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=@var{mode}
812 Change which characters found in remote URLs may show up in local file
813 names generated from those URLs. Characters that are @dfn{restricted}
814 by this option are escaped, i.e. replaced with @samp{%HH}, where
815 @samp{HH} is the hexadecimal number that corresponds to the restricted
818 By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid as part of
819 file names on your operating system, as well as control characters that
820 are typically unprintable. This option is useful for changing these
821 defaults, either because you are downloading to a non-native partition,
822 or because you want to disable escaping of the control characters.
824 When mode is set to ``unix'', Wget escapes the character @samp{/} and
825 the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159. This is the
826 default on Unix-like OS'es.
828 When mode is seto to ``windows'', Wget escapes the characters @samp{\},
829 @samp{|}, @samp{/}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
830 @samp{>}, and the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159.
831 In addition to this, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead of
832 @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
833 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
834 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
835 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
836 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
837 mode. This mode is the default on Windows.
839 If you append @samp{,nocontrol} to the mode, as in
840 @samp{unix,nocontrol}, escaping of the control characters is also
841 switched off. You can use @samp{--restrict-file-names=nocontrol} to
842 turn off escaping of control characters without affecting the choice of
843 the OS to use as file name restriction mode.
846 @node Directory Options, HTTP Options, Download Options, Invoking
847 @section Directory Options
851 @itemx --no-directories
852 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
853 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
854 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
855 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
858 @itemx --force-directories
859 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
860 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
861 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
862 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
865 @itemx --no-host-directories
866 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
867 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
868 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
871 @cindex cut directories
872 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
873 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
874 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
877 Take, for example, the directory at
878 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
879 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
880 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
881 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
882 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
883 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
884 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
888 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
890 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
891 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
893 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
898 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
899 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
900 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
901 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
902 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
904 @cindex directory prefix
905 @item -P @var{prefix}
906 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
907 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
908 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
909 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
913 @node HTTP Options, FTP Options, Directory Options, Invoking
914 @section HTTP Options
917 @cindex .html extension
919 @itemx --html-extension
920 If a file of type @samp{text/html} is downloaded and the URL does not
921 end with the regexp @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause
922 the suffix @samp{.html} to be appended to the local filename. This is
923 useful, for instance, when you're mirroring a remote site that uses
924 @samp{.asp} pages, but you want the mirrored pages to be viewable on
925 your stock Apache server. Another good use for this is when you're
926 downloading the output of CGIs. A URL like
927 @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
928 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
930 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
931 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
932 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
933 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
934 @samp{text/html}. To prevent this re-downloading, you must use
935 @samp{-k} and @samp{-K} so that the original version of the file will be
936 saved as @file{@var{X}.orig} (@pxref{Recursive Retrieval Options}).
939 @cindex http password
940 @cindex authentication
941 @item --http-user=@var{user}
942 @itemx --http-passwd=@var{password}
943 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
944 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
945 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure) or the
946 @code{digest} authentication scheme.
948 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
949 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
950 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
951 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
952 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
953 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
954 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
956 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
962 @itemx --cache=on/off
963 When set to off, disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will
964 send the remote server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma:
965 no-cache}) to get the file from the remote service, rather than
966 returning the cached version. This is especially useful for retrieving
967 and flushing out-of-date documents on proxy servers.
969 Caching is allowed by default.
972 @item --cookies=on/off
973 When set to off, disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism
974 for maintaining server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie
975 using the @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the
976 same cookie upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server
977 owners to keep track of visitors and for sites to exchange this
978 information, some consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to
979 use cookies; however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
981 @cindex loading cookies
982 @cindex cookies, loading
983 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
984 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
985 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
986 @file{cookies.txt} file.
988 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
989 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
990 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
991 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
992 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
993 proves your identity.
995 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
996 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
997 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
998 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
999 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
1000 cookie files in different locations:
1004 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1006 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1007 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1008 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1009 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1010 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1012 @item Internet Explorer.
1013 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1014 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1015 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1017 @item Other browsers.
1018 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1019 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1020 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1023 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1024 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1025 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1026 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1027 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1030 wget --cookies=off --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1033 @cindex saving cookies
1034 @cindex cookies, saving
1035 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1036 Save cookies from @var{file} at the end of session. Cookies whose
1037 expiry time is not specified, or those that have already expired, are
1040 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1041 @cindex ignore length
1042 @item --ignore-length
1043 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1044 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1045 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1046 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1047 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1050 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1051 if it never existed.
1054 @item --header=@var{additional-header}
1055 Define an @var{additional-header} to be passed to the @sc{http} servers.
1056 Headers must contain a @samp{:} preceded by one or more non-blank
1057 characters, and must not contain newlines.
1059 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1060 @samp{--header} more than once.
1064 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1065 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1066 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1070 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1071 previous user-defined headers.
1074 @cindex proxy password
1075 @cindex proxy authentication
1076 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1077 @itemx --proxy-passwd=@var{password}
1078 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1079 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1080 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1082 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-passwd}
1083 pertain here as well.
1085 @cindex http referer
1086 @cindex referer, http
1087 @item --referer=@var{url}
1088 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1089 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1090 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1091 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1093 @cindex server response, save
1095 @itemx --save-headers
1096 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1097 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1100 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1101 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1102 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1104 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1105 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1106 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1107 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1108 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1111 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1112 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1113 While conceptually this is not such a bad idea, it has been abused by
1114 servers denying information to clients other than @code{Mozilla} or
1115 Microsoft @code{Internet Explorer}. This option allows you to change
1116 the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget. Use of this option is
1117 discouraged, unless you really know what you are doing.
1120 @node FTP Options, Recursive Retrieval Options, HTTP Options, Invoking
1121 @section FTP Options
1124 @cindex .listing files, removing
1126 @itemx --dont-remove-listing
1127 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1128 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1129 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1130 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1131 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1132 you're running is complete).
1134 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1135 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1136 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1137 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1138 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1139 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1140 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1141 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1142 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1144 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1145 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1146 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1147 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1148 will be overwritten.
