1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
5 @settitle GNU Wget Manual
6 @c Disable the monstrous rectangles beside overfull hbox-es.
8 @c Use `odd' to print double-sided.
13 @c Remove this if you don't use A4 paper.
17 @c Title for man page. The weird way texi2pod.pl is written requires
18 @c the preceding @set.
20 @c man title Wget The non-interactive network downloader.
22 @c This should really be generated automatically, possibly by including
23 @c an auto-generated file.
25 @set UPDATED September 2003
27 @dircategory Net Utilities
28 @dircategory World Wide Web
30 * Wget: (wget). The non-interactive network downloader.
34 This file documents the the GNU Wget utility for downloading network
37 @c man begin COPYRIGHT
38 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free
39 Software Foundation, Inc.
41 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
42 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
43 are preserved on all copies.
46 Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the
47 results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission
48 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
49 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
51 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
52 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
53 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
54 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
55 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
56 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
57 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
63 @subtitle The noninteractive downloading utility
64 @subtitle Updated for Wget @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
65 @author by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} and the developers
69 Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@arsdigita.com>.
72 GNU Info entry for @file{wget}.
77 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
78 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 Free Software
81 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
82 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
83 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
84 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
85 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
86 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
87 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
91 @node Top, Overview, (dir), (dir)
92 @top Wget @value{VERSION}
94 This manual documents version @value{VERSION} of GNU Wget, the freely
95 available utility for network download.
97 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 Free Software
101 * Overview:: Features of Wget.
102 * Invoking:: Wget command-line arguments.
103 * Recursive Retrieval:: Description of recursive retrieval.
104 * Following Links:: The available methods of chasing links.
105 * Time-Stamping:: Mirroring according to time-stamps.
106 * Startup File:: Wget's initialization file.
107 * Examples:: Examples of usage.
108 * Various:: The stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
109 * Appendices:: Some useful references.
110 * Copying:: You may give out copies of Wget and of this manual.
111 * Concept Index:: Topics covered by this manual.
115 @node Overview, Invoking, Top, Top
120 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
121 GNU Wget is a free utility for non-interactive download of files from
122 the Web. It supports @sc{http}, @sc{https}, and @sc{ftp} protocols, as
123 well as retrieval through @sc{http} proxies.
126 This chapter is a partial overview of Wget's features.
130 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
131 Wget is non-interactive, meaning that it can work in the background,
132 while the user is not logged on. This allows you to start a retrieval
133 and disconnect from the system, letting Wget finish the work. By
134 contrast, most of the Web browsers require constant user's presence,
135 which can be a great hindrance when transferring a lot of data.
141 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
145 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
146 Wget can follow links in @sc{html} pages and create local versions of
147 remote web sites, fully recreating the directory structure of the
148 original site. This is sometimes referred to as ``recursive
149 downloading.'' While doing that, Wget respects the Robot Exclusion
150 Standard (@file{/robots.txt}). Wget can be instructed to convert the
151 links in downloaded @sc{html} files to the local files for offline
157 File name wildcard matching and recursive mirroring of directories are
158 available when retrieving via @sc{ftp}. Wget can read the time-stamp
159 information given by both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} servers, and store it
160 locally. Thus Wget can see if the remote file has changed since last
161 retrieval, and automatically retrieve the new version if it has. This
162 makes Wget suitable for mirroring of @sc{ftp} sites, as well as home
168 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
172 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
173 Wget has been designed for robustness over slow or unstable network
174 connections; if a download fails due to a network problem, it will
175 keep retrying until the whole file has been retrieved. If the server
176 supports regetting, it will instruct the server to continue the
177 download from where it left off.
182 Wget supports proxy servers, which can lighten the network load, speed
183 up retrieval and provide access behind firewalls. However, if you are
184 behind a firewall that requires that you use a socks style gateway, you
185 can get the socks library and build Wget with support for socks. Wget
186 also supports the passive @sc{ftp} downloading as an option.
190 Builtin features offer mechanisms to tune which links you wish to follow
191 (@pxref{Following Links}).
195 The retrieval is conveniently traced with printing dots, each dot
196 representing a fixed amount of data received (1KB by default). These
197 representations can be customized to your preferences.
201 Most of the features are fully configurable, either through command line
202 options, or via the initialization file @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup
203 File}). Wget allows you to define @dfn{global} startup files
204 (@file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default) for site settings.
209 @item /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
210 Default location of the @dfn{global} startup file.
220 Finally, GNU Wget is free software. This means that everyone may use
221 it, redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
222 Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation
226 @node Invoking, Recursive Retrieval, Overview, Top
233 By default, Wget is very simple to invoke. The basic syntax is:
236 @c man begin SYNOPSIS
237 wget [@var{option}]@dots{} [@var{URL}]@dots{}
241 Wget will simply download all the @sc{url}s specified on the command
242 line. @var{URL} is a @dfn{Uniform Resource Locator}, as defined below.
244 However, you may wish to change some of the default parameters of
245 Wget. You can do it two ways: permanently, adding the appropriate
246 command to @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup File}), or specifying it on
252 * Basic Startup Options::
253 * Logging and Input File Options::
255 * Directory Options::
258 * Recursive Retrieval Options::
259 * Recursive Accept/Reject Options::
262 @node URL Format, Option Syntax, Invoking, Invoking
267 @dfn{URL} is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A uniform
268 resource locator is a compact string representation for a resource
269 available via the Internet. Wget recognizes the @sc{url} syntax as per
270 @sc{rfc1738}. This is the most widely used form (square brackets denote
274 http://host[:port]/directory/file
275 ftp://host[:port]/directory/file
278 You can also encode your username and password within a @sc{url}:
281 ftp://user:password@@host/path
282 http://user:password@@host/path
285 Either @var{user} or @var{password}, or both, may be left out. If you
286 leave out either the @sc{http} username or password, no authentication
287 will be sent. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} username, @samp{anonymous}
288 will be used. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} password, your email
289 address will be supplied as a default password.@footnote{If you have a
290 @file{.netrc} file in your home directory, password will also be
293 @strong{Important Note}: if you specify a password-containing @sc{url}
294 on the command line, the username and password will be plainly visible
295 to all users on the system, by way of @code{ps}. On multi-user systems,
296 this is a big security risk. To work around it, use @code{wget -i -}
297 and feed the @sc{url}s to Wget's standard input, each on a separate
298 line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
300 You can encode unsafe characters in a @sc{url} as @samp{%xy}, @code{xy}
301 being the hexadecimal representation of the character's @sc{ascii}
302 value. Some common unsafe characters include @samp{%} (quoted as
303 @samp{%25}), @samp{:} (quoted as @samp{%3A}), and @samp{@@} (quoted as
304 @samp{%40}). Refer to @sc{rfc1738} for a comprehensive list of unsafe
307 Wget also supports the @code{type} feature for @sc{ftp} @sc{url}s. By
308 default, @sc{ftp} documents are retrieved in the binary mode (type
309 @samp{i}), which means that they are downloaded unchanged. Another
310 useful mode is the @samp{a} (@dfn{ASCII}) mode, which converts the line
311 delimiters between the different operating systems, and is thus useful
312 for text files. Here is an example:
315 ftp://host/directory/file;type=a
318 Two alternative variants of @sc{url} specification are also supported,
319 because of historical (hysterical?) reasons and their widespreaded use.
321 @sc{ftp}-only syntax (supported by @code{NcFTP}):
326 @sc{http}-only syntax (introduced by @code{Netscape}):
331 These two alternative forms are deprecated, and may cease being
332 supported in the future.
334 If you do not understand the difference between these notations, or do
335 not know which one to use, just use the plain ordinary format you use
336 with your favorite browser, like @code{Lynx} or @code{Netscape}.
338 @node Option Syntax, Basic Startup Options, URL Format, Invoking
339 @section Option Syntax
340 @cindex option syntax
341 @cindex syntax of options
343 Since Wget uses GNU getopts to process its arguments, every option has a
344 short form and a long form. Long options are more convenient to
345 remember, but take time to type. You may freely mix different option
346 styles, or specify options after the command-line arguments. Thus you
350 wget -r --tries=10 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/ -o log
353 The space between the option accepting an argument and the argument may
354 be omitted. Instead @samp{-o log} you can write @samp{-olog}.
356 You may put several options that do not require arguments together,
363 This is a complete equivalent of:
366 wget -d -r -c @var{URL}
369 Since the options can be specified after the arguments, you may
370 terminate them with @samp{--}. So the following will try to download
371 @sc{url} @samp{-x}, reporting failure to @file{log}:
377 The options that accept comma-separated lists all respect the convention
378 that specifying an empty list clears its value. This can be useful to
379 clear the @file{.wgetrc} settings. For instance, if your @file{.wgetrc}
380 sets @code{exclude_directories} to @file{/cgi-bin}, the following
381 example will first reset it, and then set it to exclude @file{/~nobody}
382 and @file{/~somebody}. You can also clear the lists in @file{.wgetrc}
383 (@pxref{Wgetrc Syntax}).
