1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
7 @settitle GNU Wget @value{VERSION} Manual
8 @c Disable the monstrous rectangles beside overfull hbox-es.
10 @c Use `odd' to print double-sided.
15 @c Remove this if you don't use A4 paper.
19 @c Title for man page. The weird way texi2pod.pl is written requires
20 @c the preceding @set.
22 @c man title Wget The non-interactive network downloader.
24 @dircategory Network Applications
26 * Wget: (wget). The non-interactive network downloader.
30 This file documents the the GNU Wget utility for downloading network
33 @c man begin COPYRIGHT
34 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
35 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
37 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
38 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
39 are preserved on all copies.
42 Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the
43 results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission
44 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
45 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
47 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
48 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
49 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
50 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
51 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
52 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
53 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
58 @title GNU Wget @value{VERSION}
59 @subtitle The non-interactive download utility
60 @subtitle Updated for Wget @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
61 @author by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} and the developers
65 Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>.
68 GNU Info entry for @file{wget}.
73 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
74 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005,
75 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
77 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
78 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
79 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
80 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
81 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
82 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
83 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
88 @top Wget @value{VERSION}
90 This manual documents version @value{VERSION} of GNU Wget, the freely
91 available utility for network downloads.
93 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005
94 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
97 * Overview:: Features of Wget.
98 * Invoking:: Wget command-line arguments.
99 * Recursive Download:: Downloading interlinked pages.
100 * Following Links:: The available methods of chasing links.
101 * Time-Stamping:: Mirroring according to time-stamps.
102 * Startup File:: Wget's initialization file.
103 * Examples:: Examples of usage.
104 * Various:: The stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
105 * Appendices:: Some useful references.
106 * Copying:: You may give out copies of Wget and of this manual.
107 * Concept Index:: Topics covered by this manual.
116 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
117 GNU Wget is a free utility for non-interactive download of files from
118 the Web. It supports @sc{http}, @sc{https}, and @sc{ftp} protocols, as
119 well as retrieval through @sc{http} proxies.
122 This chapter is a partial overview of Wget's features.
126 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
127 Wget is non-interactive, meaning that it can work in the background,
128 while the user is not logged on. This allows you to start a retrieval
129 and disconnect from the system, letting Wget finish the work. By
130 contrast, most of the Web browsers require constant user's presence,
131 which can be a great hindrance when transferring a lot of data.
137 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
141 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
142 Wget can follow links in @sc{html} and @sc{xhtml} pages and create local
143 versions of remote web sites, fully recreating the directory structure of
144 the original site. This is sometimes referred to as ``recursive
145 downloading.'' While doing that, Wget respects the Robot Exclusion
146 Standard (@file{/robots.txt}). Wget can be instructed to convert the
147 links in downloaded @sc{html} files to the local files for offline
153 File name wildcard matching and recursive mirroring of directories are
154 available when retrieving via @sc{ftp}. Wget can read the time-stamp
155 information given by both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} servers, and store it
156 locally. Thus Wget can see if the remote file has changed since last
157 retrieval, and automatically retrieve the new version if it has. This
158 makes Wget suitable for mirroring of @sc{ftp} sites, as well as home
164 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
168 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
169 Wget has been designed for robustness over slow or unstable network
170 connections; if a download fails due to a network problem, it will
171 keep retrying until the whole file has been retrieved. If the server
172 supports regetting, it will instruct the server to continue the
173 download from where it left off.
178 Wget supports proxy servers, which can lighten the network load, speed
179 up retrieval and provide access behind firewalls. However, if you are
180 behind a firewall that requires that you use a socks style gateway,
181 you can get the socks library and build Wget with support for socks.
182 Wget uses the passive @sc{ftp} downloading by default, active @sc{ftp}
187 Built-in features offer mechanisms to tune which links you wish to follow
188 (@pxref{Following Links}).
192 The retrieval is conveniently traced with printing dots, each dot
193 representing a fixed amount of data received (1KB by default). These
194 representations can be customized to your preferences.
198 Most of the features are fully configurable, either through command line
199 options, or via the initialization file @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup
200 File}). Wget allows you to define @dfn{global} startup files
201 (@file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default) for site settings.
206 @item /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
207 Default location of the @dfn{global} startup file.
217 Finally, GNU Wget is free software. This means that everyone may use
218 it, redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
219 Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation
230 By default, Wget is very simple to invoke. The basic syntax is:
233 @c man begin SYNOPSIS
234 wget [@var{option}]@dots{} [@var{URL}]@dots{}
238 Wget will simply download all the @sc{url}s specified on the command
239 line. @var{URL} is a @dfn{Uniform Resource Locator}, as defined below.
241 However, you may wish to change some of the default parameters of
242 Wget. You can do it two ways: permanently, adding the appropriate
243 command to @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup File}), or specifying it on
249 * Basic Startup Options::
250 * Logging and Input File Options::
252 * Directory Options::
255 * Recursive Retrieval Options::
256 * Recursive Accept/Reject Options::
264 @dfn{URL} is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A uniform
265 resource locator is a compact string representation for a resource
266 available via the Internet. Wget recognizes the @sc{url} syntax as per
267 @sc{rfc1738}. This is the most widely used form (square brackets denote
271 http://host[:port]/directory/file
272 ftp://host[:port]/directory/file
275 You can also encode your username and password within a @sc{url}:
278 ftp://user:password@@host/path
279 http://user:password@@host/path
282 Either @var{user} or @var{password}, or both, may be left out. If you
283 leave out either the @sc{http} username or password, no authentication
284 will be sent. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} username, @samp{anonymous}
285 will be used. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} password, your email
286 address will be supplied as a default password.@footnote{If you have a
287 @file{.netrc} file in your home directory, password will also be
290 @strong{Important Note}: if you specify a password-containing @sc{url}
291 on the command line, the username and password will be plainly visible
292 to all users on the system, by way of @code{ps}. On multi-user systems,
293 this is a big security risk. To work around it, use @code{wget -i -}
294 and feed the @sc{url}s to Wget's standard input, each on a separate
295 line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
297 You can encode unsafe characters in a @sc{url} as @samp{%xy}, @code{xy}
298 being the hexadecimal representation of the character's @sc{ascii}
299 value. Some common unsafe characters include @samp{%} (quoted as
300 @samp{%25}), @samp{:} (quoted as @samp{%3A}), and @samp{@@} (quoted as
301 @samp{%40}). Refer to @sc{rfc1738} for a comprehensive list of unsafe
304 Wget also supports the @code{type} feature for @sc{ftp} @sc{url}s. By
305 default, @sc{ftp} documents are retrieved in the binary mode (type
306 @samp{i}), which means that they are downloaded unchanged. Another
307 useful mode is the @samp{a} (@dfn{ASCII}) mode, which converts the line
308 delimiters between the different operating systems, and is thus useful
309 for text files. Here is an example:
312 ftp://host/directory/file;type=a
315 Two alternative variants of @sc{url} specification are also supported,
316 because of historical (hysterical?) reasons and their widespreaded use.
318 @sc{ftp}-only syntax (supported by @code{NcFTP}):
323 @sc{http}-only syntax (introduced by @code{Netscape}):
328 These two alternative forms are deprecated, and may cease being
329 supported in the future.
331 If you do not understand the difference between these notations, or do
332 not know which one to use, just use the plain ordinary format you use
333 with your favorite browser, like @code{Lynx} or @code{Netscape}.
336 @section Option Syntax
337 @cindex option syntax
338 @cindex syntax of options
340 Since Wget uses GNU getopts to process its arguments, every option has a
341 short form and a long form. Long options are more convenient to
342 remember, but take time to type. You may freely mix different option
343 styles, or specify options after the command-line arguments. Thus you
347 wget -r --tries=10 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/ -o log
350 The space between the option accepting an argument and the argument may
351 be omitted. Instead @samp{-o log} you can write @samp{-olog}.
353 You may put several options that do not require arguments together,
360 This is a complete equivalent of:
363 wget -d -r -c @var{URL}
366 Since the options can be specified after the arguments, you may
367 terminate them with @samp{--}. So the following will try to download
368 @sc{url} @samp{-x}, reporting failure to @file{log}:
374 The options that accept comma-separated lists all respect the convention
375 that specifying an empty list clears its value. This can be useful to
376 clear the @file{.wgetrc} settings. For instance, if your @file{.wgetrc}
377 sets @code{exclude_directories} to @file{/cgi-bin}, the following
378 example will first reset it, and then set it to exclude @file{/~nobody}
379 and @file{/~somebody}. You can also clear the lists in @file{.wgetrc}
380 (@pxref{Wgetrc Syntax}).
