1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
7 @settitle GNU Wget @value{VERSION} Manual
8 @c Disable the monstrous rectangles beside overfull hbox-es.
10 @c Use `odd' to print double-sided.
15 @c Remove this if you don't use A4 paper.
19 @c Title for man page. The weird way texi2pod.pl is written requires
20 @c the preceding @set.
22 @c man title Wget The non-interactive network downloader.
24 @dircategory Network Applications
26 * Wget: (wget). The non-interactive network downloader.
30 This file documents the the GNU Wget utility for downloading network
33 @c man begin COPYRIGHT
34 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free
35 Software Foundation, Inc.
37 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
38 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
39 are preserved on all copies.
42 Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the
43 results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission
44 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
45 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
47 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
48 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
49 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
50 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
51 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
52 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
53 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
58 @title GNU Wget @value{VERSION}
59 @subtitle The non-interactive download utility
60 @subtitle Updated for Wget @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
61 @author by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} and the developers
65 Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>.
68 GNU Info entry for @file{wget}.
73 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
74 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003 Free Software
77 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
78 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
79 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
80 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
81 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
82 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
83 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
88 @top Wget @value{VERSION}
90 This manual documents version @value{VERSION} of GNU Wget, the freely
91 available utility for network downloads.
93 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003 Free Software
97 * Overview:: Features of Wget.
98 * Invoking:: Wget command-line arguments.
99 * Recursive Download:: Downloading interlinked pages.
100 * Following Links:: The available methods of chasing links.
101 * Time-Stamping:: Mirroring according to time-stamps.
102 * Startup File:: Wget's initialization file.
103 * Examples:: Examples of usage.
104 * Various:: The stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
105 * Appendices:: Some useful references.
106 * Copying:: You may give out copies of Wget and of this manual.
107 * Concept Index:: Topics covered by this manual.
116 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
117 GNU Wget is a free utility for non-interactive download of files from
118 the Web. It supports @sc{http}, @sc{https}, and @sc{ftp} protocols, as
119 well as retrieval through @sc{http} proxies.
122 This chapter is a partial overview of Wget's features.
126 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
127 Wget is non-interactive, meaning that it can work in the background,
128 while the user is not logged on. This allows you to start a retrieval
129 and disconnect from the system, letting Wget finish the work. By
130 contrast, most of the Web browsers require constant user's presence,
131 which can be a great hindrance when transferring a lot of data.
137 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
141 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
142 Wget can follow links in @sc{html} and @sc{xhtml} pages and create local
143 versions of remote web sites, fully recreating the directory structure of
144 the original site. This is sometimes referred to as ``recursive
145 downloading.'' While doing that, Wget respects the Robot Exclusion
146 Standard (@file{/robots.txt}). Wget can be instructed to convert the
147 links in downloaded @sc{html} files to the local files for offline
153 File name wildcard matching and recursive mirroring of directories are
154 available when retrieving via @sc{ftp}. Wget can read the time-stamp
155 information given by both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} servers, and store it
156 locally. Thus Wget can see if the remote file has changed since last
157 retrieval, and automatically retrieve the new version if it has. This
158 makes Wget suitable for mirroring of @sc{ftp} sites, as well as home
164 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
168 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
169 Wget has been designed for robustness over slow or unstable network
170 connections; if a download fails due to a network problem, it will
171 keep retrying until the whole file has been retrieved. If the server
172 supports regetting, it will instruct the server to continue the
173 download from where it left off.
178 Wget supports proxy servers, which can lighten the network load, speed
179 up retrieval and provide access behind firewalls. However, if you are
180 behind a firewall that requires that you use a socks style gateway, you
181 can get the socks library and build Wget with support for socks. Wget
182 also supports the passive @sc{ftp} downloading as an option.
186 Built-in features offer mechanisms to tune which links you wish to follow
187 (@pxref{Following Links}).
191 The retrieval is conveniently traced with printing dots, each dot
192 representing a fixed amount of data received (1KB by default). These
193 representations can be customized to your preferences.
197 Most of the features are fully configurable, either through command line
198 options, or via the initialization file @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup
199 File}). Wget allows you to define @dfn{global} startup files
200 (@file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default) for site settings.
205 @item /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
206 Default location of the @dfn{global} startup file.
216 Finally, GNU Wget is free software. This means that everyone may use
217 it, redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
218 Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation
229 By default, Wget is very simple to invoke. The basic syntax is:
232 @c man begin SYNOPSIS
233 wget [@var{option}]@dots{} [@var{URL}]@dots{}
237 Wget will simply download all the @sc{url}s specified on the command
238 line. @var{URL} is a @dfn{Uniform Resource Locator}, as defined below.
240 However, you may wish to change some of the default parameters of
241 Wget. You can do it two ways: permanently, adding the appropriate
242 command to @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup File}), or specifying it on
248 * Basic Startup Options::
249 * Logging and Input File Options::
251 * Directory Options::
254 * Recursive Retrieval Options::
255 * Recursive Accept/Reject Options::
263 @dfn{URL} is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A uniform
264 resource locator is a compact string representation for a resource
265 available via the Internet. Wget recognizes the @sc{url} syntax as per
266 @sc{rfc1738}. This is the most widely used form (square brackets denote
270 http://host[:port]/directory/file
271 ftp://host[:port]/directory/file
274 You can also encode your username and password within a @sc{url}:
277 ftp://user:password@@host/path
278 http://user:password@@host/path
281 Either @var{user} or @var{password}, or both, may be left out. If you
282 leave out either the @sc{http} username or password, no authentication
283 will be sent. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} username, @samp{anonymous}
284 will be used. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} password, your email
285 address will be supplied as a default password.@footnote{If you have a
286 @file{.netrc} file in your home directory, password will also be
289 @strong{Important Note}: if you specify a password-containing @sc{url}
290 on the command line, the username and password will be plainly visible
291 to all users on the system, by way of @code{ps}. On multi-user systems,
292 this is a big security risk. To work around it, use @code{wget -i -}
293 and feed the @sc{url}s to Wget's standard input, each on a separate
294 line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
296 You can encode unsafe characters in a @sc{url} as @samp{%xy}, @code{xy}
297 being the hexadecimal representation of the character's @sc{ascii}
298 value. Some common unsafe characters include @samp{%} (quoted as
299 @samp{%25}), @samp{:} (quoted as @samp{%3A}), and @samp{@@} (quoted as
300 @samp{%40}). Refer to @sc{rfc1738} for a comprehensive list of unsafe
303 Wget also supports the @code{type} feature for @sc{ftp} @sc{url}s. By
304 default, @sc{ftp} documents are retrieved in the binary mode (type
305 @samp{i}), which means that they are downloaded unchanged. Another
306 useful mode is the @samp{a} (@dfn{ASCII}) mode, which converts the line
307 delimiters between the different operating systems, and is thus useful
308 for text files. Here is an example:
311 ftp://host/directory/file;type=a
314 Two alternative variants of @sc{url} specification are also supported,
315 because of historical (hysterical?) reasons and their widespreaded use.
317 @sc{ftp}-only syntax (supported by @code{NcFTP}):
322 @sc{http}-only syntax (introduced by @code{Netscape}):
327 These two alternative forms are deprecated, and may cease being
328 supported in the future.
330 If you do not understand the difference between these notations, or do
331 not know which one to use, just use the plain ordinary format you use
332 with your favorite browser, like @code{Lynx} or @code{Netscape}.
335 @section Option Syntax
336 @cindex option syntax
337 @cindex syntax of options
339 Since Wget uses GNU getopts to process its arguments, every option has a
340 short form and a long form. Long options are more convenient to
341 remember, but take time to type. You may freely mix different option
342 styles, or specify options after the command-line arguments. Thus you
346 wget -r --tries=10 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/ -o log
349 The space between the option accepting an argument and the argument may
350 be omitted. Instead @samp{-o log} you can write @samp{-olog}.
352 You may put several options that do not require arguments together,
359 This is a complete equivalent of:
362 wget -d -r -c @var{URL}
365 Since the options can be specified after the arguments, you may
366 terminate them with @samp{--}. So the following will try to download
367 @sc{url} @samp{-x}, reporting failure to @file{log}:
373 The options that accept comma-separated lists all respect the convention
374 that specifying an empty list clears its value. This can be useful to
375 clear the @file{.wgetrc} settings. For instance, if your @file{.wgetrc}
376 sets @code{exclude_directories} to @file{/cgi-bin}, the following
377 example will first reset it, and then set it to exclude @file{/~nobody}
378 and @file{/~somebody}. You can also clear the lists in @file{.wgetrc}
379 (@pxref{Wgetrc Syntax}).
