions of the site they wish to protect from robots and those
3728 they will permit access.
3730 The most popular mechanism, and the @i{de facto} standard supported by
3731 all the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written
3732 by Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text
3733 file containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to
3734 avoid. To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
3735 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are expected to
3738 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
3739 can download large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
3740 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
3741 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
3744 wget -r http://www.server.com/
3747 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
3748 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
3749 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
3750 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
3753 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
3754 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
3755 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
3756 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
3757 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
3758 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
3759 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
3760 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
3762 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
3764 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
3765 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
3766 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
3770 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
3773 This is explained in some detail at
3774 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
3775 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
3778 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
3779 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
3780 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
3781 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
3783 @node Security Considerations, Contributors, Robot Exclusion, Appendices
3784 @section Security Considerations
3787 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
3788 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
3789 main issues, and some solutions.
3793 The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}. The best
3794 way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s to
3795 Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
3796 Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store passwords; however,
3797 storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a security risk.
3800 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
3801 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
3804 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
3805 solution for this at the moment.
3808 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
3809 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
3810 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
3814 @node Contributors, , Security Considerations, Appendices
3815 @section Contributors
3816 @cindex contributors
3819 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org},
3822 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org},
3824 and it is currently maintained by Micah Cowan @email{micah@@cowan.name}.
3826 However, the development of Wget could never have gone as far as it has, were
3827 it not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature proposals,
3828 patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
3830 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
3833 @item Dan Harkless---contributed a lot of code and documentation of
3834 extremely high quality, as well as the @code{--page-requisites} and
3835 related options. He was the principal maintainer for some time and
3838 @item Ian Abbott---contributed bug fixes, Windows-related fixes, and
3839 provided a prototype implementation of the breadth-first recursive
3840 download. Co-maintained Wget during the 1.8 release cycle.
3843 The dotsrc.org crew, in particular Karsten Thygesen---donated system
3844 resources such as the mailing list, web space, @sc{ftp} space, and
3845 version control repositories, along with a lot of time to make these
3846 actually work. Christian Reiniger was of invaluable help with setting
3850 Heiko Herold---provided high-quality Windows builds and contributed
3851 bug and build reports for many years.
3854 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
3857 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
3861 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
3865 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
3866 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3869 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
3870 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3874 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
3877 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the initial Italian
3882 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
3886 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
3891 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3894 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3898 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization, Makefile
3899 layout and many other things.
3902 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
3906 Mauro Tortonesi---improved IPv6 support, adding support for dual
3907 family systems. Refactored and enhanced FTP IPv6 code. Maintained GNU
3908 Wget from 2004--2007.
3911 Christopher G.@: Lewis---maintenance of the Windows version of GNU WGet.
3914 Gisle Vanem---many helpful patches and improvements, especially for
3915 Windows and MS-DOS support.
3918 Ralf Wildenhues---contributed patches to convert Wget to use Automake as
3919 part of its build process, and various bugfixes.
3922 Steven Schubiger---Many helpful patches, bugfixes and improvements.
3923 Notably, conversion of Wget to use the Gnulib quotes and quoteargs
3924 modules, and the addition of password prompts at the console, via the
3925 Gnulib getpasswd-gnu module.
3928 Ted Mielczarek---donated support for CSS.
3931 Saint Xavier---Support for IRIs (RFC 3987).
3934 People who provided donations for development---including Brian Gough.
3937 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
3938 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
3939 that make maintenance so much fun:
3959 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
3968 Bertrand Demiddelaer,
3969 Alexander Dergachev,
3982 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
3985 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
4009 Madhusudan Hosaagrahara,
4013 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
4032 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
4046 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
4047 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
4048 (Simos KSenitellis),
4057 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
4063 Alexander V.@: Lukyanov,
4072 Matthew J.@: Mellon,
4108 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
4110 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}guez,
4113 Juan Jose Rodriguez,
4115 Maciej W.@: Rozycki,
4122 Steven M.@: Schweda,
4133 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
4148 Douglas E.@: Wegscheid,
4150 Joshua David Williams,
4164 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
4165 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
4167 @node Copying this manual, Concept Index, Appendices, Top
4168 @appendix Copying this manual
4171 * GNU Free Documentation License:: Licnse for copying this manual.
4174 @node GNU Free Documentation License, , Copying this manual, Copying this manual
4175 @appendixsec GNU Free Documentation License
4176 @cindex FDL, GNU Free Documentation License
4181 @node Concept Index, , Copying this manual, Top
4182 @unnumbered Concept Index