386 wget -X '' -X /~nobody,/~somebody
391 @node Basic Startup Options, Logging and Input File Options, Option Syntax, Invoking
392 @section Basic Startup Options
397 Display the version of Wget.
401 Print a help message describing all of Wget's command-line options.
405 Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is
406 specified via the @samp{-o}, output is redirected to @file{wget-log}.
408 @cindex execute wgetrc command
409 @item -e @var{command}
410 @itemx --execute @var{command}
411 Execute @var{command} as if it were a part of @file{.wgetrc}
412 (@pxref{Startup File}). A command thus invoked will be executed
413 @emph{after} the commands in @file{.wgetrc}, thus taking precedence over
417 @node Logging and Input File Options, Download Options, Basic Startup Options, Invoking
418 @section Logging and Input File Options
423 @item -o @var{logfile}
424 @itemx --output-file=@var{logfile}
425 Log all messages to @var{logfile}. The messages are normally reported
428 @cindex append to log
429 @item -a @var{logfile}
430 @itemx --append-output=@var{logfile}
431 Append to @var{logfile}. This is the same as @samp{-o}, only it appends
432 to @var{logfile} instead of overwriting the old log file. If
433 @var{logfile} does not exist, a new file is created.
438 Turn on debug output, meaning various information important to the
439 developers of Wget if it does not work properly. Your system
440 administrator may have chosen to compile Wget without debug support, in
441 which case @samp{-d} will not work. Please note that compiling with
442 debug support is always safe---Wget compiled with the debug support will
443 @emph{not} print any debug info unless requested with @samp{-d}.
444 @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information on how to use @samp{-d} for
450 Turn off Wget's output.
455 Turn on verbose output, with all the available data. The default output
460 Non-verbose output---turn off verbose without being completely quiet
461 (use @samp{-q} for that), which means that error messages and basic
462 information still get printed.
466 @itemx --input-file=@var{file}
467 Read @sc{url}s from @var{file}, in which case no @sc{url}s need to be on
468 the command line. If there are @sc{url}s both on the command line and
469 in an input file, those on the command lines will be the first ones to
470 be retrieved. The @var{file} need not be an @sc{html} document (but no
471 harm if it is)---it is enough if the @sc{url}s are just listed
474 However, if you specify @samp{--force-html}, the document will be
475 regarded as @samp{html}. In that case you may have problems with
476 relative links, which you can solve either by adding @code{<base
477 href="@var{url}">} to the documents or by specifying
478 @samp{--base=@var{url}} on the command line.
483 When input is read from a file, force it to be treated as an @sc{html}
484 file. This enables you to retrieve relative links from existing
485 @sc{html} files on your local disk, by adding @code{<base
486 href="@var{url}">} to @sc{html}, or using the @samp{--base} command-line
489 @cindex base for relative links in input file
491 @itemx --base=@var{URL}
492 When used in conjunction with @samp{-F}, prepends @var{URL} to relative
493 links in the file specified by @samp{-i}.
496 @node Download Options, Directory Options, Logging and Input File Options, Invoking
497 @section Download Options
500 @cindex bind() address
501 @cindex client IP address
502 @cindex IP address, client
503 @item --bind-address=@var{ADDRESS}
504 When making client TCP/IP connections, @code{bind()} to @var{ADDRESS} on
505 the local machine. @var{ADDRESS} may be specified as a hostname or IP
506 address. This option can be useful if your machine is bound to multiple
511 @cindex number of retries
512 @item -t @var{number}
513 @itemx --tries=@var{number}
514 Set number of retries to @var{number}. Specify 0 or @samp{inf} for
515 infinite retrying. The default is to retry 20 times but fatal errors
516 like ``connection refused'' or ``not found'' (404) 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. Including this option
524 automatically sets the number of tries to 1.
526 @cindex clobbering, file
527 @cindex downloading multiple times
531 If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget's
532 behavior depends on a few options, including @samp{-nc}. In certain
533 cases, the local file will be @dfn{clobbered}, or overwritten, upon
534 repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
536 When running Wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, or @samp{-r},
537 downloading the same file in the same directory will result in the
538 original copy of @var{file} being preserved and the second copy being
539 named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet again, the
540 third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on. When
541 @samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior is suppressed, and Wget will
542 refuse to download newer copies of @samp{@var{file}}. Therefore,
543 ``@code{no-clobber}'' is actually a misnomer in this mode---it's not
544 clobbering that's prevented (as the numeric suffixes were already
545 preventing clobbering), but rather the multiple version saving that's
548 When running Wget with @samp{-r}, but without @samp{-N} or @samp{-nc},
549 re-downloading a file will result in the new copy simply overwriting the
550 old. Adding @samp{-nc} will prevent this behavior, instead causing the
551 original version to be preserved and any newer copies on the server to
554 When running Wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r}, the
555 decision as to whether or not to download a newer copy of a file depends
556 on the local and remote timestamp and size of the file
557 (@pxref{Time-Stamping}). @samp{-nc} may not be specified at the same
560 Note that when @samp{-nc} is specified, files with the suffixes
561 @samp{.html} or (yuck) @samp{.htm} will be loaded from the local disk
562 and parsed as if they had been retrieved from the Web.
564 @cindex continue retrieval
565 @cindex incomplete downloads
566 @cindex resume download
569 Continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you
570 want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or
571 by another program. For instance:
574 wget -c ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ls-lR.Z
577 If there is a file named @file{ls-lR.Z} in the current directory, Wget
578 will assume that it is the first portion of the remote file, and will
579 ask the server to continue the retrieval from an offset equal to the
580 length of the local file.
582 Note that you don't need to specify this option if you just want the
583 current invocation of Wget to retry downloading a file should the
584 connection be lost midway through. This is the default behavior.
585 @samp{-c} only affects resumption of downloads started @emph{prior} to
586 this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are still sitting around.
588 Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just download the remote
589 file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}, leaving the truncated @file{ls-lR.Z} file
592 Beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a non-empty file, and
593 it turns out that the server does not support continued downloading,
594 Wget will refuse to start the download from scratch, which would
595 effectively ruin existing contents. If you really want the download to
596 start from scratch, remove the file.
598 Also beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a file which is of
599 equal size as the one on the server, Wget will refuse to download the
600 file and print an explanatory message. The same happens when the file
601 is smaller on the server than locally (presumably because it was changed
602 on the server since your last download attempt)---because ``continuing''
603 is not meaningful, no download occurs.
605 On the other side of the coin, while using @samp{-c}, any file that's
606 bigger on the server than locally will be considered an incomplete
607 download and only @code{(length(remote) - length(local))} bytes will be
608 downloaded and tacked onto the end of the local file. This behavior can
609 be desirable in certain cases---for instance, you can use @samp{wget -c}
610 to download just the new portion that's been appended to a data
611 collection or log file.
613 However, if the file is bigger on the server because it's been
614 @emph{changed}, as opposed to just @emph{appended} to, you'll end up
615 with a garbled file. Wget has no way of verifying that the local file
616 is really a valid prefix of the remote file. You need to be especially
617 careful of this when using @samp{-c} in conjunction with @samp{-r},
618 since every file will be considered as an "incomplete download" candidate.
620 Another instance where you'll get a garbled file if you try to use
621 @samp{-c} is if you have a lame @sc{http} proxy that inserts a
622 ``transfer interrupted'' string into the local file. In the future a
623 ``rollback'' option may be added to deal with this case.
625 Note that @samp{-c} only works with @sc{ftp} servers and with @sc{http}
626 servers that support the @code{Range} header.
628 @cindex progress indicator
630 @item --progress=@var{type}
631 Select the type of the progress indicator you wish to use. Legal
632 indicators are ``dot'' and ``bar''.
634 The ``bar'' indicator is used by default. It draws an ASCII progress
635 bar graphics (a.k.a ``thermometer'' display) indicating the status of
636 retrieval. If the output is not a TTY, the ``dot'' bar will be used by
639 Use @samp{--progress=dot} to switch to the ``dot'' display. It traces
640 the retrieval by printing dots on the screen, each dot representing a
641 fixed amount of downloaded data.
643 When using the dotted retrieval, you may also set the @dfn{style} by
644 specifying the type as @samp{dot:@var{style}}. Different styles assign
645 different meaning to one dot. With the @code{default} style each dot
646 represents 1K, there are ten dots in a cluster and 50 dots in a line.
647 The @code{binary} style has a more ``computer''-like orientation---8K
648 dots, 16-dots clusters and 48 dots per line (which makes for 384K
649 lines). The @code{mega} style is suitable for downloading very large
650 files---each dot represents 64K retrieved, there are eight dots in a
651 cluster, and 48 dots on each line (so each line contains 3M).