382 wget -X '' -X /~nobody,/~somebody
387 @node Basic Startup Options
388 @section Basic Startup Options
393 Display the version of Wget.
397 Print a help message describing all of Wget's command-line options.
401 Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is
402 specified via the @samp{-o}, output is redirected to @file{wget-log}.
404 @cindex execute wgetrc command
405 @item -e @var{command}
406 @itemx --execute @var{command}
407 Execute @var{command} as if it were a part of @file{.wgetrc}
408 (@pxref{Startup File}). A command thus invoked will be executed
409 @emph{after} the commands in @file{.wgetrc}, thus taking precedence over
410 them. If you need to specify more than one wgetrc command, use multiple
411 instances of @samp{-e}.
415 @node Logging and Input File Options
416 @section Logging and Input File Options
421 @item -o @var{logfile}
422 @itemx --output-file=@var{logfile}
423 Log all messages to @var{logfile}. The messages are normally reported
426 @cindex append to log
427 @item -a @var{logfile}
428 @itemx --append-output=@var{logfile}
429 Append to @var{logfile}. This is the same as @samp{-o}, only it appends
430 to @var{logfile} instead of overwriting the old log file. If
431 @var{logfile} does not exist, a new file is created.
436 Turn on debug output, meaning various information important to the
437 developers of Wget if it does not work properly. Your system
438 administrator may have chosen to compile Wget without debug support, in
439 which case @samp{-d} will not work. Please note that compiling with
440 debug support is always safe---Wget compiled with the debug support will
441 @emph{not} print any debug info unless requested with @samp{-d}.
442 @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information on how to use @samp{-d} for
448 Turn off Wget's output.
453 Turn on verbose output, with all the available data. The default output
458 Non-verbose output---turn off verbose without being completely quiet
459 (use @samp{-q} for that), which means that error messages and basic
460 information still get printed.
464 @itemx --input-file=@var{file}
465 Read @sc{url}s from @var{file}, in which case no @sc{url}s need to be on
466 the command line. If there are @sc{url}s both on the command line and
467 in an input file, those on the command lines will be the first ones to
468 be retrieved. The @var{file} need not be an @sc{html} document (but no
469 harm if it is)---it is enough if the @sc{url}s are just listed
472 However, if you specify @samp{--force-html}, the document will be
473 regarded as @samp{html}. In that case you may have problems with
474 relative links, which you can solve either by adding @code{<base
475 href="@var{url}">} to the documents or by specifying
476 @samp{--base=@var{url}} on the command line.
481 When input is read from a file, force it to be treated as an @sc{html}
482 file. This enables you to retrieve relative links from existing
483 @sc{html} files on your local disk, by adding @code{<base
484 href="@var{url}">} to @sc{html}, or using the @samp{--base} command-line
487 @cindex base for relative links in input file
489 @itemx --base=@var{URL}
490 When used in conjunction with @samp{-F}, prepends @var{URL} to relative
491 links in the file specified by @samp{-i}.
494 @node Download Options
495 @section Download Options
498 @cindex bind() address
499 @cindex client IP address
500 @cindex IP address, client
501 @item --bind-address=@var{ADDRESS}
502 When making client TCP/IP connections, @code{bind()} to @var{ADDRESS} on
503 the local machine. @var{ADDRESS} may be specified as a hostname or IP
504 address. This option can be useful if your machine is bound to multiple
509 @cindex number of retries
510 @item -t @var{number}
511 @itemx --tries=@var{number}
512 Set number of retries to @var{number}. Specify 0 or @samp{inf} for
513 infinite retrying. The default is to retry 20 times, with the exception
514 of fatal errors like ``connection refused'' or ``not found'' (404),
515 which are not retried.
518 @itemx --output-document=@var{file}
519 The documents will not be written to the appropriate files, but all will
520 be concatenated together and written to @var{file}. If @var{file}
521 already exists, it will be overwritten. If the @var{file} is @samp{-},
522 the documents will be written to standard output.
524 @cindex clobbering, file
525 @cindex downloading multiple times
529 If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget's
530 behavior depends on a few options, including @samp{-nc}. In certain
531 cases, the local file will be @dfn{clobbered}, or overwritten, upon
532 repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
534 When running Wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, or @samp{-r},
535 downloading the same file in the same directory will result in the
536 original copy of @var{file} being preserved and the second copy being
537 named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet again, the
538 third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on. When
539 @samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior is suppressed, and Wget will
540 refuse to download newer copies of @samp{@var{file}}. Therefore,
541 ``@code{no-clobber}'' is actually a misnomer in this mode---it's not
542 clobbering that's prevented (as the numeric suffixes were already
543 preventing clobbering), but rather the multiple version saving that's
546 When running Wget with @samp{-r}, but without @samp{-N} or @samp{-nc},
547 re-downloading a file will result in the new copy simply overwriting the
548 old. Adding @samp{-nc} will prevent this behavior, instead causing the
549 original version to be preserved and any newer copies on the server to
552 When running Wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r}, the
553 decision as to whether or not to download a newer copy of a file depends
554 on the local and remote timestamp and size of the file
555 (@pxref{Time-Stamping}). @samp{-nc} may not be specified at the same
558 Note that when @samp{-nc} is specified, files with the suffixes
559 @samp{.html} or @samp{.htm} will be loaded from the local disk and
560 parsed as if they had been retrieved from the Web.
562 @cindex continue retrieval
563 @cindex incomplete downloads
564 @cindex resume download
567 Continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you
568 want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or
569 by another program. For instance:
572 wget -c ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ls-lR.Z
575 If there is a file named @file{ls-lR.Z} in the current directory, Wget
576 will assume that it is the first portion of the remote file, and will
577 ask the server to continue the retrieval from an offset equal to the
578 length of the local file.
580 Note that you don't need to specify this option if you just want the
581 current invocation of Wget to retry downloading a file should the
582 connection be lost midway through. This is the default behavior.
583 @samp{-c} only affects resumption of downloads started @emph{prior} to
584 this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are still sitting around.
586 Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just download the remote
587 file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}, leaving the truncated @file{ls-lR.Z} file
590 Beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a non-empty file, and
591 it turns out that the server does not support continued downloading,
592 Wget will refuse to start the download from scratch, which would
593 effectively ruin existing contents. If you really want the download to
594 start from scratch, remove the file.
596 Also beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a file which is of
597 equal size as the one on the server, Wget will refuse to download the
598 file and print an explanatory message. The same happens when the file
599 is smaller on the server than locally (presumably because it was changed
600 on the server since your last download attempt)---because ``continuing''
601 is not meaningful, no download occurs.
603 On the other side of the coin, while using @samp{-c}, any file that's
604 bigger on the server than locally will be considered an incomplete
605 download and only @code{(length(remote) - length(local))} bytes will be
606 downloaded and tacked onto the end of the local file. This behavior can
607 be desirable in certain cases---for instance, you can use @samp{wget -c}
608 to download just the new portion that's been appended to a data
609 collection or log file.
611 However, if the file is bigger on the server because it's been
612 @emph{changed}, as opposed to just @emph{appended} to, you'll end up
613 with a garbled file. Wget has no way of verifying that the local file
614 is really a valid prefix of the remote file. You need to be especially
615 careful of this when using @samp{-c} in conjunction with @samp{-r},
616 since every file will be considered as an "incomplete download" candidate.
618 Another instance where you'll get a garbled file if you try to use
619 @samp{-c} is if you have a lame @sc{http} proxy that inserts a
620 ``transfer interrupted'' string into the local file. In the future a
621 ``rollback'' option may be added to deal with this case.
623 Note that @samp{-c} only works with @sc{ftp} servers and with @sc{http}
624 servers that support the @code{Range} header.
626 @cindex progress indicator
628 @item --progress=@var{type}
629 Select the type of the progress indicator you wish to use. Legal
630 indicators are ``dot'' and ``bar''.
632 The ``bar'' indicator is used by default. It draws an @sc{ascii} progress
633 bar graphics (a.k.a ``thermometer'' display) indicating the status of
634 retrieval. If the output is not a TTY, the ``dot'' bar will be used by
637 Use @samp{--progress=dot} to switch to the ``dot'' display. It traces
638 the retrieval by printing dots on the screen, each dot representing a
639 fixed amount of downloaded data.
641 When using the dotted retrieval, you may also set the @dfn{style} by
642 specifying the type as @samp{dot:@var{style}}. Different styles assign
643 different meaning to one dot. With the @code{default} style each dot
644 represents 1K, there are ten dots in a cluster and 50 dots in a line.
