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). 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, 2003,
34 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Free Software Foundation,
38 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
39 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
40 are preserved on all copies.
44 Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the
45 results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission
46 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
47 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
49 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
50 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
51 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
52 Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
53 Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
54 ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
59 @title GNU Wget @value{VERSION}
60 @subtitle The non-interactive download utility
61 @subtitle Updated for Wget @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
62 @author by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} and others
66 Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>.
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 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. You can also
194 specify the location of a startup file with the --config option.
200 @item /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
201 Default location of the @dfn{global} startup file.
210 Finally, GNU Wget is free software. This means that everyone may use
211 it, redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
212 Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation (see the
213 file @file{COPYING} that came with GNU Wget, for details).
216 @node Invoking, Recursive Download, Overview, Top
223 By default, Wget is very simple to invoke. The basic syntax is:
226 @c man begin SYNOPSIS
227 wget [@var{option}]@dots{} [@var{URL}]@dots{}
231 Wget will simply download all the @sc{url}s specified on the command
232 line. @var{URL} is a @dfn{Uniform Resource Locator}, as defined below.
234 However, you may wish to change some of the default parameters of
235 Wget. You can do it two ways: permanently, adding the appropriate
236 command to @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup File}), or specifying it on
242 * Basic Startup Options::
243 * Logging and Input File Options::
245 * Directory Options::
247 * HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options::
249 * Recursive Retrieval Options::
250 * Recursive Accept/Reject Options::
254 @node URL Format, Option Syntax, Invoking, Invoking
259 @dfn{URL} is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A uniform
260 resource locator is a compact string representation for a resource
261 available via the Internet. Wget recognizes the @sc{url} syntax as per
262 @sc{rfc1738}. This is the most widely used form (square brackets denote
266 http://host[:port]/directory/file
267 ftp://host[:port]/directory/file
270 You can also encode your username and password within a @sc{url}:
273 ftp://user:password@@host/path
274 http://user:password@@host/path
277 Either @var{user} or @var{password}, or both, may be left out. If you
278 leave out either the @sc{http} username or password, no authentication
279 will be sent. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} username, @samp{anonymous}
280 will be used. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} password, your email
281 address will be supplied as a default password.@footnote{If you have a
282 @file{.netrc} file in your home directory, password will also be
285 @strong{Important Note}: if you specify a password-containing @sc{url}
286 on the command line, the username and password will be plainly visible
287 to all users on the system, by way of @code{ps}. On multi-user systems,
288 this is a big security risk. To work around it, use @code{wget -i -}
289 and feed the @sc{url}s to Wget's standard input, each on a separate
290 line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
292 You can encode unsafe characters in a @sc{url} as @samp{%xy}, @code{xy}
293 being the hexadecimal representation of the character's @sc{ascii}
294 value. Some common unsafe characters include @samp{%} (quoted as
295 @samp{%25}), @samp{:} (quoted as @samp{%3A}), and @samp{@@} (quoted as
296 @samp{%40}). Refer to @sc{rfc1738} for a comprehensive list of unsafe
299 Wget also supports the @code{type} feature for @sc{ftp} @sc{url}s. By
300 default, @sc{ftp} documents are retrieved in the binary mode (type
301 @samp{i}), which means that they are downloaded unchanged. Another
302 useful mode is the @samp{a} (@dfn{ASCII}) mode, which converts the line
303 delimiters between the different operating systems, and is thus useful
304 for text files. Here is an example:
307 ftp://host/directory/file;type=a
310 Two alternative variants of @sc{url} specification are also supported,
311 because of historical (hysterical?) reasons and their widespreaded use.
313 @sc{ftp}-only syntax (supported by @code{NcFTP}):
318 @sc{http}-only syntax (introduced by @code{Netscape}):
323 These two alternative forms are deprecated, and may cease being
324 supported in the future.
326 If you do not understand the difference between these notations, or do
327 not know which one to use, just use the plain ordinary format you use
328 with your favorite browser, like @code{Lynx} or @code{Netscape}.
332 @node Option Syntax, Basic Startup Options, URL Format, Invoking
333 @section Option Syntax
334 @cindex option syntax
335 @cindex syntax of options
337 Since Wget uses GNU getopt to process command-line arguments, every
338 option has a long form along with the short one. Long options are
339 more convenient to remember, but take time to type. You may freely
340 mix different option styles, or specify options after the command-line
341 arguments. Thus you may write:
344 wget -r --tries=10 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/ -o log
347 The space between the option accepting an argument and the argument may
348 be omitted. Instead of @samp{-o log} you can write @samp{-olog}.
350 You may put several options that do not require arguments together,
357 This is completely equivalent to:
360 wget -d -r -c @var{URL}
363 Since the options can be specified after the arguments, you may
364 terminate them with @samp{--}. So the following will try to download
365 @sc{url} @samp{-x}, reporting failure to @file{log}:
371 The options that accept comma-separated lists all respect the convention
372 that specifying an empty list clears its value. This can be useful to
373 clear the @file{.wgetrc} settings. For instance, if your @file{.wgetrc}
374 sets @code{exclude_directories} to @file{/cgi-bin}, the following
375 example will first reset it, and then set it to exclude @file{/~nobody}
376 and @file{/~somebody}. You can also clear the lists in @file{.wgetrc}
377 (@pxref{Wgetrc Syntax}).
380 wget -X '' -X /~nobody,/~somebody
383 Most options that do not accept arguments are @dfn{boolean} options,
384 so named because their state can be captured with a yes-or-no
385 (``boolean'') variable. For example, @samp{--follow-ftp} tells Wget
386 to follow FTP links from HTML files and, on the other hand,
387 @samp{--no-glob} tells it not to perform file globbing on FTP URLs. A
388 boolean option is either @dfn{affirmative} or @dfn{negative}
389 (beginning with @samp{--no}). All such options share several
392 Unless stated otherwise, it is assumed that the default behavior is
393 the opposite of what the option accomplishes. For example, the
394 documented existence of @samp{--follow-ftp} assumes that the default
395 is to @emph{not} follow FTP links from HTML pages.
397 Affirmative options can be negated by prepending the @samp{--no-} to
398 the option name; negative options can be negated by omitting the
399 @samp{--no-} prefix. This might seem superfluous---if the default for
400 an affirmative option is to not do something, then why provide a way
401 to explicitly turn it off? But the startup file may in fact change
402 the default. For instance, using @code{follow_ftp = on} in
403 @file{.wgetrc} makes Wget @emph{follow} FTP links by default, and
404 using @samp{--no-follow-ftp} is the only way to restore the factory
405 default from the command line.
407 @node Basic Startup Options, Logging and Input File Options, Option Syntax, Invoking
408 @section Basic Startup Options
413 Display the version of Wget.
417 Print a help message describing all of Wget's command-line options.
421 Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is
422 specified via the @samp{-o}, output is redirected to @file{wget-log}.
424 @cindex execute wgetrc command
425 @item -e @var{command}
426 @itemx --execute @var{command}
427 Execute @var{command} as if it were a part of @file{.wgetrc}
428 (@pxref{Startup File}). A command thus invoked will be executed
429 @emph{after} the commands in @file{.wgetrc}, thus taking precedence over
430 them. If you need to specify more than one wgetrc command, use multiple
431 instances of @samp{-e}.
435 @node Logging and Input File Options, Download Options, Basic Startup Options, Invoking
436 @section Logging and Input File Options
441 @item -o @var{logfile}
442 @itemx --output-file=@var{logfile}
443 Log all messages to @var{logfile}. The messages are normally reported
446 @cindex append to log
447 @item -a @var{logfile}
448 @itemx --append-output=@var{logfile}
449 Append to @var{logfile}. This is the same as @samp{-o}, only it appends
450 to @var{logfile} instead of overwriting the old log file. If
451 @var{logfile} does not exist, a new file is created.
456 Turn on debug output, meaning various information important to the
457 developers of Wget if it does not work properly. Your system
458 administrator may have chosen to compile Wget without debug support, in
459 which case @samp{-d} will not work. Please note that compiling with
460 debug support is always safe---Wget compiled with the debug support will
461 @emph{not} print any debug info unless requested with @samp{-d}.
462 @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information on how to use @samp{-d} for
468 Turn off Wget's output.
473 Turn on verbose output, with all the available data. The default output
478 Turn off verbose without being completely quiet (use @samp{-q} for
479 that), which means that error messages and basic information still get
482 @item --report-speed=@var{type}
483 Output bandwidth as @var{type}. The only accepted value is @samp{bits}.
487 @itemx --input-file=@var{file}
488 Read @sc{url}s from a local or external @var{file}. If @samp{-} is
489 specified as @var{file}, @sc{url}s are read from the standard input.
490 (Use @samp{./-} to read from a file literally named @samp{-}.)
492 If this function is used, no @sc{url}s need be present on the command
493 line. If there are @sc{url}s both on the command line and in an input
494 file, those on the command lines will be the first ones to be
495 retrieved. If @samp{--force-html} is not specified, then @var{file}
496 should consist of a series of URLs, one per line.
498 However, if you specify @samp{--force-html}, the document will be
499 regarded as @samp{html}. In that case you may have problems with
500 relative links, which you can solve either by adding @code{<base
501 href="@var{url}">} to the documents or by specifying
502 @samp{--base=@var{url}} on the command line.
504 If the @var{file} is an external one, the document will be automatically
505 treated as @samp{html} if the Content-Type matches @samp{text/html}.
506 Furthermore, the @var{file}'s location will be implicitly used as base
507 href if none was specified.
512 When input is read from a file, force it to be treated as an @sc{html}
513 file. This enables you to retrieve relative links from existing
514 @sc{html} files on your local disk, by adding @code{<base
515 href="@var{url}">} to @sc{html}, or using the @samp{--base} command-line
518 @cindex base for relative links in input file
520 @itemx --base=@var{URL}
521 Resolves relative links using @var{URL} as the point of reference,
522 when reading links from an HTML file specified via the
523 @samp{-i}/@samp{--input-file} option (together with
524 @samp{--force-html}, or when the input file was fetched remotely from
525 a server describing it as @sc{html}). This is equivalent to the
526 presence of a @code{BASE} tag in the @sc{html} input file, with
527 @var{URL} as the value for the @code{href} attribute.
529 For instance, if you specify @samp{http://foo/bar/a.html} for
530 @var{URL}, and Wget reads @samp{../baz/b.html} from the input file, it
531 would be resolved to @samp{http://foo/baz/b.html}.
533 @cindex specify config
534 @item --config=@var{FILE}
535 Specify the location of a startup file you wish to use.
538 @node Download Options, Directory Options, Logging and Input File Options, Invoking
539 @section Download Options
543 @cindex client IP address
544 @cindex IP address, client
545 @item --bind-address=@var{ADDRESS}
546 When making client TCP/IP connections, bind to @var{ADDRESS} on
547 the local machine. @var{ADDRESS} may be specified as a hostname or IP
548 address. This option can be useful if your machine is bound to multiple
553 @cindex number of tries
554 @item -t @var{number}
555 @itemx --tries=@var{number}
556 Set number of tries to @var{number}. Specify 0 or @samp{inf} for
557 infinite retrying. The default is to retry 20 times, with the exception
558 of fatal errors like ``connection refused'' or ``not found'' (404),
559 which are not retried.
562 @itemx --output-document=@var{file}
563 The documents will not be written to the appropriate files, but all
564 will be concatenated together and written to @var{file}. If @samp{-}
565 is used as @var{file}, documents will be printed to standard output,
566 disabling link conversion. (Use @samp{./-} to print to a file
567 literally named @samp{-}.)
569 Use of @samp{-O} is @emph{not} intended to mean simply ``use the name
570 @var{file} instead of the one in the URL;'' rather, it is
571 analogous to shell redirection:
572 @samp{wget -O file http://foo} is intended to work like
573 @samp{wget -O - http://foo > file}; @file{file} will be truncated
574 immediately, and @emph{all} downloaded content will be written there.
576 For this reason, @samp{-N} (for timestamp-checking) is not supported
577 in combination with @samp{-O}: since @var{file} is always newly
578 created, it will always have a very new timestamp. A warning will be
579 issued if this combination is used.
581 Similarly, using @samp{-r} or @samp{-p} with @samp{-O} may not work as
582 you expect: Wget won't just download the first file to @var{file} and
583 then download the rest to their normal names: @emph{all} downloaded
584 content will be placed in @var{file}. This was disabled in version
585 1.11, but has been reinstated (with a warning) in 1.11.2, as there are
586 some cases where this behavior can actually have some use.