653 Note that you can set the default style using the @code{progress}
654 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
655 command line. The exception is that, when the output is not a TTY, the
656 ``dot'' progress will be favored over ``bar''. To force the bar output,
657 use @samp{--progress=bar:force}.
660 @itemx --timestamping
661 Turn on time-stamping. @xref{Time-Stamping}, for details.
663 @cindex server response, print
665 @itemx --server-response
666 Print the headers sent by @sc{http} servers and responses sent by
669 @cindex Wget as spider
672 When invoked with this option, Wget will behave as a Web @dfn{spider},
673 which means that it will not download the pages, just check that they
674 are there. You can use it to check your bookmarks, e.g. with:
677 wget --spider --force-html -i bookmarks.html
680 This feature needs much more work for Wget to get close to the
681 functionality of real @sc{www} spiders.
685 @itemx --timeout=@var{seconds}
686 Set the network timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. Whenever Wget
687 connects to or reads from a remote host, it checks for a timeout and
688 aborts the operation if the time expires. This prevents anomalous
689 occurrences such as hanging reads or infinite connects. The default
690 timeout is 900 seconds (fifteen minutes). Setting timeout to 0 will
691 disable checking for timeouts.
693 Please do not lower the default timeout value with this option unless
694 you know what you are doing.
696 @cindex bandwidth, limit
698 @cindex limit bandwidth
699 @item --limit-rate=@var{amount}
700 Limit the download speed to @var{amount} bytes per second. Amount may
701 be expressed in bytes, kilobytes with the @samp{k} suffix, or megabytes
702 with the @samp{m} suffix. For example, @samp{--limit-rate=20k} will
703 limit the retrieval rate to 20KB/s. This kind of thing is useful when,
704 for whatever reason, you don't want Wget to consume the entire available
707 Note that Wget implements the limiting by sleeping the appropriate
708 amount of time after a network read that took less time than specified
709 by the rate. Eventually this strategy causes the TCP transfer to slow
710 down to approximately the specified rate. However, it takes some time
711 for this balance to be achieved, so don't be surprised if limiting the
712 rate doesn't work well with very small files.
716 @item -w @var{seconds}
717 @itemx --wait=@var{seconds}
718 Wait the specified number of seconds between the retrievals. Use of
719 this option is recommended, as it lightens the server load by making the
720 requests less frequent. Instead of in seconds, the time can be
721 specified in minutes using the @code{m} suffix, in hours using @code{h}
722 suffix, or in days using @code{d} suffix.
724 Specifying a large value for this option is useful if the network or the
725 destination host is down, so that Wget can wait long enough to
726 reasonably expect the network error to be fixed before the retry.
728 @cindex retries, waiting between
729 @cindex waiting between retries
730 @item --waitretry=@var{seconds}
731 If you don't want Wget to wait between @emph{every} retrieval, but only
732 between retries of failed downloads, you can use this option. Wget will
733 use @dfn{linear backoff}, waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
734 given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second failure on that
735 file, up to the maximum number of @var{seconds} you specify. Therefore,
736 a value of 10 will actually make Wget wait up to (1 + 2 + ... + 10) = 55
739 Note that this option is turned on by default in the global
745 Some web sites may perform log analysis to identify retrieval programs
746 such as Wget by looking for statistically significant similarities in
747 the time between requests. This option causes the time between requests
748 to vary between 0 and 2 * @var{wait} seconds, where @var{wait} was
749 specified using the @samp{-w} or @samp{--wait} options, in order to mask
750 Wget's presence from such analysis.
752 A recent article in a publication devoted to development on a popular
753 consumer platform provided code to perform this analysis on the fly.
754 Its author suggested blocking at the class C address level to ensure
755 automated retrieval programs were blocked despite changing DHCP-supplied
758 The @samp{--random-wait} option was inspired by this ill-advised
759 recommendation to block many unrelated users from a web site due to the
764 @itemx --proxy=on/off
765 Turn proxy support on or off. The proxy is on by default if the
766 appropriate environment variable is defined.
768 For more information about the use of proxies with Wget, @xref{Proxies}.
772 @itemx --quota=@var{quota}
773 Specify download quota for automatic retrievals. The value can be
774 specified in bytes (default), kilobytes (with @samp{k} suffix), or
775 megabytes (with @samp{m} suffix).
777 Note that quota will never affect downloading a single file. So if you
778 specify @samp{wget -Q10k ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/ls-lR.gz}, all of the
779 @file{ls-lR.gz} will be downloaded. The same goes even when several
780 @sc{url}s are specified on the command-line. However, quota is
781 respected when retrieving either recursively, or from an input file.
782 Thus you may safely type @samp{wget -Q2m -i sites}---download will be
783 aborted when the quota is exceeded.
785 Setting quota to 0 or to @samp{inf} unlimits the download quota.
788 @cindex caching of DNS lookups
789 @itemx --dns-cache=off
790 Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the addresses
791 it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly contact the DNS
792 server for the same (typically small) set of addresses it retrieves
793 from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will contact DNS
796 However, in some cases it is not desirable to cache host names, even for
797 the duration of a short-running application like Wget. For example,
798 some HTTP servers are hosted on machines with dynamically allocated IP
799 addresses that change from time to time. Their DNS entries are updated
800 along with each change. When Wget's download from such a host gets
801 interrupted by IP address change, Wget retries the download, but (due to
802 DNS caching) it contacts the old address. With the DNS cache turned
803 off, Wget will repeat the DNS lookup for every connect and will thus get
804 the correct dynamic address every time---at the cost of additional DNS
805 lookups where they're probably not needed.
807 If you don't understand the above description, you probably won't need
810 @cindex file names, restrict
811 @cindex Windows file names
812 @itemx --restrict-file-names=@var{mode}
813 Change which characters found in remote URLs may show up in local file
814 names generated from those URLs. Characters that are @dfn{restricted}
815 by this option are escaped, i.e. replaced with @samp{%HH}, where
816 @samp{HH} is the hexadecimal number that corresponds to the restricted
819 By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid as part of
820 file names on your operating system, as well as control characters that
821 are typically unprintable. This option is useful for changing these
822 defaults, either because you are downloading to a non-native partition,
823 or because you want to disable escaping of the control characters.
825 When mode is set to ``unix'', Wget escapes the character @samp{/} and
826 the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159. This is the
827 default on Unix-like OS'es.
829 When mode is seto to ``windows'', Wget escapes the characters @samp{\},
830 @samp{|}, @samp{/}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
831 @samp{>}, and the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159.
832 In addition to this, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead of
833 @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
834 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
835 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
836 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
837 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
838 mode. This mode is the default on Windows.
840 If you append @samp{,nocontrol} to the mode, as in
841 @samp{unix,nocontrol}, escaping of the control characters is also
842 switched off. You can use @samp{--restrict-file-names=nocontrol} to
843 turn off escaping of control characters without affecting the choice of
844 the OS to use as file name restriction mode.
847 @node Directory Options, HTTP Options, Download Options, Invoking
848 @section Directory Options
852 @itemx --no-directories
853 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
854 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
855 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
856 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
859 @itemx --force-directories
860 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
861 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
862 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
863 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
866 @itemx --no-host-directories
867 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
868 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
869 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
872 @cindex cut directories
873 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
874 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
875 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
878 Take, for example, the directory at
879 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
880 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
881 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
882 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
883 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
884 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
885 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
889 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
891 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
892 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
894 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
899 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
900 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
901 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
902 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
903 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
905 @cindex directory prefix
906 @item -P @var{prefix}
907 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
908 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
909 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
910 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
914 @node HTTP Options, FTP Options, Directory Options, Invoking
915 @section HTTP Options
918 @cindex .html extension
920 @itemx --html-extension
921 If a file of type @samp{text/html} is downloaded and the URL does not
922 end with the regexp @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause
923 the suffix @samp{.html} to be appended to the local filename. This is
924 useful, for instance, when you're mirroring a remote site that uses
925 @samp{.asp} pages, but you want the mirrored pages to be viewable on
926 your stock Apache server. Another good use for this is when you're
927 downloading the output of CGIs. A URL like
928 @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
929 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
931 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
932 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
933 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
934 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
935 @samp{text/html}. To prevent this re-downloading, you must use
936 @samp{-k} and @samp{-K} so that the original version of the file will be
937 saved as @file{@var{X}.orig} (@pxref{Recursive Retrieval Options}).
940 @cindex http password
941 @cindex authentication
942 @item --http-user=@var{user}
943 @itemx --http-passwd=@var{password}
944 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
945 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
946 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure) or the
947 @code{digest} authentication scheme.
949 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
950 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
951 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
952 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
953 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
954 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
955 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
957 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
963 @itemx --cache=on/off
964 When set to off, disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will
965 send the remote server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma:
966 no-cache}) to get the file from the remote service, rather than
967 returning the cached version. This is especially useful for retrieving
968 and flushing out-of-date documents on proxy servers.