645 The @code{binary} style has a more ``computer''-like orientation---8K
646 dots, 16-dots clusters and 48 dots per line (which makes for 384K
647 lines). The @code{mega} style is suitable for downloading very large
648 files---each dot represents 64K retrieved, there are eight dots in a
649 cluster, and 48 dots on each line (so each line contains 3M).
651 Note that you can set the default style using the @code{progress}
652 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
653 command line. The exception is that, when the output is not a TTY, the
654 ``dot'' progress will be favored over ``bar''. To force the bar output,
655 use @samp{--progress=bar:force}.
658 @itemx --timestamping
659 Turn on time-stamping. @xref{Time-Stamping}, for details.
661 @cindex server response, print
663 @itemx --server-response
664 Print the headers sent by @sc{http} servers and responses sent by
667 @cindex Wget as spider
670 When invoked with this option, Wget will behave as a Web @dfn{spider},
671 which means that it will not download the pages, just check that they
672 are there. For example, you can use Wget to check your bookmarks:
675 wget --spider --force-html -i bookmarks.html
678 This feature needs much more work for Wget to get close to the
679 functionality of real web spiders.
683 @itemx --timeout=@var{seconds}
684 Set the network timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. This is equivalent
685 to specifying @samp{--dns-timeout}, @samp{--connect-timeout}, and
686 @samp{--read-timeout}, all at the same time.
688 Whenever Wget connects to or reads from a remote host, it checks for a
689 timeout and aborts the operation if the time expires. This prevents
690 anomalous occurrences such as hanging reads or infinite connects. The
691 only timeout enabled by default is a 900-second timeout for reading.
692 Setting timeout to 0 disables checking for timeouts.
694 Unless you know what you are doing, it is best not to set any of the
695 timeout-related options.
699 @item --dns-timeout=@var{seconds}
700 Set the DNS lookup timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. DNS lookups that
701 don't complete within the specified time will fail. By default, there
702 is no timeout on DNS lookups, other than that implemented by system
705 @cindex connect timeout
706 @cindex timeout, connect
707 @item --connect-timeout=@var{seconds}
708 Set the connect timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. TCP connections that
709 take longer to establish will be aborted. By default, there is no
710 connect timeout, other than that implemented by system libraries.
713 @cindex timeout, read
714 @item --read-timeout=@var{seconds}
715 Set the read (and write) timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. Reads that
716 take longer will fail. The default value for read timeout is 900
719 @cindex bandwidth, limit
721 @cindex limit bandwidth
722 @item --limit-rate=@var{amount}
723 Limit the download speed to @var{amount} bytes per second. Amount may
724 be expressed in bytes, kilobytes with the @samp{k} suffix, or megabytes
725 with the @samp{m} suffix. For example, @samp{--limit-rate=20k} will
726 limit the retrieval rate to 20KB/s. This kind of thing is useful when,
727 for whatever reason, you don't want Wget to consume the entire available
730 Note that Wget implements the limiting by sleeping the appropriate
731 amount of time after a network read that took less time than specified
732 by the rate. Eventually this strategy causes the TCP transfer to slow
733 down to approximately the specified rate. However, it may take some
734 time for this balance to be achieved, so don't be surprised if limiting
735 the rate doesn't work well with very small files.
739 @item -w @var{seconds}
740 @itemx --wait=@var{seconds}
741 Wait the specified number of seconds between the retrievals. Use of
742 this option is recommended, as it lightens the server load by making the
743 requests less frequent. Instead of in seconds, the time can be
744 specified in minutes using the @code{m} suffix, in hours using @code{h}
745 suffix, or in days using @code{d} suffix.
747 Specifying a large value for this option is useful if the network or the
748 destination host is down, so that Wget can wait long enough to
749 reasonably expect the network error to be fixed before the retry.
751 @cindex retries, waiting between
752 @cindex waiting between retries
753 @item --waitretry=@var{seconds}
754 If you don't want Wget to wait between @emph{every} retrieval, but only
755 between retries of failed downloads, you can use this option. Wget will
756 use @dfn{linear backoff}, waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
757 given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second failure on that
758 file, up to the maximum number of @var{seconds} you specify. Therefore,
759 a value of 10 will actually make Wget wait up to (1 + 2 + ... + 10) = 55
762 Note that this option is turned on by default in the global
768 Some web sites may perform log analysis to identify retrieval programs
769 such as Wget by looking for statistically significant similarities in
770 the time between requests. This option causes the time between requests
771 to vary between 0 and 2 * @var{wait} seconds, where @var{wait} was
772 specified using the @samp{--wait} option, in order to mask Wget's
773 presence from such analysis.
775 A recent article in a publication devoted to development on a popular
776 consumer platform provided code to perform this analysis on the fly.
777 Its author suggested blocking at the class C address level to ensure
778 automated retrieval programs were blocked despite changing DHCP-supplied
781 The @samp{--random-wait} option was inspired by this ill-advised
782 recommendation to block many unrelated users from a web site due to the
787 @itemx --proxy=on/off
788 Turn proxy support on or off. The proxy is on by default if the
789 appropriate environment variable is defined.
791 For more information about the use of proxies with Wget, @xref{Proxies}.
795 @itemx --quota=@var{quota}
796 Specify download quota for automatic retrievals. The value can be
797 specified in bytes (default), kilobytes (with @samp{k} suffix), or
798 megabytes (with @samp{m} suffix).
800 Note that quota will never affect downloading a single file. So if you
801 specify @samp{wget -Q10k ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/ls-lR.gz}, all of the
802 @file{ls-lR.gz} will be downloaded. The same goes even when several
803 @sc{url}s are specified on the command-line. However, quota is
804 respected when retrieving either recursively, or from an input file.
805 Thus you may safely type @samp{wget -Q2m -i sites}---download will be
806 aborted when the quota is exceeded.
808 Setting quota to 0 or to @samp{inf} unlimits the download quota.
811 @cindex caching of DNS lookups
812 @item --dns-cache=off
813 Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the addresses
814 it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly contact the DNS
815 server for the same (typically small) set of addresses it retrieves
816 from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will contact DNS
819 However, in some cases it is not desirable to cache host names, even for
820 the duration of a short-running application like Wget. For example,
821 some HTTP servers are hosted on machines with dynamically allocated IP
822 addresses that change from time to time. Their DNS entries are updated
823 along with each change. When Wget's download from such a host gets
824 interrupted by IP address change, Wget retries the download, but (due to
825 DNS caching) it contacts the old address. With the DNS cache turned
826 off, Wget will repeat the DNS lookup for every connect and will thus get
827 the correct dynamic address every time---at the cost of additional DNS
828 lookups where they're probably not needed.
830 If you don't understand the above description, you probably won't need
833 @cindex file names, restrict
834 @cindex Windows file names
835 @item --restrict-file-names=@var{mode}
836 Change which characters found in remote URLs may show up in local file
837 names generated from those URLs. Characters that are @dfn{restricted}
838 by this option are escaped, i.e. replaced with @samp{%HH}, where
839 @samp{HH} is the hexadecimal number that corresponds to the restricted
842 By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid as part of
843 file names on your operating system, as well as control characters that
844 are typically unprintable. This option is useful for changing these
845 defaults, either because you are downloading to a non-native partition,
846 or because you want to disable escaping of the control characters.
848 When mode is set to ``unix'', Wget escapes the character @samp{/} and
849 the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159. This is the
850 default on Unix-like OS'es.
852 When mode is set to ``windows'', Wget escapes the characters @samp{\},
853 @samp{|}, @samp{/}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
854 @samp{>}, and the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159.
855 In addition to this, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead of
856 @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
857 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
858 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
859 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
860 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
861 mode. This mode is the default on Windows.
863 If you append @samp{,nocontrol} to the mode, as in
864 @samp{unix,nocontrol}, escaping of the control characters is also
865 switched off. You can use @samp{--restrict-file-names=nocontrol} to
866 turn off escaping of control characters without affecting the choice of
867 the OS to use as file name restriction mode.
870 @node Directory Options
871 @section Directory Options
875 @itemx --no-directories
876 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
877 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
878 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
879 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
882 @itemx --force-directories
883 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
884 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
885 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
886 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
889 @itemx --no-host-directories
890 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
891 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
892 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
895 @item --protocol-directories
896 Use the protocol name as a directory component of local file names. For
897 example, with this option, @samp{wget -r http://@var{host}} will save to
898 @samp{http/@var{host}/...} rather than just to @samp{@var{host}/...}.
