1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
5 @settitle GNU Wget Manual
6 @c Disable the monstrous rectangles beside overfull hbox-es.
8 @c Use `odd' to print double-sided.
13 @c Remove this if you don't use A4 paper.
17 @c Title for man page. The weird way texi2pod.pl is written requires
18 @c the preceding @set.
20 @c man title Wget The non-interactive network downloader.
22 @c This should really be generated automatically, possibly by including
23 @c an auto-generated file.
25 @set UPDATED September 2003
27 @dircategory Net Utilities
28 @dircategory World Wide Web
30 * Wget: (wget). The non-interactive network downloader.
34 This file documents the the GNU Wget utility for downloading network
37 @c man begin COPYRIGHT
38 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free
39 Software Foundation, Inc.
41 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
42 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
43 are preserved on all copies.
46 Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the
47 results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission
48 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
49 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
51 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
52 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
53 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
54 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
55 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
56 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
57 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
63 @subtitle The noninteractive downloading utility
64 @subtitle Updated for Wget @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
65 @author by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} and the developers
69 Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@arsdigita.com>.
72 GNU Info entry for @file{wget}.
77 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
78 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 Free Software
81 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
82 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
83 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
84 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
85 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
86 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
87 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
91 @node Top, Overview, (dir), (dir)
92 @top Wget @value{VERSION}
94 This manual documents version @value{VERSION} of GNU Wget, the freely
95 available utility for network download.
97 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 Free Software
101 * Overview:: Features of Wget.
102 * Invoking:: Wget command-line arguments.
103 * Recursive Retrieval:: Description of recursive retrieval.
104 * Following Links:: The available methods of chasing links.
105 * Time-Stamping:: Mirroring according to time-stamps.
106 * Startup File:: Wget's initialization file.
107 * Examples:: Examples of usage.
108 * Various:: The stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
109 * Appendices:: Some useful references.
110 * Copying:: You may give out copies of Wget and of this manual.
111 * Concept Index:: Topics covered by this manual.
115 @node Overview, Invoking, Top, Top
120 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
121 GNU Wget is a free utility for non-interactive download of files from
122 the Web. It supports @sc{http}, @sc{https}, and @sc{ftp} protocols, as
123 well as retrieval through @sc{http} proxies.
126 This chapter is a partial overview of Wget's features.
130 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
131 Wget is non-interactive, meaning that it can work in the background,
132 while the user is not logged on. This allows you to start a retrieval
133 and disconnect from the system, letting Wget finish the work. By
134 contrast, most of the Web browsers require constant user's presence,
135 which can be a great hindrance when transferring a lot of data.
141 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
145 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
146 Wget can follow links in @sc{html} pages and create local versions of
147 remote web sites, fully recreating the directory structure of the
148 original site. This is sometimes referred to as ``recursive
149 downloading.'' While doing that, Wget respects the Robot Exclusion
150 Standard (@file{/robots.txt}). Wget can be instructed to convert the
151 links in downloaded @sc{html} files to the local files for offline
157 File name wildcard matching and recursive mirroring of directories are
158 available when retrieving via @sc{ftp}. Wget can read the time-stamp
159 information given by both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} servers, and store it
160 locally. Thus Wget can see if the remote file has changed since last
161 retrieval, and automatically retrieve the new version if it has. This
162 makes Wget suitable for mirroring of @sc{ftp} sites, as well as home
168 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
172 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
173 Wget has been designed for robustness over slow or unstable network
174 connections; if a download fails due to a network problem, it will
175 keep retrying until the whole file has been retrieved. If the server
176 supports regetting, it will instruct the server to continue the
177 download from where it left off.
182 Wget supports proxy servers, which can lighten the network load, speed
183 up retrieval and provide access behind firewalls. However, if you are
184 behind a firewall that requires that you use a socks style gateway, you
185 can get the socks library and build Wget with support for socks. Wget
186 also supports the passive @sc{ftp} downloading as an option.
190 Builtin features offer mechanisms to tune which links you wish to follow
191 (@pxref{Following Links}).
195 The retrieval is conveniently traced with printing dots, each dot
196 representing a fixed amount of data received (1KB by default). These
197 representations can be customized to your preferences.
201 Most of the features are fully configurable, either through command line
202 options, or via the initialization file @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup
203 File}). Wget allows you to define @dfn{global} startup files
204 (@file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default) for site settings.
209 @item /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
210 Default location of the @dfn{global} startup file.
220 Finally, GNU Wget is free software. This means that everyone may use
221 it, redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
222 Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation
226 @node Invoking, Recursive Retrieval, Overview, Top
233 By default, Wget is very simple to invoke. The basic syntax is:
236 @c man begin SYNOPSIS
237 wget [@var{option}]@dots{} [@var{URL}]@dots{}
241 Wget will simply download all the @sc{url}s specified on the command
242 line. @var{URL} is a @dfn{Uniform Resource Locator}, as defined below.
244 However, you may wish to change some of the default parameters of
245 Wget. You can do it two ways: permanently, adding the appropriate
246 command to @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup File}), or specifying it on
252 * Basic Startup Options::
253 * Logging and Input File Options::
255 * Directory Options::
258 * Recursive Retrieval Options::
259 * Recursive Accept/Reject Options::
262 @node URL Format, Option Syntax, Invoking, Invoking
267 @dfn{URL} is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A uniform
268 resource locator is a compact string representation for a resource
269 available via the Internet. Wget recognizes the @sc{url} syntax as per
270 @sc{rfc1738}. This is the most widely used form (square brackets denote
274 http://host[:port]/directory/file
275 ftp://host[:port]/directory/file
278 You can also encode your username and password within a @sc{url}:
281 ftp://user:password@@host/path
282 http://user:password@@host/path
285 Either @var{user} or @var{password}, or both, may be left out. If you
286 leave out either the @sc{http} username or password, no authentication
287 will be sent. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} username, @samp{anonymous}
288 will be used. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} password, your email
289 address will be supplied as a default password.@footnote{If you have a
290 @file{.netrc} file in your home directory, password will also be
293 @strong{Important Note}: if you specify a password-containing @sc{url}
294 on the command line, the username and password will be plainly visible
295 to all users on the system, by way of @code{ps}. On multi-user systems,
296 this is a big security risk. To work around it, use @code{wget -i -}
297 and feed the @sc{url}s to Wget's standard input, each on a separate
298 line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
300 You can encode unsafe characters in a @sc{url} as @samp{%xy}, @code{xy}
301 being the hexadecimal representation of the character's @sc{ascii}
302 value. Some common unsafe characters include @samp{%} (quoted as
303 @samp{%25}), @samp{:} (quoted as @samp{%3A}), and @samp{@@} (quoted as
304 @samp{%40}). Refer to @sc{rfc1738} for a comprehensive list of unsafe
307 Wget also supports the @code{type} feature for @sc{ftp} @sc{url}s. By
308 default, @sc{ftp} documents are retrieved in the binary mode (type
309 @samp{i}), which means that they are downloaded unchanged. Another
310 useful mode is the @samp{a} (@dfn{ASCII}) mode, which converts the line
311 delimiters between the different operating systems, and is thus useful
312 for text files. Here is an example:
315 ftp://host/directory/file;type=a
318 Two alternative variants of @sc{url} specification are also supported,
319 because of historical (hysterical?) reasons and their widespreaded use.
321 @sc{ftp}-only syntax (supported by @code{NcFTP}):
326 @sc{http}-only syntax (introduced by @code{Netscape}):
331 These two alternative forms are deprecated, and may cease being
332 supported in the future.
334 If you do not understand the difference between these notations, or do
335 not know which one to use, just use the plain ordinary format you use
336 with your favorite browser, like @code{Lynx} or @code{Netscape}.
338 @node Option Syntax, Basic Startup Options, URL Format, Invoking
339 @section Option Syntax
340 @cindex option syntax
341 @cindex syntax of options
343 Since Wget uses GNU getopts to process its arguments, every option has a
344 short form and a long form. Long options are more convenient to
345 remember, but take time to type. You may freely mix different option
346 styles, or specify options after the command-line arguments. Thus you
350 wget -r --tries=10 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/ -o log
353 The space between the option accepting an argument and the argument may
354 be omitted. Instead @samp{-o log} you can write @samp{-olog}.
356 You may put several options that do not require arguments together,
363 This is a complete equivalent of:
366 wget -d -r -c @var{URL}
369 Since the options can be specified after the arguments, you may
370 terminate them with @samp{--}. So the following will try to download
371 @sc{url} @samp{-x}, reporting failure to @file{log}:
377 The options that accept comma-separated lists all respect the convention
378 that specifying an empty list clears its value. This can be useful to
379 clear the @file{.wgetrc} settings. For instance, if your @file{.wgetrc}
380 sets @code{exclude_directories} to @file{/cgi-bin}, the following
381 example will first reset it, and then set it to exclude @file{/~nobody}
382 and @file{/~somebody}. You can also clear the lists in @file{.wgetrc}
383 (@pxref{Wgetrc Syntax}).