588 Note that a combination with @samp{-k} is only permitted when
589 downloading a single document, as in that case it will just convert
590 all relative URIs to external ones; @samp{-k} makes no sense for
591 multiple URIs when they're all being downloaded to a single file;
592 @samp{-k} can be used only when the output is a regular file.
594 @cindex clobbering, file
595 @cindex downloading multiple times
599 If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget's
600 behavior depends on a few options, including @samp{-nc}. In certain
601 cases, the local file will be @dfn{clobbered}, or overwritten, upon
602 repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
604 When running Wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, @samp{-r}, or
605 @samp{-p}, downloading the same file in the same directory will result
606 in the original copy of @var{file} being preserved and the second copy
607 being named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet
608 again, the third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on.
609 (This is also the behavior with @samp{-nd}, even if @samp{-r} or
610 @samp{-p} are in effect.) When @samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior
611 is suppressed, and Wget will refuse to download newer copies of
612 @samp{@var{file}}. Therefore, ``@code{no-clobber}'' is actually a
613 misnomer in this mode---it's not clobbering that's prevented (as the
614 numeric suffixes were already preventing clobbering), but rather the
615 multiple version saving that's prevented.
617 When running Wget with @samp{-r} or @samp{-p}, but without @samp{-N},
618 @samp{-nd}, or @samp{-nc}, re-downloading a file will result in the
619 new copy simply overwriting the old. Adding @samp{-nc} will prevent
620 this behavior, instead causing the original version to be preserved
621 and any newer copies on the server to be ignored.
623 When running Wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r} or
624 @samp{-p}, the decision as to whether or not to download a newer copy
625 of a file depends on the local and remote timestamp and size of the
626 file (@pxref{Time-Stamping}). @samp{-nc} may not be specified at the
627 same time as @samp{-N}.
629 Note that when @samp{-nc} is specified, files with the suffixes
630 @samp{.html} or @samp{.htm} will be loaded from the local disk and
631 parsed as if they had been retrieved from the Web.
633 @cindex backing up files
634 @item --backups=@var{backups}
635 Before (over)writing a file, back up an existing file by adding a
636 @samp{.1} suffix (@samp{_1} on VMS) to the file name. Such backup
637 files are rotated to @samp{.2}, @samp{.3}, and so on, up to
638 @var{backups} (and lost beyond that).
640 @cindex continue retrieval
641 @cindex incomplete downloads
642 @cindex resume download
645 Continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you
646 want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or
647 by another program. For instance:
650 wget -c ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ls-lR.Z
653 If there is a file named @file{ls-lR.Z} in the current directory, Wget
654 will assume that it is the first portion of the remote file, and will
655 ask the server to continue the retrieval from an offset equal to the
656 length of the local file.
658 Note that you don't need to specify this option if you just want the
659 current invocation of Wget to retry downloading a file should the
660 connection be lost midway through. This is the default behavior.
661 @samp{-c} only affects resumption of downloads started @emph{prior} to
662 this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are still sitting around.
664 Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just download the remote
665 file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}, leaving the truncated @file{ls-lR.Z} file
668 Beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a non-empty file, and
669 it turns out that the server does not support continued downloading,
670 Wget will refuse to start the download from scratch, which would
671 effectively ruin existing contents. If you really want the download to
672 start from scratch, remove the file.
674 Also beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a file which is of
675 equal size as the one on the server, Wget will refuse to download the
676 file and print an explanatory message. The same happens when the file
677 is smaller on the server than locally (presumably because it was changed
678 on the server since your last download attempt)---because ``continuing''
679 is not meaningful, no download occurs.
681 On the other side of the coin, while using @samp{-c}, any file that's
682 bigger on the server than locally will be considered an incomplete
683 download and only @code{(length(remote) - length(local))} bytes will be
684 downloaded and tacked onto the end of the local file. This behavior can
685 be desirable in certain cases---for instance, you can use @samp{wget -c}
686 to download just the new portion that's been appended to a data
687 collection or log file.
689 However, if the file is bigger on the server because it's been
690 @emph{changed}, as opposed to just @emph{appended} to, you'll end up
691 with a garbled file. Wget has no way of verifying that the local file
692 is really a valid prefix of the remote file. You need to be especially
693 careful of this when using @samp{-c} in conjunction with @samp{-r},
694 since every file will be considered as an "incomplete download" candidate.
696 Another instance where you'll get a garbled file if you try to use
697 @samp{-c} is if you have a lame @sc{http} proxy that inserts a
698 ``transfer interrupted'' string into the local file. In the future a
699 ``rollback'' option may be added to deal with this case.
701 Note that @samp{-c} only works with @sc{ftp} servers and with @sc{http}
702 servers that support the @code{Range} header.
705 @cindex continue retrieval
706 @cindex incomplete downloads
707 @cindex resume download
708 @cindex start position
709 @item --start-pos=@var{OFFSET}
710 Start downloading at zero-based position @var{OFFSET}. Offset may be expressed
711 in bytes, kilobytes with the `k' suffix, or megabytes with the `m' suffix, etc.
713 @samp{--start-pos} has higher precedence over @samp{--continue}. When
714 @samp{--start-pos} and @samp{--continue} are both specified, wget will emit a
715 warning then proceed as if @samp{--continue} was absent.
717 Server support for continued download is required, otherwise @samp{--start-pos}
718 cannot help. See @samp{-c} for details.
720 @cindex progress indicator
722 @item --progress=@var{type}
723 Select the type of the progress indicator you wish to use. Legal
724 indicators are ``dot'' and ``bar''.
726 The ``bar'' indicator is used by default. It draws an @sc{ascii} progress
727 bar graphics (a.k.a ``thermometer'' display) indicating the status of
728 retrieval. If the output is not a TTY, the ``dot'' bar will be used by
731 Use @samp{--progress=dot} to switch to the ``dot'' display. It traces
732 the retrieval by printing dots on the screen, each dot representing a
733 fixed amount of downloaded data.
735 The progress @var{type} can also take one or more parameters. The parameters
736 vary based on the @var{type} selected. Parameters to @var{type} are passed by
737 appending them to the type sperated by a colon (:) like this:
738 @samp{--progress=@var{type}:@var{parameter1}:@var{parameter2}}.
740 When using the dotted retrieval, you may set the @dfn{style} by
741 specifying the type as @samp{dot:@var{style}}. Different styles assign
742 different meaning to one dot. With the @code{default} style each dot
743 represents 1K, there are ten dots in a cluster and 50 dots in a line.
744 The @code{binary} style has a more ``computer''-like orientation---8K
745 dots, 16-dots clusters and 48 dots per line (which makes for 384K
746 lines). The @code{mega} style is suitable for downloading large
747 files---each dot represents 64K retrieved, there are eight dots in a
748 cluster, and 48 dots on each line (so each line contains 3M).
749 If @code{mega} is not enough then you can use the @code{giga}
750 style---each dot represents 1M retrieved, there are eight dots in a
751 cluster, and 32 dots on each line (so each line contains 32M).
753 With @samp{--progress=bar}, there are currently two possible parameters,
754 @var{force} and @var{noscroll}.
756 When the output is not a TTY, the progress bar always falls back to ``dot'',
757 even if @samp{--progress=bar} was passed to Wget during invokation. This
758 behaviour can be overridden and the ``bar'' output forced by using the ``force''
759 parameter as @samp{--progress=bar:force}.
761 By default, the @samp{bar} style progress bar scroll the name of the file from
762 left to right for the file being downloaded if the filename exceeds the maximum
763 length allotted for its display. In certain cases, such as with
764 @samp{--progress=bar:force}, one may not want the scrolling filename in the
765 progress bar. By passing the ``noscroll'' parameter, Wget can be forced to
766 display as much of the filename as possible without scrolling through it.
768 Note that you can set the default style using the @code{progress}
769 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
770 command line. For example, to force the bar output without scrolling,
771 use @samp{--progress=bar:force:noscroll}.
773 @item --show-progress
774 Force wget to display the progress bar in any verbosity.
776 By default, wget only displays the progress bar in verbose mode. One may
777 however want wget to display the progress bar on screen in conjunction with
778 any other verbosity modes like @samp{--no-verbose} or @samp{--quiet}. This
779 is often a desired a property when invoking wget to download several small/large
780 files. In such a case, wget could simply be invoked with this parameter to get
781 a much cleaner output on the screen.
784 @itemx --timestamping
785 Turn on time-stamping. @xref{Time-Stamping}, for details.
787 @item --no-use-server-timestamps
788 Don't set the local file's timestamp by the one on the server.
790 By default, when a file is downloaded, its timestamps are set to
791 match those from the remote file. This allows the use of
792 @samp{--timestamping} on subsequent invocations of wget. However, it
793 is sometimes useful to base the local file's timestamp on when it was
794 actually downloaded; for that purpose, the
795 @samp{--no-use-server-timestamps} option has been provided.
797 @cindex server response, print
799 @itemx --server-response
800 Print the headers sent by @sc{http} servers and responses sent by
803 @cindex Wget as spider
806 When invoked with this option, Wget will behave as a Web @dfn{spider},
807 which means that it will not download the pages, just check that they
808 are there. For example, you can use Wget to check your bookmarks:
811 wget --spider --force-html -i bookmarks.html
814 This feature needs much more work for Wget to get close to the
815 functionality of real web spiders.
819 @itemx --timeout=@var{seconds}
820 Set the network timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. This is equivalent
821 to specifying @samp{--dns-timeout}, @samp{--connect-timeout}, and
822 @samp{--read-timeout}, all at the same time.
824 When interacting with the network, Wget can check for timeout and
825 abort the operation if it takes too long. This prevents anomalies
826 like hanging reads and infinite connects. The only timeout enabled by
827 default is a 900-second read timeout. Setting a timeout to 0 disables
828 it altogether. Unless you know what you are doing, it is best not to
829 change the default timeout settings.
831 All timeout-related options accept decimal values, as well as
832 subsecond values. For example, @samp{0.1} seconds is a legal (though
833 unwise) choice of timeout. Subsecond timeouts are useful for checking
834 server response times or for testing network latency.
838 @item --dns-timeout=@var{seconds}
839 Set the DNS lookup timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. DNS lookups that
840 don't complete within the specified time will fail. By default, there
841 is no timeout on DNS lookups, other than that implemented by system
844 @cindex connect timeout
845 @cindex timeout, connect
846 @item --connect-timeout=@var{seconds}
847 Set the connect timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. TCP connections that
848 take longer to establish will be aborted. By default, there is no
849 connect timeout, other than that implemented by system libraries.
852 @cindex timeout, read
853 @item --read-timeout=@var{seconds}
854 Set the read (and write) timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. The
855 ``time'' of this timeout refers to @dfn{idle time}: if, at any point in
856 the download, no data is received for more than the specified number
857 of seconds, reading fails and the download is restarted. This option
858 does not directly affect the duration of the entire download.
860 Of course, the remote server may choose to terminate the connection
861 sooner than this option requires. The default read timeout is 900
864 @cindex bandwidth, limit
866 @cindex limit bandwidth
867 @item --limit-rate=@var{amount}
868 Limit the download speed to @var{amount} bytes per second. Amount may
869 be expressed in bytes, kilobytes with the @samp{k} suffix, or megabytes
870 with the @samp{m} suffix. For example, @samp{--limit-rate=20k} will
871 limit the retrieval rate to 20KB/s. This is useful when, for whatever
872 reason, you don't want Wget to consume the entire available bandwidth.
874 This option allows the use of decimal numbers, usually in conjunction
875 with power suffixes; for example, @samp{--limit-rate=2.5k} is a legal
878 Note that Wget implements the limiting by sleeping the appropriate
879 amount of time after a network read that took less time than specified
880 by the rate. Eventually this strategy causes the TCP transfer to slow
881 down to approximately the specified rate. However, it may take some
882 time for this balance to be achieved, so don't be surprised if limiting
883 the rate doesn't work well with very small files.
887 @item -w @var{seconds}
888 @itemx --wait=@var{seconds}
889 Wait the specified number of seconds between the retrievals. Use of
890 this option is recommended, as it lightens the server load by making the
891 requests less frequent. Instead of in seconds, the time can be
892 specified in minutes using the @code{m} suffix, in hours using @code{h}
893 suffix, or in days using @code{d} suffix.
895 Specifying a large value for this option is useful if the network or the
896 destination host is down, so that Wget can wait long enough to
897 reasonably expect the network error to be fixed before the retry. The
898 waiting interval specified by this function is influenced by
899 @code{--random-wait}, which see.