1150 @cindex globbing, toggle
1152 @itemx --glob=on/off
1153 Turn @sc{ftp} globbing on or off. Globbing means you may use the
1154 shell-like special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*},
1155 @samp{?}, @samp{[} and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the
1156 same directory at once, like:
1159 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1162 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1163 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1166 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1167 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1168 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1169 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1173 Use the @dfn{passive} @sc{ftp} retrieval scheme, in which the client
1174 initiates the data connection. This is sometimes required for @sc{ftp}
1175 to work behind firewalls.
1177 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1178 @item --retr-symlinks
1179 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1180 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1181 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1182 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1183 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1185 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1186 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1187 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1188 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1191 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1192 specified on the commandline, rather than because it was recursed to,
1193 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1197 @node Recursive Retrieval Options, Recursive Accept/Reject Options, FTP Options, Invoking
1198 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1203 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Retrieval}, for more
1206 @item -l @var{depth}
1207 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1208 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1209 Retrieval}). The default maximum depth is 5.
1211 @cindex proxy filling
1212 @cindex delete after retrieval
1213 @cindex filling proxy cache
1214 @item --delete-after
1215 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1216 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1217 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1220 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1223 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1226 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1227 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1228 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1229 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1230 created in the first place.
1232 @cindex conversion of links
1233 @cindex link conversion
1235 @itemx --convert-links
1236 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1237 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1238 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1239 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-HTML
1242 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1246 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1247 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1249 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1250 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1251 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1252 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1255 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1256 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1258 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1259 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1260 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1261 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1264 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1265 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1266 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1267 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1268 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1271 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1272 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1273 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1275 @cindex backing up converted files
1277 @itemx --backup-converted
1278 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1279 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1284 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1285 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1286 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1287 @samp{-r -N -l inf -nr}.
1289 @cindex page requisites
1290 @cindex required images, downloading
1292 @itemx --page-requisites
1293 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
1294 properly display a given HTML page. This includes such things as
1295 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
1297 Ordinarily, when downloading a single HTML page, any requisite documents
1298 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
1299 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
1300 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
1301 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
1304 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
1305 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
1306 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
1307 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
1308 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
1310 If one executes the command:
1313 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
1316 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
1317 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
1318 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
1319 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
1320 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
1323 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1326 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
1327 will be downloaded. Similarly,
1330 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1333 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
1334 to be downloaded. One might think that:
1337 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1340 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
1341 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
1342 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single HTML
1343 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the commandline or in a
1344 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
1345 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
1348 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1351 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
1352 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
1353 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
1354 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
1355 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
1356 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
1359 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1362 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
1363 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
1364 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
1368 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options, , Recursive Retrieval Options, Invoking
1369 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1372 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
1373 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
1374 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
1375 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files} for more details).
1377 @item -D @var{domain-list}
1378 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
1379 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
1380 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
1382 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
1383 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed.
1384 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1386 @cindex follow FTP links
1388 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
1389 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
1391 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
1392 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
1393 Wget has an internal table of HTML tag / attribute pairs that it
1394 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
1395 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
1396 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
1397 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
1400 @itemx --ignore-tags=@var{list}
1401 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
1402 certain HTML tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
1403 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
1405 In the past, the @samp{-G} option was the best bet for downloading a
1406 single page and its requisites, using a commandline like:
1409 wget -Ga,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1412 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
1413 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
1414 @samp{-G} was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to ignore
1415 @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded. Now the
1416 best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
1417 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
1421 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
1422 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1426 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
1427 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
1428 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
1431 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
1432 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
1433 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements
1434 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1437 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
1438 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
1439 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements of
1440 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1444 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
1445 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
1446 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
1447 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
1452 @node Recursive Retrieval, Following Links, Invoking, Top
1453 @chapter Recursive Retrieval
1456 @cindex recursive retrieval
1458 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
1459 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
1460 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieving}, or @dfn{recursion}.
1462 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} from
1463 the given @sc{url}, documents, retrieving the files the @sc{html}
1464 document was referring to, through markups like @code{href}, or
1465 @code{src}. If the freshly downloaded file is also of type
1466 @code{text/html}, it will be parsed and followed further.
1468 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html} content is
1469 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
1470 HTML document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
1471 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
1472 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
1473 until the specified maximum depth.
1475 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
1476 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
1478 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
1479 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
1480 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
1481 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
1482 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
1485 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
1486 the one found on the remote server.
1488 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
1489 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
1490 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
1491 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
1493 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
1494 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
1495 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
1496 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
1497 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
1498 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
1499 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
1501 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
1502 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
1503 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
1504 consume memory and CPU.
1506 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
1507 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
1508 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
1509 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
1510 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
1511 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
1512 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
1515 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
1518 @node Following Links, Time-Stamping, Recursive Retrieval, Top
1519 @chapter Following Links
1521 @cindex following links
1523 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
1524 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
1525 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
1527 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
1528 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
1529 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
1531 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
1532 links it will follow.
1535 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
1536 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
1537 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
1538 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
1539 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
1542 @node Spanning Hosts, Types of Files, Following Links, Following Links
1543 @section Spanning Hosts
1544 @cindex spanning hosts
1545 @cindex hosts, spanning
1547 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
1548 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
1549 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
1550 your Wget into a small version of google.
1552 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
1553 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
1554 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
1555 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the HTML
1556 pages refer to both interchangeably.
1559 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
1561 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
1562 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
1563 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
1564 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
1565 up much more data than you have intended.
1567 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
1569 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
1570 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
1571 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
1572 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
1573 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
1574 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
1577 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
1580 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
1581 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
1583 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
1585 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
1586 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
1587 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
1588 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
1589 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
1593 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
1599 @node Types of Files, Directory-Based Limits, Spanning Hosts, Following Links
1600 @section Types of Files
1601 @cindex types of files
1603 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
1604 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
1605 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
1606 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
1608 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
1609 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
1612 @cindex accept wildcards
1613 @cindex accept suffixes
1614 @cindex wildcards, accept
1615 @cindex suffixes, accept
1617 @item -A @var{acclist}
1618 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
1619 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
1620 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
1621 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
1622 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
1623 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
1624 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
1626 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
1627 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
1628 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
1629 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
1630 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
1631 a description of how pattern matching works.
