1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
7 @settitle GNU Wget @value{VERSION} Manual
8 @c Disable the monstrous rectangles beside overfull hbox-es.
10 @c Use `odd' to print double-sided.
15 @c Remove this if you don't use A4 paper.
19 @c Title for man page. The weird way texi2pod.pl is written requires
20 @c the preceding @set.
22 @c man title Wget The non-interactive network downloader.
24 @dircategory Network Applications
26 * Wget: (wget). The non-interactive network downloader.
30 This file documents the GNU Wget utility for downloading network
33 @c man begin COPYRIGHT
34 Copyright @copyright{} 1996--2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
36 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
37 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
38 are preserved on all copies.
41 Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the
42 results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission
43 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
44 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
46 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
47 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
48 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
49 Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
50 copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free
51 Documentation License''.
56 @title GNU Wget @value{VERSION}
57 @subtitle The non-interactive download utility
58 @subtitle Updated for Wget @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
59 @author by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} and others
63 Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>.
64 Currently maintained by Micah Cowan <micah@cowan.name>.
67 This is @strong{not} the complete manual for GNU Wget.
68 For more complete information, including more detailed explanations of
69 some of the options, and a number of commands available
70 for use with @file{.wgetrc} files and the @samp{-e} option, see the GNU
71 Info entry for @file{wget}.
76 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
77 Copyright @copyright{} 1996--2007, Free Software Foundation, Inc.
79 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
80 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
81 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
82 Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
83 copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free
84 Documentation License''.
89 @top Wget @value{VERSION}
91 This manual documents version @value{VERSION} of GNU Wget, the freely
92 available utility for network downloads.
94 Copyright @copyright{} 1996--2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
97 * Overview:: Features of Wget.
98 * Invoking:: Wget command-line arguments.
99 * Recursive Download:: Downloading interlinked pages.
100 * Following Links:: The available methods of chasing links.
101 * Time-Stamping:: Mirroring according to time-stamps.
102 * Startup File:: Wget's initialization file.
103 * Examples:: Examples of usage.
104 * Various:: The stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
105 * Appendices:: Some useful references.
106 * Copying this manual:: You may give out copies of Wget and of this manual.
107 * Concept Index:: Topics covered by this manual.
116 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
117 GNU Wget is a free utility for non-interactive download of files from
118 the Web. It supports @sc{http}, @sc{https}, and @sc{ftp} protocols, as
119 well as retrieval through @sc{http} proxies.
122 This chapter is a partial overview of Wget's features.
126 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
127 Wget is non-interactive, meaning that it can work in the background,
128 while the user is not logged on. This allows you to start a retrieval
129 and disconnect from the system, letting Wget finish the work. By
130 contrast, most of the Web browsers require constant user's presence,
131 which can be a great hindrance when transferring a lot of data.
136 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
140 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
141 Wget can follow links in @sc{html} and @sc{xhtml} pages and create local
142 versions of remote web sites, fully recreating the directory structure of
143 the original site. This is sometimes referred to as ``recursive
144 downloading.'' While doing that, Wget respects the Robot Exclusion
145 Standard (@file{/robots.txt}). Wget can be instructed to convert the
146 links in downloaded @sc{html} files to the local files for offline
151 File name wildcard matching and recursive mirroring of directories are
152 available when retrieving via @sc{ftp}. Wget can read the time-stamp
153 information given by both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} servers, and store it
154 locally. Thus Wget can see if the remote file has changed since last
155 retrieval, and automatically retrieve the new version if it has. This
156 makes Wget suitable for mirroring of @sc{ftp} sites, as well as home
161 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
165 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
166 Wget has been designed for robustness over slow or unstable network
167 connections; if a download fails due to a network problem, it will
168 keep retrying until the whole file has been retrieved. If the server
169 supports regetting, it will instruct the server to continue the
170 download from where it left off.
174 Wget supports proxy servers, which can lighten the network load, speed
175 up retrieval and provide access behind firewalls. However, if you are
176 behind a firewall that requires that you use a socks style gateway,
177 you can get the socks library and build Wget with support for socks.
178 Wget uses the passive @sc{ftp} downloading by default, active @sc{ftp}
182 Wget supports IP version 6, the next generation of IP. IPv6 is
183 autodetected at compile-time, and can be disabled at either build or
184 run time. Binaries built with IPv6 support work well in both
185 IPv4-only and dual family environments.
188 Built-in features offer mechanisms to tune which links you wish to follow
189 (@pxref{Following Links}).
192 The progress of individual downloads is traced using a progress gauge.
193 Interactive downloads are tracked using a ``thermometer''-style gauge,
194 whereas non-interactive ones are traced with dots, each dot
195 representing a fixed amount of data received (1KB by default). Either
196 gauge can be customized to your preferences.
199 Most of the features are fully configurable, either through command line
200 options, or via the initialization file @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup
201 File}). Wget allows you to define @dfn{global} startup files
202 (@file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default) for site settings.
207 @item /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
208 Default location of the @dfn{global} startup file.
217 Finally, GNU Wget is free software. This means that everyone may use
218 it, redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
219 Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation (see the
220 file @file{COPYING} that came with GNU Wget, for details).
230 By default, Wget is very simple to invoke. The basic syntax is:
233 @c man begin SYNOPSIS
234 wget [@var{option}]@dots{} [@var{URL}]@dots{}
238 Wget will simply download all the @sc{url}s specified on the command
239 line. @var{URL} is a @dfn{Uniform Resource Locator}, as defined below.
241 However, you may wish to change some of the default parameters of
242 Wget. You can do it two ways: permanently, adding the appropriate
243 command to @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup File}), or specifying it on
249 * Basic Startup Options::
250 * Logging and Input File Options::
252 * Directory Options::
254 * HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options::
256 * Recursive Retrieval Options::
257 * Recursive Accept/Reject Options::
265 @dfn{URL} is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A uniform
266 resource locator is a compact string representation for a resource
267 available via the Internet. Wget recognizes the @sc{url} syntax as per
268 @sc{rfc1738}. This is the most widely used form (square brackets denote
272 http://host[:port]/directory/file
273 ftp://host[:port]/directory/file
276 You can also encode your username and password within a @sc{url}:
279 ftp://user:password@@host/path
280 http://user:password@@host/path
283 Either @var{user} or @var{password}, or both, may be left out. If you
284 leave out either the @sc{http} username or password, no authentication
285 will be sent. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} username, @samp{anonymous}
286 will be used. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} password, your email
287 address will be supplied as a default password.@footnote{If you have a
288 @file{.netrc} file in your home directory, password will also be
291 @strong{Important Note}: if you specify a password-containing @sc{url}
292 on the command line, the username and password will be plainly visible
293 to all users on the system, by way of @code{ps}. On multi-user systems,
294 this is a big security risk. To work around it, use @code{wget -i -}
295 and feed the @sc{url}s to Wget's standard input, each on a separate
296 line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
298 You can encode unsafe characters in a @sc{url} as @samp{%xy}, @code{xy}
299 being the hexadecimal representation of the character's @sc{ascii}
300 value. Some common unsafe characters include @samp{%} (quoted as
301 @samp{%25}), @samp{:} (quoted as @samp{%3A}), and @samp{@@} (quoted as
302 @samp{%40}). Refer to @sc{rfc1738} for a comprehensive list of unsafe
305 Wget also supports the @code{type} feature for @sc{ftp} @sc{url}s. By
306 default, @sc{ftp} documents are retrieved in the binary mode (type
307 @samp{i}), which means that they are downloaded unchanged. Another
308 useful mode is the @samp{a} (@dfn{ASCII}) mode, which converts the line
309 delimiters between the different operating systems, and is thus useful
310 for text files. Here is an example:
313 ftp://host/directory/file;type=a
316 Two alternative variants of @sc{url} specification are also supported,
317 because of historical (hysterical?) reasons and their widespreaded use.
319 @sc{ftp}-only syntax (supported by @code{NcFTP}):
324 @sc{http}-only syntax (introduced by @code{Netscape}):
329 These two alternative forms are deprecated, and may cease being
330 supported in the future.
332 If you do not understand the difference between these notations, or do
333 not know which one to use, just use the plain ordinary format you use
334 with your favorite browser, like @code{Lynx} or @code{Netscape}.
339 @section Option Syntax
340 @cindex option syntax
341 @cindex syntax of options
343 Since Wget uses GNU getopt to process command-line arguments, every
344 option has a long form along with the short one. Long options are
345 more convenient to remember, but take time to type. You may freely
346 mix different option styles, or specify options after the command-line
347 arguments. Thus you may write:
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 of @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
389 Most options that do not accept arguments are @dfn{boolean} options,
390 so named because their state can be captured with a yes-or-no
391 (``boolean'') variable. For example, @samp{--follow-ftp} tells Wget
392 to follow FTP links from HTML files and, on the other hand,
393 @samp{--no-glob} tells it not to perform file globbing on FTP URLs. A
394 boolean option is either @dfn{affirmative} or @dfn{negative}
395 (beginning with @samp{--no}). All such options share several
398 Unless stated otherwise, it is assumed that the default behavior is
399 the opposite of what the option accomplishes. For example, the
400 documented existence of @samp{--follow-ftp} assumes that the default
401 is to @emph{not} follow FTP links from HTML pages.
403 Affirmative options can be negated by prepending the @samp{--no-} to
404 the option name; negative options can be negated by omitting the
405 @samp{--no-} prefix. This might seem superfluous---if the default for
406 an affirmative option is to not do something, then why provide a way
407 to explicitly turn it off? But the startup file may in fact change
408 the default. For instance, using @code{follow_ftp = off} in
409 @file{.wgetrc} makes Wget @emph{not} follow FTP links by default, and
410 using @samp{--no-follow-ftp} is the only way to restore the factory
411 default from the command line.
413 @node Basic Startup Options
414 @section Basic Startup Options
419 Display the version of Wget.
423 Print a help message describing all of Wget's command-line options.
427 Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is
428 specified via the @samp{-o}, output is redirected to @file{wget-log}.