900 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
901 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
902 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
905 @cindex cut directories
906 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
907 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
908 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
911 Take, for example, the directory at
912 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
913 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
914 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
915 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
916 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
917 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
918 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
922 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
924 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
925 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
927 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
932 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
933 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
934 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
935 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
936 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
938 @cindex directory prefix
939 @item -P @var{prefix}
940 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
941 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
942 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
943 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
948 @section HTTP Options
951 @cindex .html extension
953 @itemx --html-extension
954 If a file of type @samp{application/xhtml+xml} or @samp{text/html} is
955 downloaded and the URL does not end with the regexp
956 @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause the suffix @samp{.html}
957 to be appended to the local filename. This is useful, for instance, when
958 you're mirroring a remote site that uses @samp{.asp} pages, but you want
959 the mirrored pages to be viewable on your stock Apache server. Another
960 good use for this is when you're downloading CGI-generated materials. A URL
961 like @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
962 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
964 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
965 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
966 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
967 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
968 @samp{text/html} or @samp{application/xhtml+xml}. To prevent this
969 re-downloading, you must use @samp{-k} and @samp{-K} so that the original
970 version of the file will be saved as @file{@var{X}.orig} (@pxref{Recursive
974 @cindex http password
975 @cindex authentication
976 @item --http-user=@var{user}
977 @itemx --http-passwd=@var{password}
978 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
979 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
980 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure) or the
981 @code{digest} authentication scheme.
983 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
984 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
985 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
986 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
987 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
988 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
989 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
991 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
997 Disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will send the remote
998 server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma: no-cache}) to get the
999 file from the remote service, rather than returning the cached version.
1000 This is especially useful for retrieving and flushing out-of-date
1001 documents on proxy servers.
1003 Caching is allowed by default.
1007 Disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism for maintaining
1008 server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie using the
1009 @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the same cookie
1010 upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server owners to keep
1011 track of visitors and for sites to exchange this information, some
1012 consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to use cookies;
1013 however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
1015 @cindex loading cookies
1016 @cindex cookies, loading
1017 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
1018 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
1019 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
1020 @file{cookies.txt} file.
1022 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
1023 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
1024 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
1025 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
1026 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
1027 proves your identity.
1029 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
1030 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
1031 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
1032 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
1033 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
1034 cookie files in different locations:
1038 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1040 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1041 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1042 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1043 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1044 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1046 @item Internet Explorer.
1047 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1048 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1049 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1051 @item Other browsers.
1052 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1053 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1054 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1057 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1058 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1059 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1060 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1061 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1064 wget --cookies=off --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1067 @cindex saving cookies
1068 @cindex cookies, saving
1069 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1070 Save cookies to @var{file} before exiting. This will not save cookies
1071 that have expired or that have no expiry time (so-called ``session
1072 cookies''), but also see @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
1074 @cindex cookies, session
1075 @cindex session cookies
1076 @item --keep-session-cookies
1078 When specified, causes @samp{--save-cookies} to also save session
1079 cookies. Session cookies are normally not save because they are
1080 supposed to be forgotten when you exit the browser. Saving them is
1081 useful on sites that require you to log in or to visit the home page
1082 before you can access some pages. With this option, multiple Wget runs
1083 are considered a single browser session as far as the site is concerned.
1085 Since the cookie file format does not normally carry session cookies,
1086 Wget marks them with an expiry timestamp of 0. Wget's
1087 @samp{--load-cookies} recognizes those as session cookies, but it might
1088 confuse other browsers. Also note that cookies so loaded will be
1089 treated as other session cookies, which means that if you want
1090 @samp{--save-cookies} to preserve them again, you must use
1091 @samp{--keep-session-cookies} again.
1093 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1094 @cindex ignore length
1095 @item --ignore-length
1096 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1097 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1098 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1099 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1100 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1103 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1104 if it never existed.
1107 @item --header=@var{additional-header}
1108 Define an @var{additional-header} to be passed to the @sc{http} servers.
1109 Headers must contain a @samp{:} preceded by one or more non-blank
1110 characters, and must not contain newlines.
1112 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1113 @samp{--header} more than once.
1117 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1118 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1119 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1123 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1124 previous user-defined headers.
1127 @cindex proxy password
1128 @cindex proxy authentication
1129 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1130 @itemx --proxy-passwd=@var{password}
1131 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1132 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1133 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1135 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-passwd}
1136 pertain here as well.
1138 @cindex http referer
1139 @cindex referer, http
1140 @item --referer=@var{url}
1141 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1142 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1143 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1144 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1146 @cindex server response, save
1147 @item --save-headers
1148 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1149 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1152 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1153 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1154 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1156 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1157 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1158 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1159 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1160 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1163 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1164 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1165 While conceptually this is not such a bad idea, it has been abused by
1166 servers denying information to clients other than @code{Mozilla} or
1167 Microsoft @code{Internet Explorer}. This option allows you to change
1168 the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget. Use of this option is
1169 discouraged, unless you really know what you are doing.
1172 @item --post-data=@var{string}
1173 @itemx --post-file=@var{file}
1174 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the specified data
1175 in the request body. @code{--post-data} sends @var{string} as data,
1176 whereas @code{--post-file} sends the contents of @var{file}. Other than
1177 that, they work in exactly the same way.
1179 Please be aware that Wget needs to know the size of the POST data in
1180 advance. Therefore the argument to @code{--post-file} must be a regular
1181 file; specifying a FIFO or something like @file{/dev/stdin} won't work.
1182 It's not quite clear how to work around this limitation inherent in
1183 HTTP/1.0. Although HTTP/1.1 introduces @dfn{chunked} transfer that
1184 doesn't require knowing the request length in advance, a client can't
1185 use chunked unless it knows it's talking to an HTTP/1.1 server. And it
1186 can't know that until it receives a response, which in turn requires the
1187 request to have been completed -- a chicken-and-egg problem.
1189 Note: if Wget is redirected after the POST request is completed, it will
1190 not send the POST data to the redirected URL. This is because URLs that
1191 process POST often respond with a redirection to a regular page
1192 (although that's technically disallowed), which does not desire or
1193 accept POST. It is not yet clear that this behavior is optimal; if it
1194 doesn't work out, it will be changed.
1196 This example shows how to log to a server using POST and then proceed to
1197 download the desired pages, presumably only accessible to authorized
1202 # @r{Log in to the server. This can be done only once.}
1203 wget --save-cookies cookies.txt \
1204 --post-data 'user=foo&password=bar' \
1205 http://server.com/auth.php
1207 # @r{Now grab the page or pages we care about.}
1208 wget --load-cookies cookies.txt \
1209 -p http://server.com/interesting/article.php
1215 @section FTP Options
1218 @cindex .listing files, removing
1219 @item --no-remove-listing
1220 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1221 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1222 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1223 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1224 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1225 you're running is complete).
1227 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1228 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1229 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1230 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1231 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1232 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1233 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1234 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1235 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1237 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1238 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1239 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1240 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1241 will be overwritten.
1243 @cindex globbing, toggle
1245 Turn off @sc{ftp} globbing. Globbing refers to the use of shell-like
1246 special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[}
1247 and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the same directory at
1251 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1254 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1255 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1258 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1259 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1260 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1261 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1265 Use the @dfn{passive} @sc{ftp} retrieval scheme, in which the client
1266 initiates the data connection. This is sometimes required for @sc{ftp}
1267 to work behind firewalls.
1269 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1270 @item --retr-symlinks
1271 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1272 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1273 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1274 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1275 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1277 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1278 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1279 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1280 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1283 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1284 specified on the command-line, rather than because it was recursed to,
1285 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1288 @cindex Keep-Alive, turning off
1289 @cindex Persistent Connections, disabling
1290 @item --no-http-keep-alive
1291 Turn off the ``keep-alive'' feature for HTTP downloads. Normally, Wget
1292 asks the server to keep the connection open so that, when you download
1293 more than one document from the same server, they get transferred over
1294 the same TCP connection. This saves time and at the same time reduces
1295 the load on the server.
1297 This option is useful when, for some reason, persistent (keep-alive)
1298 connections don't work for you, for example due to a server bug or due
1299 to the inability of server-side scripts to cope with the connections.
1302 @node Recursive Retrieval Options
1303 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1308 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Download}, for more
1311 @item -l @var{depth}
1312 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1313 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1314 Download}). The default maximum depth is 5.