386 wget -X '' -X /~nobody,/~somebody
391 @node Basic Startup Options, Logging and Input File Options, Option Syntax, Invoking
392 @section Basic Startup Options
397 Display the version of Wget.
401 Print a help message describing all of Wget's command-line options.
405 Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is
406 specified via the @samp{-o}, output is redirected to @file{wget-log}.
408 @cindex execute wgetrc command
409 @item -e @var{command}
410 @itemx --execute @var{command}
411 Execute @var{command} as if it were a part of @file{.wgetrc}
412 (@pxref{Startup File}). A command thus invoked will be executed
413 @emph{after} the commands in @file{.wgetrc}, thus taking precedence over
417 @node Logging and Input File Options, Download Options, Basic Startup Options, Invoking
418 @section Logging and Input File Options
423 @item -o @var{logfile}
424 @itemx --output-file=@var{logfile}
425 Log all messages to @var{logfile}. The messages are normally reported
428 @cindex append to log
429 @item -a @var{logfile}
430 @itemx --append-output=@var{logfile}
431 Append to @var{logfile}. This is the same as @samp{-o}, only it appends
432 to @var{logfile} instead of overwriting the old log file. If
433 @var{logfile} does not exist, a new file is created.
438 Turn on debug output, meaning various information important to the
439 developers of Wget if it does not work properly. Your system
440 administrator may have chosen to compile Wget without debug support, in
441 which case @samp{-d} will not work. Please note that compiling with
442 debug support is always safe---Wget compiled with the debug support will
443 @emph{not} print any debug info unless requested with @samp{-d}.
444 @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information on how to use @samp{-d} for
450 Turn off Wget's output.
455 Turn on verbose output, with all the available data. The default output
460 Non-verbose output---turn off verbose without being completely quiet
461 (use @samp{-q} for that), which means that error messages and basic
462 information still get printed.
466 @itemx --input-file=@var{file}
467 Read @sc{url}s from @var{file}, in which case no @sc{url}s need to be on
468 the command line. If there are @sc{url}s both on the command line and
469 in an input file, those on the command lines will be the first ones to
470 be retrieved. The @var{file} need not be an @sc{html} document (but no
471 harm if it is)---it is enough if the @sc{url}s are just listed
474 However, if you specify @samp{--force-html}, the document will be
475 regarded as @samp{html}. In that case you may have problems with
476 relative links, which you can solve either by adding @code{<base
477 href="@var{url}">} to the documents or by specifying
478 @samp{--base=@var{url}} on the command line.
483 When input is read from a file, force it to be treated as an @sc{html}
484 file. This enables you to retrieve relative links from existing
485 @sc{html} files on your local disk, by adding @code{<base
486 href="@var{url}">} to @sc{html}, or using the @samp{--base} command-line
489 @cindex base for relative links in input file
491 @itemx --base=@var{URL}
492 When used in conjunction with @samp{-F}, prepends @var{URL} to relative
493 links in the file specified by @samp{-i}.
496 @node Download Options, Directory Options, Logging and Input File Options, Invoking
497 @section Download Options
500 @cindex bind() address
501 @cindex client IP address
502 @cindex IP address, client
503 @item --bind-address=@var{ADDRESS}
504 When making client TCP/IP connections, @code{bind()} to @var{ADDRESS} on
505 the local machine. @var{ADDRESS} may be specified as a hostname or IP
506 address. This option can be useful if your machine is bound to multiple
511 @cindex number of retries
512 @item -t @var{number}
513 @itemx --tries=@var{number}
514 Set number of retries to @var{number}. Specify 0 or @samp{inf} for
518 @itemx --output-document=@var{file}
519 The documents will not be written to the appropriate files, but all will
520 be concatenated together and written to @var{file}. If @var{file}
521 already exists, it will be overwritten. If the @var{file} is @samp{-},
522 the documents will be written to standard output. Including this option
523 automatically sets the number of tries to 1.
525 @cindex clobbering, file
526 @cindex downloading multiple times
530 If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget's
531 behavior depends on a few options, including @samp{-nc}. In certain
532 cases, the local file will be @dfn{clobbered}, or overwritten, upon
533 repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
535 When running Wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, or @samp{-r},
536 downloading the same file in the same directory will result in the
537 original copy of @var{file} being preserved and the second copy being
538 named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet again, the
539 third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on. When
540 @samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior is suppressed, and Wget will
541 refuse to download newer copies of @samp{@var{file}}. Therefore,
542 ``@code{no-clobber}'' is actually a misnomer in this mode---it's not
543 clobbering that's prevented (as the numeric suffixes were already
544 preventing clobbering), but rather the multiple version saving that's
547 When running Wget with @samp{-r}, but without @samp{-N} or @samp{-nc},
548 re-downloading a file will result in the new copy simply overwriting the
549 old. Adding @samp{-nc} will prevent this behavior, instead causing the
550 original version to be preserved and any newer copies on the server to
553 When running Wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r}, the
554 decision as to whether or not to download a newer copy of a file depends
555 on the local and remote timestamp and size of the file
556 (@pxref{Time-Stamping}). @samp{-nc} may not be specified at the same
559 Note that when @samp{-nc} is specified, files with the suffixes
560 @samp{.html} or (yuck) @samp{.htm} will be loaded from the local disk
561 and parsed as if they had been retrieved from the Web.
563 @cindex continue retrieval
564 @cindex incomplete downloads
565 @cindex resume download
568 Continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you
569 want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or
570 by another program. For instance:
573 wget -c ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ls-lR.Z
576 If there is a file named @file{ls-lR.Z} in the current directory, Wget
577 will assume that it is the first portion of the remote file, and will
578 ask the server to continue the retrieval from an offset equal to the
579 length of the local file.
581 Note that you don't need to specify this option if you just want the
582 current invocation of Wget to retry downloading a file should the
583 connection be lost midway through. This is the default behavior.
584 @samp{-c} only affects resumption of downloads started @emph{prior} to
585 this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are still sitting around.
587 Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just download the remote
588 file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}, leaving the truncated @file{ls-lR.Z} file
591 Beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a non-empty file, and
592 it turns out that the server does not support continued downloading,
593 Wget will refuse to start the download from scratch, which would
594 effectively ruin existing contents. If you really want the download to
595 start from scratch, remove the file.
597 Also beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a file which is of
598 equal size as the one on the server, Wget will refuse to download the
599 file and print an explanatory message. The same happens when the file
600 is smaller on the server than locally (presumably because it was changed
601 on the server since your last download attempt)---because ``continuing''
602 is not meaningful, no download occurs.
604 On the other side of the coin, while using @samp{-c}, any file that's
605 bigger on the server than locally will be considered an incomplete
606 download and only @code{(length(remote) - length(local))} bytes will be
607 downloaded and tacked onto the end of the local file. This behavior can
608 be desirable in certain cases---for instance, you can use @samp{wget -c}
609 to download just the new portion that's been appended to a data
610 collection or log file.
612 However, if the file is bigger on the server because it's been
613 @emph{changed}, as opposed to just @emph{appended} to, you'll end up
614 with a garbled file. Wget has no way of verifying that the local file
615 is really a valid prefix of the remote file. You need to be especially
616 careful of this when using @samp{-c} in conjunction with @samp{-r},
617 since every file will be considered as an "incomplete download" candidate.
619 Another instance where you'll get a garbled file if you try to use
620 @samp{-c} is if you have a lame @sc{http} proxy that inserts a
621 ``transfer interrupted'' string into the local file. In the future a
622 ``rollback'' option may be added to deal with this case.
624 Note that @samp{-c} only works with @sc{ftp} servers and with @sc{http}
625 servers that support the @code{Range} header.
627 @cindex progress indicator
629 @item --progress=@var{type}
630 Select the type of the progress indicator you wish to use. Legal
631 indicators are ``dot'' and ``bar''.
633 The ``bar'' indicator is used by default. It draws an ASCII progress
634 bar graphics (a.k.a ``thermometer'' display) indicating the status of
635 retrieval. If the output is not a TTY, the ``dot'' bar will be used by
638 Use @samp{--progress=dot} to switch to the ``dot'' display. It traces
639 the retrieval by printing dots on the screen, each dot representing a
640 fixed amount of downloaded data.
642 When using the dotted retrieval, you may also set the @dfn{style} by
643 specifying the type as @samp{dot:@var{style}}. Different styles assign
644 different meaning to one dot. With the @code{default} style each dot
645 represents 1K, there are ten dots in a cluster and 50 dots in a line.
646 The @code{binary} style has a more ``computer''-like orientation---8K
647 dots, 16-dots clusters and 48 dots per line (which makes for 384K
648 lines). The @code{mega} style is suitable for downloading very large
649 files---each dot represents 64K retrieved, there are eight dots in a
650 cluster, and 48 dots on each line (so each line contains 3M).