383 wget -X '' -X /~nobody,/~somebody
388 @node Basic Startup Options
389 @section Basic Startup Options
394 Display the version of Wget.
398 Print a help message describing all of Wget's command-line options.
402 Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is
403 specified via the @samp{-o}, output is redirected to @file{wget-log}.
405 @cindex execute wgetrc command
406 @item -e @var{command}
407 @itemx --execute @var{command}
408 Execute @var{command} as if it were a part of @file{.wgetrc}
409 (@pxref{Startup File}). A command thus invoked will be executed
410 @emph{after} the commands in @file{.wgetrc}, thus taking precedence over
411 them. If you need to specify more than one wgetrc command, use multiple
412 instances of @samp{-e}.
416 @node Logging and Input File Options
417 @section Logging and Input File Options
422 @item -o @var{logfile}
423 @itemx --output-file=@var{logfile}
424 Log all messages to @var{logfile}. The messages are normally reported
427 @cindex append to log
428 @item -a @var{logfile}
429 @itemx --append-output=@var{logfile}
430 Append to @var{logfile}. This is the same as @samp{-o}, only it appends
431 to @var{logfile} instead of overwriting the old log file. If
432 @var{logfile} does not exist, a new file is created.
437 Turn on debug output, meaning various information important to the
438 developers of Wget if it does not work properly. Your system
439 administrator may have chosen to compile Wget without debug support, in
440 which case @samp{-d} will not work. Please note that compiling with
441 debug support is always safe---Wget compiled with the debug support will
442 @emph{not} print any debug info unless requested with @samp{-d}.
443 @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information on how to use @samp{-d} for
449 Turn off Wget's output.
454 Turn on verbose output, with all the available data. The default output
459 Non-verbose output---turn off verbose without being completely quiet
460 (use @samp{-q} for that), which means that error messages and basic
461 information still get printed.
465 @itemx --input-file=@var{file}
466 Read @sc{url}s from @var{file}, in which case no @sc{url}s need to be on
467 the command line. If there are @sc{url}s both on the command line and
468 in an input file, those on the command lines will be the first ones to
469 be retrieved. The @var{file} need not be an @sc{html} document (but no
470 harm if it is)---it is enough if the @sc{url}s are just listed
473 However, if you specify @samp{--force-html}, the document will be
474 regarded as @samp{html}. In that case you may have problems with
475 relative links, which you can solve either by adding @code{<base
476 href="@var{url}">} to the documents or by specifying
477 @samp{--base=@var{url}} on the command line.
482 When input is read from a file, force it to be treated as an @sc{html}
483 file. This enables you to retrieve relative links from existing
484 @sc{html} files on your local disk, by adding @code{<base
485 href="@var{url}">} to @sc{html}, or using the @samp{--base} command-line
488 @cindex base for relative links in input file
490 @itemx --base=@var{URL}
491 When used in conjunction with @samp{-F}, prepends @var{URL} to relative
492 links in the file specified by @samp{-i}.
495 @node Download Options
496 @section Download Options
499 @cindex bind() address
500 @cindex client IP address
501 @cindex IP address, client
502 @item --bind-address=@var{ADDRESS}
503 When making client TCP/IP connections, @code{bind()} to @var{ADDRESS} on
504 the local machine. @var{ADDRESS} may be specified as a hostname or IP
505 address. This option can be useful if your machine is bound to multiple
510 @cindex number of retries
511 @item -t @var{number}
512 @itemx --tries=@var{number}
513 Set number of retries to @var{number}. Specify 0 or @samp{inf} for
514 infinite retrying. The default is to retry 20 times, with the exception
515 of fatal errors like ``connection refused'' or ``not found'' (404),
516 which are not retried.
519 @itemx --output-document=@var{file}
520 The documents will not be written to the appropriate files, but all will
521 be concatenated together and written to @var{file}. If @var{file}
522 already exists, it will be overwritten. If the @var{file} is @samp{-},
523 the documents will be written to standard output (disabling @samp{-k}).
525 Note that a combination with @samp{-k} is only well-defined for downloading
528 @cindex clobbering, file
529 @cindex downloading multiple times
533 If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget's
534 behavior depends on a few options, including @samp{-nc}. In certain
535 cases, the local file will be @dfn{clobbered}, or overwritten, upon
536 repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
538 When running Wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, or @samp{-r},
539 downloading the same file in the same directory will result in the
540 original copy of @var{file} being preserved and the second copy being
541 named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet again, the
542 third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on. When
543 @samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior is suppressed, and Wget will
544 refuse to download newer copies of @samp{@var{file}}. Therefore,
545 ``@code{no-clobber}'' is actually a misnomer in this mode---it's not
546 clobbering that's prevented (as the numeric suffixes were already
547 preventing clobbering), but rather the multiple version saving that's
550 When running Wget with @samp{-r}, but without @samp{-N} or @samp{-nc},
551 re-downloading a file will result in the new copy simply overwriting the
552 old. Adding @samp{-nc} will prevent this behavior, instead causing the
553 original version to be preserved and any newer copies on the server to
556 When running Wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r}, the
557 decision as to whether or not to download a newer copy of a file depends
558 on the local and remote timestamp and size of the file
559 (@pxref{Time-Stamping}). @samp{-nc} may not be specified at the same
562 Note that when @samp{-nc} is specified, files with the suffixes
563 @samp{.html} or @samp{.htm} will be loaded from the local disk and
564 parsed as if they had been retrieved from the Web.
566 @cindex continue retrieval
567 @cindex incomplete downloads
568 @cindex resume download
571 Continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you
572 want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or
573 by another program. For instance:
576 wget -c ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ls-lR.Z
579 If there is a file named @file{ls-lR.Z} in the current directory, Wget
580 will assume that it is the first portion of the remote file, and will
581 ask the server to continue the retrieval from an offset equal to the
582 length of the local file.
584 Note that you don't need to specify this option if you just want the
585 current invocation of Wget to retry downloading a file should the
586 connection be lost midway through. This is the default behavior.
587 @samp{-c} only affects resumption of downloads started @emph{prior} to
588 this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are still sitting around.
590 Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just download the remote
591 file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}, leaving the truncated @file{ls-lR.Z} file
594 Beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a non-empty file, and
595 it turns out that the server does not support continued downloading,
596 Wget will refuse to start the download from scratch, which would
597 effectively ruin existing contents. If you really want the download to
598 start from scratch, remove the file.
600 Also beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a file which is of
601 equal size as the one on the server, Wget will refuse to download the
602 file and print an explanatory message. The same happens when the file
603 is smaller on the server than locally (presumably because it was changed
604 on the server since your last download attempt)---because ``continuing''
605 is not meaningful, no download occurs.
607 On the other side of the coin, while using @samp{-c}, any file that's
608 bigger on the server than locally will be considered an incomplete
609 download and only @code{(length(remote) - length(local))} bytes will be
610 downloaded and tacked onto the end of the local file. This behavior can
611 be desirable in certain cases---for instance, you can use @samp{wget -c}
612 to download just the new portion that's been appended to a data
613 collection or log file.
615 However, if the file is bigger on the server because it's been
616 @emph{changed}, as opposed to just @emph{appended} to, you'll end up
617 with a garbled file. Wget has no way of verifying that the local file
618 is really a valid prefix of the remote file. You need to be especially
619 careful of this when using @samp{-c} in conjunction with @samp{-r},
620 since every file will be considered as an "incomplete download" candidate.
622 Another instance where you'll get a garbled file if you try to use
623 @samp{-c} is if you have a lame @sc{http} proxy that inserts a
624 ``transfer interrupted'' string into the local file. In the future a
625 ``rollback'' option may be added to deal with this case.
627 Note that @samp{-c} only works with @sc{ftp} servers and with @sc{http}
628 servers that support the @code{Range} header.
630 @cindex progress indicator
632 @item --progress=@var{type}
633 Select the type of the progress indicator you wish to use. Legal
634 indicators are ``dot'' and ``bar''.
636 The ``bar'' indicator is used by default. It draws an @sc{ascii} progress
637 bar graphics (a.k.a ``thermometer'' display) indicating the status of
638 retrieval. If the output is not a TTY, the ``dot'' bar will be used by
641 Use @samp{--progress=dot} to switch to the ``dot'' display. It traces
642 the retrieval by printing dots on the screen, each dot representing a
643 fixed amount of downloaded data.
645 When using the dotted retrieval, you may also set the @dfn{style} by
646 specifying the type as @samp{dot:@var{style}}. Different styles assign
647 different meaning to one dot. With the @code{default} style each dot
648 represents 1K, there are ten dots in a cluster and 50 dots in a line.