1316 @cindex proxy filling
1317 @cindex delete after retrieval
1318 @cindex filling proxy cache
1319 @item --delete-after
1320 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1321 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1322 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1325 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1328 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1331 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1332 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1333 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1334 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1335 created in the first place.
1337 @cindex conversion of links
1338 @cindex link conversion
1340 @itemx --convert-links
1341 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1342 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1343 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1344 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-@sc{html}
1347 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1351 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1352 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1354 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1355 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1356 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1357 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1360 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1361 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1363 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1364 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1365 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1366 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1369 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1370 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1371 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1372 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1373 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1376 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1377 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1378 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1380 @cindex backing up converted files
1382 @itemx --backup-converted
1383 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1384 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1389 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1390 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1391 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1392 @samp{-r -N -l inf --no-remove-listing}.
1394 @cindex page requisites
1395 @cindex required images, downloading
1397 @itemx --page-requisites
1398 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
1399 properly display a given @sc{html} page. This includes such things as
1400 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
1402 Ordinarily, when downloading a single @sc{html} page, any requisite documents
1403 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
1404 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
1405 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
1406 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
1409 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
1410 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
1411 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
1412 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
1413 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
1415 If one executes the command:
1418 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
1421 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
1422 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
1423 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
1424 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
1425 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
1428 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1431 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
1432 will be downloaded. Similarly,
1435 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1438 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
1439 to be downloaded. One might think that:
1442 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1445 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
1446 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
1447 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single @sc{html}
1448 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the command-line or in a
1449 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
1450 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
1453 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1456 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
1457 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
1458 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
1459 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
1460 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
1461 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
1464 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1467 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
1468 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
1469 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
1472 @cindex @sc{html} comments
1473 @cindex comments, @sc{html}
1474 @item --strict-comments
1475 Turn on strict parsing of @sc{html} comments. The default is to terminate
1476 comments at the first occurrence of @samp{-->}.
1478 According to specifications, @sc{html} comments are expressed as @sc{sgml}
1479 @dfn{declarations}. Declaration is special markup that begins with
1480 @samp{<!} and ends with @samp{>}, such as @samp{<!DOCTYPE ...>}, that
1481 may contain comments between a pair of @samp{--} delimiters. @sc{html}
1482 comments are ``empty declarations'', @sc{sgml} declarations without any
1483 non-comment text. Therefore, @samp{<!--foo-->} is a valid comment, and
1484 so is @samp{<!--one-- --two-->}, but @samp{<!--1--2-->} is not.
1486 On the other hand, most @sc{html} writers don't perceive comments as anything
1487 other than text delimited with @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}, which is not
1488 quite the same. For example, something like @samp{<!------------>}
1489 works as a valid comment as long as the number of dashes is a multiple
1490 of four (!). If not, the comment technically lasts until the next
1491 @samp{--}, which may be at the other end of the document. Because of
1492 this, many popular browsers completely ignore the specification and
1493 implement what users have come to expect: comments delimited with
1494 @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}.
1496 Until version 1.9, Wget interpreted comments strictly, which resulted in
1497 missing links in many web pages that displayed fine in browsers, but had
1498 the misfortune of containing non-compliant comments. Beginning with
1499 version 1.9, Wget has joined the ranks of clients that implements
1500 ``naive'' comments, terminating each comment at the first occurrence of
1503 If, for whatever reason, you want strict comment parsing, use this
1504 option to turn it on.
1507 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1508 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1511 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
1512 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
1513 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
1514 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files} for more details).
1516 @item -D @var{domain-list}
1517 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
1518 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
1519 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
1521 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
1522 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed.
1523 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1525 @cindex follow FTP links
1527 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
1528 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
1530 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
1531 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
1532 Wget has an internal table of @sc{html} tag / attribute pairs that it
1533 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
1534 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
1535 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
1536 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
1538 @item --ignore-tags=@var{list}
1539 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
1540 certain @sc{html} tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
1541 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
1543 In the past, this option was the best bet for downloading a single page
1544 and its requisites, using a command-line like:
1547 wget --ignore-tags=a,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1550 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
1551 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
1552 specifying tags to ignore was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to
1553 ignore @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded.
1554 Now the best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
1555 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
1559 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
1560 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1564 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
1565 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
1566 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
1569 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
1570 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
1571 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements
1572 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1575 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
1576 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
1577 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits} for more details.) Elements of
1578 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1582 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
1583 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
1584 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
1585 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
1590 @node Recursive Download
1591 @chapter Recursive Download
1594 @cindex recursive download
1596 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
1597 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
1598 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieval}, or @dfn{recursion}.
1600 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} from
1601 the given @sc{url}, documents, retrieving the files the @sc{html}
1602 document was referring to, through markup like @code{href}, or
1603 @code{src}. If the freshly downloaded file is also of type
1604 @code{text/html} or @code{application/xhtml+xml}, it will be parsed and
1607 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html} content is
1608 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
1609 @sc{html} document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
1610 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
1611 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
1612 until the specified maximum depth.
1614 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
1615 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
1617 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
1618 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
1619 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
1620 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
1621 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
1624 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
1625 the one found on the remote server.
1627 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
1628 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
1629 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
1630 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
1632 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
1633 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
1634 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
1635 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
1636 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
1637 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
1638 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
1640 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
1641 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
1642 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
1643 consume memory and CPU.
1645 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
1646 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
1647 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
1648 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
1649 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
1650 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
1651 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
1654 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
1657 @node Following Links
1658 @chapter Following Links
1660 @cindex following links
1662 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
1663 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
1664 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
1666 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
1667 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
1668 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
1670 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
1671 links it will follow.
1674 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
1675 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
1676 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
1677 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
1678 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
1681 @node Spanning Hosts
1682 @section Spanning Hosts
1683 @cindex spanning hosts
1684 @cindex hosts, spanning
1686 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
1687 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
1688 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
1689 your Wget into a small version of google.
1691 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
1692 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
1693 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
1694 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the @sc{html}
1695 pages refer to both interchangeably.
1698 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
1700 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
1701 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
1702 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
1703 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
1704 up much more data than you have intended.
1706 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
1708 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
1709 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
1710 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
1711 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
1712 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
1713 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
1716 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
1719 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
1720 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
1722 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
1724 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
1725 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
1726 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
1727 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
1728 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
1732 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
1738 @node Types of Files
1739 @section Types of Files
1740 @cindex types of files
1742 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
1743 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
1744 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
1745 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
1747 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
1748 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
1751 @cindex accept wildcards
1752 @cindex accept suffixes
1753 @cindex wildcards, accept
1754 @cindex suffixes, accept
1756 @item -A @var{acclist}
1757 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
1758 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
1759 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
1760 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
1761 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
1762 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
1763 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
1765 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
1766 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
1767 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
1768 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
1769 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
1770 a description of how pattern matching works.
1772 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
1773 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
1775 @cindex reject wildcards
1776 @cindex reject suffixes
1777 @cindex wildcards, reject
1778 @cindex suffixes, reject
1779 @item -R @var{rejlist}
1780 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
1781 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
1782 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
1783 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
1784 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
1786 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
1787 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
1788 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
1789 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
1790 expansion by the shell.
1793 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
1794 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
1795 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
1796 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
1798 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
1799 files; Wget must load all the @sc{html}s to know where to go at
1800 all---recursive retrieval would make no sense otherwise.
1802 @node Directory-Based Limits
1803 @section Directory-Based Limits
1805 @cindex directory limits
1807 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
1808 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
1809 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
1810 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
1811 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
1812 @file{/dev} directories.
1814 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
1815 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
1816 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
1818 @cindex directories, include
1819 @cindex include directories
1820 @cindex accept directories
1823 @itemx --include @var{list}
1824 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
1825 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
1826 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
1827 directories are absolute paths.
1829 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
1830 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
1831 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
1834 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
1837 @cindex directories, exclude
1838 @cindex exclude directories
1839 @cindex reject directories
1841 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
1842 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
1843 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
1844 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
1845 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
1846 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
1848 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
1849 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
1850 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
1851 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
1856 @itemx no_parent = on
1857 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
1858 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
1859 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
1860 parent directory/directories.
1862 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
1863 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
1864 Supposing you issue Wget with:
1867 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
1870 You may rest assured that none of the references to
1871 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
1872 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
1873 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
1874 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
1875 intelligent fashion.