901 @cindex retries, waiting between
902 @cindex waiting between retries
903 @item --waitretry=@var{seconds}
904 If you don't want Wget to wait between @emph{every} retrieval, but only
905 between retries of failed downloads, you can use this option. Wget will
906 use @dfn{linear backoff}, waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
907 given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second failure on that
908 file, up to the maximum number of @var{seconds} you specify.
910 By default, Wget will assume a value of 10 seconds.
915 Some web sites may perform log analysis to identify retrieval programs
916 such as Wget by looking for statistically significant similarities in
917 the time between requests. This option causes the time between requests
918 to vary between 0.5 and 1.5 * @var{wait} seconds, where @var{wait} was
919 specified using the @samp{--wait} option, in order to mask Wget's
920 presence from such analysis.
922 A 2001 article in a publication devoted to development on a popular
923 consumer platform provided code to perform this analysis on the fly.
924 Its author suggested blocking at the class C address level to ensure
925 automated retrieval programs were blocked despite changing DHCP-supplied
928 The @samp{--random-wait} option was inspired by this ill-advised
929 recommendation to block many unrelated users from a web site due to the
934 Don't use proxies, even if the appropriate @code{*_proxy} environment
938 For more information about the use of proxies with Wget, @xref{Proxies}.
943 @itemx --quota=@var{quota}
944 Specify download quota for automatic retrievals. The value can be
945 specified in bytes (default), kilobytes (with @samp{k} suffix), or
946 megabytes (with @samp{m} suffix).
948 Note that quota will never affect downloading a single file. So if you
949 specify @samp{wget -Q10k ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/ls-lR.gz}, all of the
950 @file{ls-lR.gz} will be downloaded. The same goes even when several
951 @sc{url}s are specified on the command-line. However, quota is
952 respected when retrieving either recursively, or from an input file.
953 Thus you may safely type @samp{wget -Q2m -i sites}---download will be
954 aborted when the quota is exceeded.
956 Setting quota to 0 or to @samp{inf} unlimits the download quota.
959 @cindex caching of DNS lookups
961 Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the IP
962 addresses it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly
963 contact the DNS server for the same (typically small) set of hosts it
964 retrieves from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will
967 However, it has been reported that in some situations it is not
968 desirable to cache host names, even for the duration of a
969 short-running application like Wget. With this option Wget issues a
970 new DNS lookup (more precisely, a new call to @code{gethostbyname} or
971 @code{getaddrinfo}) each time it makes a new connection. Please note
972 that this option will @emph{not} affect caching that might be
973 performed by the resolving library or by an external caching layer,
976 If you don't understand exactly what this option does, you probably
979 @cindex file names, restrict
980 @cindex Windows file names
981 @item --restrict-file-names=@var{modes}
982 Change which characters found in remote URLs must be escaped during
983 generation of local filenames. Characters that are @dfn{restricted}
984 by this option are escaped, i.e. replaced with @samp{%HH}, where
985 @samp{HH} is the hexadecimal number that corresponds to the restricted
986 character. This option may also be used to force all alphabetical
987 cases to be either lower- or uppercase.
989 By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid or safe as
990 part of file names on your operating system, as well as control
991 characters that are typically unprintable. This option is useful for
992 changing these defaults, perhaps because you are downloading to a
993 non-native partition, or because you want to disable escaping of the
994 control characters, or you want to further restrict characters to only
995 those in the @sc{ascii} range of values.
997 The @var{modes} are a comma-separated set of text values. The
998 acceptable values are @samp{unix}, @samp{windows}, @samp{nocontrol},
999 @samp{ascii}, @samp{lowercase}, and @samp{uppercase}. The values
1000 @samp{unix} and @samp{windows} are mutually exclusive (one will
1001 override the other), as are @samp{lowercase} and
1002 @samp{uppercase}. Those last are special cases, as they do not change
1003 the set of characters that would be escaped, but rather force local
1004 file paths to be converted either to lower- or uppercase.
1006 When ``unix'' is specified, Wget escapes the character @samp{/} and
1007 the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159. This is the
1008 default on Unix-like operating systems.
1010 When ``windows'' is given, Wget escapes the characters @samp{\},
1011 @samp{|}, @samp{/}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
1012 @samp{>}, and the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159.
1013 In addition to this, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead of
1014 @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
1015 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
1016 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
1017 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
1018 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
1019 mode. This mode is the default on Windows.
1021 If you specify @samp{nocontrol}, then the escaping of the control
1022 characters is also switched off. This option may make sense
1023 when you are downloading URLs whose names contain UTF-8 characters, on
1024 a system which can save and display filenames in UTF-8 (some possible
1025 byte values used in UTF-8 byte sequences fall in the range of values
1026 designated by Wget as ``controls'').
1028 The @samp{ascii} mode is used to specify that any bytes whose values
1029 are outside the range of @sc{ascii} characters (that is, greater than
1030 127) shall be escaped. This can be useful when saving filenames
1031 whose encoding does not match the one used locally.
1038 Force connecting to IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. With @samp{--inet4-only}
1039 or @samp{-4}, Wget will only connect to IPv4 hosts, ignoring AAAA
1040 records in DNS, and refusing to connect to IPv6 addresses specified in
1041 URLs. Conversely, with @samp{--inet6-only} or @samp{-6}, Wget will
1042 only connect to IPv6 hosts and ignore A records and IPv4 addresses.
1044 Neither options should be needed normally. By default, an IPv6-aware
1045 Wget will use the address family specified by the host's DNS record.
1046 If the DNS responds with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, Wget will try
1047 them in sequence until it finds one it can connect to. (Also see
1048 @code{--prefer-family} option described below.)
1050 These options can be used to deliberately force the use of IPv4 or
1051 IPv6 address families on dual family systems, usually to aid debugging
1052 or to deal with broken network configuration. Only one of
1053 @samp{--inet6-only} and @samp{--inet4-only} may be specified at the
1054 same time. Neither option is available in Wget compiled without IPv6
1057 @item --prefer-family=none/IPv4/IPv6
1058 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
1059 with specified address family first. The address order returned by
1060 DNS is used without change by default.
1062 This avoids spurious errors and connect attempts when accessing hosts
1063 that resolve to both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses from IPv4 networks. For
1064 example, @samp{www.kame.net} resolves to
1065 @samp{2001:200:0:8002:203:47ff:fea5:3085} and to
1066 @samp{203.178.141.194}. When the preferred family is @code{IPv4}, the
1067 IPv4 address is used first; when the preferred family is @code{IPv6},
1068 the IPv6 address is used first; if the specified value is @code{none},
1069 the address order returned by DNS is used without change.
1071 Unlike @samp{-4} and @samp{-6}, this option doesn't inhibit access to
1072 any address family, it only changes the @emph{order} in which the
1073 addresses are accessed. Also note that the reordering performed by
1074 this option is @dfn{stable}---it doesn't affect order of addresses of
1075 the same family. That is, the relative order of all IPv4 addresses
1076 and of all IPv6 addresses remains intact in all cases.
1078 @item --retry-connrefused
1079 Consider ``connection refused'' a transient error and try again.
1080 Normally Wget gives up on a URL when it is unable to connect to the
1081 site because failure to connect is taken as a sign that the server is
1082 not running at all and that retries would not help. This option is
1083 for mirroring unreliable sites whose servers tend to disappear for
1084 short periods of time.
1088 @cindex authentication
1089 @item --user=@var{user}
1090 @itemx --password=@var{password}
1091 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for both
1092 @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval. These parameters can be overridden
1093 using the @samp{--ftp-user} and @samp{--ftp-password} options for
1094 @sc{ftp} connections and the @samp{--http-user} and @samp{--http-password}
1095 options for @sc{http} connections.
1097 @item --ask-password
1098 Prompt for a password for each connection established. Cannot be specified
1099 when @samp{--password} is being used, because they are mutually exclusive.
1105 Turn off internationalized URI (IRI) support. Use @samp{--iri} to
1106 turn it on. IRI support is activated by default.
1108 You can set the default state of IRI support using the @code{iri}
1109 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
1112 @cindex local encoding
1113 @item --local-encoding=@var{encoding}
1115 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default system encoding. That affects
1116 how Wget converts URLs specified as arguments from locale to @sc{utf-8} for
1119 Wget use the function @code{nl_langinfo()} and then the @code{CHARSET}
1120 environment variable to get the locale. If it fails, @sc{ascii} is used.
1122 You can set the default local encoding using the @code{local_encoding}
1123 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
1126 @cindex remote encoding
1127 @item --remote-encoding=@var{encoding}
1129 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default remote server encoding.
1130 That affects how Wget converts URIs found in files from remote encoding
1131 to @sc{utf-8} during a recursive fetch. This options is only useful for
1132 IRI support, for the interpretation of non-@sc{ascii} characters.
1134 For HTTP, remote encoding can be found in HTTP @code{Content-Type}
1135 header and in HTML @code{Content-Type http-equiv} meta tag.
1137 You can set the default encoding using the @code{remoteencoding}
1138 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
1144 Force Wget to unlink file instead of clobbering existing file. This
1145 option is useful for downloading to the directory with hardlinks.
1149 @node Directory Options, HTTP Options, Download Options, Invoking
1150 @section Directory Options
1154 @itemx --no-directories
1155 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
1156 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
1157 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
1158 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
1161 @itemx --force-directories
1162 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
1163 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
1164 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
1165 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
1168 @itemx --no-host-directories
1169 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
1170 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
1171 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
1174 @item --protocol-directories
1175 Use the protocol name as a directory component of local file names. For
1176 example, with this option, @samp{wget -r http://@var{host}} will save to
1177 @samp{http/@var{host}/...} rather than just to @samp{@var{host}/...}.
1179 @cindex cut directories
1180 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
1181 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
1182 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
1185 Take, for example, the directory at
1186 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
1187 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
1188 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
1189 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
1190 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
1191 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
1192 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
1196 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
1198 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
1199 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
1201 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
1206 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
1207 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
1208 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
1209 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
1210 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
1212 @cindex directory prefix
1213 @item -P @var{prefix}
1214 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
1215 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
1216 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
1217 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
1221 @node HTTP Options, HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options, Directory Options, Invoking
1222 @section HTTP Options
1225 @cindex default page name
1227 @item --default-page=@var{name}
1228 Use @var{name} as the default file name when it isn't known (i.e., for
1229 URLs that end in a slash), instead of @file{index.html}.
1231 @cindex .html extension
1232 @cindex .css extension
1234 @itemx --adjust-extension
1235 If a file of type @samp{application/xhtml+xml} or @samp{text/html} is
1236 downloaded and the URL does not end with the regexp
1237 @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause the suffix @samp{.html}
1238 to be appended to the local filename. This is useful, for instance, when
1239 you're mirroring a remote site that uses @samp{.asp} pages, but you want
1240 the mirrored pages to be viewable on your stock Apache server. Another
1241 good use for this is when you're downloading CGI-generated materials. A URL
1242 like @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
1243 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
1245 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
1246 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
1247 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
1248 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
1249 @samp{text/html} or @samp{application/xhtml+xml}.
1251 As of version 1.12, Wget will also ensure that any downloaded files of
1252 type @samp{text/css} end in the suffix @samp{.css}, and the option was
1253 renamed from @samp{--html-extension}, to better reflect its new
1254 behavior. The old option name is still acceptable, but should now be
1255 considered deprecated.
1257 At some point in the future, this option may well be expanded to
1258 include suffixes for other types of content, including content types
1259 that are not parsed by Wget.
1262 @cindex http password
1263 @cindex authentication
1264 @item --http-user=@var{user}
1265 @itemx --http-password=@var{password}
1266 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1267 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
1268 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure),
1269 the @code{digest}, or the Windows @code{NTLM} authentication scheme.
1271 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1272 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1273 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1274 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1275 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1276 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1277 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1280 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1284 @cindex Keep-Alive, turning off
1285 @cindex Persistent Connections, disabling
1286 @item --no-http-keep-alive
1287 Turn off the ``keep-alive'' feature for HTTP downloads. Normally, Wget
1288 asks the server to keep the connection open so that, when you download
1289 more than one document from the same server, they get transferred over
1290 the same TCP connection. This saves time and at the same time reduces
1291 the load on the server.
1293 This option is useful when, for some reason, persistent (keep-alive)
1294 connections don't work for you, for example due to a server bug or due
1295 to the inability of server-side scripts to cope with the connections.
1300 Disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will send the remote
1301 server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma: no-cache}) to get the
1302 file from the remote service, rather than returning the cached version.