649 The @code{binary} style has a more ``computer''-like orientation---8K
650 dots, 16-dots clusters and 48 dots per line (which makes for 384K
651 lines). The @code{mega} style is suitable for downloading very large
652 files---each dot represents 64K retrieved, there are eight dots in a
653 cluster, and 48 dots on each line (so each line contains 3M).
655 Note that you can set the default style using the @code{progress}
656 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
657 command line. The exception is that, when the output is not a TTY, the
658 ``dot'' progress will be favored over ``bar''. To force the bar output,
659 use @samp{--progress=bar:force}.
662 @itemx --timestamping
663 Turn on time-stamping. @xref{Time-Stamping}, for details.
665 @cindex server response, print
667 @itemx --server-response
668 Print the headers sent by @sc{http} servers and responses sent by
671 @cindex Wget as spider
674 When invoked with this option, Wget will behave as a Web @dfn{spider},
675 which means that it will not download the pages, just check that they
676 are there. For example, you can use Wget to check your bookmarks:
679 wget --spider --force-html -i bookmarks.html
682 This feature needs much more work for Wget to get close to the
683 functionality of real web spiders.
687 @itemx --timeout=@var{seconds}
688 Set the network timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. This is equivalent
689 to specifying @samp{--dns-timeout}, @samp{--connect-timeout}, and
690 @samp{--read-timeout}, all at the same time.
692 Whenever Wget connects to or reads from a remote host, it checks for a
693 timeout and aborts the operation if the time expires. This prevents
694 anomalous occurrences such as hanging reads or infinite connects. The
695 only timeout enabled by default is a 900-second timeout for reading.
696 Setting timeout to 0 disables checking for timeouts.
698 Unless you know what you are doing, it is best not to set any of the
699 timeout-related options.
703 @item --dns-timeout=@var{seconds}
704 Set the DNS lookup timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. DNS lookups that
705 don't complete within the specified time will fail. By default, there
706 is no timeout on DNS lookups, other than that implemented by system
709 @cindex connect timeout
710 @cindex timeout, connect
711 @item --connect-timeout=@var{seconds}
712 Set the connect timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. TCP connections that
713 take longer to establish will be aborted. By default, there is no
714 connect timeout, other than that implemented by system libraries.
717 @cindex timeout, read
718 @item --read-timeout=@var{seconds}
719 Set the read (and write) timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. Reads that
720 take longer will fail. The default value for read timeout is 900
723 @cindex bandwidth, limit
725 @cindex limit bandwidth
726 @item --limit-rate=@var{amount}
727 Limit the download speed to @var{amount} bytes per second. Amount may
728 be expressed in bytes, kilobytes with the @samp{k} suffix, or megabytes
729 with the @samp{m} suffix. For example, @samp{--limit-rate=20k} will
730 limit the retrieval rate to 20KB/s. This kind of thing is useful when,
731 for whatever reason, you don't want Wget to consume the entire available
734 Note that Wget implements the limiting by sleeping the appropriate
735 amount of time after a network read that took less time than specified
736 by the rate. Eventually this strategy causes the TCP transfer to slow
737 down to approximately the specified rate. However, it may take some
738 time for this balance to be achieved, so don't be surprised if limiting
739 the rate doesn't work well with very small files.
743 @item -w @var{seconds}
744 @itemx --wait=@var{seconds}
745 Wait the specified number of seconds between the retrievals. Use of
746 this option is recommended, as it lightens the server load by making the
747 requests less frequent. Instead of in seconds, the time can be
748 specified in minutes using the @code{m} suffix, in hours using @code{h}
749 suffix, or in days using @code{d} suffix.
751 Specifying a large value for this option is useful if the network or the
752 destination host is down, so that Wget can wait long enough to
753 reasonably expect the network error to be fixed before the retry.
755 @cindex retries, waiting between
756 @cindex waiting between retries
757 @item --waitretry=@var{seconds}
758 If you don't want Wget to wait between @emph{every} retrieval, but only
759 between retries of failed downloads, you can use this option. Wget will
760 use @dfn{linear backoff}, waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
761 given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second failure on that
762 file, up to the maximum number of @var{seconds} you specify. Therefore,
763 a value of 10 will actually make Wget wait up to (1 + 2 + ... + 10) = 55
766 Note that this option is turned on by default in the global
772 Some web sites may perform log analysis to identify retrieval programs
773 such as Wget by looking for statistically significant similarities in
774 the time between requests. This option causes the time between requests
775 to vary between 0 and 2 * @var{wait} seconds, where @var{wait} was
776 specified using the @samp{--wait} option, in order to mask Wget's
777 presence from such analysis.
779 A recent article in a publication devoted to development on a popular
780 consumer platform provided code to perform this analysis on the fly.
781 Its author suggested blocking at the class C address level to ensure
782 automated retrieval programs were blocked despite changing DHCP-supplied
785 The @samp{--random-wait} option was inspired by this ill-advised
786 recommendation to block many unrelated users from a web site due to the
791 @itemx --proxy=on/off
792 Turn proxy support on or off. The proxy is on by default if the
793 appropriate environment variable is defined.
795 For more information about the use of proxies with Wget, @xref{Proxies}.
799 @itemx --quota=@var{quota}
800 Specify download quota for automatic retrievals. The value can be
801 specified in bytes (default), kilobytes (with @samp{k} suffix), or
802 megabytes (with @samp{m} suffix).
804 Note that quota will never affect downloading a single file. So if you
805 specify @samp{wget -Q10k ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/ls-lR.gz}, all of the
806 @file{ls-lR.gz} will be downloaded. The same goes even when several
807 @sc{url}s are specified on the command-line. However, quota is
808 respected when retrieving either recursively, or from an input file.
809 Thus you may safely type @samp{wget -Q2m -i sites}---download will be
810 aborted when the quota is exceeded.
812 Setting quota to 0 or to @samp{inf} unlimits the download quota.
815 @cindex caching of DNS lookups
816 @item --dns-cache=off
817 Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the addresses
818 it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly contact the DNS
819 server for the same (typically small) set of addresses it retrieves
820 from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will contact DNS
823 However, in some cases it is not desirable to cache host names, even for
824 the duration of a short-running application like Wget. For example,
825 some HTTP servers are hosted on machines with dynamically allocated IP
826 addresses that change from time to time. Their DNS entries are updated
827 along with each change. When Wget's download from such a host gets
828 interrupted by IP address change, Wget retries the download, but (due to
829 DNS caching) it contacts the old address. With the DNS cache turned
830 off, Wget will repeat the DNS lookup for every connect and will thus get
831 the correct dynamic address every time---at the cost of additional DNS
832 lookups where they're probably not needed.
834 If you don't understand the above description, you probably won't need
837 @cindex file names, restrict
838 @cindex Windows file names
839 @item --restrict-file-names=@var{mode}
840 Change which characters found in remote URLs may show up in local file
841 names generated from those URLs. Characters that are @dfn{restricted}
842 by this option are escaped, i.e. replaced with @samp{%HH}, where
843 @samp{HH} is the hexadecimal number that corresponds to the restricted
846 By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid as part of
847 file names on your operating system, as well as control characters that
848 are typically unprintable. This option is useful for changing these
849 defaults, either because you are downloading to a non-native partition,
850 or because you want to disable escaping of the control characters.
852 When mode is set to ``unix'', Wget escapes the character @samp{/} and
853 the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159. This is the
854 default on Unix-like OS'es.
856 When mode is set to ``windows'', Wget escapes the characters @samp{\},
857 @samp{|}, @samp{/}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
858 @samp{>}, and the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159.
859 In addition to this, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead of
860 @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
861 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
862 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
863 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
864 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
865 mode. This mode is the default on Windows.
867 If you append @samp{,nocontrol} to the mode, as in
868 @samp{unix,nocontrol}, escaping of the control characters is also
869 switched off. You can use @samp{--restrict-file-names=nocontrol} to
870 turn off escaping of control characters without affecting the choice of
871 the OS to use as file name restriction mode.
874 @node Directory Options
875 @section Directory Options
879 @itemx --no-directories
880 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
881 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
882 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
883 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
886 @itemx --force-directories
887 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
888 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
889 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
890 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
893 @itemx --no-host-directories
894 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
895 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
896 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
899 @item --protocol-directories
900 Use the protocol name as a directory component of local file names. For
901 example, with this option, @samp{wget -r http://@var{host}} will save to
902 @samp{http/@var{host}/...} rather than just to @samp{@var{host}/...}.