1633 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
1634 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
1636 @cindex reject wildcards
1637 @cindex reject suffixes
1638 @cindex wildcards, reject
1639 @cindex suffixes, reject
1640 @item -R @var{rejlist}
1641 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
1642 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
1643 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
1644 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
1645 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
1647 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
1648 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
1649 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
1650 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
1651 expansion by the shell.
1654 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
1655 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
1656 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
1657 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
1659 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
1660 files; Wget must load all the @sc{html}s to know where to go at
1661 all---recursive retrieval would make no sense otherwise.
1663 @node Directory-Based Limits, Relative Links, Types of Files, Following Links
1664 @section Directory-Based Limits
1666 @cindex directory limits
1668 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
1669 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
1670 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
1671 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
1672 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
1673 @file{/dev} directories.
1675 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
1676 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
1677 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
1679 @cindex directories, include
1680 @cindex include directories
1681 @cindex accept directories
1684 @itemx --include @var{list}
1685 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
1686 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
1687 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
1688 directories are absolute paths.
1690 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
1691 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
1692 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
1695 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
1698 @cindex directories, exclude
1699 @cindex exclude directories
1700 @cindex reject directories
1702 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
1703 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
1704 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
1705 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
1706 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
1707 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
1709 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
1710 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
1711 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
1712 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
1717 @itemx no_parent = on
1718 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
1719 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
1720 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
1721 parent directory/directories.
1723 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
1724 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
1725 Supposing you issue Wget with:
1728 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
1731 You may rest assured that none of the references to
1732 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
1733 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
1734 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
1735 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
1736 intelligent fashion.
1739 @node Relative Links, FTP Links, Directory-Based Limits, Following Links
1740 @section Relative Links
1741 @cindex relative links
1743 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
1744 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
1745 server root. For example, these links are relative:
1749 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
1750 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
1753 These links are not relative:
1757 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
1758 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
1761 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
1762 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
1763 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
1765 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
1768 @node FTP Links, , Relative Links, Following Links
1769 @section Following FTP Links
1770 @cindex following ftp links
1772 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
1773 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
1774 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
1777 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
1778 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
1779 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
1780 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
1781 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
1782 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
1783 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
1785 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
1786 retrieved recursively further.
1788 @node Time-Stamping, Startup File, Following Links, Top
1789 @chapter Time-Stamping
1790 @cindex time-stamping
1791 @cindex timestamping
1792 @cindex updating the archives
1793 @cindex incremental updating
1795 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
1796 Internet is updating your archives.
1798 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
1799 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
1800 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
1801 offer the option of incremental updating.
1803 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
1804 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
1805 the place of the old ones.
1807 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
1811 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
1814 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
1815 recently than the local file.
1818 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
1819 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
1820 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
1822 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
1823 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
1824 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
1825 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
1826 does, and the remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
1828 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
1829 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
1833 * Time-Stamping Usage::
1834 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
1835 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
1838 @node Time-Stamping Usage, HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping, Time-Stamping
1839 @section Time-Stamping Usage
1840 @cindex time-stamping usage
1841 @cindex usage, time-stamping
1843 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
1844 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
1847 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
1850 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
1851 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
1852 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
1853 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
1855 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
1856 changed, and download it if it has.
1859 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
1862 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
1863 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
1864 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
1865 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
1867 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
1870 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
1873 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
1874 interpret the @samp{*}.)
1876 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
1877 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
1878 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
1879 since the last download.
1881 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
1882 command like the following, weekly:
1885 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
1888 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
1889 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
1890 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
1891 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
1892 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
1894 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, FTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping Usage, Time-Stamping
1895 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
1896 @cindex http time-stamping
1898 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
1899 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
1900 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
1901 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
1902 retrieved unconditionally.
1904 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
1905 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
1906 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
1909 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
1910 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
1911 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
1912 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
1913 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
1914 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
1917 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
1918 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
1919 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
1920 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
1921 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
1923 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
1924 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
1926 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals, , HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping
1927 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
1928 @cindex ftp time-stamping
1930 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
1931 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
1934 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
1935 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
1936 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
1937 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
1938 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
1939 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
1940 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
1941 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
1943 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
1944 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
1945 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
1946 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
1947 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
1948 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
1950 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
1951 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
1952 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
1953 Wget may support this command in the future.
1955 @node Startup File, Examples, Time-Stamping, Top
1956 @chapter Startup File
1957 @cindex startup file
1963 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
1964 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
1965 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
1966 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
1968 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
1969 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
1970 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
1971 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
1973 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
1977 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
1978 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
1979 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
1980 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
1983 @node Wgetrc Location, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File, Startup File
1984 @section Wgetrc Location
1985 @cindex wgetrc location
1986 @cindex location of wgetrc
1988 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
1989 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
1990 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
1991 from there, if it exists.
1993 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
1994 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
1995 further attempts will be made.
1997 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
1999 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
2000 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
2001 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
2002 Fascist admins, away!
2004 @node Wgetrc Syntax, Wgetrc Commands, Wgetrc Location, Startup File
2005 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2006 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2007 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2009 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2015 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2016 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2018 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2019 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2020 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2023 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2024 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2025 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2031 @node Wgetrc Commands, Sample Wgetrc, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File
2032 @section Wgetrc Commands
2033 @cindex wgetrc commands
2035 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2036 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2037 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}. A fancier kind of
2038 Boolean allowed in some cases is the @dfn{lockable Boolean}, which may
2039 be set to @samp{on}, @samp{off}, @samp{always}, or @samp{never}. If an
2040 option is set to @samp{always} or @samp{never}, that value will be
2041 locked in for the duration of the Wget invocation---commandline options
2044 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2045 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2046 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2047 values can be any non-empty string.