430 @cindex execute wgetrc command
431 @item -e @var{command}
432 @itemx --execute @var{command}
433 Execute @var{command} as if it were a part of @file{.wgetrc}
434 (@pxref{Startup File}). A command thus invoked will be executed
435 @emph{after} the commands in @file{.wgetrc}, thus taking precedence over
436 them. If you need to specify more than one wgetrc command, use multiple
437 instances of @samp{-e}.
441 @node Logging and Input File Options
442 @section Logging and Input File Options
447 @item -o @var{logfile}
448 @itemx --output-file=@var{logfile}
449 Log all messages to @var{logfile}. The messages are normally reported
452 @cindex append to log
453 @item -a @var{logfile}
454 @itemx --append-output=@var{logfile}
455 Append to @var{logfile}. This is the same as @samp{-o}, only it appends
456 to @var{logfile} instead of overwriting the old log file. If
457 @var{logfile} does not exist, a new file is created.
462 Turn on debug output, meaning various information important to the
463 developers of Wget if it does not work properly. Your system
464 administrator may have chosen to compile Wget without debug support, in
465 which case @samp{-d} will not work. Please note that compiling with
466 debug support is always safe---Wget compiled with the debug support will
467 @emph{not} print any debug info unless requested with @samp{-d}.
468 @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information on how to use @samp{-d} for
474 Turn off Wget's output.
479 Turn on verbose output, with all the available data. The default output
484 Turn off verbose without being completely quiet (use @samp{-q} for
485 that), which means that error messages and basic information still get
490 @itemx --input-file=@var{file}
491 Read @sc{url}s from @var{file}. If @samp{-} is specified as
492 @var{file}, @sc{url}s are read from the standard input. (Use
493 @samp{./-} to read from a file literally named @samp{-}.)
495 If this function is used, no @sc{url}s need be present on the command
496 line. If there are @sc{url}s both on the command line and in an input
497 file, those on the command lines will be the first ones to be
498 retrieved. The @var{file} need not be an @sc{html} document (but no
499 harm if it is)---it is enough if the @sc{url}s are just listed
502 However, if you specify @samp{--force-html}, the document will be
503 regarded as @samp{html}. In that case you may have problems with
504 relative links, which you can solve either by adding @code{<base
505 href="@var{url}">} to the documents or by specifying
506 @samp{--base=@var{url}} on the command line.
511 When input is read from a file, force it to be treated as an @sc{html}
512 file. This enables you to retrieve relative links from existing
513 @sc{html} files on your local disk, by adding @code{<base
514 href="@var{url}">} to @sc{html}, or using the @samp{--base} command-line
517 @cindex base for relative links in input file
519 @itemx --base=@var{URL}
520 Prepends @var{URL} to relative links read from the file specified with
521 the @samp{-i} option.
524 @node Download Options
525 @section Download Options
529 @cindex client IP address
530 @cindex IP address, client
531 @item --bind-address=@var{ADDRESS}
532 When making client TCP/IP connections, bind to @var{ADDRESS} on
533 the local machine. @var{ADDRESS} may be specified as a hostname or IP
534 address. This option can be useful if your machine is bound to multiple
539 @cindex number of retries
540 @item -t @var{number}
541 @itemx --tries=@var{number}
542 Set number of retries to @var{number}. Specify 0 or @samp{inf} for
543 infinite retrying. The default is to retry 20 times, with the exception
544 of fatal errors like ``connection refused'' or ``not found'' (404),
545 which are not retried.
548 @itemx --output-document=@var{file}
549 The documents will not be written to the appropriate files, but all
550 will be concatenated together and written to @var{file}. If @samp{-}
551 is used as @var{file}, documents will be printed to standard output,
552 disabling link conversion. (Use @samp{./-} to print to a file
553 literally named @samp{-}.)
555 Use of @samp{-O} is @emph{not} intended to mean simply ``use the name
556 @var{file} instead of the one in the URL;'' rather, it is
557 analogous to shell redirection:
558 @samp{wget -O file http://foo} is intended to work like
559 @samp{wget -O - http://foo > file}; @file{file} will be truncated
560 immediately, and @emph{all} downloaded content will be written there.
562 Note that a combination with @samp{-k} is only permitted when
563 downloading a single document, and combination with any of @samp{-r},
564 @samp{-p}, or @samp{-N} is not allowed.
566 @cindex clobbering, file
567 @cindex downloading multiple times
571 If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget's
572 behavior depends on a few options, including @samp{-nc}. In certain
573 cases, the local file will be @dfn{clobbered}, or overwritten, upon
574 repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
576 When running Wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, @samp{-r}, or @samp{p},
577 downloading the same file in the same directory will result in the
578 original copy of @var{file} being preserved and the second copy being
579 named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet again, the
580 third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on. When
581 @samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior is suppressed, and Wget will
582 refuse to download newer copies of @samp{@var{file}}. Therefore,
583 ``@code{no-clobber}'' is actually a misnomer in this mode---it's not
584 clobbering that's prevented (as the numeric suffixes were already
585 preventing clobbering), but rather the multiple version saving that's
588 When running Wget with @samp{-r} or @samp{-p}, but without @samp{-N}
589 or @samp{-nc}, re-downloading a file will result in the new copy
590 simply overwriting the old. Adding @samp{-nc} will prevent this
591 behavior, instead causing the original version to be preserved and any
592 newer copies on the server to be ignored.
594 When running Wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r} or
595 @samp{-p}, the decision as to whether or not to download a newer copy
596 of a file depends on the local and remote timestamp and size of the
597 file (@pxref{Time-Stamping}). @samp{-nc} may not be specified at the
598 same time as @samp{-N}.
600 Note that when @samp{-nc} is specified, files with the suffixes
601 @samp{.html} or @samp{.htm} will be loaded from the local disk and
602 parsed as if they had been retrieved from the Web.
604 @cindex continue retrieval
605 @cindex incomplete downloads
606 @cindex resume download
609 Continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you
610 want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or
611 by another program. For instance:
614 wget -c ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ls-lR.Z
617 If there is a file named @file{ls-lR.Z} in the current directory, Wget
618 will assume that it is the first portion of the remote file, and will
619 ask the server to continue the retrieval from an offset equal to the
620 length of the local file.
622 Note that you don't need to specify this option if you just want the
623 current invocation of Wget to retry downloading a file should the
624 connection be lost midway through. This is the default behavior.
625 @samp{-c} only affects resumption of downloads started @emph{prior} to
626 this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are still sitting around.
628 Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just download the remote
629 file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}, leaving the truncated @file{ls-lR.Z} file
632 Beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a non-empty file, and
633 it turns out that the server does not support continued downloading,
634 Wget will refuse to start the download from scratch, which would
635 effectively ruin existing contents. If you really want the download to
636 start from scratch, remove the file.
638 Also beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a file which is of
639 equal size as the one on the server, Wget will refuse to download the
640 file and print an explanatory message. The same happens when the file
641 is smaller on the server than locally (presumably because it was changed
642 on the server since your last download attempt)---because ``continuing''
643 is not meaningful, no download occurs.
645 On the other side of the coin, while using @samp{-c}, any file that's
646 bigger on the server than locally will be considered an incomplete
647 download and only @code{(length(remote) - length(local))} bytes will be
648 downloaded and tacked onto the end of the local file. This behavior can
649 be desirable in certain cases---for instance, you can use @samp{wget -c}
650 to download just the new portion that's been appended to a data
651 collection or log file.
653 However, if the file is bigger on the server because it's been
654 @emph{changed}, as opposed to just @emph{appended} to, you'll end up
655 with a garbled file. Wget has no way of verifying that the local file
656 is really a valid prefix of the remote file. You need to be especially
657 careful of this when using @samp{-c} in conjunction with @samp{-r},
658 since every file will be considered as an "incomplete download" candidate.
660 Another instance where you'll get a garbled file if you try to use
661 @samp{-c} is if you have a lame @sc{http} proxy that inserts a
662 ``transfer interrupted'' string into the local file. In the future a
663 ``rollback'' option may be added to deal with this case.
665 Note that @samp{-c} only works with @sc{ftp} servers and with @sc{http}
666 servers that support the @code{Range} header.
668 @cindex progress indicator
670 @item --progress=@var{type}
671 Select the type of the progress indicator you wish to use. Legal
672 indicators are ``dot'' and ``bar''.
674 The ``bar'' indicator is used by default. It draws an @sc{ascii} progress
675 bar graphics (a.k.a ``thermometer'' display) indicating the status of
676 retrieval. If the output is not a TTY, the ``dot'' bar will be used by
679 Use @samp{--progress=dot} to switch to the ``dot'' display. It traces
680 the retrieval by printing dots on the screen, each dot representing a
681 fixed amount of downloaded data.
683 When using the dotted retrieval, you may also set the @dfn{style} by
684 specifying the type as @samp{dot:@var{style}}. Different styles assign
685 different meaning to one dot. With the @code{default} style each dot
686 represents 1K, there are ten dots in a cluster and 50 dots in a line.
687 The @code{binary} style has a more ``computer''-like orientation---8K
688 dots, 16-dots clusters and 48 dots per line (which makes for 384K
689 lines). The @code{mega} style is suitable for downloading very large
690 files---each dot represents 64K retrieved, there are eight dots in a
691 cluster, and 48 dots on each line (so each line contains 3M).
693 Note that you can set the default style using the @code{progress}
694 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
695 command line. The exception is that, when the output is not a TTY, the
696 ``dot'' progress will be favored over ``bar''. To force the bar output,
697 use @samp{--progress=bar:force}.
700 @itemx --timestamping
701 Turn on time-stamping. @xref{Time-Stamping}, for details.
703 @cindex server response, print
705 @itemx --server-response
706 Print the headers sent by @sc{http} servers and responses sent by
709 @cindex Wget as spider
712 When invoked with this option, Wget will behave as a Web @dfn{spider},
713 which means that it will not download the pages, just check that they
714 are there. For example, you can use Wget to check your bookmarks:
717 wget --spider --force-html -i bookmarks.html
720 This feature needs much more work for Wget to get close to the
721 functionality of real web spiders.
725 @itemx --timeout=@var{seconds}
726 Set the network timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. This is equivalent
727 to specifying @samp{--dns-timeout}, @samp{--connect-timeout}, and
728 @samp{--read-timeout}, all at the same time.