970 Caching is allowed by default.
973 @item --cookies=on/off
974 When set to off, disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism
975 for maintaining server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie
976 using the @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the
977 same cookie upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server
978 owners to keep track of visitors and for sites to exchange this
979 information, some consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to
980 use cookies; however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
982 @cindex loading cookies
983 @cindex cookies, loading
984 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
985 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
986 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
987 @file{cookies.txt} file.
989 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
990 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
991 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
992 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
993 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
994 proves your identity.
996 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
997 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
998 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
999 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
1000 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
1001 cookie files in different locations:
1005 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1007 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1008 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1009 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1010 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1011 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1013 @item Internet Explorer.
1014 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1015 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1016 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1018 @item Other browsers.
1019 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1020 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1021 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1024 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1025 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1026 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1027 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1028 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1031 wget --cookies=off --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1034 @cindex saving cookies
1035 @cindex cookies, saving
1036 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1037 Save cookies from @var{file} at the end of session. Cookies whose
1038 expiry time is not specified, or those that have already expired, are
1041 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1042 @cindex ignore length
1043 @item --ignore-length
1044 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1045 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1046 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1047 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1048 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1051 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1052 if it never existed.
1055 @item --header=@var{additional-header}
1056 Define an @var{additional-header} to be passed to the @sc{http} servers.
1057 Headers must contain a @samp{:} preceded by one or more non-blank
1058 characters, and must not contain newlines.
1060 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1061 @samp{--header} more than once.
1065 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1066 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1067 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1071 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1072 previous user-defined headers.
1075 @cindex proxy password
1076 @cindex proxy authentication
1077 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1078 @itemx --proxy-passwd=@var{password}
1079 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1080 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1081 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1083 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-passwd}
1084 pertain here as well.
1086 @cindex http referer
1087 @cindex referer, http
1088 @item --referer=@var{url}
1089 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1090 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1091 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1092 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1094 @cindex server response, save
1096 @itemx --save-headers
1097 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1098 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1101 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1102 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1103 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1105 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1106 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1107 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1108 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1109 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1112 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1113 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1114 While conceptually this is not such a bad idea, it has been abused by
1115 servers denying information to clients other than @code{Mozilla} or
1116 Microsoft @code{Internet Explorer}. This option allows you to change
1117 the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget. Use of this option is
1118 discouraged, unless you really know what you are doing.
1121 @node FTP Options, Recursive Retrieval Options, HTTP Options, Invoking
1122 @section FTP Options
1125 @cindex .listing files, removing
1127 @itemx --dont-remove-listing
1128 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1129 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1130 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1131 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1132 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1133 you're running is complete).
1135 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1136 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1137 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1138 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1139 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1140 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1141 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1142 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1143 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1145 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1146 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1147 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1148 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1149 will be overwritten.
1151 @cindex globbing, toggle
1153 @itemx --glob=on/off
1154 Turn @sc{ftp} globbing on or off. Globbing means you may use the
1155 shell-like special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*},
1156 @samp{?}, @samp{[} and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the
1157 same directory at once, like:
1160 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1163 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1164 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1167 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1168 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1169 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1170 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1174 Use the @dfn{passive} @sc{ftp} retrieval scheme, in which the client
1175 initiates the data connection. This is sometimes required for @sc{ftp}
1176 to work behind firewalls.
1178 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1179 @item --retr-symlinks
1180 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1181 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1182 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1183 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1184 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1186 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1187 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1188 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1189 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1192 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1193 specified on the commandline, rather than because it was recursed to,
1194 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1198 @node Recursive Retrieval Options, Recursive Accept/Reject Options, FTP Options, Invoking
1199 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1204 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Retrieval}, for more
1207 @item -l @var{depth}
1208 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1209 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1210 Retrieval}). The default maximum depth is 5.
1212 @cindex proxy filling
1213 @cindex delete after retrieval
1214 @cindex filling proxy cache
1215 @item --delete-after
1216 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1217 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1218 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1221 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1224 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1227 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1228 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1229 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1230 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1231 created in the first place.
1233 @cindex conversion of links
1234 @cindex link conversion
1236 @itemx --convert-links
1237 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1238 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1239 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1240 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-HTML
1243 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1247 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1248 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1250 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1251 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1252 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1253 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1256 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1257 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1259 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1260 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1261 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1262 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1265 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1266 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1267 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1268 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1269 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1272 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1273 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1274 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1276 @cindex backing up converted files
1278 @itemx --backup-converted
1279 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1280 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1285 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1286 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1287 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1288 @samp{-r -N -l inf -nr}.
1290 @cindex page requisites
1291 @cindex required images, downloading
1293 @itemx --page-requisites
1294 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
1295 properly display a given HTML page. This includes such things as
1296 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
1298 Ordinarily, when downloading a single HTML page, any requisite documents
1299 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
1300 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
1301 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
1302 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
1305 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
1306 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
1307 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
1308 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
1309 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
1311 If one executes the command:
1314 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
1317 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
1318 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
1319 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
1320 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
1321 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
1324 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1327 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
1328 will be downloaded. Similarly,
1331 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1334 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
1335 to be downloaded. One might think that:
1338 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1341 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
1342 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
1343 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single HTML
1344 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the commandline or in a
1345 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
1346 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
1349 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1352 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
1353 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
1354 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
1355 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
1356 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
1357 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
1360 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1363 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
1364 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
1365 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
1369 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options, , Recursive Retrieval Options, Invoking
1370 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1373 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
1374 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
1375 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
1376 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files} for more details).
1378 @item -D @var{domain-list}
1379 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
1380 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
1381 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
1383 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
1384 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed.
1385 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1387 @cindex follow FTP links
1389 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
1390 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
1392 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
1393 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
1394 Wget has an internal table of HTML tag / attribute pairs that it
1395 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
1396 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
1397 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
1398 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
1401 @itemx --ignore-tags=@var{list}
1402 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
1403 certain HTML tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
1404 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
1406 In the past, the @samp{-G} option was the best bet for downloading a
1407 single page and its requisites, using a commandline like:
1410 wget -Ga,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1413 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
1414 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
1415 @samp{-G} was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to ignore
1416 @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded. Now the
1417 best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
1418 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
1422 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
1423 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1427 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
1428 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
1429 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
1432 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
1433 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
1434 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements
1435 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1438 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
1439 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
1440 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements of
1441 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1445 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
1446 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
1447 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
1448 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
1453 @node Recursive Retrieval, Following Links, Invoking, Top
1454 @chapter Recursive Retrieval
1457 @cindex recursive retrieval
1459 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
1460 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
1461 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieving}, or @dfn{recursion}.
1463 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} from
1464 the given @sc{url}, documents, retrieving the files the @sc{html}
1465 document was referring to, through markups like @code{href}, or
1466 @code{src}. If the freshly downloaded file is also of type
1467 @code{text/html}, it will be parsed and followed further.
1469 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html} content is
1470 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
1471 HTML document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
1472 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
1473 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
1474 until the specified maximum depth.
1476 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
1477 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
1479 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
1480 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
1481 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
1482 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
1483 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
1486 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
1487 the one found on the remote server.
1489 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
1490 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
1491 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
1492 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
1494 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
1495 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
1496 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
1497 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
1498 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
1499 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
1500 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
1502 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
1503 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
1504 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
1505 consume memory and CPU.
1507 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
1508 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
1509 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
1510 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
1511 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
1512 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
1513 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
1516 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
1519 @node Following Links, Time-Stamping, Recursive Retrieval, Top
1520 @chapter Following Links
1522 @cindex following links
1524 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
1525 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
1526 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
1528 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
1529 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
1530 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
1532 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
1533 links it will follow.
1536 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
1537 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
1538 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
1539 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
1540 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
1543 @node Spanning Hosts, Types of Files, Following Links, Following Links
1544 @section Spanning Hosts
1545 @cindex spanning hosts
1546 @cindex hosts, spanning
1548 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
1549 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
1550 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
1551 your Wget into a small version of google.
1553 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
1554 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
1555 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
1556 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the HTML
1557 pages refer to both interchangeably.
1560 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
1562 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
1563 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
1564 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
1565 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
1566 up much more data than you have intended.
1568 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
1570 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
1571 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
1572 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
1573 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
1574 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
1575 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
1578 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
1581 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
1582 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
1584 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
1586 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
1587 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
1588 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
1589 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
1590 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
1594 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
1600 @node Types of Files, Directory-Based Limits, Spanning Hosts, Following Links
1601 @section Types of Files
1602 @cindex types of files
1604 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
1605 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
1606 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
1607 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
1609 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
1610 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
1613 @cindex accept wildcards
1614 @cindex accept suffixes
1615 @cindex wildcards, accept
1616 @cindex suffixes, accept
1618 @item -A @var{acclist}
1619 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
1620 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
1621 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
1622 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
1623 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
1624 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
1625 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
1627 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
1628 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
1629 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
1630 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
1631 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
1632 a description of how pattern matching works.