1303 This is especially useful for retrieving and flushing out-of-date
1304 documents on proxy servers.
1306 Caching is allowed by default.
1310 Disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism for maintaining
1311 server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie using the
1312 @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the same cookie
1313 upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server owners to keep
1314 track of visitors and for sites to exchange this information, some
1315 consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to use cookies;
1316 however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
1318 @cindex loading cookies
1319 @cindex cookies, loading
1320 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
1321 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
1322 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
1323 @file{cookies.txt} file.
1325 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
1326 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
1327 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
1328 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
1329 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
1330 proves your identity.
1332 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
1333 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
1334 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
1335 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
1336 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
1337 cookie files in different locations:
1341 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1343 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1344 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1345 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1346 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1347 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1349 @item Internet Explorer.
1350 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1351 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1352 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1354 @item Other browsers.
1355 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1356 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1357 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1360 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1361 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1362 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1363 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1364 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1367 wget --no-cookies --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1370 @cindex saving cookies
1371 @cindex cookies, saving
1372 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1373 Save cookies to @var{file} before exiting. This will not save cookies
1374 that have expired or that have no expiry time (so-called ``session
1375 cookies''), but also see @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
1377 @cindex cookies, session
1378 @cindex session cookies
1379 @item --keep-session-cookies
1380 When specified, causes @samp{--save-cookies} to also save session
1381 cookies. Session cookies are normally not saved because they are
1382 meant to be kept in memory and forgotten when you exit the browser.
1383 Saving them is useful on sites that require you to log in or to visit
1384 the home page before you can access some pages. With this option,
1385 multiple Wget runs are considered a single browser session as far as
1386 the site is concerned.
1388 Since the cookie file format does not normally carry session cookies,
1389 Wget marks them with an expiry timestamp of 0. Wget's
1390 @samp{--load-cookies} recognizes those as session cookies, but it might
1391 confuse other browsers. Also note that cookies so loaded will be
1392 treated as other session cookies, which means that if you want
1393 @samp{--save-cookies} to preserve them again, you must use
1394 @samp{--keep-session-cookies} again.
1396 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1397 @cindex ignore length
1398 @item --ignore-length
1399 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1400 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1401 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1402 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1403 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1406 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1407 if it never existed.
1410 @item --header=@var{header-line}
1411 Send @var{header-line} along with the rest of the headers in each
1412 @sc{http} request. The supplied header is sent as-is, which means it
1413 must contain name and value separated by colon, and must not contain
1416 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1417 @samp{--header} more than once.
1421 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1422 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1423 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1427 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1428 previous user-defined headers.
1430 As of Wget 1.10, this option can be used to override headers otherwise
1431 generated automatically. This example instructs Wget to connect to
1432 localhost, but to specify @samp{foo.bar} in the @code{Host} header:
1435 wget --header="Host: foo.bar" http://localhost/
1438 In versions of Wget prior to 1.10 such use of @samp{--header} caused
1439 sending of duplicate headers.
1442 @item --max-redirect=@var{number}
1443 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
1444 The default is 20, which is usually far more than necessary. However, on
1445 those occasions where you want to allow more (or fewer), this is the
1449 @cindex proxy password
1450 @cindex proxy authentication
1451 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1452 @itemx --proxy-password=@var{password}
1453 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1454 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1455 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1457 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-password}
1458 pertain here as well.
1460 @cindex http referer
1461 @cindex referer, http
1462 @item --referer=@var{url}
1463 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1464 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1465 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1466 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1468 @cindex server response, save
1469 @item --save-headers
1470 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1471 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1474 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1475 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1476 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1478 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1479 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1480 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1481 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1482 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1485 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1486 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1487 While this is not such a bad idea in theory, it has been abused by
1488 servers denying information to clients other than (historically)
1489 Netscape or, more frequently, Microsoft Internet Explorer. This
1490 option allows you to change the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget.
1491 Use of this option is discouraged, unless you really know what you are
1494 Specifying empty user agent with @samp{--user-agent=""} instructs Wget
1495 not to send the @code{User-Agent} header in @sc{http} requests.
1498 @item --post-data=@var{string}
1499 @itemx --post-file=@var{file}
1500 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the specified
1501 data in the request body. @samp{--post-data} sends @var{string} as
1502 data, whereas @samp{--post-file} sends the contents of @var{file}.
1503 Other than that, they work in exactly the same way. In particular,
1504 they @emph{both} expect content of the form @code{key1=value1&key2=value2},
1505 with percent-encoding for special characters; the only difference is
1506 that one expects its content as a command-line parameter and the other
1507 accepts its content from a file. In particular, @samp{--post-file} is
1508 @emph{not} for transmitting files as form attachments: those must
1509 appear as @code{key=value} data (with appropriate percent-coding) just
1510 like everything else. Wget does not currently support
1511 @code{multipart/form-data} for transmitting POST data; only
1512 @code{application/x-www-form-urlencoded}. Only one of
1513 @samp{--post-data} and @samp{--post-file} should be specified.
1515 Please note that wget does not require the content to be of the form
1516 @code{key1=value1&key2=value2}, and neither does it test for it. Wget will
1517 simply transmit whatever data is provided to it. Most servers however expect
1518 the POST data to be in the above format when processing HTML Forms.
1520 Please be aware that Wget needs to know the size of the POST data in
1521 advance. Therefore the argument to @code{--post-file} must be a regular
1522 file; specifying a FIFO or something like @file{/dev/stdin} won't work.
1523 It's not quite clear how to work around this limitation inherent in
1524 HTTP/1.0. Although HTTP/1.1 introduces @dfn{chunked} transfer that
1525 doesn't require knowing the request length in advance, a client can't
1526 use chunked unless it knows it's talking to an HTTP/1.1 server. And it
1527 can't know that until it receives a response, which in turn requires the
1528 request to have been completed -- a chicken-and-egg problem.
1530 Note: As of version 1.15 if Wget is redirected after the POST request is
1531 completed, its behaviour will depend on the response code returned by the
1532 server. In case of a 301 Moved Permanently, 302 Moved Temporarily or
1533 307 Temporary Redirect, Wget will, in accordance with RFC2616, continue
1534 to send a POST request.
1535 In case a server wants the client to change the Request method upon
1536 redirection, it should send a 303 See Other response code.
1538 This example shows how to log in to a server using POST and then proceed to
1539 download the desired pages, presumably only accessible to authorized
1544 # @r{Log in to the server. This can be done only once.}
1545 wget --save-cookies cookies.txt \
1546 --post-data 'user=foo&password=bar' \
1547 http://server.com/auth.php
1549 # @r{Now grab the page or pages we care about.}
1550 wget --load-cookies cookies.txt \
1551 -p http://server.com/interesting/article.php
1555 If the server is using session cookies to track user authentication,
1556 the above will not work because @samp{--save-cookies} will not save
1557 them (and neither will browsers) and the @file{cookies.txt} file will
1558 be empty. In that case use @samp{--keep-session-cookies} along with
1559 @samp{--save-cookies} to force saving of session cookies.
1561 @cindex Other HTTP Methods
1562 @item --method=@var{HTTP-Method}
1563 For the purpose of RESTful scripting, Wget allows sending of other HTTP Methods
1564 without the need to explicitly set them using @samp{--header=Header-Line}.
1565 Wget will use whatever string is passed to it after @samp{--method} as the HTTP
1566 Method to the server.
1568 @item --body-data=@var{Data-String}
1569 @itemx --body-file=@var{Data-File}
1570 Must be set when additional data needs to be sent to the server along with the
1571 Method specified using @samp{--method}. @samp{--body-data} sends @var{string} as
1572 data, whereas @samp{--body-file} sends the contents of @var{file}. Other than that,
1573 they work in exactly the same way.
1575 Currently, @samp{--body-file} is @emph{not} for transmitting files as a whole.
1576 Wget does not currently support @code{multipart/form-data} for transmitting data;
1577 only @code{application/x-www-form-urlencoded}. In the future, this may be changed
1578 so that wget sends the @samp{--body-file} as a complete file instead of sending its
1579 contents to the server. Please be aware that Wget needs to know the contents of
1580 BODY Data in advance, and hence the argument to @samp{--body-file} should be a
1581 regular file. See @samp{--post-file} for a more detailed explanation.
1582 Only one of @samp{--body-data} and @samp{--body-file} should be specified.
1584 If Wget is redirected after the request is completed, Wget will
1585 suspend the current method and send a GET request till the redirection
1586 is completed. This is true for all redirection response codes except
1587 307 Temporary Redirect which is used to explicitly specify that the
1588 request method should @emph{not} change. Another exception is when
1589 the method is set to @code{POST}, in which case the redirection rules
1590 specified under @samp{--post-data} are followed.
1592 @cindex Content-Disposition
1593 @item --content-disposition
1595 If this is set to on, experimental (not fully-functional) support for
1596 @code{Content-Disposition} headers is enabled. This can currently result in
1597 extra round-trips to the server for a @code{HEAD} request, and is known
1598 to suffer from a few bugs, which is why it is not currently enabled by default.
1600 This option is useful for some file-downloading CGI programs that use
1601 @code{Content-Disposition} headers to describe what the name of a
1602 downloaded file should be.
1604 @cindex Content On Error
1605 @item --content-on-error
1607 If this is set to on, wget will not skip the content when the server responds
1608 with a http status code that indicates error.
1610 @cindex Trust server names
1611 @item --trust-server-names
1613 If this is set to on, on a redirect the last component of the
1614 redirection URL will be used as the local file name. By default it is
1615 used the last component in the original URL.
1617 @cindex authentication
1618 @item --auth-no-challenge
1620 If this option is given, Wget will send Basic HTTP authentication
1621 information (plaintext username and password) for all requests, just
1622 like Wget 1.10.2 and prior did by default.
1624 Use of this option is not recommended, and is intended only to support
1625 some few obscure servers, which never send HTTP authentication
1626 challenges, but accept unsolicited auth info, say, in addition to
1627 form-based authentication.
1631 @node HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options, FTP Options, HTTP Options, Invoking
1632 @section HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
1635 To support encrypted HTTP (HTTPS) downloads, Wget must be compiled
1636 with an external SSL library, currently OpenSSL. If Wget is compiled
1637 without SSL support, none of these options are available.
1640 @cindex SSL protocol, choose
1641 @item --secure-protocol=@var{protocol}
1642 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto},
1643 @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, @samp{TLSv1} and @samp{PFS}. If @samp{auto}
1644 is used, the SSL library is given the liberty of choosing the appropriate
1645 protocol automatically, which is achieved by sending an SSLv2 greeting
1646 and announcing support for SSLv3 and TLSv1. This is the default.
1648 Specifying @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, or @samp{TLSv1} forces the use
1649 of the corresponding protocol. This is useful when talking to old and
1650 buggy SSL server implementations that make it hard for the underlying
1651 SSL library to choose the correct protocol version. Fortunately, such
1652 servers are quite rare.
1654 Specifying @samp{PFS} enforces the use of the so-called Perfect Forward
1655 Security cipher suites. In short, PFS adds security by creating a one-time
1656 key for each SSL connection. It has a bit more CPU impact on client and server.
1657 We use known to be secure ciphers (e.g. no MD4) and the TLS protocol.
1660 When in recursive mode, only HTTPS links are followed.
1662 @cindex SSL certificate, check
1663 @item --no-check-certificate
1664 Don't check the server certificate against the available certificate
1665 authorities. Also don't require the URL host name to match the common
1666 name presented by the certificate.
1668 As of Wget 1.10, the default is to verify the server's certificate
1669 against the recognized certificate authorities, breaking the SSL
1670 handshake and aborting the download if the verification fails.
1671 Although this provides more secure downloads, it does break
1672 interoperability with some sites that worked with previous Wget
1673 versions, particularly those using self-signed, expired, or otherwise
1674 invalid certificates. This option forces an ``insecure'' mode of
1675 operation that turns the certificate verification errors into warnings
1676 and allows you to proceed.
1678 If you encounter ``certificate verification'' errors or ones saying
1679 that ``common name doesn't match requested host name'', you can use
1680 this option to bypass the verification and proceed with the download.
1681 @emph{Only use this option if you are otherwise convinced of the
1682 site's authenticity, or if you really don't care about the validity of
1683 its certificate.} It is almost always a bad idea not to check the
1684 certificates when transmitting confidential or important data.