904 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
905 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
906 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
909 @cindex cut directories
910 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
911 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
912 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
915 Take, for example, the directory at
916 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
917 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
918 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
919 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
920 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
921 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
922 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
926 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
928 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
929 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
931 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
936 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
937 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
938 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
939 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
940 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
942 @cindex directory prefix
943 @item -P @var{prefix}
944 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
945 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
946 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
947 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
952 @section HTTP Options
955 @cindex .html extension
957 @itemx --html-extension
958 If a file of type @samp{application/xhtml+xml} or @samp{text/html} is
959 downloaded and the URL does not end with the regexp
960 @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause the suffix @samp{.html}
961 to be appended to the local filename. This is useful, for instance, when
962 you're mirroring a remote site that uses @samp{.asp} pages, but you want
963 the mirrored pages to be viewable on your stock Apache server. Another
964 good use for this is when you're downloading CGI-generated materials. A URL
965 like @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
966 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
968 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
969 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
970 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
971 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
972 @samp{text/html} or @samp{application/xhtml+xml}. To prevent this
973 re-downloading, you must use @samp{-k} and @samp{-K} so that the original
974 version of the file will be saved as @file{@var{X}.orig} (@pxref{Recursive
978 @cindex http password
979 @cindex authentication
980 @item --http-user=@var{user}
981 @itemx --http-passwd=@var{password}
982 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
983 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
984 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure) or the
985 @code{digest} authentication scheme.
987 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
988 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
989 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
990 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
991 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
992 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
993 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
995 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1001 Disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will send the remote
1002 server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma: no-cache}) to get the
1003 file from the remote service, rather than returning the cached version.
1004 This is especially useful for retrieving and flushing out-of-date
1005 documents on proxy servers.
1007 Caching is allowed by default.
1011 Disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism for maintaining
1012 server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie using the
1013 @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the same cookie
1014 upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server owners to keep
1015 track of visitors and for sites to exchange this information, some
1016 consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to use cookies;
1017 however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
1019 @cindex loading cookies
1020 @cindex cookies, loading
1021 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
1022 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
1023 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
1024 @file{cookies.txt} file.
1026 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
1027 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
1028 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
1029 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
1030 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
1031 proves your identity.
1033 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
1034 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
1035 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
1036 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
1037 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
1038 cookie files in different locations:
1042 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1044 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1045 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1046 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1047 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1048 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1050 @item Internet Explorer.
1051 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1052 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1053 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1055 @item Other browsers.
1056 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1057 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1058 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1061 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1062 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1063 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1064 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1065 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1068 wget --cookies=off --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1071 @cindex saving cookies
1072 @cindex cookies, saving
1073 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1074 Save cookies to @var{file} before exiting. This will not save cookies
1075 that have expired or that have no expiry time (so-called ``session
1076 cookies''), but also see @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
1078 @cindex cookies, session
1079 @cindex session cookies
1080 @item --keep-session-cookies
1082 When specified, causes @samp{--save-cookies} to also save session
1083 cookies. Session cookies are normally not save because they are
1084 supposed to be forgotten when you exit the browser. Saving them is
1085 useful on sites that require you to log in or to visit the home page
1086 before you can access some pages. With this option, multiple Wget runs
1087 are considered a single browser session as far as the site is concerned.
1089 Since the cookie file format does not normally carry session cookies,
1090 Wget marks them with an expiry timestamp of 0. Wget's
1091 @samp{--load-cookies} recognizes those as session cookies, but it might
1092 confuse other browsers. Also note that cookies so loaded will be
1093 treated as other session cookies, which means that if you want
1094 @samp{--save-cookies} to preserve them again, you must use
1095 @samp{--keep-session-cookies} again.
1097 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1098 @cindex ignore length
1099 @item --ignore-length
1100 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1101 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1102 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1103 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1104 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1107 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1108 if it never existed.
1111 @item --header=@var{additional-header}
1112 Define an @var{additional-header} to be passed to the @sc{http} servers.
1113 Headers must contain a @samp{:} preceded by one or more non-blank
1114 characters, and must not contain newlines.
1116 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1117 @samp{--header} more than once.
1121 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1122 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1123 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1127 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1128 previous user-defined headers.
1131 @cindex proxy password
1132 @cindex proxy authentication
1133 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1134 @itemx --proxy-passwd=@var{password}
1135 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1136 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1137 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1139 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-passwd}
1140 pertain here as well.
1142 @cindex http referer
1143 @cindex referer, http
1144 @item --referer=@var{url}
1145 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1146 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1147 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1148 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1150 @cindex server response, save
1151 @item --save-headers
1152 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1153 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1156 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1157 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1158 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1160 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1161 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1162 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1163 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1164 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1167 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1168 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1169 While conceptually this is not such a bad idea, it has been abused by
1170 servers denying information to clients other than @code{Mozilla} or
1171 Microsoft @code{Internet Explorer}. This option allows you to change
1172 the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget. Use of this option is
1173 discouraged, unless you really know what you are doing.
1176 @item --post-data=@var{string}
1177 @itemx --post-file=@var{file}
1178 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the specified data
1179 in the request body. @code{--post-data} sends @var{string} as data,
1180 whereas @code{--post-file} sends the contents of @var{file}. Other than
1181 that, they work in exactly the same way.
1183 Please be aware that Wget needs to know the size of the POST data in
1184 advance. Therefore the argument to @code{--post-file} must be a regular
1185 file; specifying a FIFO or something like @file{/dev/stdin} won't work.
1186 It's not quite clear how to work around this limitation inherent in
1187 HTTP/1.0. Although HTTP/1.1 introduces @dfn{chunked} transfer that
1188 doesn't require knowing the request length in advance, a client can't
1189 use chunked unless it knows it's talking to an HTTP/1.1 server. And it
1190 can't know that until it receives a response, which in turn requires the
1191 request to have been completed -- a chicken-and-egg problem.
1193 Note: if Wget is redirected after the POST request is completed, it will
1194 not send the POST data to the redirected URL. This is because URLs that
1195 process POST often respond with a redirection to a regular page
1196 (although that's technically disallowed), which does not desire or
1197 accept POST. It is not yet clear that this behavior is optimal; if it
1198 doesn't work out, it will be changed.
1200 This example shows how to log to a server using POST and then proceed to
1201 download the desired pages, presumably only accessible to authorized
1206 # @r{Log in to the server. This can be done only once.}
1207 wget --save-cookies cookies.txt \
1208 --post-data 'user=foo&password=bar' \
1209 http://server.com/auth.php
1211 # @r{Now grab the page or pages we care about.}
1212 wget --load-cookies cookies.txt \
1213 -p http://server.com/interesting/article.php
1219 @section FTP Options
1222 @cindex .listing files, removing
1223 @item --no-remove-listing
1224 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1225 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1226 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1227 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1228 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1229 you're running is complete).
1231 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1232 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1233 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1234 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1235 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1236 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1237 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1238 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1239 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1241 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1242 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1243 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1244 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1245 will be overwritten.
1247 @cindex globbing, toggle
1249 Turn off @sc{ftp} globbing. Globbing refers to the use of shell-like
1250 special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[}
1251 and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the same directory at
1255 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1258 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1259 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1262 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1263 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1264 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1265 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1268 @item --no-passive-ftp
1269 Disable the use of the @dfn{passive} FTP transfer mode. Passive FTP
1270 mandates that the client connect to the server to establish the data
1271 connection rather than the other way around.
1273 If the machine is connected to the Internet directly, both passive and
1274 active FTP should work equally well. Behind most firewall and NAT
1275 configurations passive FTP has a better chance of working. However,
1276 in some rare firewall configurations, active FTP actually works when
1277 passive FTP doesn't. If you suspect this to be the case, use this
1278 option, or set @code{passive_ftp=off} in your init file.
1280 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1281 @item --retr-symlinks
1282 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1283 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1284 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1285 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1286 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1288 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1289 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1290 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1291 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1294 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1295 specified on the command-line, rather than because it was recursed to,
1296 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1299 @cindex Keep-Alive, turning off
1300 @cindex Persistent Connections, disabling
1301 @item --no-http-keep-alive
1302 Turn off the ``keep-alive'' feature for HTTP downloads. Normally, Wget
1303 asks the server to keep the connection open so that, when you download
1304 more than one document from the same server, they get transferred over
1305 the same TCP connection. This saves time and at the same time reduces
1306 the load on the server.
1308 This option is useful when, for some reason, persistent (keep-alive)
1309 connections don't work for you, for example due to a server bug or due
1310 to the inability of server-side scripts to cope with the connections.