1634 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
1635 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
1637 @cindex reject wildcards
1638 @cindex reject suffixes
1639 @cindex wildcards, reject
1640 @cindex suffixes, reject
1641 @item -R @var{rejlist}
1642 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
1643 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
1644 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
1645 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
1646 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
1648 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
1649 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
1650 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
1651 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
1652 expansion by the shell.
1655 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
1656 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
1657 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
1658 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
1660 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
1661 files; Wget must load all the @sc{html}s to know where to go at
1662 all---recursive retrieval would make no sense otherwise.
1664 @node Directory-Based Limits, Relative Links, Types of Files, Following Links
1665 @section Directory-Based Limits
1667 @cindex directory limits
1669 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
1670 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
1671 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
1672 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
1673 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
1674 @file{/dev} directories.
1676 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
1677 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
1678 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
1680 @cindex directories, include
1681 @cindex include directories
1682 @cindex accept directories
1685 @itemx --include @var{list}
1686 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
1687 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
1688 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
1689 directories are absolute paths.
1691 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
1692 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
1693 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
1696 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
1699 @cindex directories, exclude
1700 @cindex exclude directories
1701 @cindex reject directories
1703 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
1704 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
1705 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
1706 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
1707 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
1708 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
1710 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
1711 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
1712 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
1713 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
1718 @itemx no_parent = on
1719 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
1720 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
1721 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
1722 parent directory/directories.
1724 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
1725 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
1726 Supposing you issue Wget with:
1729 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
1732 You may rest assured that none of the references to
1733 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
1734 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
1735 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
1736 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
1737 intelligent fashion.
1740 @node Relative Links, FTP Links, Directory-Based Limits, Following Links
1741 @section Relative Links
1742 @cindex relative links
1744 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
1745 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
1746 server root. For example, these links are relative:
1750 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
1751 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
1754 These links are not relative:
1758 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
1759 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
1762 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
1763 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
1764 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
1766 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
1769 @node FTP Links, , Relative Links, Following Links
1770 @section Following FTP Links
1771 @cindex following ftp links
1773 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
1774 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
1775 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
1778 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
1779 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
1780 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
1781 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
1782 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
1783 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
1784 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
1786 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
1787 retrieved recursively further.
1789 @node Time-Stamping, Startup File, Following Links, Top
1790 @chapter Time-Stamping
1791 @cindex time-stamping
1792 @cindex timestamping
1793 @cindex updating the archives
1794 @cindex incremental updating
1796 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
1797 Internet is updating your archives.
1799 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
1800 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
1801 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
1802 offer the option of incremental updating.
1804 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
1805 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
1806 the place of the old ones.
1808 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
1812 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
1815 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
1816 recently than the local file.
1819 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
1820 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
1821 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
1823 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
1824 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
1825 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
1826 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
1827 does, and the remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
1829 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
1830 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
1834 * Time-Stamping Usage::
1835 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
1836 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
1839 @node Time-Stamping Usage, HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping, Time-Stamping
1840 @section Time-Stamping Usage
1841 @cindex time-stamping usage
1842 @cindex usage, time-stamping
1844 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
1845 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
1848 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
1851 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
1852 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
1853 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
1854 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
1856 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
1857 changed, and download it if it has.
1860 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
1863 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
1864 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
1865 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
1866 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
1868 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
1871 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
1874 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
1875 interpret the @samp{*}.)
1877 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
1878 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
1879 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
1880 since the last download.
1882 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
1883 command like the following, weekly:
1886 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
1889 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
1890 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
1891 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
1892 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
1893 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
1895 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, FTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping Usage, Time-Stamping
1896 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
1897 @cindex http time-stamping
1899 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
1900 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
1901 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
1902 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
1903 retrieved unconditionally.
1905 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
1906 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
1907 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
1910 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
1911 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
1912 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
1913 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
1914 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
1915 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
1918 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
1919 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
1920 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
1921 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
1922 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
1924 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
1925 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
1927 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals, , HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Time-Stamping
1928 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
1929 @cindex ftp time-stamping
1931 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
1932 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
1935 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
1936 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
1937 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
1938 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
1939 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
1940 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
1941 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
1942 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
1944 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
1945 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
1946 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
1947 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
1948 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
1949 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
1951 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
1952 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
1953 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
1954 Wget may support this command in the future.
1956 @node Startup File, Examples, Time-Stamping, Top
1957 @chapter Startup File
1958 @cindex startup file
1964 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
1965 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
1966 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
1967 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
1969 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
1970 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
1971 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
1972 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
1974 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
1978 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
1979 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
1980 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
1981 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
1984 @node Wgetrc Location, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File, Startup File
1985 @section Wgetrc Location
1986 @cindex wgetrc location
1987 @cindex location of wgetrc
1989 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
1990 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
1991 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
1992 from there, if it exists.
1994 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
1995 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
1996 further attempts will be made.
1998 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
2000 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
2001 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
2002 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
2003 Fascist admins, away!
2005 @node Wgetrc Syntax, Wgetrc Commands, Wgetrc Location, Startup File
2006 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2007 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2008 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2010 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2016 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2017 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2019 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2020 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2021 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2024 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2025 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2026 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2032 @node Wgetrc Commands, Sample Wgetrc, Wgetrc Syntax, Startup File
2033 @section Wgetrc Commands
2034 @cindex wgetrc commands
2036 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2037 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2038 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}. A fancier kind of
2039 Boolean allowed in some cases is the @dfn{lockable Boolean}, which may
2040 be set to @samp{on}, @samp{off}, @samp{always}, or @samp{never}. If an
2041 option is set to @samp{always} or @samp{never}, that value will be
2042 locked in for the duration of the Wget invocation---commandline options
2045 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2046 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2047 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2048 values can be any non-empty string.
2050 Most of these commands have commandline equivalents (@pxref{Invoking}),
2051 though some of the more obscure or rarely used ones do not.
2054 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2055 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2057 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2058 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2060 @item continue = on/off
2061 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
2062 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
2064 @item background = on/off
2065 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2068 @item backup_converted = on/off
2069 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2070 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2072 @c @item backups = @var{number}
2073 @c #### Document me!
2075 @item base = @var{string}
2076 Consider relative @sc{url}s in @sc{url} input files forced to be
2077 interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string}---the same as
2080 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2081 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address} option.
2083 @item cache = on/off
2084 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{-C} option.
2086 @item convert links = on/off
2087 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
2089 @item cookies = on/off
2090 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
2092 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
2093 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies}.
2095 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
2096 Save cookies to @var{file}. See @samp{--save-cookies}.
2098 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
2099 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components.
2101 @item debug = on/off
2102 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
2104 @item delete_after = on/off
2105 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
2107 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
2108 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P}.
2110 @item dirstruct = on/off
2111 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
2114 @item dns_cache = on/off
2115 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
2116 option is normally used to turn it off. Same as @samp{--dns-cache}.
2118 @item domains = @var{string}
2119 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2121 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
2122 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
2123 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
2124 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
2125 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
2126 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
2127 (@pxref{Download Options}).
2129 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
2130 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
2131 the retrieval (50 by default).
2133 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
2134 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
2136 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
2137 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2138 download---the same as @samp{-X} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2140 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
2141 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2143 @item follow_ftp = on/off
2144 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
2145 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
2147 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
2148 Only follow certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
2149 @samp{--follow-tags}.
2151 @item force_html = on/off
2152 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
2153 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
2155 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
2156 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2160 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{-g}.
2162 @item header = @var{string}
2163 Define an additional header, like @samp{--header}.
2165 @item html_extension = on/off
2166 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} files without it, like
2169 @item http_passwd = @var{string}
2170 Set @sc{http} password.
2172 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
2173 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2176 @item http_user = @var{string}
2177 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}.
2179 @item ignore_length = on/off
2180 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
2181 @samp{--ignore-length}.
2183 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
2184 Ignore certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
2185 @samp{-G} / @samp{--ignore-tags}.
2187 @item include_directories = @var{string}
2188 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2189 downloading---the same as @samp{-I}.
2191 @item input = @var{string}
2192 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i}.
2194 @item kill_longer = on/off
2195 Consider data longer than specified in content-length header as invalid
2196 (and retry getting it). The default behaviour is to save as much data
2197 as there is, provided there is more than or equal to the value in
2198 @code{Content-Length}.
2200 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
2201 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
2202 The same as @samp{--limit-rate}.
2204 @item logfile = @var{string}
2205 Set logfile---the same as @samp{-o}.
2207 @item login = @var{string}
2208 Your user name on the remote machine, for @sc{ftp}. Defaults to
2211 @item mirror = on/off
2212 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
2214 @item netrc = on/off
2215 Turn reading netrc on or off.
2217 @item noclobber = on/off
2220 @item no_parent = on/off
2221 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
2222 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2224 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
2225 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
2226 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
2228 @item output_document = @var{string}
2229 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O}.