1878 @node Relative Links
1879 @section Relative Links
1880 @cindex relative links
1882 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
1883 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
1884 server root. For example, these links are relative:
1888 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
1889 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
1892 These links are not relative:
1896 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
1897 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
1900 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
1901 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
1902 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
1904 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
1908 @section Following FTP Links
1909 @cindex following ftp links
1911 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
1912 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
1913 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
1916 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
1917 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
1918 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
1919 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
1920 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
1921 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
1922 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
1924 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
1925 retrieved recursively further.
1928 @chapter Time-Stamping
1929 @cindex time-stamping
1930 @cindex timestamping
1931 @cindex updating the archives
1932 @cindex incremental updating
1934 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
1935 Internet is updating your archives.
1937 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
1938 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
1939 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
1940 offer the option of incremental updating.
1942 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
1943 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
1944 the place of the old ones.
1946 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
1950 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
1953 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
1954 recently than the local file.
1957 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
1958 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
1959 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
1961 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
1962 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
1963 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
1964 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
1965 does, and the remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
1967 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
1968 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
1972 * Time-Stamping Usage::
1973 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
1974 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
1977 @node Time-Stamping Usage
1978 @section Time-Stamping Usage
1979 @cindex time-stamping usage
1980 @cindex usage, time-stamping
1982 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
1983 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
1986 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
1989 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
1990 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
1991 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
1992 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
1994 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
1995 changed, and download it if it has.
1998 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2001 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
2002 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
2003 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
2004 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
2006 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
2009 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
2012 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
2013 interpret the @samp{*}.)
2015 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
2016 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
2017 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
2018 since the last download.
2020 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
2021 command like the following, weekly:
2024 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2027 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
2028 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
2029 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
2030 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
2031 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
2033 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2034 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2035 @cindex http time-stamping
2037 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
2038 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
2039 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
2040 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
2041 retrieved unconditionally.
2043 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
2044 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
2045 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
2048 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
2049 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
2050 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
2051 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
2052 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
2053 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
2056 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
2057 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
2058 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
2059 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
2060 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
2062 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
2063 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
2065 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2066 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2067 @cindex ftp time-stamping
2069 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
2070 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
2073 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
2074 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
2075 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
2076 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
2077 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
2078 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
2079 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
2080 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
2082 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
2083 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
2084 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
2085 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
2086 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
2087 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
2089 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
2090 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
2091 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
2092 Wget may support this command in the future.
2095 @chapter Startup File
2096 @cindex startup file
2102 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
2103 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
2104 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
2105 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
2107 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
2108 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
2109 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
2110 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
2112 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
2116 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
2117 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
2118 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
2119 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
2122 @node Wgetrc Location
2123 @section Wgetrc Location
2124 @cindex wgetrc location
2125 @cindex location of wgetrc
2127 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
2128 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
2129 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
2130 from there, if it exists.
2132 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
2133 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
2134 further attempts will be made.
2136 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
2138 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
2139 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
2140 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
2141 Fascist admins, away!
2144 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2145 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2146 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2148 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2154 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2155 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2157 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2158 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2159 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2162 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2163 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2164 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2170 @node Wgetrc Commands
2171 @section Wgetrc Commands
2172 @cindex wgetrc commands
2174 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2175 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2176 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}. A fancier kind of
2177 Boolean allowed in some cases is the @dfn{lockable Boolean}, which may
2178 be set to @samp{on}, @samp{off}, @samp{always}, or @samp{never}. If an
2179 option is set to @samp{always} or @samp{never}, that value will be
2180 locked in for the duration of the Wget invocation---command-line options
2183 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2184 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2185 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2186 values can be any non-empty string.
2188 Most of these commands have direct command-line equivalents. Also, any
2189 wgetrc command can be specified on the command line using the
2190 @samp{--execute} switch (@pxref{Basic Startup Options}.)
2193 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2194 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2196 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2197 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2199 @item continue = on/off
2200 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
2201 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
2203 @item background = on/off
2204 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2207 @item backup_converted = on/off
2208 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2209 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2211 @c @item backups = @var{number}
2212 @c #### Document me!
2214 @item base = @var{string}
2215 Consider relative @sc{url}s in @sc{url} input files forced to be
2216 interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string}---the same as
2219 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2220 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address} option.
2222 @item cache = on/off
2223 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{--no-cache}
2226 @item convert_links = on/off
2227 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
2229 @item cookies = on/off
2230 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
2232 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
2233 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies}.
2235 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
2236 Save cookies to @var{file}. See @samp{--save-cookies}.
2238 @item connect_timeout = @var{n}
2239 Set the connect timeout---the same as @samp{--connect-timeout}.
2241 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
2242 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components.
2244 @item debug = on/off
2245 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
2247 @item delete_after = on/off
2248 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
2250 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
2251 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P}.
2253 @item dirstruct = on/off
2254 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
2257 @item dns_cache = on/off
2258 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
2259 option is normally used to turn it off. Same as @samp{--dns-cache}.
2261 @item dns_timeout = @var{n}
2262 Set the DNS timeout---the same as @samp{--dns-timeout}.
2264 @item domains = @var{string}
2265 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2267 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
2268 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
2269 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
2270 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
2271 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
2272 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
2273 (@pxref{Download Options}).
2275 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
2276 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
2277 the retrieval (50 by default).
2279 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
2280 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
2282 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
2283 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2284 download---the same as @samp{-X} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2286 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
2287 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2289 @item follow_ftp = on/off
2290 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
2291 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
2293 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
2294 Only follow certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
2295 @samp{--follow-tags}.
2297 @item force_html = on/off
2298 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
2299 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
2301 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
2302 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2306 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{--glob} and @samp{--no-glob}.
2308 @item header = @var{string}
2309 Define an additional header, like @samp{--header}.
2311 @item html_extension = on/off
2312 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} or
2313 @samp{application/xhtml+xml} files without it, like
2316 @item http_keep_alive = on/off
2317 Turn the keep-alive feature on or off (defaults to on). The same as
2318 `--http-keep-alive'.
2320 @item http_passwd = @var{string}
2321 Set @sc{http} password.
2323 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
2324 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2327 @item http_user = @var{string}
2328 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}.
2330 @item ignore_length = on/off
2331 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
2332 @samp{--ignore-length}.
2334 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
2335 Ignore certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
2336 @samp{--ignore-tags}.
2338 @item include_directories = @var{string}
2339 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2340 downloading---the same as @samp{-I}.
2342 @item input = @var{string}
2343 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i}.
2345 @item kill_longer = on/off
2346 Consider data longer than specified in content-length header as invalid
2347 (and retry getting it). The default behavior is to save as much data
2348 as there is, provided there is more than or equal to the value in
2349 @code{Content-Length}.
2351 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
2352 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
2353 The same as @samp{--limit-rate}.
2355 @item logfile = @var{string}
2356 Set logfile---the same as @samp{-o}.
2358 @item login = @var{string}
2359 Your user name on the remote machine, for @sc{ftp}. Defaults to
2362 @item mirror = on/off
2363 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
2365 @item netrc = on/off
2366 Turn reading netrc on or off.
2368 @item noclobber = on/off
2371 @item no_parent = on/off
2372 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
2373 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2375 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
2376 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
2377 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
2379 @item output_document = @var{string}
2380 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O}.
2382 @item page_requisites = on/off
2383 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single @sc{html} page to
2384 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
2386 @item passive_ftp = on/off/always/never
2387 Set passive @sc{ftp}---the same as @samp{--passive-ftp}. Some scripts
2388 and @samp{.pm} (Perl module) files download files using @samp{wget
2389 --passive-ftp}. If your firewall does not allow this, you can set
2390 @samp{passive_ftp = never} to override the command-line.
2392 @item passwd = @var{string}
2393 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{password}. Without this setting, the
2394 password defaults to @samp{username@@hostname.domainname}.
2396 @item post_data = @var{string}
2397 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send @var{string} in
2398 the request body. The same as @samp{--post-data}.
2400 @item post_file = @var{file}
2401 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the contents of
2402 @var{file} in the request body. The same as @samp{--post-file}.
2404 @item progress = @var{string}
2405 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are ``dot'' and
2408 @item protocol_directories = on/off
2409 When set, use the protocol name as a directory component of local file
2410 names. The same as @samp{--protocol-directories}.
2412 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
2413 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like @samp{--proxy-user}.
2415 @item proxy_passwd = @var{string}
2416 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like @samp{--proxy-passwd}.
2418 @item referer = @var{string}
2419 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like @samp{--referer}. (Note it
2420 was the folks who wrote the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of
2421 ``referrer'' wrong.)