730 When interacting with the network, Wget can check for timeout and
731 abort the operation if it takes too long. This prevents anomalies
732 like hanging reads and infinite connects. The only timeout enabled by
733 default is a 900-second read timeout. Setting a timeout to 0 disables
734 it altogether. Unless you know what you are doing, it is best not to
735 change the default timeout settings.
737 All timeout-related options accept decimal values, as well as
738 subsecond values. For example, @samp{0.1} seconds is a legal (though
739 unwise) choice of timeout. Subsecond timeouts are useful for checking
740 server response times or for testing network latency.
744 @item --dns-timeout=@var{seconds}
745 Set the DNS lookup timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. DNS lookups that
746 don't complete within the specified time will fail. By default, there
747 is no timeout on DNS lookups, other than that implemented by system
750 @cindex connect timeout
751 @cindex timeout, connect
752 @item --connect-timeout=@var{seconds}
753 Set the connect timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. TCP connections that
754 take longer to establish will be aborted. By default, there is no
755 connect timeout, other than that implemented by system libraries.
758 @cindex timeout, read
759 @item --read-timeout=@var{seconds}
760 Set the read (and write) timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. The
761 ``time'' of this timeout refers to @dfn{idle time}: if, at any point in
762 the download, no data is received for more than the specified number
763 of seconds, reading fails and the download is restarted. This option
764 does not directly affect the duration of the entire download.
766 Of course, the remote server may choose to terminate the connection
767 sooner than this option requires. The default read timeout is 900
770 @cindex bandwidth, limit
772 @cindex limit bandwidth
773 @item --limit-rate=@var{amount}
774 Limit the download speed to @var{amount} bytes per second. Amount may
775 be expressed in bytes, kilobytes with the @samp{k} suffix, or megabytes
776 with the @samp{m} suffix. For example, @samp{--limit-rate=20k} will
777 limit the retrieval rate to 20KB/s. This is useful when, for whatever
778 reason, you don't want Wget to consume the entire available bandwidth.
780 This option allows the use of decimal numbers, usually in conjunction
781 with power suffixes; for example, @samp{--limit-rate=2.5k} is a legal
784 Note that Wget implements the limiting by sleeping the appropriate
785 amount of time after a network read that took less time than specified
786 by the rate. Eventually this strategy causes the TCP transfer to slow
787 down to approximately the specified rate. However, it may take some
788 time for this balance to be achieved, so don't be surprised if limiting
789 the rate doesn't work well with very small files.
793 @item -w @var{seconds}
794 @itemx --wait=@var{seconds}
795 Wait the specified number of seconds between the retrievals. Use of
796 this option is recommended, as it lightens the server load by making the
797 requests less frequent. Instead of in seconds, the time can be
798 specified in minutes using the @code{m} suffix, in hours using @code{h}
799 suffix, or in days using @code{d} suffix.
801 Specifying a large value for this option is useful if the network or the
802 destination host is down, so that Wget can wait long enough to
803 reasonably expect the network error to be fixed before the retry. The
804 waiting interval specified by this function is influenced by
805 @code{--random-wait}, which see.
807 @cindex retries, waiting between
808 @cindex waiting between retries
809 @item --waitretry=@var{seconds}
810 If you don't want Wget to wait between @emph{every} retrieval, but only
811 between retries of failed downloads, you can use this option. Wget will
812 use @dfn{linear backoff}, waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
813 given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second failure on that
814 file, up to the maximum number of @var{seconds} you specify. Therefore,
815 a value of 10 will actually make Wget wait up to (1 + 2 + ... + 10) = 55
818 Note that this option is turned on by default in the global
824 Some web sites may perform log analysis to identify retrieval programs
825 such as Wget by looking for statistically significant similarities in
826 the time between requests. This option causes the time between requests
827 to vary between 0.5 and 1.5 * @var{wait} seconds, where @var{wait} was
828 specified using the @samp{--wait} option, in order to mask Wget's
829 presence from such analysis.
831 A 2001 article in a publication devoted to development on a popular
832 consumer platform provided code to perform this analysis on the fly.
833 Its author suggested blocking at the class C address level to ensure
834 automated retrieval programs were blocked despite changing DHCP-supplied
837 The @samp{--random-wait} option was inspired by this ill-advised
838 recommendation to block many unrelated users from a web site due to the
843 Don't use proxies, even if the appropriate @code{*_proxy} environment
847 For more information about the use of proxies with Wget, @xref{Proxies}.
852 @itemx --quota=@var{quota}
853 Specify download quota for automatic retrievals. The value can be
854 specified in bytes (default), kilobytes (with @samp{k} suffix), or
855 megabytes (with @samp{m} suffix).
857 Note that quota will never affect downloading a single file. So if you
858 specify @samp{wget -Q10k ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/ls-lR.gz}, all of the
859 @file{ls-lR.gz} will be downloaded. The same goes even when several
860 @sc{url}s are specified on the command-line. However, quota is
861 respected when retrieving either recursively, or from an input file.
862 Thus you may safely type @samp{wget -Q2m -i sites}---download will be
863 aborted when the quota is exceeded.
865 Setting quota to 0 or to @samp{inf} unlimits the download quota.
868 @cindex caching of DNS lookups
870 Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the IP
871 addresses it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly
872 contact the DNS server for the same (typically small) set of hosts it
873 retrieves from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will
876 However, it has been reported that in some situations it is not
877 desirable to cache host names, even for the duration of a
878 short-running application like Wget. With this option Wget issues a
879 new DNS lookup (more precisely, a new call to @code{gethostbyname} or
880 @code{getaddrinfo}) each time it makes a new connection. Please note
881 that this option will @emph{not} affect caching that might be
882 performed by the resolving library or by an external caching layer,
885 If you don't understand exactly what this option does, you probably
888 @cindex file names, restrict
889 @cindex Windows file names
890 @item --restrict-file-names=@var{mode}
891 Change which characters found in remote URLs may show up in local file
892 names generated from those URLs. Characters that are @dfn{restricted}
893 by this option are escaped, i.e. replaced with @samp{%HH}, where
894 @samp{HH} is the hexadecimal number that corresponds to the restricted
897 By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid as part of
898 file names on your operating system, as well as control characters that
899 are typically unprintable. This option is useful for changing these
900 defaults, either because you are downloading to a non-native partition,
901 or because you want to disable escaping of the control characters.
903 When mode is set to ``unix'', Wget escapes the character @samp{/} and
904 the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159. This is the
905 default on Unix-like OS'es.
907 When mode is set to ``windows'', Wget escapes the characters @samp{\},
908 @samp{|}, @samp{/}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
909 @samp{>}, and the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159.
910 In addition to this, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead of
911 @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
912 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
913 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
914 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
915 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
916 mode. This mode is the default on Windows.
918 If you append @samp{,nocontrol} to the mode, as in
919 @samp{unix,nocontrol}, escaping of the control characters is also
920 switched off. You can use @samp{--restrict-file-names=nocontrol} to
921 turn off escaping of control characters without affecting the choice of
922 the OS to use as file name restriction mode.
929 Force connecting to IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. With @samp{--inet4-only}
930 or @samp{-4}, Wget will only connect to IPv4 hosts, ignoring AAAA
931 records in DNS, and refusing to connect to IPv6 addresses specified in
932 URLs. Conversely, with @samp{--inet6-only} or @samp{-6}, Wget will
933 only connect to IPv6 hosts and ignore A records and IPv4 addresses.
935 Neither options should be needed normally. By default, an IPv6-aware
936 Wget will use the address family specified by the host's DNS record.
937 If the DNS responds with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, Wget will try
938 them in sequence until it finds one it can connect to. (Also see
939 @code{--prefer-family} option described below.)
941 These options can be used to deliberately force the use of IPv4 or
942 IPv6 address families on dual family systems, usually to aid debugging
943 or to deal with broken network configuration. Only one of
944 @samp{--inet6-only} and @samp{--inet4-only} may be specified at the
945 same time. Neither option is available in Wget compiled without IPv6
948 @item --prefer-family=IPv4/IPv6/none
949 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
950 with specified address family first. IPv4 addresses are preferred by
953 This avoids spurious errors and connect attempts when accessing hosts
954 that resolve to both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses from IPv4 networks. For
955 example, @samp{www.kame.net} resolves to
956 @samp{2001:200:0:8002:203:47ff:fea5:3085} and to
957 @samp{203.178.141.194}. When the preferred family is @code{IPv4}, the
958 IPv4 address is used first; when the preferred family is @code{IPv6},
959 the IPv6 address is used first; if the specified value is @code{none},
960 the address order returned by DNS is used without change.
962 Unlike @samp{-4} and @samp{-6}, this option doesn't inhibit access to
963 any address family, it only changes the @emph{order} in which the
964 addresses are accessed. Also note that the reordering performed by
965 this option is @dfn{stable}---it doesn't affect order of addresses of
966 the same family. That is, the relative order of all IPv4 addresses
967 and of all IPv6 addresses remains intact in all cases.
969 @item --retry-connrefused
970 Consider ``connection refused'' a transient error and try again.
971 Normally Wget gives up on a URL when it is unable to connect to the
972 site because failure to connect is taken as a sign that the server is
973 not running at all and that retries would not help. This option is
974 for mirroring unreliable sites whose servers tend to disappear for
975 short periods of time.
979 @cindex authentication
980 @item --user=@var{user}
981 @itemx --password=@var{password}
982 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for both
983 @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval. These parameters can be overridden
984 using the @samp{--ftp-user} and @samp{--ftp-password} options for
985 @sc{ftp} connections and the @samp{--http-user} and @samp{--http-password}
986 options for @sc{http} connections.
989 @node Directory Options
990 @section Directory Options
994 @itemx --no-directories
995 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
996 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
997 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
998 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
1001 @itemx --force-directories
1002 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
1003 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
1004 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
1005 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
1008 @itemx --no-host-directories
1009 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
1010 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
1011 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
1014 @item --protocol-directories
1015 Use the protocol name as a directory component of local file names. For
1016 example, with this option, @samp{wget -r http://@var{host}} will save to
1017 @samp{http/@var{host}/...} rather than just to @samp{@var{host}/...}.