2049 Most of these commands have commandline equivalents (@pxref{Invoking}),
2050 though some of the more obscure or rarely used ones do not.
2053 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2054 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2056 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2057 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2059 @item continue = on/off
2060 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
2061 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
2063 @item background = on/off
2064 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2067 @item backup_converted = on/off
2068 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2069 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2071 @c @item backups = @var{number}
2072 @c #### Document me!
2074 @item base = @var{string}
2075 Consider relative @sc{url}s in @sc{url} input files forced to be
2076 interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string}---the same as
2079 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2080 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address} option.
2082 @item cache = on/off
2083 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{-C} option.
2085 @item convert links = on/off
2086 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
2088 @item cookies = on/off
2089 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
2091 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
2092 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies}.
2094 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
2095 Save cookies to @var{file}. See @samp{--save-cookies}.
2097 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
2098 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components.
2100 @item debug = on/off
2101 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
2103 @item delete_after = on/off
2104 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
2106 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
2107 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P}.
2109 @item dirstruct = on/off
2110 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
2113 @item dns_cache = on/off
2114 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
2115 option is normally used to turn it off. Same as @samp{--dns-cache}.
2117 @item domains = @var{string}
2118 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2120 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
2121 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
2122 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
2123 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
2124 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
2125 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
2126 (@pxref{Download Options}).
2128 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
2129 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
2130 the retrieval (50 by default).
2132 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
2133 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
2135 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
2136 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2137 download---the same as @samp{-X} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2139 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
2140 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2142 @item follow_ftp = on/off
2143 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
2144 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
2146 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
2147 Only follow certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
2148 @samp{--follow-tags}.
2150 @item force_html = on/off
2151 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
2152 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
2154 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
2155 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2159 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{-g}.
2161 @item header = @var{string}
2162 Define an additional header, like @samp{--header}.
2164 @item html_extension = on/off
2165 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} files without it, like
2168 @item http_passwd = @var{string}
2169 Set @sc{http} password.
2171 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
2172 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2175 @item http_user = @var{string}
2176 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}.
2178 @item ignore_length = on/off
2179 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
2180 @samp{--ignore-length}.
2182 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
2183 Ignore certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
2184 @samp{-G} / @samp{--ignore-tags}.
2186 @item include_directories = @var{string}
2187 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2188 downloading---the same as @samp{-I}.
2190 @item input = @var{string}
2191 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i}.
2193 @item kill_longer = on/off
2194 Consider data longer than specified in content-length header as invalid
2195 (and retry getting it). The default behaviour is to save as much data
2196 as there is, provided there is more than or equal to the value in
2197 @code{Content-Length}.
2199 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
2200 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
2201 The same as @samp{--limit-rate}.
2203 @item logfile = @var{string}
2204 Set logfile---the same as @samp{-o}.
2206 @item login = @var{string}
2207 Your user name on the remote machine, for @sc{ftp}. Defaults to
2210 @item mirror = on/off
2211 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
2213 @item netrc = on/off
2214 Turn reading netrc on or off.
2216 @item noclobber = on/off
2219 @item no_parent = on/off
2220 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
2221 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2223 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
2224 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
2225 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
2227 @item output_document = @var{string}
2228 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O}.
2230 @item page_requisites = on/off
2231 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single HTML page to
2232 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
2234 @item passive_ftp = on/off/always/never
2235 Set passive @sc{ftp}---the same as @samp{--passive-ftp}. Some scripts
2236 and @samp{.pm} (Perl module) files download files using @samp{wget
2237 --passive-ftp}. If your firewall does not allow this, you can set
2238 @samp{passive_ftp = never} to override the commandline.
2240 @item passwd = @var{string}
2241 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{password}. Without this setting, the
2242 password defaults to @samp{username@@hostname.domainname}.
2244 @item progress = @var{string}
2245 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are ``dot'' and
2248 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
2249 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like @samp{--proxy-user}.
2251 @item proxy_passwd = @var{string}
2252 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like @samp{--proxy-passwd}.
2254 @item referer = @var{string}
2255 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like @samp{--referer}. (Note it
2256 was the folks who wrote the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of
2257 ``referrer'' wrong.)
2259 @item quiet = on/off
2260 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
2262 @item quota = @var{quota}
2263 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
2264 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
2265 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
2266 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
2267 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
2268 to 5 mbytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
2271 @item reclevel = @var{n}
2272 Recursion level---the same as @samp{-l}.
2274 @item recursive = on/off
2275 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
2277 @item relative_only = on/off
2278 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
2281 @item remove_listing = on/off
2282 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
2283 to off is the same as @samp{-nr}.
2285 @item restrict_file_names = unix/windows
2286 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
2287 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
2289 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
2290 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
2291 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
2293 @item robots = on/off
2294 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
2295 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
2296 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
2297 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
2300 @item server_response = on/off
2301 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
2302 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
2304 @item span_hosts = on/off
2307 @item timeout = @var{n}
2308 Set timeout value---the same as @samp{-T}.
2310 @item timestamping = on/off
2311 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
2313 @item tries = @var{n}
2314 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t}.
2316 @item use_proxy = on/off
2317 Turn proxy support on/off. The same as @samp{-Y}.
2319 @item verbose = on/off
2320 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
2322 @item wait = @var{n}
2323 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w}.
2325 @item waitretry = @var{n}
2326 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
2327 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry}. Note that this is turned on by
2328 default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
2330 @item randomwait = on/off
2331 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
2332 @samp{--random-wait}.
2335 @node Sample Wgetrc, , Wgetrc Commands, Startup File
2336 @section Sample Wgetrc
2337 @cindex sample wgetrc
2339 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
2340 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
2341 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
2342 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
2344 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
2345 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
2349 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
2352 @node Examples, Various, Startup File, Top
2356 @c man begin EXAMPLES
2357 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
2361 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
2362 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
2363 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
2366 @node Simple Usage, Advanced Usage, Examples, Examples
2367 @section Simple Usage
2371 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
2374 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
2378 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
2379 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
2380 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
2381 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
2382 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
2383 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
2386 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
2390 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
2391 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
2392 shall use @samp{-t}.