652 Note that you can set the default style using the @code{progress}
653 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
654 command line. The exception is that, when the output is not a TTY, the
655 ``dot'' progress will be favored over ``bar''. To force the bar output,
656 use @samp{--progress=bar:force}.
659 @itemx --timestamping
660 Turn on time-stamping. @xref{Time-Stamping}, for details.
662 @cindex server response, print
664 @itemx --server-response
665 Print the headers sent by @sc{http} servers and responses sent by
668 @cindex Wget as spider
671 When invoked with this option, Wget will behave as a Web @dfn{spider},
672 which means that it will not download the pages, just check that they
673 are there. You can use it to check your bookmarks, e.g. with:
676 wget --spider --force-html -i bookmarks.html
679 This feature needs much more work for Wget to get close to the
680 functionality of real @sc{www} spiders.
684 @itemx --timeout=@var{seconds}
685 Set the network timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. Whenever Wget
686 connects to or reads from a remote host, it checks for a timeout and
687 aborts the operation if the time expires. This prevents anomalous
688 occurrences such as hanging reads or infinite connects. The default
689 timeout is 900 seconds (fifteen minutes). Setting timeout to 0 will
690 disable checking for timeouts.
692 Please do not lower the default timeout value with this option unless
693 you know what you are doing.
695 @cindex bandwidth, limit
697 @cindex limit bandwidth
698 @item --limit-rate=@var{amount}
699 Limit the download speed to @var{amount} bytes per second. Amount may
700 be expressed in bytes, kilobytes with the @samp{k} suffix, or megabytes
701 with the @samp{m} suffix. For example, @samp{--limit-rate=20k} will
702 limit the retrieval rate to 20KB/s. This kind of thing is useful when,
703 for whatever reason, you don't want Wget to consume the entire available
706 Note that Wget implements the limiting by sleeping the appropriate
707 amount of time after a network read that took less time than specified
708 by the rate. Eventually this strategy causes the TCP transfer to slow
709 down to approximately the specified rate. However, it takes some time
710 for this balance to be achieved, so don't be surprised if limiting the
711 rate doesn't work well with very small files.
715 @item -w @var{seconds}
716 @itemx --wait=@var{seconds}
717 Wait the specified number of seconds between the retrievals. Use of
718 this option is recommended, as it lightens the server load by making the
719 requests less frequent. Instead of in seconds, the time can be
720 specified in minutes using the @code{m} suffix, in hours using @code{h}
721 suffix, or in days using @code{d} suffix.
723 Specifying a large value for this option is useful if the network or the
724 destination host is down, so that Wget can wait long enough to
725 reasonably expect the network error to be fixed before the retry.
727 @cindex retries, waiting between
728 @cindex waiting between retries
729 @item --waitretry=@var{seconds}
730 If you don't want Wget to wait between @emph{every} retrieval, but only
731 between retries of failed downloads, you can use this option. Wget will
732 use @dfn{linear backoff}, waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
733 given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second failure on that
734 file, up to the maximum number of @var{seconds} you specify. Therefore,
735 a value of 10 will actually make Wget wait up to (1 + 2 + ... + 10) = 55
738 Note that this option is turned on by default in the global
744 Some web sites may perform log analysis to identify retrieval programs
745 such as Wget by looking for statistically significant similarities in
746 the time between requests. This option causes the time between requests
747 to vary between 0 and 2 * @var{wait} seconds, where @var{wait} was
748 specified using the @samp{-w} or @samp{--wait} options, in order to mask
749 Wget's presence from such analysis.
751 A recent article in a publication devoted to development on a popular
752 consumer platform provided code to perform this analysis on the fly.
753 Its author suggested blocking at the class C address level to ensure
754 automated retrieval programs were blocked despite changing DHCP-supplied
757 The @samp{--random-wait} option was inspired by this ill-advised
758 recommendation to block many unrelated users from a web site due to the
763 @itemx --proxy=on/off
764 Turn proxy support on or off. The proxy is on by default if the
765 appropriate environment variable is defined.
767 For more information about the use of proxies with Wget, @xref{Proxies}.
771 @itemx --quota=@var{quota}
772 Specify download quota for automatic retrievals. The value can be
773 specified in bytes (default), kilobytes (with @samp{k} suffix), or
774 megabytes (with @samp{m} suffix).
776 Note that quota will never affect downloading a single file. So if you
777 specify @samp{wget -Q10k ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/ls-lR.gz}, all of the
778 @file{ls-lR.gz} will be downloaded. The same goes even when several
779 @sc{url}s are specified on the command-line. However, quota is
780 respected when retrieving either recursively, or from an input file.
781 Thus you may safely type @samp{wget -Q2m -i sites}---download will be
782 aborted when the quota is exceeded.
784 Setting quota to 0 or to @samp{inf} unlimits the download quota.
787 @cindex caching of DNS lookups
788 @itemx --dns-cache=off
789 Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the addresses
790 it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly contact the DNS
791 server for the same (typically small) set of addresses it retrieves
792 from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will contact DNS
795 However, in some cases it is not desirable to cache host names, even for
796 the duration of a short-running application like Wget. For example,
797 some HTTP servers are hosted on machines with dynamically allocated IP
798 addresses that change from time to time. Their DNS entries are updated
799 along with each change. When Wget's download from such a host gets
800 interrupted by IP address change, Wget retries the download, but (due to
801 DNS caching) it contacts the old address. With the DNS cache turned
802 off, Wget will repeat the DNS lookup for every connect and will thus get
803 the correct dynamic address every time---at the cost of additional DNS
804 lookups where they're probably not needed.
806 If you don't understand the above description, you probably won't need
809 @cindex file names, restrict
810 @cindex Windows file names
811 @itemx --restrict-file-names=none|unix|windows
812 Restrict characters that may occur in local file names created by Wget
813 from remote URLs. Characters that are considered @dfn{unsafe} under a
814 set of restrictions are escaped, i.e. replaced with @samp{%XX}, where
815 @samp{XX} is the hexadecimal code of the character.
817 The default for this option depends on the operating system: on Unix and
818 Unix-like OS'es, it defaults to ``unix''. Under Windows and Cygwin, it
819 defaults to ``windows''. Changing the default is useful when you are
820 using a non-native partition, e.g. when downloading files to a Windows
821 partition mounted from Linux, or when using NFS-mounted or SMB-mounted
824 When set to ``none'', the only characters that are quoted are those that
825 are impossible to get into a file name---the NUL character and @samp{/}.
826 The control characters, newline, etc. are all placed into file names.
828 When set to ``unix'', additional unsafe characters are those in the
829 0--31 range and in the 128--159 range. This is because those characters
830 are typically not printable.
832 When set to ``windows'', all of the above are quoted, along with
833 @samp{\}, @samp{|}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
834 and @samp{>}. Additionally, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead
835 of @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
836 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
837 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
838 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
839 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
843 @node Directory Options, HTTP Options, Download Options, Invoking
844 @section Directory Options
848 @itemx --no-directories
849 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
850 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
851 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
852 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
855 @itemx --force-directories
856 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
857 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
858 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
859 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
862 @itemx --no-host-directories
863 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
864 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
865 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
868 @cindex cut directories
869 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
870 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
871 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
874 Take, for example, the directory at
875 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
876 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
877 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
878 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
879 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
880 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
881 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
885 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
887 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
888 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
890 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
895 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
896 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
897 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
898 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
899 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
901 @cindex directory prefix
902 @item -P @var{prefix}
903 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
904 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
905 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
906 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
910 @node HTTP Options, FTP Options, Directory Options, Invoking
911 @section HTTP Options
914 @cindex .html extension
916 @itemx --html-extension
917 If a file of type @samp{text/html} is downloaded and the URL does not
918 end with the regexp @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause
919 the suffix @samp{.html} to be appended to the local filename. This is
920 useful, for instance, when you're mirroring a remote site that uses
921 @samp{.asp} pages, but you want the mirrored pages to be viewable on
922 your stock Apache server. Another good use for this is when you're
923 downloading the output of CGIs. A URL like
924 @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
925 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
927 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
928 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
929 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
930 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
931 @samp{text/html}. To prevent this re-downloading, you must use
932 @samp{-k} and @samp{-K} so that the original version of the file will be
933 saved as @file{@var{X}.orig} (@pxref{Recursive Retrieval Options}).
936 @cindex http password
937 @cindex authentication
938 @item --http-user=@var{user}
939 @itemx --http-passwd=@var{password}
940 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
941 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
942 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure) or the
943 @code{digest} authentication scheme.
945 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
946 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
947 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
948 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
949 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
950 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
951 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
953 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
959 @itemx --cache=on/off
960 When set to off, disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will
961 send the remote server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma:
962 no-cache}) to get the file from the remote service, rather than
963 returning the cached version. This is especially useful for retrieving
964 and flushing out-of-date documents on proxy servers.