1313 @node Recursive Retrieval Options
1314 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1319 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Download}, for more
1322 @item -l @var{depth}
1323 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1324 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1325 Download}). The default maximum depth is 5.
1327 @cindex proxy filling
1328 @cindex delete after retrieval
1329 @cindex filling proxy cache
1330 @item --delete-after
1331 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1332 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1333 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1336 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1339 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1342 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1343 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1344 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1345 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1346 created in the first place.
1348 @cindex conversion of links
1349 @cindex link conversion
1351 @itemx --convert-links
1352 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1353 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1354 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1355 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-@sc{html}
1358 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1362 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1363 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1365 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1366 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1367 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1368 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1371 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1372 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1374 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1375 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1376 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1377 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1380 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1381 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1382 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1383 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1384 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1387 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1388 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1389 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1391 @cindex backing up converted files
1393 @itemx --backup-converted
1394 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1395 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1400 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1401 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1402 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1403 @samp{-r -N -l inf --no-remove-listing}.
1405 @cindex page requisites
1406 @cindex required images, downloading
1408 @itemx --page-requisites
1409 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
1410 properly display a given @sc{html} page. This includes such things as
1411 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
1413 Ordinarily, when downloading a single @sc{html} page, any requisite documents
1414 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
1415 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
1416 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
1417 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
1420 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
1421 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
1422 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
1423 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
1424 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
1426 If one executes the command:
1429 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
1432 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
1433 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
1434 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
1435 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
1436 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
1439 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1442 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
1443 will be downloaded. Similarly,
1446 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1449 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
1450 to be downloaded. One might think that:
1453 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1456 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
1457 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
1458 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single @sc{html}
1459 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the command-line or in a
1460 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
1461 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
1464 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1467 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
1468 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
1469 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
1470 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
1471 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
1472 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
1475 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1478 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
1479 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
1480 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
1483 @cindex @sc{html} comments
1484 @cindex comments, @sc{html}
1485 @item --strict-comments
1486 Turn on strict parsing of @sc{html} comments. The default is to terminate
1487 comments at the first occurrence of @samp{-->}.
1489 According to specifications, @sc{html} comments are expressed as @sc{sgml}
1490 @dfn{declarations}. Declaration is special markup that begins with
1491 @samp{<!} and ends with @samp{>}, such as @samp{<!DOCTYPE ...>}, that
1492 may contain comments between a pair of @samp{--} delimiters. @sc{html}
1493 comments are ``empty declarations'', @sc{sgml} declarations without any
1494 non-comment text. Therefore, @samp{<!--foo-->} is a valid comment, and
1495 so is @samp{<!--one-- --two-->}, but @samp{<!--1--2-->} is not.
1497 On the other hand, most @sc{html} writers don't perceive comments as anything
1498 other than text delimited with @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}, which is not
1499 quite the same. For example, something like @samp{<!------------>}
1500 works as a valid comment as long as the number of dashes is a multiple
1501 of four (!). If not, the comment technically lasts until the next
1502 @samp{--}, which may be at the other end of the document. Because of
1503 this, many popular browsers completely ignore the specification and
1504 implement what users have come to expect: comments delimited with
1505 @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}.
1507 Until version 1.9, Wget interpreted comments strictly, which resulted in
1508 missing links in many web pages that displayed fine in browsers, but had
1509 the misfortune of containing non-compliant comments. Beginning with
1510 version 1.9, Wget has joined the ranks of clients that implements
1511 ``naive'' comments, terminating each comment at the first occurrence of
1514 If, for whatever reason, you want strict comment parsing, use this
1515 option to turn it on.
1518 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1519 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1522 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
1523 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
1524 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
1525 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files} for more details).
1527 @item -D @var{domain-list}
1528 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
1529 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
1530 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
1532 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
1533 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed.
1534 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1536 @cindex follow FTP links
1538 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
1539 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
1541 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
1542 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
1543 Wget has an internal table of @sc{html} tag / attribute pairs that it
1544 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
1545 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
1546 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
1547 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
1549 @item --ignore-tags=@var{list}
1550 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
1551 certain @sc{html} tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
1552 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
1554 In the past, this option was the best bet for downloading a single page
1555 and its requisites, using a command-line like:
1558 wget --ignore-tags=a,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1561 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
1562 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
1563 specifying tags to ignore was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to
1564 ignore @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded.
1565 Now the best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
1566 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
1570 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
1571 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1575 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
1576 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
1577 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
1580 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
1581 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
1582 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements
1583 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1586 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
1587 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
1588 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements of
1589 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1593 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
1594 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
1595 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
1596 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
1601 @node Recursive Download
1602 @chapter Recursive Download
1605 @cindex recursive download
1607 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
1608 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
1609 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieval}, or @dfn{recursion}.
1611 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} from
1612 the given @sc{url}, documents, retrieving the files the @sc{html}
1613 document was referring to, through markup like @code{href}, or
1614 @code{src}. If the freshly downloaded file is also of type
1615 @code{text/html} or @code{application/xhtml+xml}, it will be parsed and
1618 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html} content is
1619 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
1620 @sc{html} document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
1621 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
1622 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
1623 until the specified maximum depth.
1625 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
1626 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
1628 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
1629 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
1630 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
1631 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
1632 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
1635 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
1636 the one found on the remote server.
1638 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
1639 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
1640 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
1641 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
1643 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
1644 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
1645 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
1646 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
1647 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
1648 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
1649 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
1651 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
1652 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
1653 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
1654 consume memory and CPU.
1656 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
1657 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
1658 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
1659 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
1660 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
1661 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
1662 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
1665 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
1668 @node Following Links
1669 @chapter Following Links
1671 @cindex following links
1673 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
1674 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
1675 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
1677 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
1678 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
1679 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
1681 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
1682 links it will follow.
1685 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
1686 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
1687 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
1688 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
1689 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
1692 @node Spanning Hosts
1693 @section Spanning Hosts
1694 @cindex spanning hosts
1695 @cindex hosts, spanning
1697 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
1698 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
1699 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
1700 your Wget into a small version of google.
1702 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
1703 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
1704 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
1705 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the @sc{html}
1706 pages refer to both interchangeably.
1709 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
1711 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
1712 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
1713 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
1714 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
1715 up much more data than you have intended.
1717 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
1719 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
1720 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
1721 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
1722 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
1723 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
1724 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
1727 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
1730 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
1731 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
1733 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
1735 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
1736 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
1737 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
1738 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
1739 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
1743 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
1749 @node Types of Files
1750 @section Types of Files
1751 @cindex types of files
1753 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
1754 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
1755 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
1756 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
1758 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
1759 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
1762 @cindex accept wildcards
1763 @cindex accept suffixes
1764 @cindex wildcards, accept
1765 @cindex suffixes, accept
1767 @item -A @var{acclist}
1768 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
1769 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
1770 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
1771 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
1772 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
1773 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
1774 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
1776 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
1777 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
1778 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
1779 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
1780 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
1781 a description of how pattern matching works.
1783 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
1784 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
1786 @cindex reject wildcards
1787 @cindex reject suffixes
1788 @cindex wildcards, reject
1789 @cindex suffixes, reject
1790 @item -R @var{rejlist}
1791 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
1792 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
1793 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
1794 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
1795 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
1797 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
1798 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
1799 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
1800 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
1801 expansion by the shell.
1804 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
1805 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
1806 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
1807 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
1809 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
1810 files; Wget must load all the @sc{html}s to know where to go at
1811 all---recursive retrieval would make no sense otherwise.
1813 @node Directory-Based Limits
1814 @section Directory-Based Limits
1816 @cindex directory limits
1818 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
1819 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
1820 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
1821 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
1822 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
1823 @file{/dev} directories.
1825 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
1826 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
1827 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
1829 @cindex directories, include
1830 @cindex include directories
1831 @cindex accept directories
1834 @itemx --include @var{list}
1835 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
1836 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
1837 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
1838 directories are absolute paths.
1840 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
1841 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
1842 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
1845 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
1848 @cindex directories, exclude
1849 @cindex exclude directories
1850 @cindex reject directories
1852 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
1853 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
1854 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
1855 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
1856 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
1857 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
1859 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
1860 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
1861 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
1862 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
1867 @itemx no_parent = on
1868 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
1869 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
1870 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
1871 parent directory/directories.
1873 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
1874 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
1875 Supposing you issue Wget with:
1878 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
1881 You may rest assured that none of the references to
1882 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
1883 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
1884 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
1885 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
1886 intelligent fashion.