1686 @cindex SSL certificate
1687 @item --certificate=@var{file}
1688 Use the client certificate stored in @var{file}. This is needed for
1689 servers that are configured to require certificates from the clients
1690 that connect to them. Normally a certificate is not required and this
1693 @cindex SSL certificate type, specify
1694 @item --certificate-type=@var{type}
1695 Specify the type of the client certificate. Legal values are
1696 @samp{PEM} (assumed by default) and @samp{DER}, also known as
1699 @item --private-key=@var{file}
1700 Read the private key from @var{file}. This allows you to provide the
1701 private key in a file separate from the certificate.
1703 @item --private-key-type=@var{type}
1704 Specify the type of the private key. Accepted values are @samp{PEM}
1705 (the default) and @samp{DER}.
1707 @item --ca-certificate=@var{file}
1708 Use @var{file} as the file with the bundle of certificate authorities
1709 (``CA'') to verify the peers. The certificates must be in PEM format.
1711 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1712 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1714 @cindex SSL certificate authority
1715 @item --ca-directory=@var{directory}
1716 Specifies directory containing CA certificates in PEM format. Each
1717 file contains one CA certificate, and the file name is based on a hash
1718 value derived from the certificate. This is achieved by processing a
1719 certificate directory with the @code{c_rehash} utility supplied with
1720 OpenSSL. Using @samp{--ca-directory} is more efficient than
1721 @samp{--ca-certificate} when many certificates are installed because
1722 it allows Wget to fetch certificates on demand.
1724 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1725 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1727 @cindex entropy, specifying source of
1728 @cindex randomness, specifying source of
1729 @item --random-file=@var{file}
1730 Use @var{file} as the source of random data for seeding the
1731 pseudo-random number generator on systems without @file{/dev/random}.
1733 On such systems the SSL library needs an external source of randomness
1734 to initialize. Randomness may be provided by EGD (see
1735 @samp{--egd-file} below) or read from an external source specified by
1736 the user. If this option is not specified, Wget looks for random data
1737 in @code{$RANDFILE} or, if that is unset, in @file{$HOME/.rnd}. If
1738 none of those are available, it is likely that SSL encryption will not
1741 If you're getting the ``Could not seed OpenSSL PRNG; disabling SSL.''
1742 error, you should provide random data using some of the methods
1746 @item --egd-file=@var{file}
1747 Use @var{file} as the EGD socket. EGD stands for @dfn{Entropy
1748 Gathering Daemon}, a user-space program that collects data from
1749 various unpredictable system sources and makes it available to other
1750 programs that might need it. Encryption software, such as the SSL
1751 library, needs sources of non-repeating randomness to seed the random
1752 number generator used to produce cryptographically strong keys.
1754 OpenSSL allows the user to specify his own source of entropy using the
1755 @code{RAND_FILE} environment variable. If this variable is unset, or
1756 if the specified file does not produce enough randomness, OpenSSL will
1757 read random data from EGD socket specified using this option.
1759 If this option is not specified (and the equivalent startup command is
1760 not used), EGD is never contacted. EGD is not needed on modern Unix
1761 systems that support @file{/dev/random}.
1766 @item --warc-file=@var{file}
1767 Use @var{file} as the destination WARC file.
1769 @item --warc-header=@var{string}
1770 Use @var{string} into as the warcinfo record.
1772 @item --warc-max-size=@var{size}
1773 Set the maximum size of the WARC files to @var{size}.
1776 Write CDX index files.
1778 @item --warc-dedup=@var{file}
1779 Do not store records listed in this CDX file.
1781 @item --no-warc-compression
1782 Do not compress WARC files with GZIP.
1784 @item --no-warc-digests
1785 Do not calculate SHA1 digests.
1787 @item --no-warc-keep-log
1788 Do not store the log file in a WARC record.
1790 @item --warc-tempdir=@var{dir}
1791 Specify the location for temporary files created by the WARC writer.
1794 @node FTP Options, Recursive Retrieval Options, HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options, Invoking
1795 @section FTP Options
1799 @cindex ftp password
1800 @cindex ftp authentication
1801 @item --ftp-user=@var{user}
1802 @itemx --ftp-password=@var{password}
1803 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1804 @sc{ftp} server. Without this, or the corresponding startup option,
1805 the password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, normally used for anonymous
1808 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1809 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1810 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1811 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1812 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1813 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1814 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1817 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1821 @cindex .listing files, removing
1822 @item --no-remove-listing
1823 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1824 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1825 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1826 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1827 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1828 you're running is complete).
1830 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1831 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1832 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1833 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1834 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1835 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1836 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1837 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1838 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1840 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1841 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1842 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1843 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1844 will be overwritten.
1846 @cindex globbing, toggle
1848 Turn off @sc{ftp} globbing. Globbing refers to the use of shell-like
1849 special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[}
1850 and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the same directory at
1854 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1857 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1858 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1861 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1862 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1863 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1864 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1867 @item --no-passive-ftp
1868 Disable the use of the @dfn{passive} FTP transfer mode. Passive FTP
1869 mandates that the client connect to the server to establish the data
1870 connection rather than the other way around.
1872 If the machine is connected to the Internet directly, both passive and
1873 active FTP should work equally well. Behind most firewall and NAT
1874 configurations passive FTP has a better chance of working. However,
1875 in some rare firewall configurations, active FTP actually works when
1876 passive FTP doesn't. If you suspect this to be the case, use this
1877 option, or set @code{passive_ftp=off} in your init file.
1879 @cindex file permissions
1880 @item --preserve-permissions
1881 Preserve remote file permissions instead of permissions set by umask.
1883 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1884 @item --retr-symlinks
1885 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1886 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1887 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1888 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1889 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1891 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1892 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1893 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1894 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1897 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1898 specified on the command-line, rather than because it was recursed to,
1899 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1903 @node Recursive Retrieval Options, Recursive Accept/Reject Options, FTP Options, Invoking
1904 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1909 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Download}, for more
1910 details. The default maximum depth is 5.
1912 @item -l @var{depth}
1913 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1914 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1917 @cindex proxy filling
1918 @cindex delete after retrieval
1919 @cindex filling proxy cache
1920 @item --delete-after
1921 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1922 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1923 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1926 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1929 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1932 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1933 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1934 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1935 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1936 created in the first place.
1938 @cindex conversion of links
1939 @cindex link conversion
1941 @itemx --convert-links
1942 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1943 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1944 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1945 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-@sc{html}
1948 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1952 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1953 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1955 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1956 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1957 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1958 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1961 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1962 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1964 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1965 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1966 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1967 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1970 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1971 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1972 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1973 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1974 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1977 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1978 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1979 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1981 @cindex backing up converted files
1983 @itemx --backup-converted
1984 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1985 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1990 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1991 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1992 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1993 @samp{-r -N -l inf --no-remove-listing}.
1995 @cindex page requisites
1996 @cindex required images, downloading
1998 @itemx --page-requisites
1999 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
2000 properly display a given @sc{html} page. This includes such things as
2001 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
2003 Ordinarily, when downloading a single @sc{html} page, any requisite documents
2004 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
2005 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
2006 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
2007 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
2010 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
2011 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
2012 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
2013 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
2014 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
2016 If one executes the command:
2019 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
2022 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
2023 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
2024 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
2025 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
2026 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
2029 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
2032 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
2033 will be downloaded. Similarly,
2036 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
2039 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
2040 to be downloaded. One might think that:
2043 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
2046 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
2047 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
2048 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single @sc{html}
2049 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the command-line or in a
2050 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
2051 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
2054 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
2057 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
2058 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
2059 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
2060 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
2061 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
2062 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
2065 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
2068 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
2069 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
2070 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
2073 @cindex @sc{html} comments
2074 @cindex comments, @sc{html}
2075 @item --strict-comments
2076 Turn on strict parsing of @sc{html} comments. The default is to terminate
2077 comments at the first occurrence of @samp{-->}.
2079 According to specifications, @sc{html} comments are expressed as @sc{sgml}
2080 @dfn{declarations}. Declaration is special markup that begins with
2081 @samp{<!} and ends with @samp{>}, such as @samp{<!DOCTYPE ...>}, that
2082 may contain comments between a pair of @samp{--} delimiters. @sc{html}
2083 comments are ``empty declarations'', @sc{sgml} declarations without any
2084 non-comment text. Therefore, @samp{<!--foo-->} is a valid comment, and
2085 so is @samp{<!--one-- --two-->}, but @samp{<!--1--2-->} is not.
2087 On the other hand, most @sc{html} writers don't perceive comments as anything
2088 other than text delimited with @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}, which is not
2089 quite the same. For example, something like @samp{<!------------>}
2090 works as a valid comment as long as the number of dashes is a multiple
2091 of four (!). If not, the comment technically lasts until the next
2092 @samp{--}, which may be at the other end of the document. Because of
2093 this, many popular browsers completely ignore the specification and
2094 implement what users have come to expect: comments delimited with
2095 @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}.
2097 Until version 1.9, Wget interpreted comments strictly, which resulted in
2098 missing links in many web pages that displayed fine in browsers, but had
2099 the misfortune of containing non-compliant comments. Beginning with
2100 version 1.9, Wget has joined the ranks of clients that implements
2101 ``naive'' comments, terminating each comment at the first occurrence of
2104 If, for whatever reason, you want strict comment parsing, use this
2105 option to turn it on.
2108 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options, Exit Status, Recursive Retrieval Options, Invoking
2109 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
2112 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
2113 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
2114 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
2115 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files}). Note that if
2116 any of the wildcard characters, @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[} or
2117 @samp{]}, appear in an element of @var{acclist} or @var{rejlist},
2118 it will be treated as a pattern, rather than a suffix.
2119 In this case, you have to enclose the pattern into quotes to prevent
2120 your shell from expanding it, like in @samp{-A "*.mp3"} or @samp{-A '*.mp3'}.
2122 @item --accept-regex @var{urlregex}
2123 @itemx --reject-regex @var{urlregex}
2124 Specify a regular expression to accept or reject the complete URL.
2126 @item --regex-type @var{regextype}
2127 Specify the regular expression type. Possible types are @samp{posix} or
2128 @samp{pcre}. Note that to be able to use @samp{pcre} type, wget has to be
2129 compiled with libpcre support.
2131 @item -D @var{domain-list}
2132 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
2133 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
2134 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
2136 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
2137 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed
2138 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2140 @cindex follow FTP links
2142 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
2143 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
2145 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
2146 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
2147 Wget has an internal table of @sc{html} tag / attribute pairs that it
2148 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
2149 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
2150 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
2151 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
2153 @item --ignore-tags=@var{list}
2154 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
2155 certain @sc{html} tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
2156 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
2158 In the past, this option was the best bet for downloading a single page
2159 and its requisites, using a command-line like:
2162 wget --ignore-tags=a,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
2165 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
2166 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
2167 specifying tags to ignore was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to
2168 ignore @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded.
2169 Now the best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
2170 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
2175 Ignore case when matching files and directories. This influences the
2176 behavior of -R, -A, -I, and -X options, as well as globbing
2177 implemented when downloading from FTP sites. For example, with this
2178 option, @samp{-A "*.txt"} will match @samp{file1.txt}, but also
2179 @samp{file2.TXT}, @samp{file3.TxT}, and so on.
2180 The quotes in the example are to prevent the shell from expanding the
2185 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
2186 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2190 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
2191 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
2192 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
2195 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
2196 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2197 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements
2198 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
2201 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
2202 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2203 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements of
2204 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
2208 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
2209 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
2210 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
2211 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
2216 @node Exit Status, , Recursive Accept/Reject Options, Invoking
2217 @section Exit Status
2219 @c man begin EXITSTATUS
2221 Wget may return one of several error codes if it encounters problems.
2226 No problems occurred.
2232 Parse error---for instance, when parsing command-line options, the
2233 @samp{.wgetrc} or @samp{.netrc}...
2242 SSL verification failure.
2245 Username/password authentication failure.
2251 Server issued an error response.
2255 With the exceptions of 0 and 1, the lower-numbered exit codes take
2256 precedence over higher-numbered ones, when multiple types of errors
2259 In versions of Wget prior to 1.12, Wget's exit status tended to be
2260 unhelpful and inconsistent. Recursive downloads would virtually always
2261 return 0 (success), regardless of any issues encountered, and
2262 non-recursive fetches only returned the status corresponding to the
2263 most recently-attempted download.
2267 @node Recursive Download, Following Links, Invoking, Top
2268 @chapter Recursive Download
2271 @cindex recursive download
2273 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
2274 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
2275 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieval}, or @dfn{recursion}.