2395 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
2398 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
2399 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
2402 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
2406 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
2410 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
2411 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
2414 wget ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/
2419 @node Advanced Usage, Very Advanced Usage, Simple Usage, Examples
2420 @section Advanced Usage
2424 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
2431 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
2435 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
2436 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
2437 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
2440 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2444 The same as the above, but convert the links in the @sc{html} files to
2445 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
2448 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2452 Retrieve only one HTML page, but make sure that all the elements needed
2453 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
2454 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
2455 references the downloaded links.
2458 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2461 The HTML page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
2462 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
2463 depending on where they were on the remote server.
2466 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
2467 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
2468 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
2469 subdirectory of the current directory.
2472 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
2473 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2477 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
2481 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
2485 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
2488 wget -s http://www.lycos.com/
2493 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
2497 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
2501 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
2502 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
2503 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
2507 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
2510 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
2511 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Retrieval}), with maximum depth
2512 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
2513 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
2514 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
2518 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
2519 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
2523 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
2527 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
2528 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
2531 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
2534 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
2535 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
2538 @cindex redirecting output
2540 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
2544 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
2547 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
2548 documents from remote hotlists:
2551 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
2555 @node Very Advanced Usage, , Advanced Usage, Examples
2556 @section Very Advanced Usage
2561 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
2562 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
2563 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
2564 to recheck a site each Sunday:
2568 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2572 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
2573 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
2574 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
2575 back up the original HTML files before the conversion. Wget invocation
2576 would look like this:
2579 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
2580 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2584 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
2585 when HTML files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
2586 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
2587 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
2588 to @file{@var{name}.html}.
2591 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
2592 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
2596 Or, with less typing:
2599 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2604 @node Various, Appendices, Examples, Top
2608 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
2611 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers
2612 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
2613 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
2614 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
2615 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
2616 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
2619 @node Proxies, Distribution, Various, Various
2623 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
2624 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
2625 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
2626 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
2627 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
2628 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
2629 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
2630 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
2631 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
2632 using an authorized proxy.
2634 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
2635 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
2636 the following environment variables:
2640 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{http}
2644 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
2645 connections. It is quite common that @sc{http_proxy} and @sc{ftp_proxy}
2646 are set to the same @sc{url}.
2649 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
2650 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
2651 @code{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
2655 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
2656 may be specified from within Wget itself.
2660 @itemx --proxy=on/off
2661 @itemx proxy = on/off
2662 This option may be used to turn the proxy support on or off. Proxy
2663 support is on by default, provided that the appropriate environment
2666 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
2667 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
2668 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
2669 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
2670 specified by the environment.
2673 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
2674 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
2675 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
2676 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
2677 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
2679 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
2680 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
2681 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
2682 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
2686 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
2689 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
2690 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
2691 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_passwd} to set the proxy
2692 username and password.
2694 @node Distribution, Mailing List, Proxies, Various
2695 @section Distribution
2696 @cindex latest version
2698 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
2699 master GNU archive site prep.ai.mit.edu, and its mirrors. For example,
2700 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
2701 @url{ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
2703 @node Mailing List, Reporting Bugs, Distribution, Various
2704 @section Mailing List
2705 @cindex mailing list
2708 Wget has its own mailing list at @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}, thanks
2709 to Karsten Thygesen. The mailing list is for discussion of Wget
2710 features and web, reporting Wget bugs (those that you think may be of
2711 interest to the public) and mailing announcements. You are welcome to
2712 subscribe. The more people on the list, the better!
2714 To subscribe, send mail to @email{wget-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}.
2715 the magic word @samp{subscribe} in the subject line. Unsubscribe by
2716 mailing to @email{wget-unsubscribe@@sunsite.dk}.
2718 The mailing list is archived at @url{http://fly.srk.fer.hr/archive/wget}.
2719 Alternative archive is available at
2720 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.auc.dk/}.
2722 @node Reporting Bugs, Portability, Mailing List, Various
2723 @section Reporting Bugs
2725 @cindex reporting bugs
2729 You are welcome to send bug reports about GNU Wget to
2730 @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}.
2732 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
2737 Please try to ascertain that the behaviour you see really is a bug. If
2738 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
2739 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
2740 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug.
2743 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
2744 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 -Y0
2745 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
2746 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
2747 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
2748 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
2750 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
2751 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
2752 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
2753 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
2754 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
2758 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send the log (or the
2759 relevant parts of it). If Wget was compiled without debug support,
2760 recompile it. It is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs with debug support
2764 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
2765 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace.
2769 @node Portability, Signals, Reporting Bugs, Various
2770 @section Portability
2772 @cindex operating systems
2774 Since Wget uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and avoids
2775 using ``special'' ultra--mega--cool features of any particular Unix, it
2776 should compile (and work) on all common Unix flavors.
2778 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
2779 Unix systems, including Solaris, Linux, SunOS, OSF (aka Digital Unix),
2780 Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, and others; refer to the file @file{MACHINES} in the
2781 distribution directory for a comprehensive list. If you compile it on
2782 an architecture not listed there, please let me know so I can update it.
2784 Wget should also compile on the other Unix systems, not listed in
2785 @file{MACHINES}. If it doesn't, please let me know.
2787 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works on
2788 Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. It has been compiled
2789 successfully using MS Visual C++ 4.0, Watcom, and Borland C compilers,
2790 with Winsock as networking software. Naturally, it is crippled of some
2791 features available on Unix, but it should work as a substitute for
2792 people stuck with Windows. Note that the Windows port is
2793 @strong{neither tested nor maintained} by me---all questions and
2794 problems should be reported to Wget mailing list at
2795 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the maintainers will look at them.
2797 @node Signals, , Portability, Various
2799 @cindex signal handling
2802 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
2803 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
2804 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
2805 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
2806 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
2809 $ wget http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/gnus.tar.gz &
2810 $ kill -HUP %% # Redirect the output to wget-log
2813 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
2814 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
2816 @node Appendices, Copying, Various, Top
2819 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
2822 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
2823 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
2824 * Contributors:: People who helped.