1889 @node Relative Links
1890 @section Relative Links
1891 @cindex relative links
1893 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
1894 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
1895 server root. For example, these links are relative:
1899 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
1900 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
1903 These links are not relative:
1907 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
1908 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
1911 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
1912 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
1913 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
1915 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
1919 @section Following FTP Links
1920 @cindex following ftp links
1922 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
1923 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
1924 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
1927 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
1928 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
1929 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
1930 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
1931 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
1932 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
1933 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
1935 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
1936 retrieved recursively further.
1939 @chapter Time-Stamping
1940 @cindex time-stamping
1941 @cindex timestamping
1942 @cindex updating the archives
1943 @cindex incremental updating
1945 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
1946 Internet is updating your archives.
1948 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
1949 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
1950 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
1951 offer the option of incremental updating.
1953 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
1954 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
1955 the place of the old ones.
1957 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
1961 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
1964 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
1965 recently than the local file.
1968 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
1969 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
1970 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
1972 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
1973 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
1974 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
1975 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
1976 does, and the remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
1978 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
1979 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
1983 * Time-Stamping Usage::
1984 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
1985 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
1988 @node Time-Stamping Usage
1989 @section Time-Stamping Usage
1990 @cindex time-stamping usage
1991 @cindex usage, time-stamping
1993 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
1994 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
1997 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2000 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
2001 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
2002 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
2003 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
2005 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
2006 changed, and download it if it has.
2009 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2012 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
2013 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
2014 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
2015 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
2017 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
2020 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
2023 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
2024 interpret the @samp{*}.)
2026 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
2027 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
2028 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
2029 since the last download.
2031 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
2032 command like the following, weekly:
2035 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2038 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
2039 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
2040 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
2041 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
2042 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
2044 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2045 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2046 @cindex http time-stamping
2048 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
2049 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
2050 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
2051 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
2052 retrieved unconditionally.
2054 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
2055 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
2056 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
2059 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
2060 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
2061 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
2062 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
2063 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
2064 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
2067 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
2068 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
2069 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
2070 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
2071 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
2073 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
2074 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
2076 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2077 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2078 @cindex ftp time-stamping
2080 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
2081 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
2084 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
2085 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
2086 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
2087 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
2088 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
2089 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
2090 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
2091 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
2093 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
2094 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
2095 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
2096 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
2097 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
2098 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
2100 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
2101 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
2102 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
2103 Wget may support this command in the future.
2106 @chapter Startup File
2107 @cindex startup file
2113 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
2114 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
2115 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
2116 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
2118 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
2119 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
2120 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
2121 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
2123 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
2127 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
2128 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
2129 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
2130 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
2133 @node Wgetrc Location
2134 @section Wgetrc Location
2135 @cindex wgetrc location
2136 @cindex location of wgetrc
2138 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
2139 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
2140 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
2141 from there, if it exists.
2143 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
2144 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
2145 further attempts will be made.
2147 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
2149 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
2150 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
2151 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
2152 Fascist admins, away!
2155 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2156 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2157 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2159 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2165 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2166 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2168 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2169 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2170 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2173 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2174 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2175 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2181 @node Wgetrc Commands
2182 @section Wgetrc Commands
2183 @cindex wgetrc commands
2185 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2186 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2187 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}. A fancier kind of
2188 Boolean allowed in some cases is the @dfn{lockable Boolean}, which may
2189 be set to @samp{on}, @samp{off}, @samp{always}, or @samp{never}. If an
2190 option is set to @samp{always} or @samp{never}, that value will be
2191 locked in for the duration of the Wget invocation---command-line options
2194 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2195 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2196 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2197 values can be any non-empty string.
2199 Most of these commands have direct command-line equivalents. Also, any
2200 wgetrc command can be specified on the command line using the
2201 @samp{--execute} switch (@pxref{Basic Startup Options}.)
2204 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2205 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2207 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2208 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2210 @item continue = on/off
2211 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
2212 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
2214 @item background = on/off
2215 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2218 @item backup_converted = on/off
2219 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2220 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2222 @c @item backups = @var{number}
2223 @c #### Document me!
2225 @item base = @var{string}
2226 Consider relative @sc{url}s in @sc{url} input files forced to be
2227 interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string}---the same as
2230 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2231 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address} option.
2233 @item cache = on/off
2234 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{--no-cache}
2237 @item convert_links = on/off
2238 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
2240 @item cookies = on/off
2241 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
2243 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
2244 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies}.
2246 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
2247 Save cookies to @var{file}. See @samp{--save-cookies}.
2249 @item connect_timeout = @var{n}
2250 Set the connect timeout---the same as @samp{--connect-timeout}.
2252 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
2253 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components.
2255 @item debug = on/off
2256 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
2258 @item delete_after = on/off
2259 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
2261 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
2262 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P}.
2264 @item dirstruct = on/off
2265 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
2268 @item dns_cache = on/off
2269 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
2270 option is normally used to turn it off. Same as @samp{--dns-cache}.
2272 @item dns_timeout = @var{n}
2273 Set the DNS timeout---the same as @samp{--dns-timeout}.
2275 @item domains = @var{string}
2276 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2278 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
2279 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
2280 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
2281 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
2282 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
2283 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
2284 (@pxref{Download Options}).
2286 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
2287 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
2288 the retrieval (50 by default).
2290 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
2291 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
2293 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
2294 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2295 download---the same as @samp{-X} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2297 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
2298 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2300 @item follow_ftp = on/off
2301 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
2302 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
2304 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
2305 Only follow certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
2306 @samp{--follow-tags}.
2308 @item force_html = on/off
2309 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
2310 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
2312 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
2313 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2317 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{--glob} and @samp{--no-glob}.
2319 @item header = @var{string}
2320 Define an additional header, like @samp{--header}.
2322 @item html_extension = on/off
2323 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} or
2324 @samp{application/xhtml+xml} files without it, like
2327 @item http_keep_alive = on/off
2328 Turn the keep-alive feature on or off (defaults to on). The same as
2329 `--http-keep-alive'.
2331 @item http_passwd = @var{string}
2332 Set @sc{http} password.
2334 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
2335 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2338 @item http_user = @var{string}
2339 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}.
2341 @item ignore_length = on/off
2342 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
2343 @samp{--ignore-length}.
2345 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
2346 Ignore certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
2347 @samp{--ignore-tags}.
2349 @item include_directories = @var{string}
2350 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2351 downloading---the same as @samp{-I}.
2353 @item input = @var{string}
2354 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i}.
2356 @item kill_longer = on/off
2357 Consider data longer than specified in content-length header as invalid
2358 (and retry getting it). The default behavior is to save as much data
2359 as there is, provided there is more than or equal to the value in
2360 @code{Content-Length}.
2362 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
2363 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
2364 The same as @samp{--limit-rate}.
2366 @item logfile = @var{string}
2367 Set logfile---the same as @samp{-o}.
2369 @item login = @var{string}
2370 Your user name on the remote machine, for @sc{ftp}. Defaults to
2373 @item mirror = on/off
2374 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
2376 @item netrc = on/off
2377 Turn reading netrc on or off.
2379 @item noclobber = on/off
2382 @item no_parent = on/off
2383 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
2384 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2386 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
2387 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
2388 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
2390 @item output_document = @var{string}
2391 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O}.
2393 @item page_requisites = on/off
2394 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single @sc{html} page to
2395 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
2397 @item passive_ftp = on/off/always/never
2398 Change setting of passive @sc{ftp}, equivalent to the
2399 @samp{--passive-ftp} option. Some scripts and @samp{.pm} (Perl
2400 module) files download files using @samp{wget --passive-ftp}. If your
2401 firewall does not allow this, you can set @samp{passive_ftp = never}
2402 to override the command-line.
2404 @item passwd = @var{string}
2405 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{password}. Without this setting, the
2406 password defaults to @samp{username@@hostname.domainname}.
2408 @item post_data = @var{string}
2409 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send @var{string} in
2410 the request body. The same as @samp{--post-data}.
2412 @item post_file = @var{file}
2413 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the contents of
2414 @var{file} in the request body. The same as @samp{--post-file}.
2416 @item progress = @var{string}
2417 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are ``dot'' and
2420 @item protocol_directories = on/off
2421 When set, use the protocol name as a directory component of local file
2422 names. The same as @samp{--protocol-directories}.
2424 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
2425 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like @samp{--proxy-user}.
2427 @item proxy_passwd = @var{string}
2428 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like @samp{--proxy-passwd}.
2430 @item referer = @var{string}
2431 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like @samp{--referer}. (Note it
2432 was the folks who wrote the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of
2433 ``referrer'' wrong.)