2231 @item page_requisites = on/off
2232 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single HTML page to
2233 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
2235 @item passive_ftp = on/off/always/never
2236 Set passive @sc{ftp}---the same as @samp{--passive-ftp}. Some scripts
2237 and @samp{.pm} (Perl module) files download files using @samp{wget
2238 --passive-ftp}. If your firewall does not allow this, you can set
2239 @samp{passive_ftp = never} to override the commandline.
2241 @item passwd = @var{string}
2242 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{password}. Without this setting, the
2243 password defaults to @samp{username@@hostname.domainname}.
2245 @item progress = @var{string}
2246 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are ``dot'' and
2249 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
2250 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like @samp{--proxy-user}.
2252 @item proxy_passwd = @var{string}
2253 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like @samp{--proxy-passwd}.
2255 @item referer = @var{string}
2256 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like @samp{--referer}. (Note it
2257 was the folks who wrote the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of
2258 ``referrer'' wrong.)
2260 @item quiet = on/off
2261 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
2263 @item quota = @var{quota}
2264 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
2265 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
2266 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
2267 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
2268 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
2269 to 5 mbytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
2272 @item reclevel = @var{n}
2273 Recursion level---the same as @samp{-l}.
2275 @item recursive = on/off
2276 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
2278 @item relative_only = on/off
2279 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
2282 @item remove_listing = on/off
2283 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
2284 to off is the same as @samp{-nr}.
2286 @item restrict_file_names = unix/windows
2287 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
2288 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
2290 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
2291 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
2292 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
2294 @item robots = on/off
2295 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
2296 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
2297 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
2298 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
2301 @item server_response = on/off
2302 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
2303 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
2305 @item span_hosts = on/off
2308 @item timeout = @var{n}
2309 Set timeout value---the same as @samp{-T}.
2311 @item timestamping = on/off
2312 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
2314 @item tries = @var{n}
2315 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t}.
2317 @item use_proxy = on/off
2318 Turn proxy support on/off. The same as @samp{-Y}.
2320 @item verbose = on/off
2321 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
2323 @item wait = @var{n}
2324 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w}.
2326 @item waitretry = @var{n}
2327 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
2328 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry}. Note that this is turned on by
2329 default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
2331 @item randomwait = on/off
2332 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
2333 @samp{--random-wait}.
2336 @node Sample Wgetrc, , Wgetrc Commands, Startup File
2337 @section Sample Wgetrc
2338 @cindex sample wgetrc
2340 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
2341 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
2342 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
2343 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
2345 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
2346 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
2350 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
2353 @node Examples, Various, Startup File, Top
2357 @c man begin EXAMPLES
2358 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
2362 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
2363 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
2364 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
2367 @node Simple Usage, Advanced Usage, Examples, Examples
2368 @section Simple Usage
2372 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
2375 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
2379 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
2380 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
2381 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
2382 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
2383 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
2384 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
2387 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
2391 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
2392 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
2393 shall use @samp{-t}.
2396 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
2399 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
2400 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
2403 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
2407 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
2411 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
2412 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
2415 wget ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/
2420 @node Advanced Usage, Very Advanced Usage, Simple Usage, Examples
2421 @section Advanced Usage
2425 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
2432 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
2436 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
2437 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
2438 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
2441 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2445 The same as the above, but convert the links in the @sc{html} files to
2446 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
2449 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2453 Retrieve only one HTML page, but make sure that all the elements needed
2454 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
2455 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
2456 references the downloaded links.
2459 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2462 The HTML page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
2463 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
2464 depending on where they were on the remote server.
2467 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
2468 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
2469 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
2470 subdirectory of the current directory.
2473 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
2474 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2478 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
2482 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
2486 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
2489 wget -s http://www.lycos.com/
2494 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
2498 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
2502 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
2503 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
2504 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
2508 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
2511 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
2512 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Retrieval}), with maximum depth
2513 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
2514 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
2515 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
2519 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
2520 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
2524 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
2528 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
2529 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
2532 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
2535 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
2536 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
2539 @cindex redirecting output
2541 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
2545 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
2548 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
2549 documents from remote hotlists:
2552 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
2556 @node Very Advanced Usage, , Advanced Usage, Examples
2557 @section Very Advanced Usage
2562 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
2563 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
2564 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
2565 to recheck a site each Sunday:
2569 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2573 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
2574 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
2575 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
2576 back up the original HTML files before the conversion. Wget invocation
2577 would look like this:
2580 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
2581 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2585 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
2586 when HTML files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
2587 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
2588 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
2589 to @file{@var{name}.html}.
2592 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
2593 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
2597 Or, with less typing:
2600 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2605 @node Various, Appendices, Examples, Top
2609 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
2612 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers
2613 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
2614 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
2615 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
2616 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
2617 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
2620 @node Proxies, Distribution, Various, Various
2624 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
2625 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
2626 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
2627 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
2628 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
2629 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
2630 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
2631 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
2632 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
2633 using an authorized proxy.
2635 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
2636 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
2637 the following environment variables:
2641 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{http}
2645 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
2646 connections. It is quite common that @sc{http_proxy} and @sc{ftp_proxy}
2647 are set to the same @sc{url}.
2650 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
2651 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
2652 @code{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
2656 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
2657 may be specified from within Wget itself.
2661 @itemx --proxy=on/off
2662 @itemx proxy = on/off
2663 This option may be used to turn the proxy support on or off. Proxy
2664 support is on by default, provided that the appropriate environment
2667 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
2668 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
2669 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
2670 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
2671 specified by the environment.
2674 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
2675 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
2676 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
2677 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
2678 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
2680 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
2681 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
2682 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
2683 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
2687 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
2690 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
2691 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
2692 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_passwd} to set the proxy
2693 username and password.
2695 @node Distribution, Mailing List, Proxies, Various
2696 @section Distribution
2697 @cindex latest version
2699 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
2700 master GNU archive site prep.ai.mit.edu, and its mirrors. For example,
2701 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
2702 @url{ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
2704 @node Mailing List, Reporting Bugs, Distribution, Various
2705 @section Mailing List
2706 @cindex mailing list
2709 Wget has its own mailing list at @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}, thanks
2710 to Karsten Thygesen. The mailing list is for discussion of Wget
2711 features and web, reporting Wget bugs (those that you think may be of
2712 interest to the public) and mailing announcements. You are welcome to
2713 subscribe. The more people on the list, the better!
2715 To subscribe, send mail to @email{wget-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}.
2716 the magic word @samp{subscribe} in the subject line. Unsubscribe by
2717 mailing to @email{wget-unsubscribe@@sunsite.dk}.
2719 The mailing list is archived at @url{http://fly.srk.fer.hr/archive/wget}.
2720 Alternative archive is available at
2721 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.auc.dk/}.
2723 @node Reporting Bugs, Portability, Mailing List, Various
2724 @section Reporting Bugs
2726 @cindex reporting bugs
2730 You are welcome to send bug reports about GNU Wget to
2731 @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}.
2733 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
2738 Please try to ascertain that the behaviour you see really is a bug. If
2739 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
2740 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
2741 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug.
2744 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
2745 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 -Y0
2746 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
2747 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
2748 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
2749 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
2751 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
2752 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
2753 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
2754 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
2755 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
2759 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send the log (or the
2760 relevant parts of it). If Wget was compiled without debug support,
2761 recompile it. It is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs with debug support
2765 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
2766 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace.
2770 @node Portability, Signals, Reporting Bugs, Various
2771 @section Portability
2773 @cindex operating systems
2775 Since Wget uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and avoids
2776 using ``special'' ultra--mega--cool features of any particular Unix, it
2777 should compile (and work) on all common Unix flavors.
2779 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
2780 Unix systems, including Solaris, Linux, SunOS, OSF (aka Digital Unix),
2781 Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, and others; refer to the file @file{MACHINES} in the
2782 distribution directory for a comprehensive list. If you compile it on
2783 an architecture not listed there, please let me know so I can update it.
2785 Wget should also compile on the other Unix systems, not listed in
2786 @file{MACHINES}. If it doesn't, please let me know.
2788 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works on
2789 Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. It has been compiled
2790 successfully using MS Visual C++ 4.0, Watcom, and Borland C compilers,
2791 with Winsock as networking software. Naturally, it is crippled of some
2792 features available on Unix, but it should work as a substitute for
2793 people stuck with Windows. Note that the Windows port is
2794 @strong{neither tested nor maintained} by me---all questions and
2795 problems should be reported to Wget mailing list at
2796 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the maintainers will look at them.
2798 @node Signals, , Portability, Various
2800 @cindex signal handling
2803 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
2804 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
2805 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
2806 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
2807 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
2810 $ wget http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/gnus.tar.gz &
2811 $ kill -HUP %% # Redirect the output to wget-log
2814 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
2815 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
2817 @node Appendices, Copying, Various, Top
2820 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
2823 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
2824 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
2825 * Contributors:: People who helped.