1019 @cindex cut directories
1020 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
1021 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
1022 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
1025 Take, for example, the directory at
1026 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
1027 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
1028 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
1029 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
1030 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
1031 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
1032 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
1036 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
1038 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
1039 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
1041 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
1046 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
1047 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
1048 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
1049 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
1050 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
1052 @cindex directory prefix
1053 @item -P @var{prefix}
1054 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
1055 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
1056 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
1057 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
1062 @section HTTP Options
1065 @cindex .html extension
1067 @itemx --html-extension
1068 If a file of type @samp{application/xhtml+xml} or @samp{text/html} is
1069 downloaded and the URL does not end with the regexp
1070 @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause the suffix @samp{.html}
1071 to be appended to the local filename. This is useful, for instance, when
1072 you're mirroring a remote site that uses @samp{.asp} pages, but you want
1073 the mirrored pages to be viewable on your stock Apache server. Another
1074 good use for this is when you're downloading CGI-generated materials. A URL
1075 like @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
1076 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
1078 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
1079 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
1080 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
1081 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
1082 @samp{text/html} or @samp{application/xhtml+xml}. To prevent this
1083 re-downloading, you must use @samp{-k} and @samp{-K} so that the original
1084 version of the file will be saved as @file{@var{X}.orig} (@pxref{Recursive
1085 Retrieval Options}).
1088 @cindex http password
1089 @cindex authentication
1090 @item --http-user=@var{user}
1091 @itemx --http-password=@var{password}
1092 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1093 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
1094 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure),
1095 the @code{digest}, or the Windows @code{NTLM} authentication scheme.
1097 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1098 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1099 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1100 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1101 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1102 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1103 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1106 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1113 Disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will send the remote
1114 server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma: no-cache}) to get the
1115 file from the remote service, rather than returning the cached version.
1116 This is especially useful for retrieving and flushing out-of-date
1117 documents on proxy servers.
1119 Caching is allowed by default.
1123 Disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism for maintaining
1124 server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie using the
1125 @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the same cookie
1126 upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server owners to keep
1127 track of visitors and for sites to exchange this information, some
1128 consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to use cookies;
1129 however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
1131 @cindex loading cookies
1132 @cindex cookies, loading
1133 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
1134 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
1135 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
1136 @file{cookies.txt} file.
1138 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
1139 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
1140 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
1141 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
1142 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
1143 proves your identity.
1145 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
1146 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
1147 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
1148 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
1149 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
1150 cookie files in different locations:
1154 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1156 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1157 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1158 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1159 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1160 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1162 @item Internet Explorer.
1163 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1164 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1165 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1167 @item Other browsers.
1168 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1169 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1170 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1173 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1174 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1175 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1176 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1177 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1180 wget --no-cookies --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1183 @cindex saving cookies
1184 @cindex cookies, saving
1185 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1186 Save cookies to @var{file} before exiting. This will not save cookies
1187 that have expired or that have no expiry time (so-called ``session
1188 cookies''), but also see @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
1190 @cindex cookies, session
1191 @cindex session cookies
1192 @item --keep-session-cookies
1193 When specified, causes @samp{--save-cookies} to also save session
1194 cookies. Session cookies are normally not saved because they are
1195 meant to be kept in memory and forgotten when you exit the browser.
1196 Saving them is useful on sites that require you to log in or to visit
1197 the home page before you can access some pages. With this option,
1198 multiple Wget runs are considered a single browser session as far as
1199 the site is concerned.
1201 Since the cookie file format does not normally carry session cookies,
1202 Wget marks them with an expiry timestamp of 0. Wget's
1203 @samp{--load-cookies} recognizes those as session cookies, but it might
1204 confuse other browsers. Also note that cookies so loaded will be
1205 treated as other session cookies, which means that if you want
1206 @samp{--save-cookies} to preserve them again, you must use
1207 @samp{--keep-session-cookies} again.
1209 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1210 @cindex ignore length
1211 @item --ignore-length
1212 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1213 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1214 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1215 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1216 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1219 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1220 if it never existed.
1223 @item --header=@var{header-line}
1224 Send @var{header-line} along with the rest of the headers in each
1225 @sc{http} request. The supplied header is sent as-is, which means it
1226 must contain name and value separated by colon, and must not contain
1229 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1230 @samp{--header} more than once.
1234 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1235 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1236 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1240 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1241 previous user-defined headers.
1243 As of Wget 1.10, this option can be used to override headers otherwise
1244 generated automatically. This example instructs Wget to connect to
1245 localhost, but to specify @samp{foo.bar} in the @code{Host} header:
1248 wget --header="Host: foo.bar" http://localhost/
1251 In versions of Wget prior to 1.10 such use of @samp{--header} caused
1252 sending of duplicate headers.
1255 @item --max-redirect=@var{number}
1256 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
1257 The default is 20, which is usually far more than necessary. However, on
1258 those occasions where you want to allow more (or fewer), this is the
1262 @cindex proxy password
1263 @cindex proxy authentication
1264 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1265 @itemx --proxy-password=@var{password}
1266 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1267 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1268 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1270 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-password}
1271 pertain here as well.
1273 @cindex http referer
1274 @cindex referer, http
1275 @item --referer=@var{url}
1276 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1277 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1278 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1279 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1281 @cindex server response, save
1282 @item --save-headers
1283 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1284 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1287 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1288 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1289 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1291 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1292 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1293 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1294 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1295 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1298 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1299 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1300 While this is not such a bad idea in theory, it has been abused by
1301 servers denying information to clients other than (historically)
1302 Netscape or, more frequently, Microsoft Internet Explorer. This
1303 option allows you to change the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget.
1304 Use of this option is discouraged, unless you really know what you are
1307 Specifying empty user agent with @samp{--user-agent=""} instructs Wget
1308 not to send the @code{User-Agent} header in @sc{http} requests.
1311 @item --post-data=@var{string}
1312 @itemx --post-file=@var{file}
1313 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the specified data
1314 in the request body. @code{--post-data} sends @var{string} as data,
1315 whereas @code{--post-file} sends the contents of @var{file}. Other than
1316 that, they work in exactly the same way.
1318 Please be aware that Wget needs to know the size of the POST data in
1319 advance. Therefore the argument to @code{--post-file} must be a regular
1320 file; specifying a FIFO or something like @file{/dev/stdin} won't work.
1321 It's not quite clear how to work around this limitation inherent in
1322 HTTP/1.0. Although HTTP/1.1 introduces @dfn{chunked} transfer that
1323 doesn't require knowing the request length in advance, a client can't
1324 use chunked unless it knows it's talking to an HTTP/1.1 server. And it
1325 can't know that until it receives a response, which in turn requires the
1326 request to have been completed -- a chicken-and-egg problem.
1328 Note: if Wget is redirected after the POST request is completed, it
1329 will not send the POST data to the redirected URL. This is because
1330 URLs that process POST often respond with a redirection to a regular
1331 page, which does not desire or accept POST. It is not completely
1332 clear that this behavior is optimal; if it doesn't work out, it might
1333 be changed in the future.
1335 This example shows how to log to a server using POST and then proceed to
1336 download the desired pages, presumably only accessible to authorized
1341 # @r{Log in to the server. This can be done only once.}
1342 wget --save-cookies cookies.txt \
1343 --post-data 'user=foo&password=bar' \
1344 http://server.com/auth.php
1346 # @r{Now grab the page or pages we care about.}
1347 wget --load-cookies cookies.txt \
1348 -p http://server.com/interesting/article.php
1352 If the server is using session cookies to track user authentication,
1353 the above will not work because @samp{--save-cookies} will not save
1354 them (and neither will browsers) and the @file{cookies.txt} file will
1355 be empty. In that case use @samp{--keep-session-cookies} along with
1356 @samp{--save-cookies} to force saving of session cookies.
1358 @cindex Content-Disposition
1359 @item --content-disposition
1361 If this is set to on, experimental (not fully-functional) support for
1362 @code{Content-Disposition} headers is enabled. This can currently result in
1363 extra round-trips to the server for a @code{HEAD} request, and is known
1364 to suffer from a few bugs, which is why it is not currently enabled by default.
1366 This option is useful for some file-downloading CGI programs that use
1367 @code{Content-Disposition} headers to describe what the name of a
1368 downloaded file should be.
1372 @node HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
1373 @section HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
1376 To support encrypted HTTP (HTTPS) downloads, Wget must be compiled
1377 with an external SSL library, currently OpenSSL. If Wget is compiled
1378 without SSL support, none of these options are available.
1381 @cindex SSL protocol, choose
1382 @item --secure-protocol=@var{protocol}
1383 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto},
1384 @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. If @samp{auto} is used,
1385 the SSL library is given the liberty of choosing the appropriate
1386 protocol automatically, which is achieved by sending an SSLv2 greeting
1387 and announcing support for SSLv3 and TLSv1. This is the default.
1389 Specifying @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, or @samp{TLSv1} forces the use
1390 of the corresponding protocol. This is useful when talking to old and
1391 buggy SSL server implementations that make it hard for OpenSSL to
1392 choose the correct protocol version. Fortunately, such servers are
1395 @cindex SSL certificate, check
1396 @item --no-check-certificate
1397 Don't check the server certificate against the available certificate
1398 authorities. Also don't require the URL host name to match the common
1399 name presented by the certificate.
1401 As of Wget 1.10, the default is to verify the server's certificate
1402 against the recognized certificate authorities, breaking the SSL
1403 handshake and aborting the download if the verification fails.
1404 Although this provides more secure downloads, it does break
1405 interoperability with some sites that worked with previous Wget
1406 versions, particularly those using self-signed, expired, or otherwise
1407 invalid certificates. This option forces an ``insecure'' mode of
1408 operation that turns the certificate verification errors into warnings
1409 and allows you to proceed.
1411 If you encounter ``certificate verification'' errors or ones saying
1412 that ``common name doesn't match requested host name'', you can use
1413 this option to bypass the verification and proceed with the download.
1414 @emph{Only use this option if you are otherwise convinced of the
1415 site's authenticity, or if you really don't care about the validity of
1416 its certificate.} It is almost always a bad idea not to check the
1417 certificates when transmitting confidential or important data.