2277 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} or
2278 @sc{css} from the given @sc{url}, retrieving the files the document
2279 refers to, through markup like @code{href} or @code{src}, or @sc{css}
2280 @sc{uri} values specified using the @samp{url()} functional notation.
2281 If the freshly downloaded file is also of type @code{text/html},
2282 @code{application/xhtml+xml}, or @code{text/css}, it will be parsed
2283 and followed further.
2285 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html}/@sc{css} content is
2286 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
2287 document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
2288 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
2289 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
2290 until the specified maximum depth.
2292 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
2293 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
2295 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
2296 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
2297 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
2298 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
2299 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
2302 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
2303 the one found on the remote server.
2305 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
2306 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
2307 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
2308 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
2310 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
2311 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
2312 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
2313 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
2314 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
2315 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
2316 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
2318 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
2319 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
2320 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
2321 consume memory and CPU.
2323 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
2324 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
2325 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
2326 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
2327 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
2328 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
2329 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
2332 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
2335 @node Following Links, Time-Stamping, Recursive Download, Top
2336 @chapter Following Links
2338 @cindex following links
2340 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
2341 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
2342 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
2344 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
2345 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
2346 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
2348 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
2349 links it will follow.
2352 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
2353 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
2354 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
2355 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
2356 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
2359 @node Spanning Hosts, Types of Files, Following Links, Following Links
2360 @section Spanning Hosts
2361 @cindex spanning hosts
2362 @cindex hosts, spanning
2364 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
2365 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
2366 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
2367 your Wget into a small version of google.
2369 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
2370 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
2371 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
2372 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the @sc{html}
2373 pages refer to both interchangeably.
2376 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
2378 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
2379 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
2380 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
2381 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
2382 up much more data than you have intended.
2384 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
2386 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
2387 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
2388 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
2389 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
2390 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
2391 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
2394 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
2397 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
2398 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
2400 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
2402 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
2403 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
2404 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
2405 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
2406 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
2410 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
2416 @node Types of Files, Directory-Based Limits, Spanning Hosts, Following Links
2417 @section Types of Files
2418 @cindex types of files
2420 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
2421 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
2422 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
2423 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
2425 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
2426 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
2429 @cindex accept wildcards
2430 @cindex accept suffixes
2431 @cindex wildcards, accept
2432 @cindex suffixes, accept
2434 @item -A @var{acclist}
2435 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
2436 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
2437 @itemx --accept-regex @var{urlregex}
2438 @itemx accept-regex = @var{urlregex}
2439 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
2440 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
2441 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
2442 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
2443 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
2445 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
2446 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
2447 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
2448 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
2449 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
2450 a description of how pattern matching works.
2452 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
2453 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
2455 The argument to @samp{--accept-regex} option is a regular expression which
2456 is matched against the complete URL.
2458 @cindex reject wildcards
2459 @cindex reject suffixes
2460 @cindex wildcards, reject
2461 @cindex suffixes, reject
2462 @item -R @var{rejlist}
2463 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
2464 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
2465 @itemx --reject-regex @var{urlregex}
2466 @itemx reject-regex = @var{urlregex}
2467 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
2468 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
2469 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
2471 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
2472 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
2473 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
2474 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
2475 expansion by the shell.
2478 The argument to @samp{--accept-regex} option is a regular expression which
2479 is matched against the complete URL.
2482 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
2483 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
2484 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
2485 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
2487 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
2488 files (as determined by a @samp{.htm} or @samp{.html} filename
2489 prefix). This behavior may not be desirable for all users, and may be
2490 changed for future versions of Wget.
2492 Note, too, that query strings (strings at the end of a URL beginning
2493 with a question mark (@samp{?}) are not included as part of the
2494 filename for accept/reject rules, even though these will actually
2495 contribute to the name chosen for the local file. It is expected that
2496 a future version of Wget will provide an option to allow matching
2497 against query strings.
2499 Finally, it's worth noting that the accept/reject lists are matched
2500 @emph{twice} against downloaded files: once against the URL's filename
2501 portion, to determine if the file should be downloaded in the first
2502 place; then, after it has been accepted and successfully downloaded,
2503 the local file's name is also checked against the accept/reject lists
2504 to see if it should be removed. The rationale was that, since
2505 @samp{.htm} and @samp{.html} files are always downloaded regardless of
2506 accept/reject rules, they should be removed @emph{after} being
2507 downloaded and scanned for links, if they did match the accept/reject
2508 lists. However, this can lead to unexpected results, since the local
2509 filenames can differ from the original URL filenames in the following
2510 ways, all of which can change whether an accept/reject rule matches:
2514 If the local file already exists and @samp{--no-directories} was
2515 specified, a numeric suffix will be appended to the original name.
2517 If @samp{--adjust-extension} was specified, the local filename might have
2518 @samp{.html} appended to it. If Wget is invoked with @samp{-E -A.php},
2519 a filename such as @samp{index.php} will match be accepted, but upon
2520 download will be named @samp{index.php.html}, which no longer matches,
2521 and so the file will be deleted.
2523 Query strings do not contribute to URL matching, but are included in
2524 local filenames, and so @emph{do} contribute to filename matching.
2528 This behavior, too, is considered less-than-desirable, and may change
2529 in a future version of Wget.
2531 @node Directory-Based Limits, Relative Links, Types of Files, Following Links
2532 @section Directory-Based Limits
2534 @cindex directory limits
2536 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
2537 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
2538 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
2539 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
2540 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
2541 @file{/dev} directories.
2543 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
2544 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
2545 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
2547 @cindex directories, include
2548 @cindex include directories
2549 @cindex accept directories
2552 @itemx --include @var{list}
2553 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
2554 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
2555 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
2556 directories are absolute paths.
2558 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
2559 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
2560 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
2563 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
2566 @cindex directories, exclude
2567 @cindex exclude directories
2568 @cindex reject directories
2570 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
2571 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
2572 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
2573 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
2574 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
2575 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
2577 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
2578 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
2579 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
2580 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
2585 @itemx no_parent = on
2586 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
2587 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
2588 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
2589 parent directory/directories.
2591 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
2592 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
2593 Supposing you issue Wget with:
2596 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
2599 You may rest assured that none of the references to
2600 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
2601 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
2602 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
2603 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
2604 intelligent fashion.
2606 @strong{Note} that, for HTTP (and HTTPS), the trailing slash is very
2607 important to @samp{--no-parent}. HTTP has no concept of a ``directory''---Wget
2608 relies on you to indicate what's a directory and what isn't. In
2609 @samp{http://foo/bar/}, Wget will consider @samp{bar} to be a
2610 directory, while in @samp{http://foo/bar} (no trailing slash),
2611 @samp{bar} will be considered a filename (so @samp{--no-parent} would be
2612 meaningless, as its parent is @samp{/}).
2615 @node Relative Links, FTP Links, Directory-Based Limits, Following Links
2616 @section Relative Links
2617 @cindex relative links
2619 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
2620 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
2621 server root. For example, these links are relative:
2625 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
2626 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
2629 These links are not relative:
2633 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
2634 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
2637 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
2638 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
2639 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
2641 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
2644 @node FTP Links, , Relative Links, Following Links
2645 @section Following FTP Links
2646 @cindex following ftp links
2648 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
2649 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
2650 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
2653 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
2654 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
2655 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
2656 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
2657 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
2658 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
2659 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
2661 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
2662 retrieved recursively further.
2664 @node Time-Stamping, Startup File, Following Links, Top
2665 @chapter Time-Stamping
2666 @cindex time-stamping
2667 @cindex timestamping
2668 @cindex updating the archives
2669 @cindex incremental updating
2671 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
2672 Internet is updating your archives.
2674 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
2675 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
2676 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
2677 offer the option of incremental updating.
2679 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
2680 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
2681 the place of the old ones.
2683 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
2687 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
2690 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
2691 recently than the local file.
2694 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
2695 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
2696 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
2698 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
2699 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
2700 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
2701 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
2702 does, and the remote file is not newer, Wget will not download it.
2704 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
2705 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
2709 * Time-Stamping Usage::
2710 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2711 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2714 @node Time-Stamping Usage, HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping, Time-Stamping
2715 @section Time-Stamping Usage
2716 @cindex time-stamping usage
2717 @cindex usage, time-stamping
2719 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
2720 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
2723 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2726 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
2727 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
2728 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
2729 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
2731 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
2732 changed, and download it if it has.
2735 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2738 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
2739 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
2740 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
2741 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
2743 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
2746 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
2749 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
2750 interpret the @samp{*}.)
2752 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
2753 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
2754 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
2755 since the last download.
2757 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
2758 command like the following, weekly:
2761 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2764 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
2765 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
2766 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
2767 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
2768 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
2770 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, FTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping Usage, Time-Stamping
2771 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2772 @cindex http time-stamping
2774 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
2775 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
2776 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
2777 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
2778 retrieved unconditionally.
2780 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
2781 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
2782 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
2785 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
2786 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
2787 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
2788 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
2789 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
2790 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
2793 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
2794 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
2795 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
2796 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
2797 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
2799 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
2800 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
2802 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals, , HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping
2803 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2804 @cindex ftp time-stamping
2806 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
2807 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
2810 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
2811 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
2812 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
2813 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
2814 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
2815 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
2816 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
2817 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
2819 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
2820 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
2821 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
2822 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
2823 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
2824 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
2826 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
2827 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
2828 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
2829 Wget may support this command in the future.
2831 @node Startup File, Examples, Time-Stamping, Top
2832 @chapter Startup File
2833 @cindex startup file
2839 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
2840 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
2841 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
2842 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
2844 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
2845 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
2846 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
2847 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
2849 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
2853 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
2854 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
2855 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
2856 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
2859 @node Wgetrc Location, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File, Startup File
2860 @section Wgetrc Location
2861 @cindex wgetrc location
2862 @cindex location of wgetrc
2864 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
2865 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
2866 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
2867 from there, if it exists.
2869 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
2870 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
2871 further attempts will be made.
2873 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
2875 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
2876 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
2877 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
2878 Fascist admins, away!
2880 @node Wgetrc Syntax, Wgetrc Commands, Wgetrc Location, Startup File
2881 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2882 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2883 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2885 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2891 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2892 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2894 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2895 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2896 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2899 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2900 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2901 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2907 @node Wgetrc Commands, Sample Wgetrc, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File
2908 @section Wgetrc Commands
2909 @cindex wgetrc commands
2911 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2912 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2913 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}.
2915 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2916 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2917 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2918 values can be any non-empty string.
2920 Most of these commands have direct command-line equivalents. Also, any
2921 wgetrc command can be specified on the command line using the
2922 @samp{--execute} switch (@pxref{Basic Startup Options}.)
2925 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2926 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2928 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2929 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2931 @item ask_password = on/off
2932 Prompt for a password for each connection established. Cannot be specified
2933 when @samp{--password} is being used, because they are mutually
2934 exclusive. Equivalent to @samp{--ask-password}.
2936 @item auth_no_challenge = on/off
2937 If this option is given, Wget will send Basic HTTP authentication
2938 information (plaintext username and password) for all requests. See
2939 @samp{--auth-no-challenge}.
2941 @item background = on/off
2942 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2945 @item backup_converted = on/off
2946 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2947 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2949 @item backups = @var{number}
2950 Use up to @var{number} backups for a file. Backups are rotated by
2951 adding an incremental counter that starts at @samp{1}. The default is
2954 @item base = @var{string}
2955 Consider relative @sc{url}s in input files (specified via the
2956 @samp{input} command or the @samp{--input-file}/@samp{-i} option,
2957 together with @samp{force_html} or @samp{--force-html})
2958 as being relative to @var{string}---the same as @samp{--base=@var{string}}.
2960 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2961 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address=@var{address}}.
2963 @item ca_certificate = @var{file}
2964 Set the certificate authority bundle file to @var{file}. The same
2965 as @samp{--ca-certificate=@var{file}}.
2967 @item ca_directory = @var{directory}
2968 Set the directory used for certificate authorities. The same as
2969 @samp{--ca-directory=@var{directory}}.
2971 @item cache = on/off
2972 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{--no-cache}
2975 @item certificate = @var{file}
2976 Set the client certificate file name to @var{file}. The same as
2977 @samp{--certificate=@var{file}}.
2979 @item certificate_type = @var{string}
2980 Specify the type of the client certificate, legal values being
2981 @samp{PEM} (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2982 @samp{--certificate-type=@var{string}}.
2984 @item check_certificate = on/off
2985 If this is set to off, the server certificate is not checked against
2986 the specified client authorities. The default is ``on''. The same as
2987 @samp{--check-certificate}.