2423 @item quiet = on/off
2424 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
2426 @item quota = @var{quota}
2427 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
2428 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
2429 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
2430 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
2431 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
2432 to 5 mbytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
2435 @item read_timeout = @var{n}
2436 Set the read (and write) timeout---the same as @samp{--read-timeout}.
2438 @item reclevel = @var{n}
2439 Recursion level---the same as @samp{-l}.
2441 @item recursive = on/off
2442 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
2444 @item relative_only = on/off
2445 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
2448 @item remove_listing = on/off
2449 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
2450 to off is the same as @samp{--no-remove-listing}.
2452 @item restrict_file_names = unix/windows
2453 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
2454 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
2456 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
2457 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
2458 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
2460 @item robots = on/off
2461 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
2462 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
2463 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
2464 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
2467 @item server_response = on/off
2468 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
2469 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
2471 @item span_hosts = on/off
2474 @item strict_comments = on/off
2475 Same as @samp{--strict-comments}.
2477 @item timeout = @var{n}
2478 Set timeout value---the same as @samp{-T}.
2480 @item timestamping = on/off
2481 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
2483 @item tries = @var{n}
2484 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t}.
2486 @item use_proxy = on/off
2487 Turn proxy support on/off. The same as @samp{-Y}.
2489 @item verbose = on/off
2490 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
2492 @item wait = @var{n}
2493 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w}.
2495 @item waitretry = @var{n}
2496 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
2497 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry}. Note that this is turned on by
2498 default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
2500 @item randomwait = on/off
2501 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
2502 @samp{--random-wait}.
2506 @section Sample Wgetrc
2507 @cindex sample wgetrc
2509 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
2510 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
2511 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
2512 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
2514 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
2515 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
2519 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
2526 @c man begin EXAMPLES
2527 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
2531 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
2532 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
2533 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
2537 @section Simple Usage
2541 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
2544 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
2548 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
2549 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
2550 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
2551 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
2552 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
2553 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
2556 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
2560 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
2561 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
2562 shall use @samp{-t}.
2565 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
2568 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
2569 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
2572 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
2576 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
2580 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
2581 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
2584 wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2589 @node Advanced Usage
2590 @section Advanced Usage
2594 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
2601 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
2605 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
2606 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
2607 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
2610 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2614 The same as the above, but convert the links in the @sc{html} files to
2615 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
2618 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
2622 Retrieve only one @sc{html} page, but make sure that all the elements needed
2623 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
2624 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
2625 references the downloaded links.
2628 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2631 The @sc{html} page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
2632 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
2633 depending on where they were on the remote server.
2636 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
2637 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
2638 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
2639 subdirectory of the current directory.
2642 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
2643 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
2647 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
2651 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
2655 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
2658 wget -s http://www.lycos.com/
2663 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
2667 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
2671 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
2672 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
2673 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
2677 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
2680 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
2681 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Download}), with maximum depth
2682 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
2683 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
2684 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
2688 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
2689 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
2693 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
2697 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
2698 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
2701 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
2704 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
2705 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
2708 @cindex redirecting output
2710 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
2714 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
2717 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
2718 documents from remote hotlists:
2721 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
2725 @node Very Advanced Usage
2726 @section Very Advanced Usage
2731 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
2732 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
2733 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
2734 to recheck a site each Sunday:
2738 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2742 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
2743 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
2744 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
2745 back up the original @sc{html} files before the conversion. Wget invocation
2746 would look like this:
2749 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
2750 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2754 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
2755 when @sc{html} files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
2756 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
2757 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
2758 or @samp{application/xhtml+xml} to @file{@var{name}.html}.
2761 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
2762 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
2766 Or, with less typing:
2769 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
2778 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
2781 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers
2782 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
2783 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
2784 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
2785 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
2786 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
2793 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
2794 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
2795 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
2796 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
2797 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
2798 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
2799 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
2800 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
2801 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
2802 using an authorized proxy.
2804 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
2805 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
2806 the following environment variables:
2810 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{http}
2814 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
2815 connections. It is quite common that @sc{http_proxy} and @sc{ftp_proxy}
2816 are set to the same @sc{url}.
2819 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
2820 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
2821 @code{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
2825 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
2826 may be specified from within Wget itself.
2830 @itemx --proxy=on/off
2831 @itemx proxy = on/off
2832 This option may be used to turn the proxy support on or off. Proxy
2833 support is on by default, provided that the appropriate environment
2836 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
2837 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
2838 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
2839 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
2840 specified by the environment.
2843 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
2844 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
2845 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
2846 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
2847 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
2849 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
2850 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
2851 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
2852 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
2856 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
2859 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
2860 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
2861 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_passwd} to set the proxy
2862 username and password.
2865 @section Distribution
2866 @cindex latest version
2868 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
2869 master GNU archive site ftp.gnu.org, and its mirrors. For example,
2870 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
2871 @url{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
2874 @section Mailing List
2875 @cindex mailing list
2878 Wget has its own mailing list at @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}, thanks
2879 to Karsten Thygesen. The mailing list is for discussion of Wget
2880 features and web, reporting Wget bugs (those that you think may be of
2881 interest to the public) and mailing announcements. You are welcome to
2882 subscribe. The more people on the list, the better!
2884 To subscribe, simply send mail to @email{wget-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}.
2885 Unsubscribe by mailing to @email{wget-unsubscribe@@sunsite.dk}.
2887 The mailing list is archived at @url{http://fly.srk.fer.hr/archive/wget}.
2888 Alternative archive is available at
2889 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.auc.dk/}.
2891 @node Reporting Bugs
2892 @section Reporting Bugs
2894 @cindex reporting bugs
2898 You are welcome to send bug reports about GNU Wget to
2899 @email{bug-wget@@gnu.org}.
2901 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
2906 Please try to ascertain that the behavior you see really is a bug. If
2907 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
2908 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
2909 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug.
2912 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
2913 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 -Y0
2914 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
2915 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
2916 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
2917 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
2919 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
2920 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
2921 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
2922 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
2923 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
2927 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send the log (or the
2928 relevant parts of it). If Wget was compiled without debug support,
2929 recompile it. It is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs with debug support
2933 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
2934 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace.
2939 @section Portability
2941 @cindex operating systems
2943 Like all GNU software, Wget works on the GNU system. However, since it
2944 uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and mostly avoids using
2945 ``special'' features of any particular Unix, it should compile (and
2946 work) on all common Unix flavors.
2948 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
2949 Unix systems, including Solaris, GNU/Linux, SunOS, OSF (aka Digital Unix
2950 or Tru64), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, AIX, and others; refer to the file
2951 @file{MACHINES} in the distribution directory for a comprehensive list.
2952 If you compile it on an architecture not listed there, please let me
2953 know so I can update it.
2955 Wget should also compile on the other Unix systems, not listed in
2956 @file{MACHINES}. If it doesn't, please let me know.
2958 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works on
2959 Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. It has been compiled
2960 successfully using MS Visual C++ 6.0, Watcom, and Borland C compilers,
2961 with Winsock as networking software. Naturally, it is crippled of some
2962 features available on Unix, but it should work as a substitute for
2963 people stuck with Windows. Note that the Windows port is
2964 @strong{neither tested nor maintained} by me---all questions and
2965 problems in Windows usage should be reported to Wget mailing list at
2966 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the volunteers who maintain the
2967 Windows-related features might look at them.
2971 @cindex signal handling
2974 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
2975 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
2976 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
2977 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
2978 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
2981 $ wget http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/gnus.tar.gz &
2982 $ kill -HUP %% # Redirect the output to wget-log
2985 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
2986 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
2991 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
2994 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
2995 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
2996 * Contributors:: People who helped.
2999 @node Robot Exclusion
3000 @section Robot Exclusion
3001 @cindex robot exclusion
3003 @cindex server maintenance
3005 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
3006 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
3007 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
3009 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
3010 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
3011 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
3012 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
3013 section handled by a CGI Perl script that converts Info files to @sc{html} on
3014 the fly. The script is slow, but works well enough for human users
3015 viewing an occasional Info file. However, when someone's recursive Wget
3016 download stumbles upon the index page that links to all the Info files
3017 through the script, the system is brought to its knees without providing
3018 anything useful to the user (This task of converting Info files could be
3019 done locally and access to Info documentation for all installed GNU
3020 software on a system is available from the @code{info} command).
3022 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
3023 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
3024 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} was invented. The idea is that
3025 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
3026 portions of the site they wish to protect from robots and those
3027 they will permit access.