1419 @cindex SSL certificate
1420 @item --certificate=@var{file}
1421 Use the client certificate stored in @var{file}. This is needed for
1422 servers that are configured to require certificates from the clients
1423 that connect to them. Normally a certificate is not required and this
1426 @cindex SSL certificate type, specify
1427 @item --certificate-type=@var{type}
1428 Specify the type of the client certificate. Legal values are
1429 @samp{PEM} (assumed by default) and @samp{DER}, also known as
1432 @item --private-key=@var{file}
1433 Read the private key from @var{file}. This allows you to provide the
1434 private key in a file separate from the certificate.
1436 @item --private-key-type=@var{type}
1437 Specify the type of the private key. Accepted values are @samp{PEM}
1438 (the default) and @samp{DER}.
1440 @item --ca-certificate=@var{file}
1441 Use @var{file} as the file with the bundle of certificate authorities
1442 (``CA'') to verify the peers. The certificates must be in PEM format.
1444 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1445 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1447 @cindex SSL certificate authority
1448 @item --ca-directory=@var{directory}
1449 Specifies directory containing CA certificates in PEM format. Each
1450 file contains one CA certificate, and the file name is based on a hash
1451 value derived from the certificate. This is achieved by processing a
1452 certificate directory with the @code{c_rehash} utility supplied with
1453 OpenSSL. Using @samp{--ca-directory} is more efficient than
1454 @samp{--ca-certificate} when many certificates are installed because
1455 it allows Wget to fetch certificates on demand.
1457 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1458 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1460 @cindex entropy, specifying source of
1461 @cindex randomness, specifying source of
1462 @item --random-file=@var{file}
1463 Use @var{file} as the source of random data for seeding the
1464 pseudo-random number generator on systems without @file{/dev/random}.
1466 On such systems the SSL library needs an external source of randomness
1467 to initialize. Randomness may be provided by EGD (see
1468 @samp{--egd-file} below) or read from an external source specified by
1469 the user. If this option is not specified, Wget looks for random data
1470 in @code{$RANDFILE} or, if that is unset, in @file{$HOME/.rnd}. If
1471 none of those are available, it is likely that SSL encryption will not
1474 If you're getting the ``Could not seed OpenSSL PRNG; disabling SSL.''
1475 error, you should provide random data using some of the methods
1479 @item --egd-file=@var{file}
1480 Use @var{file} as the EGD socket. EGD stands for @dfn{Entropy
1481 Gathering Daemon}, a user-space program that collects data from
1482 various unpredictable system sources and makes it available to other
1483 programs that might need it. Encryption software, such as the SSL
1484 library, needs sources of non-repeating randomness to seed the random
1485 number generator used to produce cryptographically strong keys.
1487 OpenSSL allows the user to specify his own source of entropy using the
1488 @code{RAND_FILE} environment variable. If this variable is unset, or
1489 if the specified file does not produce enough randomness, OpenSSL will
1490 read random data from EGD socket specified using this option.
1492 If this option is not specified (and the equivalent startup command is
1493 not used), EGD is never contacted. EGD is not needed on modern Unix
1494 systems that support @file{/dev/random}.
1498 @section FTP Options
1502 @cindex ftp password
1503 @cindex ftp authentication
1504 @item --ftp-user=@var{user}
1505 @itemx --ftp-password=@var{password}
1506 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1507 @sc{ftp} server. Without this, or the corresponding startup option,
1508 the password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, normally used for anonymous
1511 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1512 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1513 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1514 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1515 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1516 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1517 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1520 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1524 @cindex .listing files, removing
1525 @item --no-remove-listing
1526 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1527 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1528 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1529 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1530 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1531 you're running is complete).
1533 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1534 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1535 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1536 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1537 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1538 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1539 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1540 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1541 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1543 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1544 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1545 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1546 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1547 will be overwritten.
1549 @cindex globbing, toggle
1551 Turn off @sc{ftp} globbing. Globbing refers to the use of shell-like
1552 special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[}
1553 and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the same directory at
1557 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1560 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1561 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1564 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1565 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1566 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1567 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1570 @item --no-passive-ftp
1571 Disable the use of the @dfn{passive} FTP transfer mode. Passive FTP
1572 mandates that the client connect to the server to establish the data
1573 connection rather than the other way around.
1575 If the machine is connected to the Internet directly, both passive and
1576 active FTP should work equally well. Behind most firewall and NAT
1577 configurations passive FTP has a better chance of working. However,
1578 in some rare firewall configurations, active FTP actually works when
1579 passive FTP doesn't. If you suspect this to be the case, use this
1580 option, or set @code{passive_ftp=off} in your init file.
1582 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1583 @item --retr-symlinks
1584 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1585 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1586 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1587 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1588 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1590 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1591 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1592 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1593 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1596 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1597 specified on the command-line, rather than because it was recursed to,
1598 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1601 @cindex Keep-Alive, turning off
1602 @cindex Persistent Connections, disabling
1603 @item --no-http-keep-alive
1604 Turn off the ``keep-alive'' feature for HTTP downloads. Normally, Wget
1605 asks the server to keep the connection open so that, when you download
1606 more than one document from the same server, they get transferred over
1607 the same TCP connection. This saves time and at the same time reduces
1608 the load on the server.
1610 This option is useful when, for some reason, persistent (keep-alive)
1611 connections don't work for you, for example due to a server bug or due
1612 to the inability of server-side scripts to cope with the connections.
1615 @node Recursive Retrieval Options
1616 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1621 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Download}, for more
1624 @item -l @var{depth}
1625 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1626 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1627 Download}). The default maximum depth is 5.
1629 @cindex proxy filling
1630 @cindex delete after retrieval
1631 @cindex filling proxy cache
1632 @item --delete-after
1633 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1634 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1635 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1638 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1641 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1644 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1645 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1646 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1647 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1648 created in the first place.
1650 @cindex conversion of links
1651 @cindex link conversion
1653 @itemx --convert-links
1654 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1655 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1656 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1657 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-@sc{html}
1660 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1664 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1665 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1667 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1668 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1669 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1670 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1673 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1674 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1676 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1677 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1678 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1679 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1682 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1683 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1684 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1685 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1686 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1689 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1690 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1691 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1693 @cindex backing up converted files
1695 @itemx --backup-converted
1696 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1697 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1702 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1703 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1704 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1705 @samp{-r -N -l inf --no-remove-listing}.
1707 @cindex page requisites
1708 @cindex required images, downloading
1710 @itemx --page-requisites
1711 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
1712 properly display a given @sc{html} page. This includes such things as
1713 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
1715 Ordinarily, when downloading a single @sc{html} page, any requisite documents
1716 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
1717 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
1718 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
1719 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
1722 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
1723 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
1724 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
1725 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
1726 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
1728 If one executes the command:
1731 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
1734 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
1735 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
1736 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
1737 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
1738 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
1741 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1744 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
1745 will be downloaded. Similarly,
1748 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1751 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
1752 to be downloaded. One might think that:
1755 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1758 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
1759 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
1760 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single @sc{html}
1761 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the command-line or in a
1762 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
1763 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
1766 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1769 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
1770 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
1771 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
1772 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
1773 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
1774 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
1777 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1780 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
1781 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
1782 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
1785 @cindex @sc{html} comments
1786 @cindex comments, @sc{html}
1787 @item --strict-comments
1788 Turn on strict parsing of @sc{html} comments. The default is to terminate
1789 comments at the first occurrence of @samp{-->}.
1791 According to specifications, @sc{html} comments are expressed as @sc{sgml}
1792 @dfn{declarations}. Declaration is special markup that begins with
1793 @samp{<!} and ends with @samp{>}, such as @samp{<!DOCTYPE ...>}, that
1794 may contain comments between a pair of @samp{--} delimiters. @sc{html}
1795 comments are ``empty declarations'', @sc{sgml} declarations without any
1796 non-comment text. Therefore, @samp{<!--foo-->} is a valid comment, and
1797 so is @samp{<!--one-- --two-->}, but @samp{<!--1--2-->} is not.
1799 On the other hand, most @sc{html} writers don't perceive comments as anything
1800 other than text delimited with @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}, which is not
1801 quite the same. For example, something like @samp{<!------------>}
1802 works as a valid comment as long as the number of dashes is a multiple
1803 of four (!). If not, the comment technically lasts until the next
1804 @samp{--}, which may be at the other end of the document. Because of
1805 this, many popular browsers completely ignore the specification and
1806 implement what users have come to expect: comments delimited with
1807 @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}.
1809 Until version 1.9, Wget interpreted comments strictly, which resulted in
1810 missing links in many web pages that displayed fine in browsers, but had
1811 the misfortune of containing non-compliant comments. Beginning with
1812 version 1.9, Wget has joined the ranks of clients that implements
1813 ``naive'' comments, terminating each comment at the first occurrence of
1816 If, for whatever reason, you want strict comment parsing, use this
1817 option to turn it on.
1820 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1821 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1824 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
1825 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
1826 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
1827 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files}). Note that if
1828 any of the wildcard characters, @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[} or
1829 @samp{]}, appear in an element of @var{acclist} or @var{rejlist},
1830 it will be treated as a pattern, rather than a suffix.
1832 @item -D @var{domain-list}
1833 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
1834 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
1835 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
1837 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
1838 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed.
1839 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1841 @cindex follow FTP links
1843 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
1844 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
1846 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
1847 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
1848 Wget has an internal table of @sc{html} tag / attribute pairs that it
1849 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
1850 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
1851 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
1852 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
1854 @item --ignore-tags=@var{list}
1855 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
1856 certain @sc{html} tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
1857 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
1859 In the past, this option was the best bet for downloading a single page
1860 and its requisites, using a command-line like:
1863 wget --ignore-tags=a,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1866 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
1867 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
1868 specifying tags to ignore was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to
1869 ignore @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded.
1870 Now the best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
1871 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
1876 Ignore case when matching files and directories. This influences the
1877 behavior of -R, -A, -I, and -X options, as well as globbing
1878 implemented when downloading from FTP sites. For example, with this
1879 option, @samp{-A *.txt} will match @samp{file1.txt}, but also
1880 @samp{file2.TXT}, @samp{file3.TxT}, and so on.