966 Caching is allowed by default.
969 @item --cookies=on/off
970 When set to off, disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism
971 for maintaining server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie
972 using the @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the
973 same cookie upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server
974 owners to keep track of visitors and for sites to exchange this
975 information, some consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to
976 use cookies; however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
978 @cindex loading cookies
979 @cindex cookies, loading
980 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
981 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
982 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
983 @file{cookies.txt} file.
985 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
986 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
987 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
988 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
989 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
990 proves your identity.
992 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
993 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
994 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
995 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
996 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
997 cookie files in different locations:
1001 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1003 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1004 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1005 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1006 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1007 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1009 @item Internet Explorer.
1010 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1011 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1012 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1014 @item Other browsers.
1015 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1016 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1017 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1020 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1021 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1022 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1023 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1024 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1027 wget --cookies=off --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1030 @cindex saving cookies
1031 @cindex cookies, saving
1032 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1033 Save cookies from @var{file} at the end of session. Cookies whose
1034 expiry time is not specified, or those that have already expired, are
1037 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1038 @cindex ignore length
1039 @item --ignore-length
1040 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1041 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1042 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1043 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1044 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1047 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1048 if it never existed.
1051 @item --header=@var{additional-header}
1052 Define an @var{additional-header} to be passed to the @sc{http} servers.
1053 Headers must contain a @samp{:} preceded by one or more non-blank
1054 characters, and must not contain newlines.
1056 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1057 @samp{--header} more than once.
1061 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1062 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1063 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1067 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1068 previous user-defined headers.
1071 @cindex proxy password
1072 @cindex proxy authentication
1073 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1074 @itemx --proxy-passwd=@var{password}
1075 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1076 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1077 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1079 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-passwd}
1080 pertain here as well.
1082 @cindex http referer
1083 @cindex referer, http
1084 @item --referer=@var{url}
1085 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1086 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1087 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1088 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1090 @cindex server response, save
1092 @itemx --save-headers
1093 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1094 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1097 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1098 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1099 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1101 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1102 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1103 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1104 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1105 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1108 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1109 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1110 While conceptually this is not such a bad idea, it has been abused by
1111 servers denying information to clients other than @code{Mozilla} or
1112 Microsoft @code{Internet Explorer}. This option allows you to change
1113 the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget. Use of this option is
1114 discouraged, unless you really know what you are doing.
1117 @node FTP Options, Recursive Retrieval Options, HTTP Options, Invoking
1118 @section FTP Options
1121 @cindex .listing files, removing
1123 @itemx --dont-remove-listing
1124 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1125 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1126 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1127 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1128 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1129 you're running is complete).
1131 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1132 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1133 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1134 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1135 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1136 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1137 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1138 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1139 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1141 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1142 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1143 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1144 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1145 will be overwritten.
1147 @cindex globbing, toggle
1149 @itemx --glob=on/off
1150 Turn @sc{ftp} globbing on or off. Globbing means you may use the
1151 shell-like special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*},
1152 @samp{?}, @samp{[} and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the
1153 same directory at once, like:
1156 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1159 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1160 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1163 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1164 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1165 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1166 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1170 Use the @dfn{passive} @sc{ftp} retrieval scheme, in which the client
1171 initiates the data connection. This is sometimes required for @sc{ftp}
1172 to work behind firewalls.
1174 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1175 @item --retr-symlinks
1176 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1177 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1178 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1179 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1180 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1182 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1183 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1184 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1185 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1188 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1189 specified on the commandline, rather than because it was recursed to,
1190 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1194 @node Recursive Retrieval Options, Recursive Accept/Reject Options, FTP Options, Invoking
1195 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1200 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Retrieval}, for more
1203 @item -l @var{depth}
1204 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1205 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1206 Retrieval}). The default maximum depth is 5.
1208 @cindex proxy filling
1209 @cindex delete after retrieval
1210 @cindex filling proxy cache
1211 @item --delete-after
1212 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1213 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1214 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1217 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1220 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1223 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1224 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1225 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1226 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1227 created in the first place.
1229 @cindex conversion of links
1230 @cindex link conversion
1232 @itemx --convert-links
1233 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1234 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1235 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1236 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-HTML
1239 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1243 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1244 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1246 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1247 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1248 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1249 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1252 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1253 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1255 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1256 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1257 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1258 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1261 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1262 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1263 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1264 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1265 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1268 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1269 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1270 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1272 @cindex backing up converted files
1274 @itemx --backup-converted
1275 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1276 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1281 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1282 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1283 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1284 @samp{-r -N -l inf -nr}.
1286 @cindex page requisites
1287 @cindex required images, downloading
1289 @itemx --page-requisites
1290 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
1291 properly display a given HTML page. This includes such things as
1292 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
1294 Ordinarily, when downloading a single HTML page, any requisite documents
1295 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
1296 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
1297 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
1298 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
1301 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
1302 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
1303 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
1304 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
1305 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
1307 If one executes the command:
1310 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
1313 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
1314 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
1315 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
1316 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
1317 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
1320 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1323 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
1324 will be downloaded. Similarly,
1327 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1330 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
1331 to be downloaded. One might think that:
1334 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1337 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
1338 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
1339 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single HTML
1340 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the commandline or in a
1341 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
1342 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
1345 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1348 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
1349 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
1350 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
1351 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
1352 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
1353 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
1356 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1359 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
1360 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
1361 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
1365 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options, , Recursive Retrieval Options, Invoking
1366 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1369 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
1370 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
1371 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
1372 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files} for more details).
1374 @item -D @var{domain-list}
1375 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
1376 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
1377 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
1379 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
1380 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed.
1381 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1383 @cindex follow FTP links
1385 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
1386 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
1388 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
1389 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
1390 Wget has an internal table of HTML tag / attribute pairs that it
1391 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
1392 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
1393 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
1394 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
1397 @itemx --ignore-tags=@var{list}
1398 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
1399 certain HTML tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
1400 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
1402 In the past, the @samp{-G} option was the best bet for downloading a
1403 single page and its requisites, using a commandline like:
1406 wget -Ga,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1409 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
1410 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
1411 @samp{-G} was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to ignore
1412 @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded. Now the
1413 best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
1414 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
1418 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
1419 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1423 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
1424 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
1425 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
1428 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
1429 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
1430 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements
1431 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1434 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
1435 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
1436 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements of
1437 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1441 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
1442 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
1443 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
1444 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
1449 @node Recursive Retrieval, Following Links, Invoking, Top
1450 @chapter Recursive Retrieval
1453 @cindex recursive retrieval
1455 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
1456 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
1457 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieving}, or @dfn{recursion}.
1459 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} from
1460 the given @sc{url}, documents, retrieving the files the @sc{html}
1461 document was referring to, through markups like @code{href}, or
1462 @code{src}. If the freshly downloaded file is also of type
1463 @code{text/html}, it will be parsed and followed further.
1465 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html} content is
1466 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
1467 HTML document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
1468 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
1469 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
1470 until the specified maximum depth.
1472 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
1473 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
1475 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
1476 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
1477 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
1478 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
1479 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
1482 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
1483 the one found on the remote server.
1485 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
1486 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
1487 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
1488 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
1490 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
1491 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
1492 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
1493 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
1494 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
1495 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
1496 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
1498 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
1499 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
1500 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
1501 consume memory and CPU.
1503 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
1504 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
1505 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
1506 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
1507 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
1508 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
1509 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
1512 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
1515 @node Following Links, Time-Stamping, Recursive Retrieval, Top
1516 @chapter Following Links
1518 @cindex following links
1520 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
1521 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
1522 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
1524 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
1525 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
1526 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
1528 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
1529 links it will follow.
1532 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
1533 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
1534 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
1535 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
1536 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
1539 @node Spanning Hosts, Types of Files, Following Links, Following Links
1540 @section Spanning Hosts
1541 @cindex spanning hosts
1542 @cindex hosts, spanning
1544 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
1545 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
1546 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
1547 your Wget into a small version of google.
1549 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
1550 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
1551 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
1552 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the HTML
1553 pages refer to both interchangeably.
1556 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
1558 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
1559 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
1560 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
1561 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
1562 up much more data than you have intended.
1564 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
1566 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
1567 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
1568 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
1569 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
1570 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
1571 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
1574 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
1577 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
1578 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
1580 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
1582 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
1583 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
1584 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
1585 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
1586 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
1590 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
1596 @node Types of Files, Directory-Based Limits, Spanning Hosts, Following Links
1597 @section Types of Files
1598 @cindex types of files
1600 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
1601 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
1602 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
1603 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
1605 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
1606 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
1609 @cindex accept wildcards
1610 @cindex accept suffixes
1611 @cindex wildcards, accept
1612 @cindex suffixes, accept
1614 @item -A @var{acclist}
1615 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
1616 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
1617 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
1618 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
1619 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
1620 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
1621 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
1623 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
1624 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
1625 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
1626 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
1627 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
1628 a description of how pattern matching works.