2827 @node Robot Exclusion, Security Considerations, Appendices, Appendices
2828 @section Robot Exclusion
2829 @cindex robot exclusion
2831 @cindex server maintenance
2833 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
2834 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
2835 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
2837 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
2838 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
2839 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
2840 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
2841 section handled by an, uh, @dfn{bitchin'} CGI Perl script that converts
2842 Info files to HTML on the fly. The script is slow, but works well
2843 enough for human users viewing an occasional Info file. However, when
2844 someone's recursive Wget download stumbles upon the index page that
2845 links to all the Info files through the script, the system is brought to
2846 its knees without providing anything useful to the downloader.
2848 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
2849 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
2850 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} has been invented. The idea is that
2851 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
2852 portions of the site they wish to protect from the robots.
2854 The most popular mechanism, and the de facto standard supported by all
2855 the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written by
2856 Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text file
2857 containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to avoid.
2858 To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
2859 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are supposed to
2862 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
2863 can downloads large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
2864 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
2865 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
2868 wget -r http://www.server.com/
2871 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
2872 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
2873 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
2874 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
2877 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
2878 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
2879 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
2880 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
2881 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
2882 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
2883 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
2884 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
2886 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
2888 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
2889 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
2890 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
2894 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
2897 This is explained in some detail at
2898 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
2899 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
2902 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
2903 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
2904 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
2905 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
2907 @node Security Considerations, Contributors, Robot Exclusion, Appendices
2908 @section Security Considerations
2911 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
2912 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
2913 main issues, and some solutions.
2916 @item The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}.
2917 The best way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s
2918 to Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by
2919 @kbd{C-d}. Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store
2920 passwords; however, storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a
2924 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
2925 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
2928 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
2929 solution for this at the moment.
2932 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
2933 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
2934 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
2938 @node Contributors, , Security Considerations, Appendices
2939 @section Contributors
2940 @cindex contributors
2943 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@arsdigita.com}.
2946 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@arsdigita.com}.
2948 However, its development could never have gone as far as it has, were it
2949 not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature
2950 proposals, patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
2952 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
2956 Karsten Thygesen---donated system resources such as the mailing list,
2957 web space, and @sc{ftp} space, along with a lot of time to make these
2961 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
2964 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
2968 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
2972 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
2973 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
2976 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
2977 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
2981 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
2984 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the Italian translation.
2988 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
2992 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
2997 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3000 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3004 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization and other
3008 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
3012 The people who provided donations for development, including Brian
3016 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
3017 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
3018 that make maintenance so much fun:
3037 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
3055 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
3058 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
3074 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
3092 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
3103 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
3104 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
3105 (Simos KSenitellis),
3113 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
3119 Alexander V. Lukyanov,
3144 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
3146 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}gues,
3149 Juan Jose Rodrigues,
3161 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
3167 Douglas E. Wegscheid,
3177 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
3178 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
3180 @node Copying, Concept Index, Appendices, Top
3185 @cindex free software
3187 GNU Wget is licensed under the GNU GPL, which makes it @dfn{free
3190 Please note that ``free'' in ``free software'' refers to liberty, not
3191 price. As some GNU project advocates like to point out, think of ``free
3192 speech'' rather than ``free beer''. The exact and legally binding
3193 distribution terms are spelled out below; in short, you have the right
3194 (freedom) to run and change Wget and distribute it to other people, and
3195 even---if you want---charge money for doing either. The important
3196 restriction is that you have to grant your recipients the same rights
3197 and impose the same restrictions.
3199 This method of licensing software is also known as @dfn{open source}
3200 because, among other things, it makes sure that all recipients will
3201 receive the source code along with the program, and be able to improve
3202 it. The GNU project prefers the term ``free software'' for reasons
3204 @url{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html}.
3206 The exact license terms are defined by this paragraph and the GNU
3207 General Public License it refers to:
3210 GNU Wget is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
3211 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
3212 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
3213 option) any later version.
3215 GNU Wget is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
3216 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
3217 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
3220 A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as part of this
3221 manual; if you did not receive it, write to the Free Software
3222 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3225 In addition to this, this manual is free in the same sense:
3228 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
3229 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
3230 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
3231 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
3232 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
3233 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
3234 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
3237 @c #### Maybe we should wrap these licenses in ifinfo? Stallman says
3238 @c that the GFDL needs to be present in the manual, and to me it would
3239 @c suck to include the license for the manual and not the license for
3242 The full texts of the GNU General Public License and of the GNU Free
3243 Documentation License are available below.
3246 * GNU General Public License::
3247 * GNU Free Documentation License::
3250 @node GNU General Public License, GNU Free Documentation License, Copying, Copying
3251 @section GNU General Public License
3252 @center Version 2, June 1991
3255 Copyright @copyright{} 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3256 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
3258 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
3259 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
3262 @unnumberedsec Preamble
3264 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
3265 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
3266 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
3267 software---to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
3268 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
3269 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
3270 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
3271 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
3274 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
3275 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
3276 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
3277 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
3278 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
3279 in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
3281 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
3282 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
3283 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
3284 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
3286 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
3287 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
3288 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
3289 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
3292 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
3293 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
3294 distribute and/or modify the software.
3296 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
3297 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
3298 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
3299 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
3300 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
3301 authors' reputations.
3303 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
3304 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
3305 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
3306 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
3307 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
3309 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
3310 modification follow.
3313 @unnumberedsec TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3316 @center TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3321 This License applies to any program or other work which contains
3322 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
3323 under the terms of this General Public License. The ``Program'', below,
3324 refers to any such program or work, and a ``work based on the Program''
3325 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
3326 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
3327 either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
3328 language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
3329 the term ``modification''.) Each licensee is addressed as ``you''.
3331 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
3332 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
3333 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
3334 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
3335 Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
3336 Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
3339 You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
3340 source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
3341 conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
3342 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
3343 notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
3344 and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
3345 along with the Program.