1884 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
1885 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1889 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
1890 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
1891 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
1894 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
1895 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
1896 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements
1897 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1900 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
1901 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
1902 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements of
1903 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1907 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
1908 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
1909 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
1910 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
1915 @node Recursive Download
1916 @chapter Recursive Download
1919 @cindex recursive download
1921 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
1922 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
1923 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieval}, or @dfn{recursion}.
1925 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} from
1926 the given @sc{url}, documents, retrieving the files the @sc{html}
1927 document was referring to, through markup like @code{href}, or
1928 @code{src}. If the freshly downloaded file is also of type
1929 @code{text/html} or @code{application/xhtml+xml}, it will be parsed and
1932 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html} content is
1933 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
1934 @sc{html} document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
1935 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
1936 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
1937 until the specified maximum depth.
1939 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
1940 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
1942 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
1943 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
1944 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
1945 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
1946 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
1949 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
1950 the one found on the remote server.
1952 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
1953 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
1954 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
1955 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
1957 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
1958 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
1959 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
1960 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
1961 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
1962 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
1963 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
1965 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
1966 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
1967 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
1968 consume memory and CPU.
1970 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
1971 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
1972 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
1973 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
1974 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
1975 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
1976 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
1979 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
1982 @node Following Links
1983 @chapter Following Links
1985 @cindex following links
1987 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
1988 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
1989 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
1991 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
1992 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
1993 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
1995 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
1996 links it will follow.
1999 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
2000 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
2001 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
2002 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
2003 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
2006 @node Spanning Hosts
2007 @section Spanning Hosts
2008 @cindex spanning hosts
2009 @cindex hosts, spanning
2011 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
2012 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
2013 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
2014 your Wget into a small version of google.
2016 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
2017 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
2018 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
2019 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the @sc{html}
2020 pages refer to both interchangeably.
2023 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
2025 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
2026 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
2027 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
2028 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
2029 up much more data than you have intended.
2031 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
2033 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
2034 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
2035 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
2036 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
2037 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
2038 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
2041 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
2044 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
2045 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
2047 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
2049 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
2050 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
2051 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
2052 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
2053 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
2057 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
2063 @node Types of Files
2064 @section Types of Files
2065 @cindex types of files
2067 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
2068 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
2069 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
2070 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
2072 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
2073 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
2076 @cindex accept wildcards
2077 @cindex accept suffixes
2078 @cindex wildcards, accept
2079 @cindex suffixes, accept
2081 @item -A @var{acclist}
2082 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
2083 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
2084 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
2085 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
2086 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
2087 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
2088 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
2090 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
2091 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
2092 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
2093 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
2094 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
2095 a description of how pattern matching works.
2097 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
2098 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
2100 @cindex reject wildcards
2101 @cindex reject suffixes
2102 @cindex wildcards, reject
2103 @cindex suffixes, reject
2104 @item -R @var{rejlist}
2105 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
2106 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
2107 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
2108 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
2109 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
2111 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
2112 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
2113 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
2114 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
2115 expansion by the shell.
2118 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
2119 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
2120 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
2121 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
2123 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
2124 files; Wget must load all the @sc{html}s to know where to go at
2125 all---recursive retrieval would make no sense otherwise.
2127 @node Directory-Based Limits
2128 @section Directory-Based Limits
2130 @cindex directory limits
2132 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
2133 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
2134 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
2135 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
2136 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
2137 @file{/dev} directories.
2139 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
2140 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
2141 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
2143 @cindex directories, include
2144 @cindex include directories
2145 @cindex accept directories
2148 @itemx --include @var{list}
2149 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
2150 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
2151 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
2152 directories are absolute paths.
2154 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
2155 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
2156 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
2159 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
2162 @cindex directories, exclude
2163 @cindex exclude directories
2164 @cindex reject directories
2166 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
2167 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
2168 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
2169 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
2170 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
2171 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
2173 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
2174 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
2175 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
2176 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
2181 @itemx no_parent = on
2182 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
2183 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
2184 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
2185 parent directory/directories.
2187 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
2188 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
2189 Supposing you issue Wget with:
2192 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
2195 You may rest assured that none of the references to
2196 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
2197 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
2198 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
2199 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
2200 intelligent fashion.
2203 @node Relative Links
2204 @section Relative Links
2205 @cindex relative links
2207 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
2208 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
2209 server root. For example, these links are relative:
2213 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
2214 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
2217 These links are not relative:
2221 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
2222 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
2225 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
2226 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
2227 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
2229 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
2233 @section Following FTP Links
2234 @cindex following ftp links
2236 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
2237 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
2238 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
2241 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
2242 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
2243 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
2244 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
2245 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
2246 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
2247 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
2249 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
2250 retrieved recursively further.
2253 @chapter Time-Stamping
2254 @cindex time-stamping
2255 @cindex timestamping
2256 @cindex updating the archives
2257 @cindex incremental updating
2259 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
2260 Internet is updating your archives.
2262 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
2263 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
2264 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
2265 offer the option of incremental updating.
2267 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
2268 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
2269 the place of the old ones.
2271 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
2275 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
2278 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
2279 recently than the local file.
2282 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
2283 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
2284 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
2286 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
2287 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
2288 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
2289 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
2290 does, and the remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
2292 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
2293 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
2297 * Time-Stamping Usage::
2298 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2299 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2302 @node Time-Stamping Usage
2303 @section Time-Stamping Usage
2304 @cindex time-stamping usage
2305 @cindex usage, time-stamping
2307 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
2308 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
2311 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2314 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
2315 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
2316 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
2317 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
2319 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
2320 changed, and download it if it has.
2323 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2326 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
2327 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
2328 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
2329 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
2331 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
2334 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
2337 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
2338 interpret the @samp{*}.)
2340 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
2341 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
2342 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
2343 since the last download.
2345 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
2346 command like the following, weekly:
2349 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2352 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
2353 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
2354 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
2355 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
2356 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
2358 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2359 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2360 @cindex http time-stamping
2362 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
2363 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
2364 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
2365 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
2366 retrieved unconditionally.
2368 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
2369 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
2370 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
2373 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
2374 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
2375 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
2376 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
2377 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
2378 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
2381 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
2382 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
2383 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
2384 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
2385 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
2387 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
2388 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
2390 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2391 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2392 @cindex ftp time-stamping
2394 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
2395 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
2398 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
2399 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
2400 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
2401 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
2402 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
2403 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
2404 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
2405 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
2407 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
2408 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
2409 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
2410 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
2411 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
2412 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
2414 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
2415 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
2416 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
2417 Wget may support this command in the future.
2420 @chapter Startup File
2421 @cindex startup file
2427 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
2428 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
2429 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
2430 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
2432 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
2433 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
2434 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
2435 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
2437 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
2441 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
2442 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
2443 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
2444 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
2447 @node Wgetrc Location
2448 @section Wgetrc Location
2449 @cindex wgetrc location
2450 @cindex location of wgetrc
2452 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
2453 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
2454 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
2455 from there, if it exists.
2457 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
2458 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
2459 further attempts will be made.
2461 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
2463 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
2464 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
2465 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
2466 Fascist admins, away!
2469 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2470 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2471 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2473 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2479 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2480 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2482 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2483 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2484 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2487 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2488 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2489 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2495 @node Wgetrc Commands
2496 @section Wgetrc Commands
2497 @cindex wgetrc commands
2499 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2500 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2501 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}.
2503 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2504 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2505 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2506 values can be any non-empty string.
2508 Most of these commands have direct command-line equivalents. Also, any
2509 wgetrc command can be specified on the command line using the
2510 @samp{--execute} switch (@pxref{Basic Startup Options}.)
2513 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2514 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2516 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2517 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2519 @item background = on/off
2520 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2523 @item backup_converted = on/off
2524 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2525 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2527 @c @item backups = @var{number}
2528 @c #### Document me!
2530 @item base = @var{string}
2531 Consider relative @sc{url}s in @sc{url} input files forced to be
2532 interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string}---the same as
2533 @samp{--base=@var{string}}.
2535 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2536 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address=@var{address}}.
2538 @item ca_certificate = @var{file}
2539 Set the certificate authority bundle file to @var{file}. The same
2540 as @samp{--ca-certificate=@var{file}}.
2542 @item ca_directory = @var{directory}
2543 Set the directory used for certificate authorities. The same as
2544 @samp{--ca-directory=@var{directory}}.
2546 @item cache = on/off
2547 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{--no-cache}
2550 @item certificate = @var{file}
2551 Set the client certificate file name to @var{file}. The same as
2552 @samp{--certificate=@var{file}}.
2554 @item certificate_type = @var{string}
2555 Specify the type of the client certificate, legal values being
2556 @samp{PEM} (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2557 @samp{--certificate-type=@var{string}}.
2559 @item check_certificate = on/off
2560 If this is set to off, the server certificate is not checked against
2561 the specified client authorities. The default is ``on''. The same as
2562 @samp{--check-certificate}.
2564 @item connect_timeout = @var{n}
2565 Set the connect timeout---the same as @samp{--connect-timeout}.
2567 @item content_disposition = on/off
2568 Turn on recognition of the (non-standard) @samp{Content-Disposition}
2569 HTTP header---if set to @samp{on}, the same as @samp{--content-disposition}.
2571 @item continue = on/off
2572 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
2573 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
2575 @item convert_links = on/off
2576 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
2578 @item cookies = on/off
2579 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
2581 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
2582 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components. Equivalent to
2583 @samp{--cut-dirs=@var{n}}.
2585 @item debug = on/off
2586 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
2588 @item delete_after = on/off
2589 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
2591 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
2592 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P @var{string}}.
2594 @item dirstruct = on/off
2595 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
2598 @item dns_cache = on/off
2599 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
2600 option is normally used to turn it off and is equivalent to
2601 @samp{--no-dns-cache}.
2603 @item dns_timeout = @var{n}
2604 Set the DNS timeout---the same as @samp{--dns-timeout}.
2606 @item domains = @var{string}
2607 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2609 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
2610 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
2611 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
2612 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
2613 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
2614 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
2615 (@pxref{Download Options}).
2617 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
2618 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
2620 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
2621 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
2622 the retrieval (50 by default).