1630 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
1631 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
1633 @cindex reject wildcards
1634 @cindex reject suffixes
1635 @cindex wildcards, reject
1636 @cindex suffixes, reject
1637 @item -R @var{rejlist}
1638 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
1639 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
1640 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
1641 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
1642 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
1644 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
1645 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
1646 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
1647 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
1648 expansion by the shell.
1651 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
1652 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
1653 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
1654 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
1656 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
1657 files; Wget must load all the @sc{html}s to know where to go at
1658 all---recursive retrieval would make no sense otherwise.
1660 @node Directory-Based Limits, Relative Links, Types of Files, Following Links
1661 @section Directory-Based Limits
1663 @cindex directory limits
1665 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
1666 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
1667 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
1668 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
1669 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
1670 @file{/dev} directories.
1672 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
1673 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
1674 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
1676 @cindex directories, include
1677 @cindex include directories
1678 @cindex accept directories
1681 @itemx --include @var{list}
1682 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
1683 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
1684 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
1685 directories are absolute paths.
1687 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
1688 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
1689 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
1692 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
1695 @cindex directories, exclude
1696 @cindex exclude directories
1697 @cindex reject directories
1699 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
1700 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
1701 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
1702 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
1703 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
1704 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
1706 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
1707 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
1708 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
1709 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
1714 @itemx no_parent = on
1715 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
1716 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
1717 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
1718 parent directory/directories.
1720 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
1721 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
1722 Supposing you issue Wget with:
1725 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
1728 You may rest assured that none of the references to
1729 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
1730 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
1731 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
1732 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
1733 intelligent fashion.
1736 @node Relative Links, FTP Links, Directory-Based Limits, Following Links
1737 @section Relative Links
1738 @cindex relative links
1740 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
1741 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
1742 server root. For example, these links are relative:
1746 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
1747 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
1750 These links are not relative:
1754 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
1755 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
1758 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
1759 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
1760 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
1762 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
1765 @node FTP Links, , Relative Links, Following Links
1766 @section Following FTP Links
1767 @cindex following ftp links
1769 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
1770 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
1771 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
1774 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
1775 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
1776 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
1777 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
1778 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
1779 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
1780 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
1782 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
1783 retrieved recursively further.
1785 @node Time-Stamping, Startup File, Following Links, Top
1786 @chapter Time-Stamping
1787 @cindex time-stamping
1788 @cindex timestamping
1789 @cindex updating the archives
1790 @cindex incremental updating
1792 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
1793 Internet is updating your archives.
1795 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
1796 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
1797 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
1798 offer the option of incremental updating.
1800 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
1801 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
1802 the place of the old ones.
1804 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
1808 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
1811 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
1812 recently than the local file.
1815 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
1816 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
1817 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
1819 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
1820 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
1821 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
1822 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
1823 does, and the remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
1825 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
1826 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
1830 * Time-Stamping Usage::
1831 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
1832 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
1835 @node Time-Stamping Usage, HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping, Time-Stamping
1836 @section Time-Stamping Usage
1837 @cindex time-stamping usage
1838 @cindex usage, time-stamping
1840 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
1841 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
1844 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
1847 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
1848 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
1849 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
1850 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
1852 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
1853 changed, and download it if it has.
1856 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
1859 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
1860 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
1861 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
1862 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
1864 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
1867 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
1870 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
1871 interpret the @samp{*}.)
1873 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
1874 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
1875 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
1876 since the last download.
1878 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
1879 command like the following, weekly:
1882 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
1885 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
1886 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
1887 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
1888 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
1889 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
1891 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, FTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping Usage, Time-Stamping
1892 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
1893 @cindex http time-stamping
1895 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
1896 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
1897 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
1898 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
1899 retrieved unconditionally.
1901 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
1902 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
1903 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
1906 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
1907 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
1908 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
1909 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
1910 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
1911 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
1914 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
1915 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
1916 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
1917 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
1918 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
1920 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
1921 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
1923 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals, , HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping
1924 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
1925 @cindex ftp time-stamping
1927 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
1928 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
1931 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
1932 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
1933 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
1934 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
1935 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
1936 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
1937 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
1938 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
1940 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
1941 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
1942 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
1943 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
1944 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
1945 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
1947 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
1948 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
1949 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
1950 Wget may support this command in the future.
1952 @node Startup File, Examples, Time-Stamping, Top
1953 @chapter Startup File
1954 @cindex startup file
1960 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
1961 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
1962 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
1963 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
1965 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
1966 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
1967 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
1968 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
1970 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
1974 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
1975 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
1976 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
1977 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
1980 @node Wgetrc Location, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File, Startup File
1981 @section Wgetrc Location
1982 @cindex wgetrc location
1983 @cindex location of wgetrc
1985 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
1986 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
1987 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
1988 from there, if it exists.
1990 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
1991 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
1992 further attempts will be made.
1994 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
1996 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
1997 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
1998 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
1999 Fascist admins, away!
2001 @node Wgetrc Syntax, Wgetrc Commands, Wgetrc Location, Startup File
2002 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2003 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2004 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2006 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2012 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2013 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2015 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2016 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2017 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2020 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2021 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2022 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2028 @node Wgetrc Commands, Sample Wgetrc, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File
2029 @section Wgetrc Commands
2030 @cindex wgetrc commands
2032 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2033 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2034 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}. A fancier kind of
2035 Boolean allowed in some cases is the @dfn{lockable Boolean}, which may
2036 be set to @samp{on}, @samp{off}, @samp{always}, or @samp{never}. If an
2037 option is set to @samp{always} or @samp{never}, that value will be
2038 locked in for the duration of the Wget invocation---commandline options
2041 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2042 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2043 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2044 values can be any non-empty string.
2046 Most of these commands have commandline equivalents (@pxref{Invoking}),
2047 though some of the more obscure or rarely used ones do not.
2050 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2051 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2053 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2054 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2056 @item continue = on/off
2057 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
2058 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
2060 @item background = on/off
2061 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2064 @item backup_converted = on/off
2065 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2066 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2068 @c @item backups = @var{number}
2069 @c #### Document me!
2071 @item base = @var{string}
2072 Consider relative @sc{url}s in @sc{url} input files forced to be
2073 interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string}---the same as
2076 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2077 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address} option.
2079 @item cache = on/off
2080 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{-C} option.
2082 @item convert links = on/off
2083 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
2085 @item cookies = on/off
2086 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
2088 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
2089 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies}.
2091 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
2092 Save cookies to @var{file}. See @samp{--save-cookies}.
2094 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
2095 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components.
2097 @item debug = on/off
2098 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
2100 @item delete_after = on/off
2101 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
2103 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
2104 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P}.
2106 @item dirstruct = on/off
2107 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
2110 @item dns_cache = on/off
2111 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
2112 option is normally used to turn it off. Same as @samp{--dns-cache}.
2114 @item domains = @var{string}
2115 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2117 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
2118 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
2119 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
2120 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
2121 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
2122 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
2123 (@pxref{Download Options}).
2125 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
2126 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
2127 the retrieval (50 by default).
2129 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
2130 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
2132 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
2133 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2134 download---the same as @samp{-X} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2136 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
2137 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2139 @item follow_ftp = on/off
2140 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
2141 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
2143 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
2144 Only follow certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
2145 @samp{--follow-tags}.
2147 @item force_html = on/off
2148 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
2149 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
2151 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
2152 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2156 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{-g}.
2158 @item header = @var{string}
2159 Define an additional header, like @samp{--header}.
2161 @item html_extension = on/off
2162 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} files without it, like
2165 @item http_passwd = @var{string}
2166 Set @sc{http} password.
2168 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
2169 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2172 @item http_user = @var{string}
2173 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}.
2175 @item ignore_length = on/off
2176 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
2177 @samp{--ignore-length}.
2179 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
2180 Ignore certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
2181 @samp{-G} / @samp{--ignore-tags}.
2183 @item include_directories = @var{string}
2184 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2185 downloading---the same as @samp{-I}.
2187 @item input = @var{string}
2188 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i}.
2190 @item kill_longer = on/off
2191 Consider data longer than specified in content-length header as invalid
2192 (and retry getting it). The default behaviour is to save as much data
2193 as there is, provided there is more than or equal to the value in
2194 @code{Content-Length}.
2196 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
2197 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
2198 The same as @samp{--limit-rate}.
2200 @item logfile = @var{string}
2201 Set logfile---the same as @samp{-o}.
2203 @item login = @var{string}
2204 Your user name on the remote machine, for @sc{ftp}. Defaults to
2207 @item mirror = on/off
2208 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
2210 @item netrc = on/off
2211 Turn reading netrc on or off.
2213 @item noclobber = on/off
2216 @item no_parent = on/off
2217 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
2218 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2220 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
2221 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
2222 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
2224 @item output_document = @var{string}
2225 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O}.