3347 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
3348 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
3351 You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
3352 of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
3353 distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
3354 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
3358 You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
3359 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
3362 You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
3363 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
3364 part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
3365 parties under the terms of this License.
3368 If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
3369 when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
3370 interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
3371 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
3372 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
3373 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
3374 these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
3375 License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
3376 does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
3377 the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
3380 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
3381 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
3382 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
3383 themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
3384 sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
3385 distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
3386 on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
3387 this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
3388 entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
3390 Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
3391 your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
3392 exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
3393 collective works based on the Program.
3395 In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
3396 with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
3397 a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
3398 the scope of this License.
3401 You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
3402 under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
3403 Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
3407 Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
3408 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
3409 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
3412 Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
3413 years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
3414 cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
3415 machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
3416 distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
3417 customarily used for software interchange; or,
3420 Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
3421 to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
3422 allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
3423 received the program in object code or executable form with such
3424 an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
3427 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
3428 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
3429 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
3430 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
3431 control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
3432 special exception, the source code distributed need not include
3433 anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
3434 form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
3435 operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
3436 itself accompanies the executable.
3438 If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
3439 access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
3440 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
3441 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
3442 compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
3445 You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
3446 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
3447 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
3448 void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
3449 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
3450 this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
3451 parties remain in full compliance.
3454 You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
3455 signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
3456 distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
3457 prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
3458 modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
3459 Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
3460 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
3461 the Program or works based on it.
3464 Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
3465 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
3466 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
3467 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
3468 restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
3469 You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
3473 If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
3474 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
3475 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
3476 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
3477 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
3478 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
3479 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
3480 may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
3481 license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
3482 all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
3483 the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
3484 refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
3486 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
3487 any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
3488 apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
3491 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
3492 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
3493 such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
3494 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
3495 implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
3496 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
3497 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
3498 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
3499 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
3502 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
3503 be a consequence of the rest of this License.
3506 If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
3507 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
3508 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
3509 may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
3510 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
3511 countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
3512 the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
3515 The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
3516 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
3517 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
3518 address new problems or concerns.
3520 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
3521 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and ``any
3522 later version'', you have the option of following the terms and conditions
3523 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
3524 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
3525 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
3529 If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
3530 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
3531 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
3532 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
3533 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
3534 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
3535 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
3538 @heading NO WARRANTY
3546 BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
3547 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
3548 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
3549 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
3550 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
3551 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
3552 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
3553 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
3554 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
3557 IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
3558 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
3559 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
3560 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
3561 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
3562 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
3563 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
3564 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
3565 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
3569 @heading END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
3572 @center END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
3576 @unnumberedsec How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
3578 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
3579 possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
3580 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
3582 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
3583 to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
3584 convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
3585 the ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
3588 @var{one line to give the program's name and an idea of what it does.}
3589 Copyright (C) 19@var{yy} @var{name of author}
3591 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
3592 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
3593 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
3594 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
3596 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3597 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3598 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3599 GNU General Public License for more details.
3601 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3602 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
3603 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3606 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
3608 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
3609 when it starts in an interactive mode:
3612 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19@var{yy} @var{name of author}
3613 Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
3614 type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome
3615 to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c'
3619 The hypothetical commands @samp{show w} and @samp{show c} should show
3620 the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
3621 commands you use may be called something other than @samp{show w} and
3622 @samp{show c}; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items---whatever
3625 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
3626 school, if any, to sign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if
3627 necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
3631 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright
3632 interest in the program `Gnomovision'
3633 (which makes passes at compilers) written
3636 @var{signature of Ty Coon}, 1 April 1989
3637 Ty Coon, President of Vice
3641 This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
3642 proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
3643 consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
3644 library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
3645 Public License instead of this License.
3647 @node GNU Free Documentation License, , GNU General Public License, Copying
3648 @section GNU Free Documentation License
3649 @center Version 1.1, March 2000
3652 Copyright (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3653 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
3655 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
3656 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
3663 The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
3664 written document ``free'' in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone
3665 the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without
3666 modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily,
3667 this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get
3668 credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for
3669 modifications made by others.
3671 This License is a kind of ``copyleft'', which means that derivative
3672 works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It
3673 complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft
3674 license designed for free software.
3676 We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free
3677 software, because free software needs free documentation: a free
3678 program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the
3679 software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals;
3680 it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or
3681 whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License
3682 principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.
3686 APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
3688 This License applies to any manual or other work that contains a
3689 notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed
3690 under the terms of this License. The ``Document'', below, refers to any
3691 such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is
3692 addressed as ``you''.
3694 A ``Modified Version'' of the Document means any work containing the
3695 Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with
3696 modifications and/or translated into another language.
3698 A ``Secondary Section'' is a named appendix or a front-matter section of
3699 the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the
3700 publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall subject
3701 (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly
3702 within that overall subject. (For example, if the Document is in part a
3703 textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any
3704 mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical
3705 connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal,
3706 commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding
3709 The ``Invariant Sections'' are certain Secondary Sections whose titles
3710 are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice
3711 that says that the Document is released under this License.
3713 The ``Cover Texts'' are certain short passages of text that are listed,
3714 as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that
3715 the Document is released under this License.
3717 A ``Transparent'' copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy,
3718 represented in a format whose specification is available to the
3719 general public, whose contents can be viewed and edited directly and
3720 straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of
3721 pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available
3722 drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or
3723 for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input
3724 to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file
3725 format whose markup has been designed to thwart or discourage
3726 subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. A copy that is
3727 not ``Transparent'' is called ``Opaque''.
3729 Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain
3730 ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML
3731 or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple
3732 HTML designed for human modification. Opaque formats include
3733 PostScript, PDF, proprietary formats that can be read and edited only
3734 by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or
3735 processing tools are not generally available, and the
3736 machine-generated HTML produced by some word processors for output
3739 The ``Title Page'' means, for a printed book, the title page itself,
3740 plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material
3741 this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in
3742 formats which do not have any title page as such, ``Title Page'' means
3743 the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's title,
3744 preceding the beginning of the body of the text.