3029 The most popular mechanism, and the @i{de facto} standard supported by
3030 all the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written
3031 by Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text
3032 file containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to
3033 avoid. To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
3034 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are expected to
3037 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
3038 can downloads large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
3039 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
3040 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
3043 wget -r http://www.server.com/
3046 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
3047 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
3048 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
3049 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
3052 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
3053 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
3054 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
3055 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
3056 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
3057 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
3058 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
3059 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
3061 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
3063 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
3064 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
3065 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
3069 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
3072 This is explained in some detail at
3073 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
3074 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
3077 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
3078 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
3079 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
3080 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
3082 @node Security Considerations
3083 @section Security Considerations
3086 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
3087 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
3088 main issues, and some solutions.
3092 The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}. The best
3093 way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s to
3094 Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
3095 Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store passwords; however,
3096 storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a security risk.
3099 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
3100 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
3103 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
3104 solution for this at the moment.
3107 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
3108 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
3109 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
3114 @section Contributors
3115 @cindex contributors
3118 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org}.
3121 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org}.
3123 However, its development could never have gone as far as it has, were it
3124 not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature
3125 proposals, patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
3127 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
3131 Karsten Thygesen---donated system resources such as the mailing list,
3132 web space, and @sc{ftp} space, along with a lot of time to make these
3136 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
3139 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
3143 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
3147 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
3148 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3151 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
3152 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3156 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
3159 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the Italian translation.
3163 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
3167 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
3172 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3175 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3179 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization and other
3183 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
3187 The people who provided donations for development, including Brian
3191 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
3192 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
3193 that make maintenance so much fun:
3212 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
3231 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
3234 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
3251 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
3269 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
3280 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
3281 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
3282 (Simos KSenitellis),
3290 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
3296 Alexander V. Lukyanov,
3324 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
3326 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}gues,
3329 Juan Jose Rodrigues,
3343 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
3351 Douglas E. Wegscheid,
3361 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
3362 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
3369 @cindex free software
3371 GNU Wget is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL),
3372 which makes it @dfn{free software}. Please note that ``free'' in ``free
3373 software'' refers to liberty, not price. As some people like to point
3374 out, it's the ``free'' of ``free speech'', not the ``free'' of ``free
3377 The exact and legally binding distribution terms are spelled out below.
3378 The GPL guarantees that you have the right (freedom) to run and change
3379 GNU Wget and distribute it to others, and even---if you want---charge
3380 money for doing any of those things. With these rights comes the
3381 obligation to distribute the source code along with the software and to
3382 grant your recipients the same rights and impose the same restrictions.
3384 This licensing model is also known as @dfn{open source} because it,
3385 among other things, makes sure that all recipients will receive the
3386 source code along with the program, and be able to improve it. The GNU
3387 project prefers the term ``free software'' for reasons outlined at
3388 @url{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html}.
3390 The exact license terms are defined by this paragraph and the GNU
3391 General Public License it refers to:
3394 GNU Wget is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
3395 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
3396 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
3397 option) any later version.
3399 GNU Wget is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
3400 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
3401 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
3404 A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as part of this
3405 manual; if you did not receive it, write to the Free Software
3406 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3409 In addition to this, this manual is free in the same sense:
3412 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
3413 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
3414 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
3415 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
3416 Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
3417 Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
3418 entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
3421 @c #### Maybe we should wrap these licenses in ifinfo? Stallman says
3422 @c that the GFDL needs to be present in the manual, and to me it would
3423 @c suck to include the license for the manual and not the license for
3426 The full texts of the GNU General Public License and of the GNU Free
3427 Documentation License are available below.
3430 * GNU General Public License::
3431 * GNU Free Documentation License::
3434 @node GNU General Public License
3435 @section GNU General Public License
3436 @center Version 2, June 1991
3439 Copyright @copyright{} 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3440 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
3442 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
3443 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
3446 @unnumberedsec Preamble
3448 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
3449 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
3450 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
3451 software---to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
3452 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
3453 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
3454 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
3455 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
3458 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
3459 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
3460 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
3461 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
3462 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
3463 in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
3465 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
3466 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
3467 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
3468 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
3470 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
3471 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
3472 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
3473 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
3476 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
3477 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
3478 distribute and/or modify the software.
3480 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
3481 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
3482 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
3483 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
3484 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
3485 authors' reputations.
3487 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
3488 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
3489 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
3490 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
3491 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
3493 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
3494 modification follow.
3497 @unnumberedsec TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3500 @center TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
3505 This License applies to any program or other work which contains
3506 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
3507 under the terms of this General Public License. The ``Program'', below,
3508 refers to any such program or work, and a ``work based on the Program''
3509 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
3510 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
3511 either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
3512 language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
3513 the term ``modification''.) Each licensee is addressed as ``you''.
3515 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
3516 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
3517 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
3518 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
3519 Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
3520 Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
3523 You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
3524 source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
3525 conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
3526 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
3527 notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
3528 and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
3529 along with the Program.
3531 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
3532 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
3535 You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
3536 of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
3537 distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
3538 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
3542 You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
3543 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
3546 You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
3547 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
3548 part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
3549 parties under the terms of this License.
3552 If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
3553 when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
3554 interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
3555 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
3556 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
3557 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
3558 these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
3559 License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
3560 does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
3561 the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
3564 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
3565 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
3566 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
3567 themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
3568 sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
3569 distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
3570 on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
3571 this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
3572 entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
3574 Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
3575 your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
3576 exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
3577 collective works based on the Program.
3579 In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
3580 with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
3581 a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
3582 the scope of this License.
3585 You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
3586 under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
3587 Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
3591 Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
3592 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
3593 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
3596 Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
3597 years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
3598 cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
3599 machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
3600 distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
3601 customarily used for software interchange; or,
3604 Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
3605 to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
3606 allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
3607 received the program in object code or executable form with such
3608 an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
3611 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
3612 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
3613 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
3614 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
3615 control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
3616 special exception, the source code distributed need not include
3617 anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
3618 form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
3619 operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
3620 itself accompanies the executable.
3622 If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
3623 access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
3624 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
3625 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
3626 compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
3629 You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
3630 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
3631 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
3632 void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
3633 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
3634 this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
3635 parties remain in full compliance.
3638 You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
3639 signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
3640 distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
3641 prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
3642 modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
3643 Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
3644 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
3645 the Program or works based on it.
3648 Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
3649 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
3650 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
3651 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
3652 restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
3653 You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
3657 If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
3658 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
3659 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
3660 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
3661 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
3662 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
3663 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
3664 may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
3665 license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
3666 all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
3667 the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
3668 refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
3670 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
3671 any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
3672 apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
3675 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
3676 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
3677 such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
3678 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
3679 implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
3680 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
3681 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
3682 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
3683 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
3686 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
3687 be a consequence of the rest of this License.
3690 If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
3691 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
3692 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
3693 may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
3694 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
3695 countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
3696 the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
3699 The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
3700 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
3701 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
3702 address new problems or concerns.
3704 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
3705 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and ``any
3706 later version'', you have the option of following the terms and conditions
3707 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
3708 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
3709 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
3713 If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
3714 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
3715 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
3716 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
3717 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
3718 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
3719 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
3722 @heading NO WARRANTY
3730 BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
3731 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
3732 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
3733 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
3734 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
3735 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
3736 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
3737 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
3738 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
3741 IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
3742 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
3743 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
3744 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
3745 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
3746 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
3747 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
3748 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
3749 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
3753 @heading END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
3756 @center END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
3760 @unnumberedsec How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
3762 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
3763 possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
3764 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
3766 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
3767 to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
3768 convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
3769 the ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
3772 @var{one line to give the program's name and an idea of what it does.}
3773 Copyright (C) 19@var{yy} @var{name of author}
3775 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
3776 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
3777 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
3778 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
3780 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3781 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3782 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3783 GNU General Public License for more details.
3785 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3786 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
3787 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3790 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
3792 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
3793 when it starts in an interactive mode:
3796 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19@var{yy} @var{name of author}
3797 Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
3798 type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome
3799 to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c'
3803 The hypothetical commands @samp{show w} and @samp{show c} should show
3804 the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
3805 commands you use may be called something other than @samp{show w} and
3806 @samp{show c}; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items---whatever
3809 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
3810 school, if any, to sign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if
3811 necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
3815 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright
3816 interest in the program `Gnomovision'
3817 (which makes passes at compilers) written
3820 @var{signature of Ty Coon}, 1 April 1989
3821 Ty Coon, President of Vice
3825 This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
3826 proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
3827 consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
3828 library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
3829 Public License instead of this License.
3834 @unnumbered Concept Index