2227 @item page_requisites = on/off
2228 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single HTML page to
2229 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
2231 @item passive_ftp = on/off/always/never
2232 Set passive @sc{ftp}---the same as @samp{--passive-ftp}. Some scripts
2233 and @samp{.pm} (Perl module) files download files using @samp{wget
2234 --passive-ftp}. If your firewall does not allow this, you can set
2235 @samp{passive_ftp = never} to override the commandline.
2237 @item passwd = @var{string}
2238 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{password}. Without this setting, the
2239 password defaults to @samp{username@@hostname.domainname}.
2241 @item progress = @var{string}
2242 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are ``dot'' and
2245 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
2246 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like @samp{--proxy-user}.
2248 @item proxy_passwd = @var{string}
2249 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like @samp{--proxy-passwd}.
2251 @item referer = @var{string}
2252 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like @samp{--referer}. (Note it
2253 was the folks who wrote the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of
2254 ``referrer'' wrong.)
2256 @item quiet = on/off
2257 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
2259 @item quota = @var{quota}
2260 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
2261 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
2262 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
2263 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
2264 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
2265 to 5 mbytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
2268 @item reclevel = @var{n}
2269 Recursion level---the same as @samp{-l}.
2271 @item recursive = on/off
2272 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
2274 @item relative_only = on/off
2275 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
2278 @item remove_listing = on/off
2279 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
2280 to off is the same as @samp{-nr}.
2282 @item restrict_file_names = off/unix/windows
2283 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
2284 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
2286 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
2287 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
2288 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
2290 @item robots = on/off
2291 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
2292 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
2293 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
2294 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
2297 @item server_response = on/off
2298 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
2299 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
2301 @item span_hosts = on/off
2304 @item timeout = @var{n}
2305 Set timeout value---the same as @samp{-T}.
2307 @item timestamping = on/off
2308 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
2310 @item tries = @var{n}
2311 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t}.
2313 @item use_proxy = on/off
2314 Turn proxy support on/off. The same as @samp{-Y}.
2316 @item verbose = on/off
2317 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
2319 @item wait = @var{n}
2320 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w}.
2322 @item waitretry = @var{n}
2323 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
2324 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry}. Note that this is turned on by
2325 default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
2327 @item randomwait = on/off
2328 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
2329 @samp{--random-wait}.
2332 @node Sample Wgetrc, , Wgetrc Commands, Startup File
2333 @section Sample Wgetrc
2334 @cindex sample wgetrc
2336 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
2337 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
2338 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
2339 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
2341 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
2342 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
2346 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
2349 @node Examples, Various, Startup File, Top
2353 @c man begin EXAMPLES
2354 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
2358 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
2359 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
2360 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
2363 @node Simple Usage, Advanced Usage, Examples, Examples
2364 @section Simple Usage
2368 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
2371 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
2375 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
2376 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
2377 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
2378 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
2379 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
2380 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
2383 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
2387 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
2388 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
2389 shall use @samp{-t}.
2392 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
2395 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
2396 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
2399 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
2403 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
2407 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
2408 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
2411 wget ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/
2416 @node Advanced Usage, Very Advanced Usage, Simple Usage, Examples
2417 @section Advanced Usage
2421 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
2428 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
2432 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
2433 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
2434 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
2437 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2441 The same as the above, but convert the links in the @sc{html} files to
2442 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
2445 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2449 Retrieve only one HTML page, but make sure that all the elements needed
2450 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
2451 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
2452 references the downloaded links.
2455 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2458 The HTML page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
2459 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
2460 depending on where they were on the remote server.
2463 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
2464 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
2465 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
2466 subdirectory of the current directory.
2469 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
2470 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2474 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
2478 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
2482 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
2485 wget -s http://www.lycos.com/
2490 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
2494 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
2498 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
2499 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
2500 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
2504 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
2507 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
2508 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Retrieval}), with maximum depth
2509 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
2510 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
2511 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
2515 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
2516 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
2520 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
2524 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
2525 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
2528 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
2531 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
2532 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
2535 @cindex redirecting output
2537 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
2541 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
2544 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
2545 documents from remote hotlists:
2548 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
2552 @node Very Advanced Usage, , Advanced Usage, Examples
2553 @section Very Advanced Usage
2558 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
2559 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
2560 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
2561 to recheck a site each Sunday:
2565 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2569 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
2570 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
2571 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
2572 back up the original HTML files before the conversion. Wget invocation
2573 would look like this:
2576 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
2577 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2581 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
2582 when HTML files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
2583 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
2584 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
2585 to @file{@var{name}.html}.
2588 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
2589 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
2593 Or, with less typing:
2596 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2601 @node Various, Appendices, Examples, Top
2605 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
2608 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers
2609 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
2610 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
2611 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
2612 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
2613 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
2616 @node Proxies, Distribution, Various, Various
2620 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
2621 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
2622 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
2623 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
2624 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
2625 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
2626 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
2627 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
2628 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
2629 using an authorized proxy.
2631 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
2632 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
2633 the following environment variables:
2637 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{http}
2641 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
2642 connections. It is quite common that @sc{http_proxy} and @sc{ftp_proxy}
2643 are set to the same @sc{url}.
2646 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
2647 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
2648 @code{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
2652 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
2653 may be specified from within Wget itself.
2657 @itemx --proxy=on/off
2658 @itemx proxy = on/off
2659 This option may be used to turn the proxy support on or off. Proxy
2660 support is on by default, provided that the appropriate environment
2663 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
2664 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
2665 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
2666 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
2667 specified by the environment.
2670 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
2671 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
2672 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
2673 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
2674 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
2676 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
2677 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
2678 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
2679 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
2683 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
2686 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
2687 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
2688 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_passwd} to set the proxy
2689 username and password.
2691 @node Distribution, Mailing List, Proxies, Various
2692 @section Distribution
2693 @cindex latest version
2695 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
2696 master GNU archive site prep.ai.mit.edu, and its mirrors. For example,
2697 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
2698 @url{ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
2700 @node Mailing List, Reporting Bugs, Distribution, Various
2701 @section Mailing List
2702 @cindex mailing list
2705 Wget has its own mailing list at @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}, thanks
2706 to Karsten Thygesen. The mailing list is for discussion of Wget
2707 features and web, reporting Wget bugs (those that you think may be of
2708 interest to the public) and mailing announcements. You are welcome to
2709 subscribe. The more people on the list, the better!
2711 To subscribe, send mail to @email{wget-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}.
2712 the magic word @samp{subscribe} in the subject line. Unsubscribe by
2713 mailing to @email{wget-unsubscribe@@sunsite.dk}.
2715 The mailing list is archived at @url{http://fly.srk.fer.hr/archive/wget}.
2716 Alternative archive is available at
2717 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.auc.dk/}.
2719 @node Reporting Bugs, Portability, Mailing List, Various
2720 @section Reporting Bugs
2722 @cindex reporting bugs
2726 You are welcome to send bug reports about GNU Wget to
2727 @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}.
2729 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
2734 Please try to ascertain that the behaviour you see really is a bug. If
2735 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
2736 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
2737 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug.
2740 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
2741 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 -Y0
2742 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
2743 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
2744 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
2745 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
2747 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
2748 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
2749 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
2750 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
2751 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
2755 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send the log (or the
2756 relevant parts of it). If Wget was compiled without debug support,
2757 recompile it. It is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs with debug support
2761 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
2762 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace.
2766 @node Portability, Signals, Reporting Bugs, Various
2767 @section Portability
2769 @cindex operating systems
2771 Since Wget uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and avoids
2772 using ``special'' ultra--mega--cool features of any particular Unix, it
2773 should compile (and work) on all common Unix flavors.
2775 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
2776 Unix systems, including Solaris, Linux, SunOS, OSF (aka Digital Unix),
2777 Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, and others; refer to the file @file{MACHINES} in the
2778 distribution directory for a comprehensive list. If you compile it on
2779 an architecture not listed there, please let me know so I can update it.
2781 Wget should also compile on the other Unix systems, not listed in
2782 @file{MACHINES}. If it doesn't, please let me know.
2784 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works on
2785 Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. It has been compiled
2786 successfully using MS Visual C++ 4.0, Watcom, and Borland C compilers,
2787 with Winsock as networking software. Naturally, it is crippled of some
2788 features available on Unix, but it should work as a substitute for
2789 people stuck with Windows. Note that the Windows port is
2790 @strong{neither tested nor maintained} by me---all questions and
2791 problems should be reported to Wget mailing list at
2792 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the maintainers will look at them.
2794 @node Signals, , Portability, Various
2796 @cindex signal handling
2799 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
2800 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
2801 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
2802 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
2803 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
2806 $ wget http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/gnus.tar.gz &
2807 $ kill -HUP %% # Redirect the output to wget-log
2810 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
2811 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
2813 @node Appendices, Copying, Various, Top
2816 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
2819 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
2820 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
2821 * Contributors:: People who helped.