2989 @item connect_timeout = @var{n}
2990 Set the connect timeout---the same as @samp{--connect-timeout}.
2992 @item content_disposition = on/off
2993 Turn on recognition of the (non-standard) @samp{Content-Disposition}
2994 HTTP header---if set to @samp{on}, the same as @samp{--content-disposition}.
2996 @item trust_server_names = on/off
2997 If set to on, use the last component of a redirection URL for the local
3000 @item continue = on/off
3001 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
3002 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
3004 @item convert_links = on/off
3005 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
3007 @item cookies = on/off
3008 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
3010 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
3011 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components. Equivalent to
3012 @samp{--cut-dirs=@var{n}}.
3014 @item debug = on/off
3015 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
3017 @item default_page = @var{string}
3018 Default page name---the same as @samp{--default-page=@var{string}}.
3020 @item delete_after = on/off
3021 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
3023 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
3024 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P @var{string}}.
3026 @item dirstruct = on/off
3027 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
3030 @item dns_cache = on/off
3031 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
3032 option is normally used to turn it off and is equivalent to
3033 @samp{--no-dns-cache}.
3035 @item dns_timeout = @var{n}
3036 Set the DNS timeout---the same as @samp{--dns-timeout}.
3038 @item domains = @var{string}
3039 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
3041 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
3042 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
3043 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
3044 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
3045 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
3046 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
3047 (@pxref{Download Options}).
3049 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
3050 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
3052 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
3053 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
3054 the retrieval (50 by default).
3056 @item egd_file = @var{file}
3057 Use @var{string} as the EGD socket file name. The same as
3058 @samp{--egd-file=@var{file}}.
3060 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
3061 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
3062 download---the same as @samp{-X @var{string}} (@pxref{Directory-Based
3065 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
3066 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains=@var{string}} (@pxref{Spanning
3069 @item follow_ftp = on/off
3070 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
3071 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
3073 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
3074 Only follow certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval,
3075 just like @samp{--follow-tags=@var{string}}.
3077 @item force_html = on/off
3078 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
3079 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
3081 @item ftp_password = @var{string}
3082 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{string}. Without this setting, the
3083 password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, which is a useful default for
3084 anonymous @sc{ftp} access.
3086 This command used to be named @code{passwd} prior to Wget 1.10.
3088 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
3089 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
3092 @item ftp_user = @var{string}
3093 Set @sc{ftp} user to @var{string}.
3095 This command used to be named @code{login} prior to Wget 1.10.
3098 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{--glob} and @samp{--no-glob}.
3100 @item header = @var{string}
3101 Define a header for HTTP downloads, like using
3102 @samp{--header=@var{string}}.
3104 @item adjust_extension = on/off
3105 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} or
3106 @samp{application/xhtml+xml} files that lack one, or a @samp{.css}
3107 extension to @samp{text/css} files that lack one, like
3108 @samp{-E}. Previously named @samp{html_extension} (still acceptable,
3111 @item http_keep_alive = on/off
3112 Turn the keep-alive feature on or off (defaults to on). Turning it
3113 off is equivalent to @samp{--no-http-keep-alive}.
3115 @item http_password = @var{string}
3116 Set @sc{http} password, equivalent to
3117 @samp{--http-password=@var{string}}.
3119 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
3120 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
3123 @item http_user = @var{string}
3124 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}, equivalent to
3125 @samp{--http-user=@var{string}}.
3127 @item https_proxy = @var{string}
3128 Use @var{string} as @sc{https} proxy, instead of the one specified in
3131 @item ignore_case = on/off
3132 When set to on, match files and directories case insensitively; the
3133 same as @samp{--ignore-case}.
3135 @item ignore_length = on/off
3136 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
3137 @samp{--ignore-length}.
3139 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
3140 Ignore certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval, like
3141 @samp{--ignore-tags=@var{string}}.
3143 @item include_directories = @var{string}
3144 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
3145 downloading---the same as @samp{-I @var{string}}.
3148 When set to on, enable internationalized URI (IRI) support; the same as
3151 @item inet4_only = on/off
3152 Force connecting to IPv4 addresses, off by default. You can put this
3153 in the global init file to disable Wget's attempts to resolve and
3154 connect to IPv6 hosts. Available only if Wget was compiled with IPv6
3155 support. The same as @samp{--inet4-only} or @samp{-4}.
3157 @item inet6_only = on/off
3158 Force connecting to IPv6 addresses, off by default. Available only if
3159 Wget was compiled with IPv6 support. The same as @samp{--inet6-only}
3162 @item input = @var{file}
3163 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i @var{file}}.
3165 @item keep_session_cookies = on/off
3166 When specified, causes @samp{save_cookies = on} to also save session
3167 cookies. See @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
3169 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
3170 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
3171 The same as @samp{--limit-rate=@var{rate}}.
3173 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
3174 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies @var{file}}.
3176 @item local_encoding = @var{encoding}
3177 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default system encoding. See
3178 @samp{--local-encoding}.
3180 @item logfile = @var{file}
3181 Set logfile to @var{file}, the same as @samp{-o @var{file}}.
3183 @item max_redirect = @var{number}
3184 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
3185 See @samp{--max-redirect=@var{number}}.
3187 @item mirror = on/off
3188 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
3190 @item netrc = on/off
3191 Turn reading netrc on or off.
3193 @item no_clobber = on/off
3196 @item no_parent = on/off
3197 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
3198 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
3200 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
3201 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
3202 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
3204 @item output_document = @var{file}
3205 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O @var{file}}.
3207 @item page_requisites = on/off
3208 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single @sc{html} page to
3209 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
3211 @item passive_ftp = on/off
3212 Change setting of passive @sc{ftp}, equivalent to the
3213 @samp{--passive-ftp} option.
3215 @item password = @var{string}
3216 Specify password @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
3217 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_password} and
3218 @samp{http_password} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
3220 @item post_data = @var{string}
3221 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send @var{string} in
3222 the request body. The same as @samp{--post-data=@var{string}}.
3224 @item post_file = @var{file}
3225 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the contents of
3226 @var{file} in the request body. The same as
3227 @samp{--post-file=@var{file}}.
3229 @item prefer_family = none/IPv4/IPv6
3230 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
3231 with specified address family first. The address order returned by
3232 DNS is used without change by default. The same as @samp{--prefer-family},
3233 which see for a detailed discussion of why this is useful.
3235 @item private_key = @var{file}
3236 Set the private key file to @var{file}. The same as
3237 @samp{--private-key=@var{file}}.
3239 @item private_key_type = @var{string}
3240 Specify the type of the private key, legal values being @samp{PEM}
3241 (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
3242 @samp{--private-type=@var{string}}.
3244 @item progress = @var{string}
3245 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are @samp{dot}
3246 and @samp{bar}. Equivalent to @samp{--progress=@var{string}}.
3248 @item protocol_directories = on/off
3249 When set, use the protocol name as a directory component of local file
3250 names. The same as @samp{--protocol-directories}.
3252 @item proxy_password = @var{string}
3253 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like
3254 @samp{--proxy-password=@var{string}}.
3256 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
3257 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like
3258 @samp{--proxy-user=@var{string}}.
3260 @item quiet = on/off
3261 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
3263 @item quota = @var{quota}
3264 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
3265 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
3266 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
3267 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
3268 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
3269 to 5 megabytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
3272 @item random_file = @var{file}
3273 Use @var{file} as a source of randomness on systems lacking
3276 @item random_wait = on/off
3277 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
3278 @samp{--random-wait}.
3280 @item read_timeout = @var{n}
3281 Set the read (and write) timeout---the same as
3282 @samp{--read-timeout=@var{n}}.
3284 @item reclevel = @var{n}
3285 Recursion level (depth)---the same as @samp{-l @var{n}}.
3287 @item recursive = on/off
3288 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
3290 @item referer = @var{string}
3291 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like
3292 @samp{--referer=@var{string}}. (Note that it was the folks who wrote
3293 the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of ``referrer'' wrong.)
3295 @item relative_only = on/off
3296 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
3299 @item remote_encoding = @var{encoding}
3300 Force Wget to use @var{encoding} as the default remote server encoding.
3301 See @samp{--remote-encoding}.
3303 @item remove_listing = on/off
3304 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
3305 to off is the same as @samp{--no-remove-listing}.
3307 @item restrict_file_names = unix/windows
3308 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
3309 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
3311 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
3312 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
3313 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
3315 @item retry_connrefused = on/off
3316 When set to on, consider ``connection refused'' a transient
3317 error---the same as @samp{--retry-connrefused}.
3319 @item robots = on/off
3320 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
3321 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
3322 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
3323 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
3326 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
3327 Save cookies to @var{file}. The same as @samp{--save-cookies
3330 @item save_headers = on/off
3331 Same as @samp{--save-headers}.
3333 @item secure_protocol = @var{string}
3334 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto}
3335 (the default), @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. The same
3336 as @samp{--secure-protocol=@var{string}}.
3338 @item server_response = on/off
3339 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
3340 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
3342 @item show_all_dns_entries = on/off
3343 When a DNS name is resolved, show all the IP addresses, not just the first
3346 @item span_hosts = on/off
3349 @item spider = on/off
3350 Same as @samp{--spider}.
3352 @item strict_comments = on/off
3353 Same as @samp{--strict-comments}.
3355 @item timeout = @var{n}
3356 Set all applicable timeout values to @var{n}, the same as @samp{-T
3359 @item timestamping = on/off
3360 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
3362 @item use_server_timestamps = on/off
3363 If set to @samp{off}, Wget won't set the local file's timestamp by the
3364 one on the server (same as @samp{--no-use-server-timestamps}).
3366 @item tries = @var{n}
3367 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t @var{n}}.
3369 @item use_proxy = on/off
3370 When set to off, don't use proxy even when proxy-related environment
3371 variables are set. In that case it is the same as using
3374 @item user = @var{string}
3375 Specify username @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
3376 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_user} and
3377 @samp{http_user} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
3379 @item user_agent = @var{string}
3380 User agent identification sent to the HTTP Server---the same as
3381 @samp{--user-agent=@var{string}}.
3383 @item verbose = on/off
3384 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
3386 @item wait = @var{n}
3387 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w
3390 @item wait_retry = @var{n}
3391 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
3392 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry=@var{n}}. Note that this is
3393 turned on by default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
3396 @node Sample Wgetrc, , Wgetrc Commands, Startup File
3397 @section Sample Wgetrc
3398 @cindex sample wgetrc
3400 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
3401 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
3402 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
3403 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
3405 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
3406 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
3410 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
3413 @node Examples, Various, Startup File, Top
3417 @c man begin EXAMPLES
3418 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
3422 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
3423 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
3424 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
3427 @node Simple Usage, Advanced Usage, Examples, Examples
3428 @section Simple Usage
3432 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
3435 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
3439 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
3440 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
3441 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
3442 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
3443 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
3444 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
3447 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
3451 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
3452 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
3453 shall use @samp{-t}.
3456 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
3459 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
3460 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
3463 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
3467 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
3471 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
3472 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
3475 wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
3480 @node Advanced Usage, Very Advanced Usage, Simple Usage, Examples
3481 @section Advanced Usage
3485 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
3492 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
3496 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
3497 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
3498 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
3501 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3505 The same as the above, but convert the links in the downloaded files to
3506 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
3509 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3513 Retrieve only one @sc{html} page, but make sure that all the elements needed
3514 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
3515 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
3516 references the downloaded links.
3519 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3522 The @sc{html} page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
3523 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
3524 depending on where they were on the remote server.
3527 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
3528 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
3529 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
3530 subdirectory of the current directory.
3533 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
3534 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3538 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
3542 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
3546 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
3549 wget --save-headers http://www.lycos.com/
3554 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
3558 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
3562 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
3563 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
3564 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
3568 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
3571 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
3572 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Download}), with maximum depth
3573 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
3574 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
3575 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
3579 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
3580 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
3584 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
3588 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
3589 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
3592 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
3595 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
3596 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
3599 @cindex redirecting output
3601 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
3605 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
3608 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
3609 documents from remote hotlists:
3612 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
3616 @node Very Advanced Usage, , Advanced Usage, Examples
3617 @section Very Advanced Usage
3622 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
3623 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
3624 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
3625 to recheck a site each Sunday:
3629 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3633 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
3634 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
3635 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
3636 back up the original @sc{html} files before the conversion. Wget invocation
3637 would look like this:
3640 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3641 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3645 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
3646 when @sc{html} files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
3647 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
3648 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
3649 or @samp{application/xhtml+xml} to @file{@var{name}.html}.