2435 @item quiet = on/off
2436 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
2438 @item quota = @var{quota}
2439 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
2440 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
2441 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
2442 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
2443 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
2444 to 5 mbytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
2447 @item read_timeout = @var{n}
2448 Set the read (and write) timeout---the same as @samp{--read-timeout}.
2450 @item reclevel = @var{n}
2451 Recursion level---the same as @samp{-l}.
2453 @item recursive = on/off
2454 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
2456 @item relative_only = on/off
2457 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
2460 @item remove_listing = on/off
2461 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
2462 to off is the same as @samp{--no-remove-listing}.
2464 @item restrict_file_names = unix/windows
2465 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
2466 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
2468 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
2469 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
2470 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
2472 @item robots = on/off
2473 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
2474 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
2475 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
2476 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
2479 @item server_response = on/off
2480 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
2481 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
2483 @item span_hosts = on/off
2486 @item strict_comments = on/off
2487 Same as @samp{--strict-comments}.
2489 @item timeout = @var{n}
2490 Set timeout value---the same as @samp{-T}.
2492 @item timestamping = on/off
2493 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
2495 @item tries = @var{n}
2496 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t}.
2498 @item use_proxy = on/off
2499 Turn proxy support on/off. The same as @samp{-Y}.
2501 @item verbose = on/off
2502 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
2504 @item wait = @var{n}
2505 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w}.
2507 @item waitretry = @var{n}
2508 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
2509 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry}. Note that this is turned on by
2510 default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
2512 @item randomwait = on/off
2513 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
2514 @samp{--random-wait}.
2518 @section Sample Wgetrc
2519 @cindex sample wgetrc
2521 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
2522 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
2523 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
2524 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
2526 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
2527 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
2531 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
2538 @c man begin EXAMPLES
2539 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
2543 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
2544 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
2545 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
2549 @section Simple Usage
2553 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
2556 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
2560 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
2561 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
2562 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
2563 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
2564 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
2565 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
2568 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
2572 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
2573 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
2574 shall use @samp{-t}.
2577 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
2580 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
2581 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
2584 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
2588 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
2592 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
2593 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
2596 wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2601 @node Advanced Usage
2602 @section Advanced Usage
2606 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
2613 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
2617 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
2618 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
2619 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
2622 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2626 The same as the above, but convert the links in the @sc{html} files to
2627 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
2630 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2634 Retrieve only one @sc{html} page, but make sure that all the elements needed
2635 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
2636 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
2637 references the downloaded links.
2640 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2643 The @sc{html} page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
2644 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
2645 depending on where they were on the remote server.
2648 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
2649 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
2650 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
2651 subdirectory of the current directory.
2654 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
2655 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2659 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
2663 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
2667 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
2670 wget -s http://www.lycos.com/
2675 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
2679 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
2683 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
2684 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
2685 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
2689 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
2692 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
2693 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Download}), with maximum depth
2694 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
2695 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
2696 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
2700 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
2701 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
2705 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
2709 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
2710 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
2713 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
2716 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
2717 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
2720 @cindex redirecting output
2722 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
2726 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
2729 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
2730 documents from remote hotlists:
2733 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
2737 @node Very Advanced Usage
2738 @section Very Advanced Usage
2743 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
2744 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
2745 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
2746 to recheck a site each Sunday:
2750 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2754 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
2755 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
2756 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
2757 back up the original @sc{html} files before the conversion. Wget invocation
2758 would look like this:
2761 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
2762 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2766 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
2767 when @sc{html} files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
2768 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
2769 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
2770 or @samp{application/xhtml+xml} to @file{@var{name}.html}.
2773 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
2774 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
2778 Or, with less typing:
2781 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2790 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
2793 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers
2794 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
2795 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
2796 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
2797 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
2798 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
2805 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
2806 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
2807 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
2808 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
2809 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
2810 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
2811 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
2812 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
2813 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
2814 using an authorized proxy.
2816 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
2817 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
2818 the following environment variables:
2822 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{http}
2826 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
2827 connections. It is quite common that @sc{http_proxy} and @sc{ftp_proxy}
2828 are set to the same @sc{url}.
2831 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
2832 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
2833 @code{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
2837 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
2838 may be specified from within Wget itself.
2842 @itemx --proxy=on/off
2843 @itemx proxy = on/off
2844 This option may be used to turn the proxy support on or off. Proxy
2845 support is on by default, provided that the appropriate environment
2848 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
2849 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
2850 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
2851 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
2852 specified by the environment.
2855 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
2856 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
2857 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
2858 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
2859 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
2861 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
2862 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
2863 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
2864 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
2868 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
2871 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
2872 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
2873 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_passwd} to set the proxy
2874 username and password.
2877 @section Distribution
2878 @cindex latest version
2880 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
2881 master GNU archive site ftp.gnu.org, and its mirrors. For example,
2882 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
2883 @url{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
2886 @section Mailing List
2887 @cindex mailing list
2890 Wget has its own mailing list at @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}, thanks
2891 to Karsten Thygesen. The mailing list is for discussion of Wget
2892 features and web, reporting Wget bugs (those that you think may be of
2893 interest to the public) and mailing announcements. You are welcome to
2894 subscribe. The more people on the list, the better!
2896 To subscribe, simply send mail to @email{wget-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}.
2897 Unsubscribe by mailing to @email{wget-unsubscribe@@sunsite.dk}.
2899 The mailing list is archived at @url{http://fly.srk.fer.hr/archive/wget}.
2900 Alternative archive is available at
2901 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.auc.dk/}.
2903 @node Reporting Bugs
2904 @section Reporting Bugs
2906 @cindex reporting bugs
2910 You are welcome to send bug reports about GNU Wget to
2911 @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}.
2913 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
2918 Please try to ascertain that the behavior you see really is a bug. If
2919 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
2920 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
2921 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug.
2924 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
2925 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 -Y0
2926 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
2927 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
2928 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
2929 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
2931 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
2932 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
2933 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
2934 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
2935 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
2939 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send the log (or the
2940 relevant parts of it). If Wget was compiled without debug support,
2941 recompile it. It is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs with debug support
2945 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
2946 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace.
2951 @section Portability
2953 @cindex operating systems
2955 Like all GNU software, Wget works on the GNU system. However, since it
2956 uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and mostly avoids using
2957 ``special'' features of any particular Unix, it should compile (and
2958 work) on all common Unix flavors.
2960 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
2961 Unix systems, including Solaris, GNU/Linux, SunOS, OSF (aka Digital Unix
2962 or Tru64), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, AIX, and others; refer to the file
2963 @file{MACHINES} in the distribution directory for a comprehensive list.
2964 If you compile it on an architecture not listed there, please let me
2965 know so I can update it.
2967 Wget should also compile on the other Unix systems, not listed in
2968 @file{MACHINES}. If it doesn't, please let me know.
2970 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works on
2971 Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. It has been compiled
2972 successfully using MS Visual C++ 6.0, Watcom, and Borland C compilers,
2973 with Winsock as networking software. Naturally, it is crippled of some
2974 features available on Unix, but it should work as a substitute for
2975 people stuck with Windows. Note that the Windows port is
2976 @strong{neither tested nor maintained} by me---all questions and
2977 problems in Windows usage should be reported to Wget mailing list at
2978 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the volunteers who maintain the
2979 Windows-related features might look at them.
2983 @cindex signal handling
2986 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
2987 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
2988 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
2989 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
2990 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
2993 $ wget http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/gnus.tar.gz &
2994 $ kill -HUP %% # Redirect the output to wget-log
2997 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
2998 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
3003 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
3006 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
3007 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
3008 * Contributors:: People who helped.
3011 @node Robot Exclusion
3012 @section Robot Exclusion
3013 @cindex robot exclusion
3015 @cindex server maintenance
3017 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
3018 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
3019 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
3021 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
3022 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
3023 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
3024 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
3025 section handled by a CGI Perl script that converts Info files to @sc{html} on
3026 the fly. The script is slow, but works well enough for human users
3027 viewing an occasional Info file. However, when someone's recursive Wget
3028 download stumbles upon the index page that links to all the Info files
3029 through the script, the system is brought to its knees without providing
3030 anything useful to the user (This task of converting Info files could be
3031 done locally and access to Info documentation for all installed GNU
3032 software on a system is available from the @code{info} command).
3034 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
3035 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
3036 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} was invented. The idea is that
3037 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
3038 portions of the site they wish to protect from robots and those
3039 they will permit access.