2624 @item egd_file = @var{file}
2625 Use @var{string} as the EGD socket file name. The same as
2626 @samp{--egd-file=@var{file}}.
2628 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
2629 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2630 download---the same as @samp{-X @var{string}} (@pxref{Directory-Based
2633 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
2634 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains=@var{string}} (@pxref{Spanning
2637 @item follow_ftp = on/off
2638 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
2639 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
2641 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
2642 Only follow certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval,
2643 just like @samp{--follow-tags=@var{string}}.
2645 @item force_html = on/off
2646 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
2647 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
2649 @item ftp_password = @var{string}
2650 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{string}. Without this setting, the
2651 password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, which is a useful default for
2652 anonymous @sc{ftp} access.
2654 This command used to be named @code{passwd} prior to Wget 1.10.
2656 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
2657 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2660 @item ftp_user = @var{string}
2661 Set @sc{ftp} user to @var{string}.
2663 This command used to be named @code{login} prior to Wget 1.10.
2666 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{--glob} and @samp{--no-glob}.
2668 @item header = @var{string}
2669 Define a header for HTTP downloads, like using
2670 @samp{--header=@var{string}}.
2672 @item html_extension = on/off
2673 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} or
2674 @samp{application/xhtml+xml} files without it, like @samp{-E}.
2676 @item http_keep_alive = on/off
2677 Turn the keep-alive feature on or off (defaults to on). Turning it
2678 off is equivalent to @samp{--no-http-keep-alive}.
2680 @item http_password = @var{string}
2681 Set @sc{http} password, equivalent to
2682 @samp{--http-password=@var{string}}.
2684 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
2685 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2688 @item http_user = @var{string}
2689 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}, equivalent to
2690 @samp{--http-user=@var{string}}.
2692 @item https_proxy = @var{string}
2693 Use @var{string} as @sc{https} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2696 @item ignore_case = on/off
2697 When set to on, match files and directories case insensitively; the
2698 same as @samp{--ignore-case}.
2700 @item ignore_length = on/off
2701 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
2702 @samp{--ignore-length}.
2704 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
2705 Ignore certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval, like
2706 @samp{--ignore-tags=@var{string}}.
2708 @item include_directories = @var{string}
2709 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2710 downloading---the same as @samp{-I @var{string}}.
2712 @item inet4_only = on/off
2713 Force connecting to IPv4 addresses, off by default. You can put this
2714 in the global init file to disable Wget's attempts to resolve and
2715 connect to IPv6 hosts. Available only if Wget was compiled with IPv6
2716 support. The same as @samp{--inet4-only} or @samp{-4}.
2718 @item inet6_only = on/off
2719 Force connecting to IPv6 addresses, off by default. Available only if
2720 Wget was compiled with IPv6 support. The same as @samp{--inet6-only}
2723 @item input = @var{file}
2724 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i @var{file}}.
2726 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
2727 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
2728 The same as @samp{--limit-rate=@var{rate}}.
2730 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
2731 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies @var{file}}.
2733 @item logfile = @var{file}
2734 Set logfile to @var{file}, the same as @samp{-o @var{file}}.
2736 @item max_redirect = @var{number}
2737 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
2738 See @samp{--max-redirect=@var{number}}.
2740 @item mirror = on/off
2741 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
2743 @item netrc = on/off
2744 Turn reading netrc on or off.
2746 @item no_clobber = on/off
2749 @item no_parent = on/off
2750 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
2751 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2753 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
2754 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
2755 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
2757 @item output_document = @var{file}
2758 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O @var{file}}.
2760 @item page_requisites = on/off
2761 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single @sc{html} page to
2762 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
2764 @item passive_ftp = on/off
2765 Change setting of passive @sc{ftp}, equivalent to the
2766 @samp{--passive-ftp} option.
2768 @itemx password = @var{string}
2769 Specify password @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
2770 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_password} and
2771 @samp{http_password} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
2773 @item post_data = @var{string}
2774 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send @var{string} in
2775 the request body. The same as @samp{--post-data=@var{string}}.
2777 @item post_file = @var{file}
2778 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the contents of
2779 @var{file} in the request body. The same as
2780 @samp{--post-file=@var{file}}.
2782 @item prefer_family = IPv4/IPv6/none
2783 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
2784 with specified address family first. IPv4 addresses are preferred by
2785 default. The same as @samp{--prefer-family}, which see for a detailed
2786 discussion of why this is useful.
2788 @item private_key = @var{file}
2789 Set the private key file to @var{file}. The same as
2790 @samp{--private-key=@var{file}}.
2792 @item private_key_type = @var{string}
2793 Specify the type of the private key, legal values being @samp{PEM}
2794 (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2795 @samp{--private-type=@var{string}}.
2797 @item progress = @var{string}
2798 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are @samp{dot}
2799 and @samp{bar}. Equivalent to @samp{--progress=@var{string}}.
2801 @item protocol_directories = on/off
2802 When set, use the protocol name as a directory component of local file
2803 names. The same as @samp{--protocol-directories}.
2805 @item proxy_password = @var{string}
2806 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like
2807 @samp{--proxy-password=@var{string}}.
2809 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
2810 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like
2811 @samp{--proxy-user=@var{string}}.
2813 @item quiet = on/off
2814 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
2816 @item quota = @var{quota}
2817 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
2818 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
2819 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
2820 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
2821 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
2822 to 5 megabytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
2825 @item random_file = @var{file}
2826 Use @var{file} as a source of randomness on systems lacking
2829 @item random_wait = on/off
2830 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
2831 @samp{--random-wait}.
2833 @item read_timeout = @var{n}
2834 Set the read (and write) timeout---the same as
2835 @samp{--read-timeout=@var{n}}.
2837 @item reclevel = @var{n}
2838 Recursion level (depth)---the same as @samp{-l @var{n}}.
2840 @item recursive = on/off
2841 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
2843 @item referer = @var{string}
2844 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like
2845 @samp{--referer=@var{string}}. (Note that it was the folks who wrote
2846 the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of ``referrer'' wrong.)
2848 @item relative_only = on/off
2849 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
2852 @item remove_listing = on/off
2853 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
2854 to off is the same as @samp{--no-remove-listing}.
2856 @item restrict_file_names = unix/windows
2857 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
2858 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
2860 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
2861 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
2862 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
2864 @item retry_connrefused = on/off
2865 When set to on, consider ``connection refused'' a transient
2866 error---the same as @samp{--retry-connrefused}.
2868 @item robots = on/off
2869 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
2870 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
2871 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
2872 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
2875 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
2876 Save cookies to @var{file}. The same as @samp{--save-cookies
2879 @item secure_protocol = @var{string}
2880 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto}
2881 (the default), @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. The same
2882 as @samp{--secure-protocol=@var{string}}.
2884 @item server_response = on/off
2885 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
2886 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
2888 @item span_hosts = on/off
2891 @item strict_comments = on/off
2892 Same as @samp{--strict-comments}.
2894 @item timeout = @var{n}
2895 Set all applicable timeout values to @var{n}, the same as @samp{-T
2898 @item timestamping = on/off
2899 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
2901 @item tries = @var{n}
2902 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t @var{n}}.
2904 @item use_proxy = on/off
2905 When set to off, don't use proxy even when proxy-related environment
2906 variables are set. In that case it is the same as using
2909 @item user = @var{string}
2910 Specify username @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
2911 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_user} and
2912 @samp{http_user} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
2914 @item verbose = on/off
2915 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
2917 @item wait = @var{n}
2918 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w
2921 @item wait_retry = @var{n}
2922 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
2923 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry=@var{n}}. Note that this is
2924 turned on by default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
2928 @section Sample Wgetrc
2929 @cindex sample wgetrc
2931 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
2932 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
2933 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
2934 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
2936 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
2937 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
2941 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
2948 @c man begin EXAMPLES
2949 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
2953 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
2954 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
2955 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
2959 @section Simple Usage
2963 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
2966 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
2970 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
2971 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
2972 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
2973 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
2974 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
2975 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
2978 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
2982 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
2983 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
2984 shall use @samp{-t}.
2987 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
2990 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
2991 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
2994 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
2998 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
3002 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
3003 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
3006 wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
3011 @node Advanced Usage
3012 @section Advanced Usage
3016 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
3023 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
3027 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
3028 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
3029 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
3032 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3036 The same as the above, but convert the links in the @sc{html} files to
3037 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
3040 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3044 Retrieve only one @sc{html} page, but make sure that all the elements needed
3045 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
3046 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
3047 references the downloaded links.
3050 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3053 The @sc{html} page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
3054 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
3055 depending on where they were on the remote server.
3058 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
3059 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
3060 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
3061 subdirectory of the current directory.
3064 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
3065 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3069 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
3073 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
3077 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
3080 wget --save-headers http://www.lycos.com/
3085 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
3089 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
3093 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
3094 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
3095 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
3099 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
3102 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
3103 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Download}), with maximum depth
3104 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
3105 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
3106 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
3110 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
3111 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
3115 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
3119 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
3120 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
3123 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
3126 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
3127 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
3130 @cindex redirecting output
3132 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
3136 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
3139 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
3140 documents from remote hotlists:
3143 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
3147 @node Very Advanced Usage
3148 @section Very Advanced Usage
3153 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
3154 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
3155 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
3156 to recheck a site each Sunday:
3160 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3164 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
3165 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
3166 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
3167 back up the original @sc{html} files before the conversion. Wget invocation
3168 would look like this:
3171 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3172 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3176 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
3177 when @sc{html} files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
3178 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
3179 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
3180 or @samp{application/xhtml+xml} to @file{@var{name}.html}.
3183 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3184 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
3188 Or, with less typing:
3191 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3200 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
3203 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers.
3204 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
3205 * Web Site:: GNU Wget's presence on the World Wide Web.
3206 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
3207 * Internet Relay Chat:: Wget's presence on IRC.
3208 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
3209 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
3210 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
3217 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
3218 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
3219 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
3220 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
3221 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
3222 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
3223 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
3224 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
3225 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
3226 using an authorized proxy.
3228 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
3229 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
3230 the following environment variables:
3235 If set, the @code{http_proxy} and @code{https_proxy} variables should
3236 contain the @sc{url}s of the proxies for @sc{http} and @sc{https}
3237 connections respectively.