2824 @node Robot Exclusion, Security Considerations, Appendices, Appendices
2825 @section Robot Exclusion
2826 @cindex robot exclusion
2828 @cindex server maintenance
2830 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
2831 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
2832 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
2834 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
2835 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
2836 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
2837 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
2838 section handled by an, uh, @dfn{bitchin'} CGI Perl script that converts
2839 Info files to HTML on the fly. The script is slow, but works well
2840 enough for human users viewing an occasional Info file. However, when
2841 someone's recursive Wget download stumbles upon the index page that
2842 links to all the Info files through the script, the system is brought to
2843 its knees without providing anything useful to the downloader.
2845 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
2846 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
2847 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} has been invented. The idea is that
2848 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
2849 portions of the site they wish to protect from the robots.
2851 The most popular mechanism, and the de facto standard supported by all
2852 the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written by
2853 Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text file
2854 containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to avoid.
2855 To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
2856 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are supposed to
2859 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
2860 can downloads large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
2861 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
2862 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
2865 wget -r http://www.server.com/
2868 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
2869 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
2870 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
2871 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
2874 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
2875 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
2876 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
2877 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
2878 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
2879 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
2880 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
2881 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
2883 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
2885 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
2886 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
2887 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
2891 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
2894 This is explained in some detail at
2895 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
2896 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
2899 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
2900 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
2901 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
2902 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
2904 @node Security Considerations, Contributors, Robot Exclusion, Appendices
2905 @section Security Considerations
2908 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
2909 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
2910 main issues, and some solutions.
2913 @item The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}.
2914 The best way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s
2915 to Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by
2916 @kbd{C-d}. Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store
2917 passwords; however, storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a
2921 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
2922 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
2925 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
2926 solution for this at the moment.
2929 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
2930 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
2931 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
2935 @node Contributors, , Security Considerations, Appendices
2936 @section Contributors
2937 @cindex contributors
2940 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@arsdigita.com}.
2943 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@arsdigita.com}.
2945 However, its development could never have gone as far as it has, were it
2946 not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature
2947 proposals, patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
2949 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
2953 Karsten Thygesen---donated system resources such as the mailing list,
2954 web space, and @sc{ftp} space, along with a lot of time to make these
2958 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
2961 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
2965 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
2969 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
2970 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
2973 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
2974 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
2978 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
2981 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the Italian translation.
2985 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
2989 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
2994 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
2997 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3001 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization and other
3005 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
3009 The people who provided donations for development, including Brian
3013 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
3014 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
3015 that make maintenance so much fun:
3034 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
3052 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
3055 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
3071 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
3089 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
3100 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
3101 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
3102 (Simos KSenitellis),
3110 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
3116 Alexander V. Lukyanov,
3141 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
3143 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}gues,
3146 Juan Jose Rodrigues,
3158 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
3164 Douglas E. Wegscheid,
3174 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
3175 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
3177 @node Copying, Concept Index, Appendices, Top
3182 @cindex free software
3184 GNU Wget is licensed under the GNU GPL, which makes it @dfn{free
3187 Please note that ``free'' in ``free software'' refers to liberty, not
3188 price. As some GNU project advocates like to point out, think of ``free
3189 speech'' rather than ``free beer''. The exact and legally binding
3190 distribution terms are spelled out below; in short, you have the right
3191 (freedom) to run and change Wget and distribute it to other people, and
3192 even---if you want---charge money for doing either. The important
3193 restriction is that you have to grant your recipients the same rights
3194 and impose the same restrictions.
3196 This method of licensing software is also known as @dfn{open source}
3197 because, among other things, it makes sure that all recipients will
3198 receive the source code along with the program, and be able to improve
3199 it. The GNU project prefers the term ``free software'' for reasons
3201 @url{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html}.
3203 The exact license terms are defined by this paragraph and the GNU
3204 General Public License it refers to:
3207 GNU Wget is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
3208 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
3209 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
3210 option) any later version.
3212 GNU Wget is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
3213 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
3214 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
3217 A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as part of this
3218 manual; if you did not receive it, write to the Free Software
3219 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3222 In addition to this, this manual is free in the same sense:
3225 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
3226 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
3227 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
3228 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
3229 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
3230 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
3231 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
3234 @c #### Maybe we should wrap these licenses in ifinfo? Stallman says
3235 @c that the GFDL needs to be present in the manual, and to me it would
3236 @c suck to include the license for the manual and not the license for
3239 The full texts of the GNU General Public License and of the GNU Free
3240 Documentation License are available below.
3243 * GNU General Public License::
3244 * GNU Free Documentation License::
3247 @node GNU General Public License, GNU Free Documentation License, Copying, Copying
3248 @section GNU General Public License
3249 @center Version 2, June 1991
3252 Copyright @copyright{} 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3253 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
3255 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
3256 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
3259 @unnumberedsec Preamble
3261 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
3262 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
3263 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
3264 software---to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
3265 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
3266 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
3267 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
3268 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
3271 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
3272 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
3273 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
3274 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
3275 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
3276 in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
3278 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
3279 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
3280 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
3281 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
3283 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
3284 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
3285 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
3286 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
3289 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
3290 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
3291 distribute and/or modify the software.
3293 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
3294 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
3295 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
3296 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
3297 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
3298 authors' reputations.
3300 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
3301 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
3302 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
3303 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
3304 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
3306 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
3307 modification follow.
3310 @unnumberedsec TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3313 @center TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3318 This License applies to any program or other work which contains
3319 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
3320 under the terms of this General Public License. The ``Program'', below,
3321 refers to any such program or work, and a ``work based on the Program''
3322 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
3323 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
3324 either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
3325 language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
3326 the term ``modification''.) Each licensee is addressed as ``you''.
3328 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
3329 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
3330 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
3331 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
3332 Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
3333 Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
3336 You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
3337 source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
3338 conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
3339 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
3340 notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
3341 and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
3342 along with the Program.
3344 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
3345 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
3348 You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
3349 of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
3350 distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
3351 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
3355 You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
3356 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
3359 You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
3360 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
3361 part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
3362 parties under the terms of this License.
3365 If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
3366 when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
3367 interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
3368 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
3369 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
3370 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
3371 these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
3372 License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
3373 does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
3374 the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
3377 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
3378 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
3379 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
3380 themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
3381 sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
3382 distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
3383 on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
3384 this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
3385 entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
3387 Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
3388 your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
3389 exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
3390 collective works based on the Program.
3392 In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
3393 with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
3394 a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
3395 the scope of this License.
3398 You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
3399 under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
3400 Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
3404 Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
3405 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
3406 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
3409 Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
3410 years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
3411 cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
3412 machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
3413 distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
3414 customarily used for software interchange; or,
3417 Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
3418 to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
3419 allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
3420 received the program in object code or executable form with such
3421 an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
3424 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
3425 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
3426 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
3427 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
3428 control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
3429 special exception, the source code distributed need not include
3430 anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
3431 form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
3432 operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
3433 itself accompanies the executable.
3435 If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
3436 access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
3437 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
3438 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
3439 compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
3442 You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
3443 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
3444 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
3445 void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
3446 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
3447 this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
3448 parties remain in full compliance.
3451 You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
3452 signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
3453 distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
3454 prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
3455 modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
3456 Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
3457 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
3458 the Program or works based on it.
3461 Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
3462 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
3463 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
3464 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
3465 restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
3466 You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
3470 If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
3471 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
3472 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
3473 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
3474 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
3475 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
3476 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
3477 may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
3478 license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
3479 all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
3480 the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
3481 refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
3483 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
3484 any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
3485 apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
3488 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
3489 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
3490 such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
3491 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
3492 implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
3493 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
3494 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
3495 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
3496 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
3499 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
3500 be a consequence of the rest of this License.
3503 If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
3504 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
3505 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
3506 may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
3507 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
3508 countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
3509 the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
3512 The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
3513 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
3514 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
3515 address new problems or concerns.
3517 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
3518 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and ``any
3519 later version'', you have the option of following the terms and conditions
3520 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
3521 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
3522 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
3526 If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
3527 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
3528 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
3529 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
3530 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
3531 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
3532 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
3535 @heading NO WARRANTY
3543 BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
3544 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
3545 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
3546 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
3547 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
3548 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
3549 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
3550 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
3551 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
3554 IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
3555 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
3556 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
3557 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
3558 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
3559 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
3560 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
3561 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
3562 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
3566 @heading END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
3569 @center END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
3573 @unnumberedsec How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
3575 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
3576 possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
3577 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
3579 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
3580 to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
3581 convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
3582 the ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
3585 @var{one line to give the program's name and an idea of what it does.}
3586 Copyright (C) 19@var{yy} @var{name of author}
3588 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
3589 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
3590 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
3591 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
3593 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3594 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3595 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3596 GNU General Public License for more details.