3749 You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
3750 commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
3751 copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies
3752 to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other
3753 conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use
3754 technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further
3755 copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept
3756 compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough
3757 number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
3759 You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and
3760 you may publicly display copies.
3765 If you publish printed copies of the Document numbering more than 100,
3766 and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose
3767 the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover
3768 Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on
3769 the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify
3770 you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present
3771 the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and
3772 visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition.
3773 Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve
3774 the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated
3775 as verbatim copying in other respects.
3777 If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
3778 legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
3779 reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent
3782 If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering
3783 more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent
3784 copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy
3785 a publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a complete
3786 Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material, which the
3787 general network-using public has access to download anonymously at no
3788 charge using public-standard network protocols. If you use the latter
3789 option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin
3790 distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this
3791 Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location
3792 until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque
3793 copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to
3796 It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the
3797 Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give
3798 them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.
3803 You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under
3804 the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release
3805 the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified
3806 Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution
3807 and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy
3808 of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
3810 A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct
3811 from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions
3812 (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section
3813 of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version
3814 if the original publisher of that version gives permission.@*
3815 B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities
3816 responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified
3817 Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the
3818 Document (all of its principal authors, if it has less than five).@*
3819 C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the
3820 Modified Version, as the publisher.@*
3821 D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.@*
3822 E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
3823 adjacent to the other copyright notices.@*
3824 F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice
3825 giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the
3826 terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.@*
3827 G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections
3828 and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.@*
3829 H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.@*
3830 I. Preserve the section entitled ``History'', and its title, and add to
3831 it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and
3832 publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If
3833 there is no section entitled ``History'' in the Document, create one
3834 stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as
3835 given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified
3836 Version as stated in the previous sentence.@*
3837 J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for
3838 public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise
3839 the network locations given in the Document for previous versions
3840 it was based on. These may be placed in the ``History'' section.
3841 You may omit a network location for a work that was published at
3842 least four years before the Document itself, or if the original
3843 publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.@*
3844 K. In any section entitled ``Acknowledgements'' or ``Dedications'',
3845 preserve the section's title, and preserve in the section all the
3846 substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements
3847 and/or dedications given therein.@*
3848 L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document,
3849 unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers
3850 or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.@*
3851 M. Delete any section entitled ``Endorsements''. Such a section
3852 may not be included in the Modified Version.@*
3853 N. Do not retitle any existing section as ``Endorsements''
3854 or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.@*
3856 If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or
3857 appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material
3858 copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all
3859 of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the
3860 list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice.
3861 These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
3863 You may add a section entitled ``Endorsements'', provided it contains
3864 nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
3865 parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has
3866 been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a
3869 You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a
3870 passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list
3871 of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of
3872 Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or
3873 through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already
3874 includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or
3875 by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of,
3876 you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit
3877 permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.
3879 The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License
3880 give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or
3881 imply endorsement of any Modified Version.
3886 You may combine the Document with other documents released under this
3887 License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified
3888 versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the
3889 Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and
3890 list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its
3893 The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
3894 multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
3895 copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but
3896 different contents, make the title of each such section unique by
3897 adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original
3898 author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number.
3899 Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of
3900 Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
3902 In the combination, you must combine any sections entitled ``History''
3903 in the various original documents, forming one section entitled
3904 ``History''; likewise combine any sections entitled ``Acknowledgements'',
3905 and any sections entitled ``Dedications''. You must delete all sections
3906 entitled ``Endorsements.''
3909 COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
3911 You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents
3912 released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this
3913 License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in
3914 the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for
3915 verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.
3917 You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute
3918 it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this
3919 License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all
3920 other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.
3923 AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
3925 A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate
3926 and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or
3927 distribution medium, does not as a whole count as a Modified Version
3928 of the Document, provided no compilation copyright is claimed for the
3929 compilation. Such a compilation is called an ``aggregate'', and this
3930 License does not apply to the other self-contained works thus compiled
3931 with the Document, on account of their being thus compiled, if they
3932 are not themselves derivative works of the Document.
3934 If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these
3935 copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one quarter
3936 of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on
3937 covers that surround only the Document within the aggregate.
3938 Otherwise they must appear on covers around the whole aggregate.
3943 Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
3944 distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4.
3945 Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
3946 permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
3947 translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
3948 original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a
3949 translation of this License provided that you also include the
3950 original English version of this License. In case of a disagreement
3951 between the translation and the original English version of this
3952 License, the original English version will prevail.
3957 You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except
3958 as expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to
3959 copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will
3960 automatically terminate your rights under this License. However,
3961 parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this
3962 License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
3963 parties remain in full compliance.
3966 FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
3968 The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions
3969 of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new
3970 versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
3971 differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See
3972 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
3974 Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number.
3975 If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this
3976 License ``or any later version'' applies to it, you have the option of
3977 following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or
3978 of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the
3979 Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version
3980 number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not
3981 as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
3985 @unnumberedsec ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
3987 To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of
3988 the License in the document and put the following copyright and
3989 license notices just after the title page:
3994 Copyright (C) @var{year} @var{your name}.
3995 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
3996 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
3997 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
3998 with the Invariant Sections being @var{list their titles}, with the
3999 Front-Cover Texts being @var{list}, and with the Back-Cover Texts being @var{list}.
4000 A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
4001 Free Documentation License''.
4004 If you have no Invariant Sections, write ``with no Invariant Sections''
4005 instead of saying which ones are invariant. If you have no
4006 Front-Cover Texts, write ``no Front-Cover Texts'' instead of
4007 ``Front-Cover Texts being @var{list}''; likewise for Back-Cover Texts.
4009 If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
4010 recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of
4011 free software license, such as the GNU General Public License,
4012 to permit their use in free software.
4015 @node Concept Index, , Copying, Top
4016 @unnumbered Concept Index