3652 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3653 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
3657 Or, with less typing:
3660 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3665 @node Various, Appendices, Examples, Top
3669 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
3672 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers.
3673 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
3674 * Web Site:: GNU Wget's presence on the World Wide Web.
3675 * Mailing Lists:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
3676 * Internet Relay Chat:: Wget's presence on IRC.
3677 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
3678 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
3679 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
3682 @node Proxies, Distribution, Various, Various
3686 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
3687 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
3688 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
3689 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
3690 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
3691 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
3692 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
3693 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
3694 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
3695 using an authorized proxy.
3697 @c man begin ENVIRONMENT
3698 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
3699 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
3700 the following environment variables:
3705 If set, the @env{http_proxy} and @env{https_proxy} variables should
3706 contain the @sc{url}s of the proxies for @sc{http} and @sc{https}
3707 connections respectively.
3710 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
3711 connections. It is quite common that @env{http_proxy} and
3712 @env{ftp_proxy} are set to the same @sc{url}.
3715 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
3716 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
3717 @env{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
3722 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
3723 may be specified from within Wget itself.
3727 @itemx proxy = on/off
3728 This option and the corresponding command may be used to suppress the
3729 use of proxy, even if the appropriate environment variables are set.
3731 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
3732 @itemx https_proxy = @var{URL}
3733 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
3734 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
3735 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
3736 specified by the environment.
3739 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
3740 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
3741 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
3742 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
3743 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
3745 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
3746 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
3747 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
3748 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
3752 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
3755 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
3756 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
3757 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_password} to set the proxy
3758 username and password.
3760 @node Distribution, Web Site, Proxies, Various
3761 @section Distribution
3762 @cindex latest version
3764 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
3765 master GNU archive site ftp.gnu.org, and its mirrors. For example,
3766 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
3767 @url{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
3769 @node Web Site, Mailing Lists, Distribution, Various
3773 The official web site for GNU Wget is at
3774 @url{http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/}. However, most useful
3775 information resides at ``The Wget Wgiki'',
3776 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/}.
3778 @node Mailing Lists, Internet Relay Chat, Web Site, Various
3779 @section Mailing Lists
3780 @cindex mailing list
3783 @unnumberedsubsec Primary List
3785 The primary mailinglist for discussion, bug-reports, or questions
3786 about GNU Wget is at @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}. To subscribe, send an
3787 email to @email{bug-wget-join@@gnu.org}, or visit
3788 @url{http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-wget}.
3790 You do not need to subscribe to send a message to the list; however,
3791 please note that unsubscribed messages are moderated, and may take a
3792 while before they hit the list---@strong{usually around a day}. If
3793 you want your message to show up immediately, please subscribe to the
3794 list before posting. Archives for the list may be found at
3795 @url{http://lists.gnu.org/pipermail/bug-wget/}.
3797 An NNTP/Usenettish gateway is also available via
3798 @uref{http://gmane.org/about.php,Gmane}. You can see the Gmane
3800 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.general}. Note that the
3801 Gmane archives conveniently include messages from both the current
3802 list, and the previous one. Messages also show up in the Gmane
3803 archives sooner than they do at @url{lists.gnu.org}.
3805 @unnumberedsubsec Bug Notices List
3807 Additionally, there is the @email{wget-notify@@addictivecode.org} mailing
3808 list. This is a non-discussion list that receives bug report
3809 notifications from the bug-tracker. To subscribe to this list,
3810 send an email to @email{wget-notify-join@@addictivecode.org},
3811 or visit @url{http://addictivecode.org/mailman/listinfo/wget-notify}.
3813 @unnumberedsubsec Obsolete Lists
3815 Previously, the mailing list @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} was used as the
3816 main discussion list, and another list,
3817 @email{wget-patches@@sunsite.dk} was used for submitting and
3818 discussing patches to GNU Wget.
3820 Messages from @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} are archived at
3823 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.dk/} and at
3825 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.general} (which also
3826 continues to archive the current list, @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}).
3829 Messages from @email{wget-patches@@sunsite.dk} are archived at
3832 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.patches}.
3835 @node Internet Relay Chat, Reporting Bugs, Mailing Lists, Various
3836 @section Internet Relay Chat
3837 @cindex Internet Relay Chat
3841 In addition to the mailinglists, we also have a support channel set up
3842 via IRC at @code{irc.freenode.org}, @code{#wget}. Come check it out!
3844 @node Reporting Bugs, Portability, Internet Relay Chat, Various
3845 @section Reporting Bugs
3847 @cindex reporting bugs
3851 You are welcome to submit bug reports via the GNU Wget bug tracker (see
3852 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/BugTracker}).
3854 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
3859 Please try to ascertain that the behavior you see really is a bug. If
3860 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
3861 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
3862 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug, but you might want to
3863 double-check the documentation and the mailing lists (@pxref{Mailing
3867 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
3868 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 --no-proxy
3869 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
3870 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
3871 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
3872 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
3874 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
3875 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
3876 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
3877 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
3878 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
3882 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send us the resulting
3883 output (or relevant parts thereof). If Wget was compiled without
3884 debug support, recompile it---it is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs
3885 with debug support on.
3887 Note: please make sure to remove any potentially sensitive information
3888 from the debug log before sending it to the bug address. The
3889 @code{-d} won't go out of its way to collect sensitive information,
3890 but the log @emph{will} contain a fairly complete transcript of Wget's
3891 communication with the server, which may include passwords and pieces
3892 of downloaded data. Since the bug address is publically archived, you
3893 may assume that all bug reports are visible to the public.
3896 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
3897 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace. This may not
3898 work if the system administrator has disabled core files, but it is
3903 @node Portability, Signals, Reporting Bugs, Various
3904 @section Portability
3906 @cindex operating systems
3908 Like all GNU software, Wget works on the GNU system. However, since it
3909 uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and mostly avoids using
3910 ``special'' features of any particular Unix, it should compile (and
3911 work) on all common Unix flavors.
3913 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
3914 Unix systems, including GNU/Linux, Solaris, SunOS 4.x, Mac OS X, OSF
3915 (aka Digital Unix or Tru64), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, AIX, and others. Some
3916 of those systems are no longer in widespread use and may not be able to
3917 support recent versions of Wget. If Wget fails to compile on your
3918 system, we would like to know about it.
3920 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works
3921 on 32-bit Microsoft Windows platforms. It has been compiled
3922 successfully using MS Visual C++ 6.0, Watcom, Borland C, and GCC
3923 compilers. Naturally, it is crippled of some features available on
3924 Unix, but it should work as a substitute for people stuck with
3925 Windows. Note that Windows-specific portions of Wget are not
3926 guaranteed to be supported in the future, although this has been the
3927 case in practice for many years now. All questions and problems in
3928 Windows usage should be reported to Wget mailing list at
3929 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the volunteers who maintain the
3930 Windows-related features might look at them.
3932 Support for building on MS-DOS via DJGPP has been contributed by Gisle
3933 Vanem; a port to VMS is maintained by Steven Schweda, and is available
3934 at @url{http://antinode.org/}.
3936 @node Signals, , Portability, Various
3938 @cindex signal handling
3941 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
3942 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
3943 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
3944 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
3945 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
3948 $ wget http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz &
3951 SIGHUP received, redirecting output to `wget-log'.
3954 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
3955 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
3957 @node Appendices, Copying this manual, Various, Top
3960 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
3963 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
3964 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
3965 * Contributors:: People who helped.
3968 @node Robot Exclusion, Security Considerations, Appendices, Appendices
3969 @section Robot Exclusion
3970 @cindex robot exclusion
3972 @cindex server maintenance
3974 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
3975 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
3976 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
3978 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
3979 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
3980 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
3981 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
3982 section handled by a CGI Perl script that converts Info files to @sc{html} on
3983 the fly. The script is slow, but works well enough for human users
3984 viewing an occasional Info file. However, when someone's recursive Wget
3985 download stumbles upon the index page that links to all the Info files
3986 through the script, the system is brought to its knees without providing
3987 anything useful to the user (This task of converting Info files could be
3988 done locally and access to Info documentation for all installed GNU
3989 software on a system is available from the @code{info} command).
3991 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
3992 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
3993 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} was invented. The idea is that
3994 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
3995 portions of the site they wish to protect from robots and those
3996 they will permit access.
3998 The most popular mechanism, and the @i{de facto} standard supported by
3999 all the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written
4000 by Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text
4001 file containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to
4002 avoid. To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
4003 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are expected to
4006 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
4007 can download large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
4008 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
4009 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
4012 wget -r http://www.server.com/
4015 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
4016 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
4017 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
4018 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
4021 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
4022 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
4023 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
4024 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
4025 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
4026 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
4027 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
4028 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
4030 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
4032 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
4033 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
4034 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
4038 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
4041 This is explained in some detail at
4042 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
4043 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
4046 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
4047 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
4048 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
4049 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
4051 @node Security Considerations, Contributors, Robot Exclusion, Appendices
4052 @section Security Considerations
4055 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
4056 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
4057 main issues, and some solutions.
4061 The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}. The best
4062 way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s to
4063 Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
4064 Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store passwords; however,
4065 storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a security risk.
4068 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
4069 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
4072 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
4073 solution for this at the moment.
4076 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
4077 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
4078 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
4082 @node Contributors, , Security Considerations, Appendices
4083 @section Contributors
4084 @cindex contributors
4087 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org},
4090 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org}.
4093 However, the development of Wget could never have gone as far as it has, were
4094 it not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature proposals,
4095 patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
4097 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
4100 @item Dan Harkless---contributed a lot of code and documentation of
4101 extremely high quality, as well as the @code{--page-requisites} and
4102 related options. He was the principal maintainer for some time and
4105 @item Ian Abbott---contributed bug fixes, Windows-related fixes, and
4106 provided a prototype implementation of the breadth-first recursive
4107 download. Co-maintained Wget during the 1.8 release cycle.
4110 The dotsrc.org crew, in particular Karsten Thygesen---donated system
4111 resources such as the mailing list, web space, @sc{ftp} space, and
4112 version control repositories, along with a lot of time to make these
4113 actually work. Christian Reiniger was of invaluable help with setting
4117 Heiko Herold---provided high-quality Windows builds and contributed
4118 bug and build reports for many years.
4121 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
4124 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
4128 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
4132 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
4133 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
4136 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
4137 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
4141 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
4144 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the initial Italian
4149 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
4153 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
4158 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
4161 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
4165 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization, Makefile
4166 layout and many other things.
4169 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
4173 Mauro Tortonesi---improved IPv6 support, adding support for dual
4174 family systems. Refactored and enhanced FTP IPv6 code. Maintained GNU
4175 Wget from 2004--2007.
4178 Christopher G.@: Lewis---maintenance of the Windows version of GNU WGet.
4181 Gisle Vanem---many helpful patches and improvements, especially for
4182 Windows and MS-DOS support.
4185 Ralf Wildenhues---contributed patches to convert Wget to use Automake as
4186 part of its build process, and various bugfixes.
4189 Steven Schubiger---Many helpful patches, bugfixes and improvements.
4190 Notably, conversion of Wget to use the Gnulib quotes and quoteargs
4191 modules, and the addition of password prompts at the console, via the
4192 Gnulib getpasswd-gnu module.
4195 Ted Mielczarek---donated support for CSS.
4198 Saint Xavier---Support for IRIs (RFC 3987).
4201 People who provided donations for development---including Brian Gough.
4204 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
4205 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
4206 that make maintenance so much fun:
4226 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
4235 Bertrand Demiddelaer,
4236 Alexander Dergachev,
4249 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
4252 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
4276 Madhusudan Hosaagrahara,
4280 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
4299 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
4313 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
4314 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
4315 (Simos KSenitellis),
4324 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
4330 Alexander V.@: Lukyanov,
4339 Matthew J.@: Mellon,
4375 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
4377 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}guez,
4380 Juan Jose Rodriguez,
4382 Maciej W.@: Rozycki,
4389 Steven M.@: Schweda,
4400 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
4415 Douglas E.@: Wegscheid,
4417 Joshua David Williams,
4431 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
4432 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
4434 @node Copying this manual, Concept Index, Appendices, Top
4435 @appendix Copying this manual
4438 * GNU Free Documentation License:: License for copying this manual.
4441 @node GNU Free Documentation License, , Copying this manual, Copying this manual
4442 @appendixsec GNU Free Documentation License
4443 @cindex FDL, GNU Free Documentation License
4448 @node Concept Index, , Copying this manual, Top
4449 @unnumbered Concept Index