3598 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3599 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
3600 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3603 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
3605 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
3606 when it starts in an interactive mode:
3609 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19@var{yy} @var{name of author}
3610 Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
3611 type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome
3612 to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c'
3616 The hypothetical commands @samp{show w} and @samp{show c} should show
3617 the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
3618 commands you use may be called something other than @samp{show w} and
3619 @samp{show c}; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items---whatever
3622 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
3623 school, if any, to sign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if
3624 necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
3628 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright
3629 interest in the program `Gnomovision'
3630 (which makes passes at compilers) written
3633 @var{signature of Ty Coon}, 1 April 1989
3634 Ty Coon, President of Vice
3638 This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
3639 proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
3640 consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
3641 library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
3642 Public License instead of this License.
3644 @node GNU Free Documentation License, , GNU General Public License, Copying
3645 @section GNU Free Documentation License
3646 @center Version 1.1, March 2000
3649 Copyright (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3650 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
3652 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
3653 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
3660 The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
3661 written document ``free'' in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone
3662 the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without
3663 modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily,
3664 this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get
3665 credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for
3666 modifications made by others.
3668 This License is a kind of ``copyleft'', which means that derivative
3669 works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It
3670 complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft
3671 license designed for free software.
3673 We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free
3674 software, because free software needs free documentation: a free
3675 program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the
3676 software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals;
3677 it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or
3678 whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License
3679 principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.
3683 APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
3685 This License applies to any manual or other work that contains a
3686 notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed
3687 under the terms of this License. The ``Document'', below, refers to any
3688 such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is
3689 addressed as ``you''.
3691 A ``Modified Version'' of the Document means any work containing the
3692 Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with
3693 modifications and/or translated into another language.
3695 A ``Secondary Section'' is a named appendix or a front-matter section of
3696 the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the
3697 publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall subject
3698 (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly
3699 within that overall subject. (For example, if the Document is in part a
3700 textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any
3701 mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical
3702 connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal,
3703 commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding
3706 The ``Invariant Sections'' are certain Secondary Sections whose titles
3707 are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice
3708 that says that the Document is released under this License.
3710 The ``Cover Texts'' are certain short passages of text that are listed,
3711 as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that
3712 the Document is released under this License.
3714 A ``Transparent'' copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy,
3715 represented in a format whose specification is available to the
3716 general public, whose contents can be viewed and edited directly and
3717 straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of
3718 pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available
3719 drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or
3720 for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input
3721 to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file
3722 format whose markup has been designed to thwart or discourage
3723 subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. A copy that is
3724 not ``Transparent'' is called ``Opaque''.
3726 Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain
3727 ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML
3728 or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple
3729 HTML designed for human modification. Opaque formats include
3730 PostScript, PDF, proprietary formats that can be read and edited only
3731 by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or
3732 processing tools are not generally available, and the
3733 machine-generated HTML produced by some word processors for output
3736 The ``Title Page'' means, for a printed book, the title page itself,
3737 plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material
3738 this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in
3739 formats which do not have any title page as such, ``Title Page'' means
3740 the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's title,
3741 preceding the beginning of the body of the text.
3746 You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
3747 commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
3748 copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies
3749 to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other
3750 conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use
3751 technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further
3752 copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept
3753 compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough
3754 number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
3756 You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and
3757 you may publicly display copies.
3762 If you publish printed copies of the Document numbering more than 100,
3763 and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose
3764 the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover
3765 Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on
3766 the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify
3767 you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present
3768 the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and
3769 visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition.
3770 Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve
3771 the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated
3772 as verbatim copying in other respects.
3774 If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
3775 legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
3776 reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent
3779 If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering
3780 more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent
3781 copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy
3782 a publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a complete
3783 Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material, which the
3784 general network-using public has access to download anonymously at no
3785 charge using public-standard network protocols. If you use the latter
3786 option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin
3787 distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this
3788 Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location
3789 until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque
3790 copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to
3793 It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the
3794 Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give
3795 them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.
3800 You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under
3801 the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release
3802 the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified
3803 Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution
3804 and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy
3805 of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
3807 A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct
3808 from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions
3809 (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section
3810 of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version
3811 if the original publisher of that version gives permission.@*
3812 B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities
3813 responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified
3814 Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the
3815 Document (all of its principal authors, if it has less than five).@*
3816 C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the
3817 Modified Version, as the publisher.@*
3818 D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.@*
3819 E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
3820 adjacent to the other copyright notices.@*
3821 F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice
3822 giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the
3823 terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.@*
3824 G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections
3825 and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.@*
3826 H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.@*
3827 I. Preserve the section entitled ``History'', and its title, and add to
3828 it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and
3829 publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If
3830 there is no section entitled ``History'' in the Document, create one
3831 stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as
3832 given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified
3833 Version as stated in the previous sentence.@*
3834 J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for
3835 public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise
3836 the network locations given in the Document for previous versions
3837 it was based on. These may be placed in the ``History'' section.
3838 You may omit a network location for a work that was published at
3839 least four years before the Document itself, or if the original
3840 publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.@*
3841 K. In any section entitled ``Acknowledgements'' or ``Dedications'',
3842 preserve the section's title, and preserve in the section all the
3843 substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements
3844 and/or dedications given therein.@*
3845 L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document,
3846 unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers
3847 or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.@*
3848 M. Delete any section entitled ``Endorsements''. Such a section
3849 may not be included in the Modified Version.@*
3850 N. Do not retitle any existing section as ``Endorsements''
3851 or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.@*
3853 If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or
3854 appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material
3855 copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all
3856 of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the
3857 list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice.
3858 These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
3860 You may add a section entitled ``Endorsements'', provided it contains
3861 nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
3862 parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has
3863 been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a
3866 You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a
3867 passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list
3868 of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of
3869 Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or
3870 through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already
3871 includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or
3872 by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of,
3873 you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit
3874 permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.
3876 The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License
3877 give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or
3878 imply endorsement of any Modified Version.
3883 You may combine the Document with other documents released under this
3884 License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified
3885 versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the
3886 Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and
3887 list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its
3890 The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
3891 multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
3892 copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but
3893 different contents, make the title of each such section unique by
3894 adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original
3895 author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number.
3896 Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of
3897 Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
3899 In the combination, you must combine any sections entitled ``History''
3900 in the various original documents, forming one section entitled
3901 ``History''; likewise combine any sections entitled ``Acknowledgements'',
3902 and any sections entitled ``Dedications''. You must delete all sections
3903 entitled ``Endorsements.''
3906 COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
3908 You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents
3909 released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this
3910 License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in
3911 the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for
3912 verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.
3914 You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute
3915 it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this
3916 License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all
3917 other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.
3920 AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
3922 A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate
3923 and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or
3924 distribution medium, does not as a whole count as a Modified Version
3925 of the Document, provided no compilation copyright is claimed for the
3926 compilation. Such a compilation is called an ``aggregate'', and this
3927 License does not apply to the other self-contained works thus compiled
3928 with the Document, on account of their being thus compiled, if they
3929 are not themselves derivative works of the Document.
3931 If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these
3932 copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one quarter
3933 of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on
3934 covers that surround only the Document within the aggregate.
3935 Otherwise they must appear on covers around the whole aggregate.
3940 Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
3941 distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4.
3942 Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
3943 permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
3944 translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
3945 original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a
3946 translation of this License provided that you also include the
3947 original English version of this License. In case of a disagreement
3948 between the translation and the original English version of this
3949 License, the original English version will prevail.
3954 You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except
3955 as expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to
3956 copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will
3957 automatically terminate your rights under this License. However,
3958 parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this
3959 License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
3960 parties remain in full compliance.
3963 FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
3965 The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions
3966 of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new
3967 versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
3968 differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See
3969 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
3971 Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number.
3972 If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this
3973 License ``or any later version'' applies to it, you have the option of
3974 following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or
3975 of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the
3976 Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version
3977 number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not
3978 as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
3982 @unnumberedsec ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
3984 To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of
3985 the License in the document and put the following copyright and
3986 license notices just after the title page:
3991 Copyright (C) @var{year} @var{your name}.
3992 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
3993 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
3994 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
3995 with the Invariant Sections being @var{list their titles}, with the
3996 Front-Cover Texts being @var{list}, and with the Back-Cover Texts being @var{list}.
3997 A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
3998 Free Documentation License''.
4001 If you have no Invariant Sections, write ``with no Invariant Sections''
4002 instead of saying which ones are invariant. If you have no
4003 Front-Cover Texts, write ``no Front-Cover Texts'' instead of
4004 ``Front-Cover Texts being @var{list}''; likewise for Back-Cover Texts.
4006 If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
4007 recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of
4008 free software license, such as the GNU General Public License,
4009 to permit their use in free software.
4012 @node Concept Index, , Copying, Top
4013 @unnumbered Concept Index