2828 @node Robot Exclusion, Security Considerations, Appendices, Appendices
2829 @section Robot Exclusion
2830 @cindex robot exclusion
2832 @cindex server maintenance
2834 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
2835 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
2836 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
2838 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
2839 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
2840 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
2841 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
2842 section handled by an, uh, @dfn{bitchin'} CGI Perl script that converts
2843 Info files to HTML on the fly. The script is slow, but works well
2844 enough for human users viewing an occasional Info file. However, when
2845 someone's recursive Wget download stumbles upon the index page that
2846 links to all the Info files through the script, the system is brought to
2847 its knees without providing anything useful to the downloader.
2849 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
2850 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
2851 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} has been invented. The idea is that
2852 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
2853 portions of the site they wish to protect from the robots.
2855 The most popular mechanism, and the de facto standard supported by all
2856 the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written by
2857 Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text file
2858 containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to avoid.
2859 To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
2860 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are supposed to
2863 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
2864 can downloads large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
2865 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
2866 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
2869 wget -r http://www.server.com/
2872 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
2873 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
2874 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
2875 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
2878 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
2879 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
2880 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
2881 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
2882 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
2883 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
2884 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
2885 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
2887 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
2889 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
2890 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
2891 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
2895 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
2898 This is explained in some detail at
2899 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
2900 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
2903 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
2904 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
2905 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
2906 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
2908 @node Security Considerations, Contributors, Robot Exclusion, Appendices
2909 @section Security Considerations
2912 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
2913 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
2914 main issues, and some solutions.
2917 @item The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}.
2918 The best way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s
2919 to Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by
2920 @kbd{C-d}. Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store
2921 passwords; however, storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a
2925 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
2926 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
2929 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
2930 solution for this at the moment.
2933 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
2934 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
2935 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
2939 @node Contributors, , Security Considerations, Appendices
2940 @section Contributors
2941 @cindex contributors
2944 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@arsdigita.com}.
2947 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@arsdigita.com}.
2949 However, its development could never have gone as far as it has, were it
2950 not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature
2951 proposals, patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
2953 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
2957 Karsten Thygesen---donated system resources such as the mailing list,
2958 web space, and @sc{ftp} space, along with a lot of time to make these
2962 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
2965 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
2969 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
2973 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
2974 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
2977 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
2978 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
2982 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
2985 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the Italian translation.
2989 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
2993 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
2998 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3001 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3005 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization and other
3009 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
3013 The people who provided donations for development, including Brian
3017 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
3018 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
3019 that make maintenance so much fun:
3038 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
3056 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
3059 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
3075 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
3093 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
3104 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
3105 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
3106 (Simos KSenitellis),
3114 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
3120 Alexander V. Lukyanov,
3145 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
3147 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}gues,
3150 Juan Jose Rodrigues,
3162 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
3168 Douglas E. Wegscheid,
3178 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
3179 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
3181 @node Copying, Concept Index, Appendices, Top
3186 @cindex free software
3188 GNU Wget is licensed under the GNU GPL, which makes it @dfn{free
3191 Please note that ``free'' in ``free software'' refers to liberty, not
3192 price. As some GNU project advocates like to point out, think of ``free
3193 speech'' rather than ``free beer''. The exact and legally binding
3194 distribution terms are spelled out below; in short, you have the right
3195 (freedom) to run and change Wget and distribute it to other people, and
3196 even---if you want---charge money for doing either. The important
3197 restriction is that you have to grant your recipients the same rights
3198 and impose the same restrictions.
3200 This method of licensing software is also known as @dfn{open source}
3201 because, among other things, it makes sure that all recipients will
3202 receive the source code along with the program, and be able to improve
3203 it. The GNU project prefers the term ``free software'' for reasons
3205 @url{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html}.
3207 The exact license terms are defined by this paragraph and the GNU
3208 General Public License it refers to:
3211 GNU Wget is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
3212 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
3213 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
3214 option) any later version.
3216 GNU Wget is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
3217 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
3218 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
3221 A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as part of this
3222 manual; if you did not receive it, write to the Free Software
3223 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3226 In addition to this, this manual is free in the same sense:
3229 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
3230 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
3231 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
3232 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
3233 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
3234 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
3235 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
3238 @c #### Maybe we should wrap these licenses in ifinfo? Stallman says
3239 @c that the GFDL needs to be present in the manual, and to me it would
3240 @c suck to include the license for the manual and not the license for
3243 The full texts of the GNU General Public License and of the GNU Free
3244 Documentation License are available below.
3247 * GNU General Public License::
3248 * GNU Free Documentation License::
3251 @node GNU General Public License, GNU Free Documentation License, Copying, Copying
3252 @section GNU General Public License
3253 @center Version 2, June 1991
3256 Copyright @copyright{} 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3257 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
3259 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
3260 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
3263 @unnumberedsec Preamble
3265 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
3266 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
3267 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
3268 software---to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
3269 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
3270 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
3271 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
3272 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
3275 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
3276 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
3277 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
3278 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
3279 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
3280 in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
3282 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
3283 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
3284 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
3285 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
3287 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
3288 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
3289 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
3290 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
3293 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
3294 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
3295 distribute and/or modify the software.
3297 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
3298 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
3299 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
3300 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
3301 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
3302 authors' reputations.
3304 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
3305 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
3306 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
3307 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
3308 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
3310 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
3311 modification follow.
3314 @unnumberedsec TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3317 @center TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3322 This License applies to any program or other work which contains
3323 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
3324 under the terms of this General Public License. The ``Program'', below,
3325 refers to any such program or work, and a ``work based on the Program''
3326 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
3327 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
3328 either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
3329 language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
3330 the term ``modification''.) Each licensee is addressed as ``you''.
3332 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
3333 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
3334 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
3335 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
3336 Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
3337 Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
3340 You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
3341 source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
3342 conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
3343 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
3344 notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
3345 and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
3346 along with the Program.
3348 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
3349 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
3352 You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
3353 of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
3354 distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
3355 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
3359 You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
3360 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
3363 You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
3364 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
3365 part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
3366 parties under the terms of this License.
3369 If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
3370 when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
3371 interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
3372 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
3373 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
3374 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
3375 these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
3376 License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
3377 does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
3378 the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
3381 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
3382 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
3383 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
3384 themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
3385 sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
3386 distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
3387 on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
3388 this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
3389 entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
3391 Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
3392 your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
3393 exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
3394 collective works based on the Program.
3396 In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
3397 with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
3398 a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
3399 the scope of this License.
3402 You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
3403 under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
3404 Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
3408 Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
3409 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
3410 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
3413 Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
3414 years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
3415 cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
3416 machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
3417 distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
3418 customarily used for software interchange; or,
3421 Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
3422 to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
3423 allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
3424 received the program in object code or executable form with such
3425 an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
3428 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
3429 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
3430 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
3431 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
3432 control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
3433 special exception, the source code distributed need not include
3434 anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
3435 form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
3436 operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
3437 itself accompanies the executable.
3439 If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
3440 access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
3441 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
3442 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
3443 compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
3446 You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
3447 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
3448 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
3449 void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
3450 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
3451 this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
3452 parties remain in full compliance.
3455 You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
3456 signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
3457 distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
3458 prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
3459 modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
3460 Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
3461 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
3462 the Program or works based on it.
3465 Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
3466 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
3467 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
3468 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
3469 restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
3470 You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
3474 If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
3475 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
3476 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
3477 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
3478 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
3479 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
3480 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
3481 may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
3482 license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
3483 all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
3484 the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
3485 refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
3487 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
3488 any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
3489 apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
3492 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
3493 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
3494 such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
3495 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
3496 implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
3497 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
3498 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
3499 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
3500 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
3503 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
3504 be a consequence of the rest of this License.
3507 If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
3508 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
3509 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
3510 may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
3511 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
3512 countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
3513 the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
3516 The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
3517 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
3518 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
3519 address new problems or concerns.
3521 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
3522 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and ``any
3523 later version'', you have the option of following the terms and conditions
3524 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
3525 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
3526 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
3530 If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
3531 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
3532 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
3533 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
3534 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
3535 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
3536 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
3539 @heading NO WARRANTY
3547 BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
3548 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
3549 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
3550 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
3551 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
3552 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
3553 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
3554 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
3555 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
3558 IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
3559 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
3560 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
3561 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
3562 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
3563 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
3564 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
3565 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
3566 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
3570 @heading END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
3573 @center END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
3577 @unnumberedsec How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
3579 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
3580 possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
3581 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
3583 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
3584 to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
3585 convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
3586 the ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
3589 @var{one line to give the program's name and an idea of what it does.}
3590 Copyright (C) 19@var{yy} @var{name of author}
3592 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
3593 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
3594 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
3595 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
3597 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3598 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3599 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3600 GNU General Public License for more details.