3041 The most popular mechanism, and the @i{de facto} standard supported by
3042 all the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written
3043 by Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text
3044 file containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to
3045 avoid. To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
3046 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are expected to
3049 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
3050 can downloads large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
3051 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
3052 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
3055 wget -r http://www.server.com/
3058 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
3059 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
3060 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
3061 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
3064 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
3065 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
3066 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
3067 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
3068 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
3069 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
3070 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
3071 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
3073 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
3075 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
3076 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
3077 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
3081 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
3084 This is explained in some detail at
3085 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
3086 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
3089 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
3090 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
3091 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
3092 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
3094 @node Security Considerations
3095 @section Security Considerations
3098 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
3099 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
3100 main issues, and some solutions.
3104 The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}. The best
3105 way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s to
3106 Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
3107 Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store passwords; however,
3108 storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a security risk.
3111 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
3112 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
3115 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
3116 solution for this at the moment.
3119 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
3120 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
3121 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
3126 @section Contributors
3127 @cindex contributors
3130 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org}.
3133 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org}.
3135 However, its development could never have gone as far as it has, were it
3136 not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature
3137 proposals, patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
3139 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
3143 Karsten Thygesen---donated system resources such as the mailing list,
3144 web space, and @sc{ftp} space, along with a lot of time to make these
3148 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
3151 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
3155 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
3159 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
3160 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3163 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
3164 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3168 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
3171 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the Italian translation.
3175 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
3179 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
3184 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3187 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3191 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization and other
3195 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
3199 The people who provided donations for development, including Brian
3203 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
3204 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
3205 that make maintenance so much fun:
3225 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
3244 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
3247 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
3265 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
3283 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
3294 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
3295 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
3296 (Simos KSenitellis),
3304 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
3310 Alexander V. Lukyanov,
3338 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
3340 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}gues,
3343 Juan Jose Rodrigues,
3357 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
3365 Douglas E. Wegscheid,
3381 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
3382 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
3389 @cindex free software
3391 GNU Wget is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL),
3392 which makes it @dfn{free software}. Please note that ``free'' in ``free
3393 software'' refers to liberty, not price. As some people like to point
3394 out, it's the ``free'' of ``free speech'', not the ``free'' of ``free
3397 The exact and legally binding distribution terms are spelled out below.
3398 The GPL guarantees that you have the right (freedom) to run and change
3399 GNU Wget and distribute it to others, and even---if you want---charge
3400 money for doing any of those things. With these rights comes the
3401 obligation to distribute the source code along with the software and to
3402 grant your recipients the same rights and impose the same restrictions.
3404 This licensing model is also known as @dfn{open source} because it,
3405 among other things, makes sure that all recipients will receive the
3406 source code along with the program, and be able to improve it. The GNU
3407 project prefers the term ``free software'' for reasons outlined at
3408 @url{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html}.
3410 The exact license terms are defined by this paragraph and the GNU
3411 General Public License it refers to:
3414 GNU Wget is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
3415 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
3416 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
3417 option) any later version.
3419 GNU Wget is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
3420 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
3421 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
3424 A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as part of this
3425 manual; if you did not receive it, write to the Free Software
3426 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3429 In addition to this, this manual is free in the same sense:
3432 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
3433 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
3434 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
3435 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
3436 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
3437 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
3438 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
3441 @c #### Maybe we should wrap these licenses in ifinfo? Stallman says
3442 @c that the GFDL needs to be present in the manual, and to me it would
3443 @c suck to include the license for the manual and not the license for
3446 The full texts of the GNU General Public License and of the GNU Free
3447 Documentation License are available below.
3450 * GNU General Public License::
3451 * GNU Free Documentation License::
3454 @node GNU General Public License
3455 @section GNU General Public License
3456 @center Version 2, June 1991
3459 Copyright @copyright{} 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3460 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
3462 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
3463 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
3466 @unnumberedsec Preamble
3468 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
3469 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
3470 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
3471 software---to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
3472 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
3473 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
3474 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
3475 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
3478 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
3479 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
3480 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
3481 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
3482 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
3483 in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
3485 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
3486 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
3487 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
3488 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
3490 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
3491 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
3492 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
3493 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
3496 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
3497 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
3498 distribute and/or modify the software.
3500 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
3501 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
3502 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
3503 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
3504 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
3505 authors' reputations.
3507 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
3508 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
3509 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
3510 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
3511 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
3513 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
3514 modification follow.
3517 @unnumberedsec TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3520 @center TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3525 This License applies to any program or other work which contains
3526 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
3527 under the terms of this General Public License. The ``Program'', below,
3528 refers to any such program or work, and a ``work based on the Program''
3529 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
3530 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
3531 either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
3532 language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
3533 the term ``modification''.) Each licensee is addressed as ``you''.
3535 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
3536 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
3537 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
3538 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
3539 Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
3540 Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
3543 You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
3544 source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
3545 conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
3546 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
3547 notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
3548 and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
3549 along with the Program.
3551 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
3552 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
3555 You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
3556 of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
3557 distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
3558 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
3562 You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
3563 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
3566 You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
3567 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
3568 part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
3569 parties under the terms of this License.
3572 If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
3573 when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
3574 interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
3575 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
3576 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
3577 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
3578 these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
3579 License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
3580 does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
3581 the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
3584 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
3585 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
3586 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
3587 themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
3588 sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
3589 distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
3590 on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
3591 this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
3592 entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
3594 Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
3595 your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
3596 exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
3597 collective works based on the Program.
3599 In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
3600 with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
3601 a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
3602 the scope of this License.
3605 You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
3606 under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
3607 Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
3611 Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
3612 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
3613 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
3616 Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
3617 years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
3618 cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
3619 machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
3620 distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
3621 customarily used for software interchange; or,
3624 Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
3625 to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
3626 allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
3627 received the program in object code or executable form with such
3628 an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
3631 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
3632 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
3633 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
3634 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
3635 control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
3636 special exception, the source code distributed need not include
3637 anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
3638 form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
3639 operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
3640 itself accompanies the executable.
3642 If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
3643 access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
3644 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
3645 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
3646 compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
3649 You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
3650 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
3651 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
3652 void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
3653 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
3654 this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
3655 parties remain in full compliance.
3658 You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
3659 signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
3660 distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
3661 prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
3662 modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
3663 Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
3664 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
3665 the Program or works based on it.
3668 Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
3669 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
3670 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
3671 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
3672 restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
3673 You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
3677 If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
3678 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
3679 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
3680 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
3681 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
3682 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
3683 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
3684 may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
3685 license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
3686 all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
3687 the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
3688 refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
3690 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
3691 any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
3692 apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
3695 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
3696 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
3697 such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
3698 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
3699 implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
3700 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
3701 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
3702 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
3703 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
3706 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
3707 be a consequence of the rest of this License.
3710 If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
3711 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
3712 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
3713 may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
3714 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
3715 countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
3716 the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
3719 The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
3720 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
3721 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
3722 address new problems or concerns.
3724 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
3725 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and ``any
3726 later version'', you have the option of following the terms and conditions
3727 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
3728 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
3729 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
3733 If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
3734 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
3735 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
3736 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
3737 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
3738 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
3739 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
3742 @heading NO WARRANTY
3750 BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
3751 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
3752 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
3753 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
3754 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
3755 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
3756 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
3757 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
3758 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
3761 IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
3762 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
3763 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
3764 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
3765 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
3766 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
3767 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
3768 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
3769 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
3773 @heading END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
3776 @center END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
3780 @unnumberedsec How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
3782 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
3783 possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
3784 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
3786 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
3787 to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
3788 convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
3789 the ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
3792 @var{one line to give the program's name and an idea of what it does.}
3793 Copyright (C) 20@var{yy} @var{name of author}
3795 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
3796 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
3797 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
3798 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
3800 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3801 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3802 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3803 GNU General Public License for more details.
3805 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3806 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
3807 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3810 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
3812 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
3813 when it starts in an interactive mode:
3816 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 20@var{yy} @var{name of author}
3817 Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
3818 type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome
3819 to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c'
3823 The hypothetical commands @samp{show w} and @samp{show c} should show
3824 the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
3825 commands you use may be called something other than @samp{show w} and
3826 @samp{show c}; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items---whatever
3829 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
3830 school, if any, to sign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if
3831 necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
3835 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright
3836 interest in the program `Gnomovision'
3837 (which makes passes at compilers) written
3840 @var{signature of Ty Coon}, 1 April 1989
3841 Ty Coon, President of Vice
3845 This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
3846 proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
3847 consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
3848 library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
3849 Public License instead of this License.
3854 @unnumbered Concept Index