3240 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
3241 connections. It is quite common that @code{http_proxy} and
3242 @code{ftp_proxy} are set to the same @sc{url}.
3245 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
3246 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
3247 @code{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
3251 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
3252 may be specified from within Wget itself.
3256 @itemx proxy = on/off
3257 This option and the corresponding command may be used to suppress the
3258 use of proxy, even if the appropriate environment variables are set.
3260 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
3261 @itemx https_proxy = @var{URL}
3262 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
3263 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
3264 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
3265 specified by the environment.
3268 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
3269 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
3270 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
3271 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
3272 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
3274 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
3275 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
3276 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
3277 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
3281 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
3284 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
3285 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
3286 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_password} to set the proxy
3287 username and password.
3290 @section Distribution
3291 @cindex latest version
3293 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
3294 master GNU archive site ftp.gnu.org, and its mirrors. For example,
3295 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
3296 @url{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
3302 The official web site for GNU Wget is at
3303 @url{http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/}. However, most useful
3304 information resides at ``The Wget Wgiki'',
3305 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/}.
3308 @section Mailing List
3309 @cindex mailing list
3312 There are several Wget-related mailing lists. The general discussion
3313 list is at @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}. It is the preferred place for
3314 support requests and suggestions, as well as for discussion of
3315 development. You are invited to subscribe.
3317 To subscribe, simply send mail to @email{wget-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}
3318 and follow the instructions. Unsubscribe by mailing to
3319 @email{wget-unsubscribe@@sunsite.dk}. The mailing list is archived at
3320 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.dk/} and at
3321 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.general}.
3323 Another mailing list is at @email{wget-patches@@sunsite.dk}, and is
3324 used to submit patches for review by Wget developers. A ``patch'' is
3325 a textual representation of change to source code, readable by both
3326 humans and programs. The
3327 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/PatchGuidelines} page
3328 covers the creation and submitting of patches in detail. Please don't
3329 send general suggestions or bug reports to @samp{wget-patches}; use it
3330 only for patch submissions.
3332 Subscription is the same as above for @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}, except
3333 that you send to @email{wget-patches-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}, instead.
3334 The mailing list is archived at
3335 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.patches}.
3337 Finally, there is the @email{wget-notify@@addictivecode.org} mailing
3338 list. This is a non-discussion list that receives commit notifications
3339 from the source repository, and also bug report-change notifications.
3340 This is the highest-traffic list for Wget, and is recommended only for
3341 people who are seriously interested in ongoing Wget development.
3342 Subscription is through the @code{mailman} interface at
3343 @url{http://addictivecode.org/mailman/listinfo/wget-notify}.
3345 @node Internet Relay Chat
3346 @section Internet Relay Chat
3347 @cindex Internet Relay Chat
3351 While, at the time of this writing, there is very low activity, we do
3352 have a support channel set up via IRC at @code{irc.freenode.org},
3353 @code{#wget}. Come check it out!
3355 @node Reporting Bugs
3356 @section Reporting Bugs
3358 @cindex reporting bugs
3362 You are welcome to submit bug reports via the GNU Wget bug tracker (see
3363 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/BugTracker}).
3365 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
3370 Please try to ascertain that the behavior you see really is a bug. If
3371 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
3372 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
3373 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug, but you might want to
3374 double-check the documentation and the mailing lists (@pxref{Mailing
3378 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
3379 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 -Y0
3380 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
3381 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
3382 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
3383 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
3385 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
3386 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
3387 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
3388 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
3389 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
3393 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send us the resulting
3394 output (or relevant parts thereof). If Wget was compiled without
3395 debug support, recompile it---it is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs
3396 with debug support on.
3398 Note: please make sure to remove any potentially sensitive information
3399 from the debug log before sending it to the bug address. The
3400 @code{-d} won't go out of its way to collect sensitive information,
3401 but the log @emph{will} contain a fairly complete transcript of Wget's
3402 communication with the server, which may include passwords and pieces
3403 of downloaded data. Since the bug address is publically archived, you
3404 may assume that all bug reports are visible to the public.
3407 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
3408 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace. This may not
3409 work if the system administrator has disabled core files, but it is
3415 @section Portability
3417 @cindex operating systems
3419 Like all GNU software, Wget works on the GNU system. However, since it
3420 uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and mostly avoids using
3421 ``special'' features of any particular Unix, it should compile (and
3422 work) on all common Unix flavors.
3424 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
3425 Unix systems, including GNU/Linux, Solaris, SunOS 4.x, Mac OS X, OSF
3426 (aka Digital Unix or Tru64), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, AIX, and others. Some
3427 of those systems are no longer in widespread use and may not be able to
3428 support recent versions of Wget. If Wget fails to compile on your
3429 system, we would like to know about it.
3431 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works
3432 on 32-bit Microsoft Windows platforms. It has been compiled
3433 successfully using MS Visual C++ 6.0, Watcom, Borland C, and GCC
3434 compilers. Naturally, it is crippled of some features available on
3435 Unix, but it should work as a substitute for people stuck with
3436 Windows. Note that Windows-specific portions of Wget are not
3437 guaranteed to be supported in the future, although this has been the
3438 case in practice for many years now. All questions and problems in
3439 Windows usage should be reported to Wget mailing list at
3440 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the volunteers who maintain the
3441 Windows-related features might look at them.
3443 Support for building on MS-DOS via DJGPP has been contributed by Gisle
3444 Vanem; a port to VMS is maintained by Steven Schweda, and is available
3445 at @url{http://antinode.org/}.
3449 @cindex signal handling
3452 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
3453 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
3454 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
3455 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
3456 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
3459 $ wget http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz &
3462 SIGHUP received, redirecting output to `wget-log'.
3465 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
3466 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
3471 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
3474 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
3475 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
3476 * Contributors:: People who helped.
3479 @node Robot Exclusion
3480 @section Robot Exclusion
3481 @cindex robot exclusion
3483 @cindex server maintenance
3485 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
3486 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
3487 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
3489 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
3490 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
3491 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
3492 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
3493 section handled by a CGI Perl script that converts Info files to @sc{html} on
3494 the fly. The script is slow, but works well enough for human users
3495 viewing an occasional Info file. However, when someone's recursive Wget
3496 download stumbles upon the index page that links to all the Info files
3497 through the script, the system is brought to its knees without providing
3498 anything useful to the user (This task of converting Info files could be
3499 done locally and access to Info documentation for all installed GNU
3500 software on a system is available from the @code{info} command).
3502 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
3503 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
3504 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} was invented. The idea is that
3505 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
3506 portions of the site they wish to protect from robots and those
3507 they will permit access.
3509 The most popular mechanism, and the @i{de facto} standard supported by
3510 all the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written
3511 by Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text
3512 file containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to
3513 avoid. To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
3514 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are expected to
3517 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
3518 can downloads large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
3519 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
3520 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
3523 wget -r http://www.server.com/
3526 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
3527 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
3528 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
3529 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
3532 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
3533 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
3534 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
3535 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
3536 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
3537 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
3538 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
3539 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
3541 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
3543 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
3544 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
3545 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
3549 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
3552 This is explained in some detail at
3553 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
3554 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
3557 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
3558 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
3559 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
3560 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
3562 @node Security Considerations
3563 @section Security Considerations
3566 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
3567 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
3568 main issues, and some solutions.
3572 The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}. The best
3573 way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s to
3574 Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
3575 Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store passwords; however,
3576 storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a security risk.
3579 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
3580 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
3583 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
3584 solution for this at the moment.
3587 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
3588 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
3589 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
3594 @section Contributors
3595 @cindex contributors
3598 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org},
3601 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org},
3603 and it is currently maintained by Micah Cowan @email{micah@@cowan.name}.
3605 However, the development of Wget could never have gone as far as it has, were
3606 it not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature proposals,
3607 patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
3609 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
3612 @item Dan Harkless---contributed a lot of code and documentation of
3613 extremely high quality, as well as the @code{--page-requisites} and
3614 related options. He was the principal maintainer for some time and
3617 @item Ian Abbott---contributed bug fixes, Windows-related fixes, and
3618 provided a prototype implementation of the breadth-first recursive
3619 download. Co-maintained Wget during the 1.8 release cycle.
3622 The dotsrc.org crew, in particular Karsten Thygesen---donated system
3623 resources such as the mailing list, web space, @sc{ftp} space, and
3624 version control repositories, along with a lot of time to make these
3625 actually work. Christian Reiniger was of invaluable help with setting
3629 Heiko Herold---provided high-quality Windows builds and contributed
3630 bug and build reports for many years.
3633 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
3636 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
3640 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
3644 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
3645 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3648 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
3649 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3653 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
3656 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the initial Italian
3661 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
3665 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
3670 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3673 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3677 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization, Makefile
3678 layout and many other things.
3681 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
3685 Mauro Tortonesi---Improved IPv6 support, adding support for dual
3686 family systems. Refactored and enhanced FTP IPv6 code. Maintained GNU
3687 Wget from 2004--2007.
3690 Christopher G.@: Lewis---Maintenance of the Windows version of GNU WGet.
3693 Gisle Vanem---Many helpful patches and improvements, especially for
3694 Windows and MS-DOS support.
3697 Ralf Wildenhues---Contributed patches to convert Wget to use Automake as
3698 part of its build process, and various bugfixes.
3701 People who provided donations for development---including Brian Gough.
3704 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
3705 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
3706 that make maintenance so much fun:
3725 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
3734 Bertrand Demiddelaer,
3747 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
3750 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
3769 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
3788 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
3801 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
3802 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
3803 (Simos KSenitellis),
3812 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
3818 Alexander V.@: Lukyanov,
3827 Matthew J.@: Mellon,
3859 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
3861 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}guez,
3864 Juan Jose Rodriguez,
3866 Maciej W.@: Rozycki,
3872 Steven M.@: Schweda,
3882 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
3896 Douglas E.@: Wegscheid,
3898 Joshua David Williams,
3909 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
3910 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
3912 @node Copying this manual
3913 @appendix Copying this manual
3916 * GNU Free Documentation License:: Licnse for copying this manual.
3923 @unnumbered Concept Index