3602 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3603 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
3604 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3607 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
3609 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
3610 when it starts in an interactive mode:
3613 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19@var{yy} @var{name of author}
3614 Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
3615 type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome
3616 to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c'
3620 The hypothetical commands @samp{show w} and @samp{show c} should show
3621 the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
3622 commands you use may be called something other than @samp{show w} and
3623 @samp{show c}; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items---whatever
3626 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
3627 school, if any, to sign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if
3628 necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
3632 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright
3633 interest in the program `Gnomovision'
3634 (which makes passes at compilers) written
3637 @var{signature of Ty Coon}, 1 April 1989
3638 Ty Coon, President of Vice
3642 This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
3643 proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
3644 consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
3645 library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
3646 Public License instead of this License.
3648 @node GNU Free Documentation License, , GNU General Public License, Copying
3649 @section GNU Free Documentation License
3650 @center Version 1.1, March 2000
3653 Copyright (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3654 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
3656 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
3657 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
3664 The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
3665 written document ``free'' in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone
3666 the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without
3667 modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily,
3668 this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get
3669 credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for
3670 modifications made by others.
3672 This License is a kind of ``copyleft'', which means that derivative
3673 works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It
3674 complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft
3675 license designed for free software.
3677 We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free
3678 software, because free software needs free documentation: a free
3679 program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the
3680 software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals;
3681 it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or
3682 whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License
3683 principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.
3687 APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
3689 This License applies to any manual or other work that contains a
3690 notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed
3691 under the terms of this License. The ``Document'', below, refers to any
3692 such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is
3693 addressed as ``you''.
3695 A ``Modified Version'' of the Document means any work containing the
3696 Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with
3697 modifications and/or translated into another language.
3699 A ``Secondary Section'' is a named appendix or a front-matter section of
3700 the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the
3701 publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall subject
3702 (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly
3703 within that overall subject. (For example, if the Document is in part a
3704 textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any
3705 mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical
3706 connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal,
3707 commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding
3710 The ``Invariant Sections'' are certain Secondary Sections whose titles
3711 are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice
3712 that says that the Document is released under this License.
3714 The ``Cover Texts'' are certain short passages of text that are listed,
3715 as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that
3716 the Document is released under this License.
3718 A ``Transparent'' copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy,
3719 represented in a format whose specification is available to the
3720 general public, whose contents can be viewed and edited directly and
3721 straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of
3722 pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available
3723 drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or
3724 for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input
3725 to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file
3726 format whose markup has been designed to thwart or discourage
3727 subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. A copy that is
3728 not ``Transparent'' is called ``Opaque''.
3730 Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain
3731 ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML
3732 or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple
3733 HTML designed for human modification. Opaque formats include
3734 PostScript, PDF, proprietary formats that can be read and edited only
3735 by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or
3736 processing tools are not generally available, and the
3737 machine-generated HTML produced by some word processors for output
3740 The ``Title Page'' means, for a printed book, the title page itself,
3741 plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material
3742 this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in
3743 formats which do not have any title page as such, ``Title Page'' means
3744 the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's title,
3745 preceding the beginning of the body of the text.
3750 You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
3751 commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
3752 copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies
3753 to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other
3754 conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use
3755 technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further
3756 copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept
3757 compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough
3758 number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
3760 You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and
3761 you may publicly display copies.
3766 If you publish printed copies of the Document numbering more than 100,
3767 and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose
3768 the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover
3769 Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on
3770 the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify
3771 you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present
3772 the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and
3773 visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition.
3774 Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve
3775 the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated
3776 as verbatim copying in other respects.
3778 If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
3779 legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
3780 reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent
3783 If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering
3784 more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent
3785 copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy
3786 a publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a complete
3787 Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material, which the
3788 general network-using public has access to download anonymously at no
3789 charge using public-standard network protocols. If you use the latter
3790 option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin
3791 distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this
3792 Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location
3793 until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque
3794 copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to
3797 It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the
3798 Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give
3799 them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.
3804 You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under
3805 the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release
3806 the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified
3807 Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution
3808 and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy
3809 of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
3811 A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct
3812 from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions
3813 (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section
3814 of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version
3815 if the original publisher of that version gives permission.@*
3816 B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities
3817 responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified
3818 Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the
3819 Document (all of its principal authors, if it has less than five).@*
3820 C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the
3821 Modified Version, as the publisher.@*
3822 D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.@*
3823 E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
3824 adjacent to the other copyright notices.@*
3825 F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice
3826 giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the
3827 terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.@*
3828 G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections
3829 and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.@*
3830 H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.@*
3831 I. Preserve the section entitled ``History'', and its title, and add to
3832 it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and
3833 publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If
3834 there is no section entitled ``History'' in the Document, create one
3835 stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as
3836 given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified
3837 Version as stated in the previous sentence.@*
3838 J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for
3839 public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise
3840 the network locations given in the Document for previous versions
3841 it was based on. These may be placed in the ``History'' section.
3842 You may omit a network location for a work that was published at
3843 least four years before the Document itself, or if the original
3844 publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.@*
3845 K. In any section entitled ``Acknowledgements'' or ``Dedications'',
3846 preserve the section's title, and preserve in the section all the
3847 substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements
3848 and/or dedications given therein.@*
3849 L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document,
3850 unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers
3851 or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.@*
3852 M. Delete any section entitled ``Endorsements''. Such a section
3853 may not be included in the Modified Version.@*
3854 N. Do not retitle any existing section as ``Endorsements''
3855 or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.@*
3857 If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or
3858 appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material
3859 copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all
3860 of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the
3861 list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice.
3862 These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
3864 You may add a section entitled ``Endorsements'', provided it contains
3865 nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
3866 parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has
3867 been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a
3870 You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a
3871 passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list
3872 of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of
3873 Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or
3874 through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already
3875 includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or
3876 by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of,
3877 you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit
3878 permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.
3880 The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License
3881 give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or
3882 imply endorsement of any Modified Version.
3887 You may combine the Document with other documents released under this
3888 License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified
3889 versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the
3890 Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and
3891 list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its
3894 The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
3895 multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
3896 copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but
3897 different contents, make the title of each such section unique by
3898 adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original
3899 author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number.
3900 Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of
3901 Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
3903 In the combination, you must combine any sections entitled ``History''
3904 in the various original documents, forming one section entitled
3905 ``History''; likewise combine any sections entitled ``Acknowledgements'',
3906 and any sections entitled ``Dedications''. You must delete all sections
3907 entitled ``Endorsements.''
3910 COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
3912 You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents
3913 released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this
3914 License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in
3915 the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for
3916 verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.
3918 You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute
3919 it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this
3920 License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all
3921 other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.
3924 AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
3926 A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate
3927 and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or
3928 distribution medium, does not as a whole count as a Modified Version
3929 of the Document, provided no compilation copyright is claimed for the
3930 compilation. Such a compilation is called an ``aggregate'', and this
3931 License does not apply to the other self-contained works thus compiled
3932 with the Document, on account of their being thus compiled, if they
3933 are not themselves derivative works of the Document.
3935 If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these
3936 copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one quarter
3937 of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on
3938 covers that surround only the Document within the aggregate.
3939 Otherwise they must appear on covers around the whole aggregate.
3944 Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
3945 distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4.
3946 Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
3947 permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
3948 translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
3949 original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a
3950 translation of this License provided that you also include the
3951 original English version of this License. In case of a disagreement
3952 between the translation and the original English version of this
3953 License, the original English version will prevail.
3958 You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except
3959 as expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to
3960 copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will
3961 automatically terminate your rights under this License. However,
3962 parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this
3963 License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
3964 parties remain in full compliance.
3967 FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
3969 The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions
3970 of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new
3971 versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
3972 differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See
3973 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
3975 Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number.
3976 If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this
3977 License ``or any later version'' applies to it, you have the option of
3978 following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or
3979 of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the
3980 Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version
3981 number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not
3982 as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
3986 @unnumberedsec ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
3988 To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of
3989 the License in the document and put the following copyright and
3990 license notices just after the title page:
3995 Copyright (C) @var{year} @var{your name}.
3996 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
3997 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
3998 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
3999 with the Invariant Sections being @var{list their titles}, with the
4000 Front-Cover Texts being @var{list}, and with the Back-Cover Texts being @var{list}.
4001 A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
4002 Free Documentation License''.
4005 If you have no Invariant Sections, write ``with no Invariant Sections''
4006 instead of saying which ones are invariant. If you have no
4007 Front-Cover Texts, write ``no Front-Cover Texts'' instead of
4008 ``Front-Cover Texts being @var{list}''; likewise for Back-Cover Texts.
4010 If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
4011 recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of
4012 free software license, such as the GNU General Public License,
4013 to permit their use in free software.
4016 @node Concept Index, , Copying, Top
4017 @unnumbered Concept Index