1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
7 @settitle GNU Wget @value{VERSION} Manual
8 @c Disable the monstrous rectangles beside overfull hbox-es.
10 @c Use `odd' to print double-sided.
15 @c Remove this if you don't use A4 paper.
19 @c Title for man page. The weird way texi2pod.pl is written requires
20 @c the preceding @set.
22 @c man title Wget The non-interactive network downloader.
24 @dircategory Network Applications
26 * Wget: (wget). The non-interactive network downloader.
30 This file documents the GNU Wget utility for downloading network
33 @c man begin COPYRIGHT
34 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
35 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
37 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
38 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
39 are preserved on all copies.
42 Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the
43 results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission
44 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
45 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
47 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
48 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
49 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
50 Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
51 copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free
52 Documentation License''.
57 @title GNU Wget @value{VERSION}
58 @subtitle The non-interactive download utility
59 @subtitle Updated for Wget @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
60 @author by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} and others
64 Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>.
65 Currently maintained by Micah Cowan <micah@cowan.name>.
68 This is @strong{not} the complete manual for GNU Wget.
69 For more complete information, including more detailed explanations of
70 some of the options, and a number of commands available
71 for use with @file{.wgetrc} files and the @samp{-e} option, see the GNU
72 Info entry for @file{wget}.
77 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
78 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
79 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
81 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
82 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
83 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
84 Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
85 copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free
86 Documentation License''.
91 @top Wget @value{VERSION}
93 This manual documents version @value{VERSION} of GNU Wget, the freely
94 available utility for network downloads.
96 Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
97 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
100 * Overview:: Features of Wget.
101 * Invoking:: Wget command-line arguments.
102 * Recursive Download:: Downloading interlinked pages.
103 * Following Links:: The available methods of chasing links.
104 * Time-Stamping:: Mirroring according to time-stamps.
105 * Startup File:: Wget's initialization file.
106 * Examples:: Examples of usage.
107 * Various:: The stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
108 * Appendices:: Some useful references.
109 * Copying this manual:: You may give out copies of Wget and of this manual.
110 * Concept Index:: Topics covered by this manual.
119 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
120 GNU Wget is a free utility for non-interactive download of files from
121 the Web. It supports @sc{http}, @sc{https}, and @sc{ftp} protocols, as
122 well as retrieval through @sc{http} proxies.
125 This chapter is a partial overview of Wget's features.
129 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
130 Wget is non-interactive, meaning that it can work in the background,
131 while the user is not logged on. This allows you to start a retrieval
132 and disconnect from the system, letting Wget finish the work. By
133 contrast, most of the Web browsers require constant user's presence,
134 which can be a great hindrance when transferring a lot of data.
139 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
143 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
144 Wget can follow links in @sc{html} and @sc{xhtml} pages and create local
145 versions of remote web sites, fully recreating the directory structure of
146 the original site. This is sometimes referred to as ``recursive
147 downloading.'' While doing that, Wget respects the Robot Exclusion
148 Standard (@file{/robots.txt}). Wget can be instructed to convert the
149 links in downloaded @sc{html} files to the local files for offline
154 File name wildcard matching and recursive mirroring of directories are
155 available when retrieving via @sc{ftp}. Wget can read the time-stamp
156 information given by both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} servers, and store it
157 locally. Thus Wget can see if the remote file has changed since last
158 retrieval, and automatically retrieve the new version if it has. This
159 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.
177 Wget supports proxy servers, which can lighten the network load, speed
178 up retrieval and provide access behind firewalls. However, if you are
179 behind a firewall that requires that you use a socks style gateway,
180 you can get the socks library and build Wget with support for socks.
181 Wget uses the passive @sc{ftp} downloading by default, active @sc{ftp}
185 Wget supports IP version 6, the next generation of IP. IPv6 is
186 autodetected at compile-time, and can be disabled at either build or
187 run time. Binaries built with IPv6 support work well in both
188 IPv4-only and dual family environments.
191 Built-in features offer mechanisms to tune which links you wish to follow
192 (@pxref{Following Links}).
195 The progress of individual downloads is traced using a progress gauge.
196 Interactive downloads are tracked using a ``thermometer''-style gauge,
197 whereas non-interactive ones are traced with dots, each dot
198 representing a fixed amount of data received (1KB by default). Either
199 gauge can be customized to your preferences.
202 Most of the features are fully configurable, either through command line
203 options, or via the initialization file @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup
204 File}). Wget allows you to define @dfn{global} startup files
205 (@file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default) for site settings.
210 @item /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
211 Default location of the @dfn{global} startup file.
220 Finally, GNU Wget is free software. This means that everyone may use
221 it, redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
222 Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation (see the
223 file @file{COPYING} that came with GNU Wget, for details).
233 By default, Wget is very simple to invoke. The basic syntax is:
236 @c man begin SYNOPSIS
237 wget [@var{option}]@dots{} [@var{URL}]@dots{}
241 Wget will simply download all the @sc{url}s specified on the command
242 line. @var{URL} is a @dfn{Uniform Resource Locator}, as defined below.
244 However, you may wish to change some of the default parameters of
245 Wget. You can do it two ways: permanently, adding the appropriate
246 command to @file{.wgetrc} (@pxref{Startup File}), or specifying it on
252 * Basic Startup Options::
253 * Logging and Input File Options::
255 * Directory Options::
257 * HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options::
259 * Recursive Retrieval Options::
260 * Recursive Accept/Reject Options::
268 @dfn{URL} is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A uniform
269 resource locator is a compact string representation for a resource
270 available via the Internet. Wget recognizes the @sc{url} syntax as per
271 @sc{rfc1738}. This is the most widely used form (square brackets denote
275 http://host[:port]/directory/file
276 ftp://host[:port]/directory/file
279 You can also encode your username and password within a @sc{url}:
282 ftp://user:password@@host/path
283 http://user:password@@host/path
286 Either @var{user} or @var{password}, or both, may be left out. If you
287 leave out either the @sc{http} username or password, no authentication
288 will be sent. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} username, @samp{anonymous}
289 will be used. If you leave out the @sc{ftp} password, your email
290 address will be supplied as a default password.@footnote{If you have a
291 @file{.netrc} file in your home directory, password will also be
294 @strong{Important Note}: if you specify a password-containing @sc{url}
295 on the command line, the username and password will be plainly visible
296 to all users on the system, by way of @code{ps}. On multi-user systems,
297 this is a big security risk. To work around it, use @code{wget -i -}
298 and feed the @sc{url}s to Wget's standard input, each on a separate
299 line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
301 You can encode unsafe characters in a @sc{url} as @samp{%xy}, @code{xy}
302 being the hexadecimal representation of the character's @sc{ascii}
303 value. Some common unsafe characters include @samp{%} (quoted as
304 @samp{%25}), @samp{:} (quoted as @samp{%3A}), and @samp{@@} (quoted as
305 @samp{%40}). Refer to @sc{rfc1738} for a comprehensive list of unsafe
308 Wget also supports the @code{type} feature for @sc{ftp} @sc{url}s. By
309 default, @sc{ftp} documents are retrieved in the binary mode (type
310 @samp{i}), which means that they are downloaded unchanged. Another
311 useful mode is the @samp{a} (@dfn{ASCII}) mode, which converts the line
312 delimiters between the different operating systems, and is thus useful
313 for text files. Here is an example:
316 ftp://host/directory/file;type=a
319 Two alternative variants of @sc{url} specification are also supported,
320 because of historical (hysterical?) reasons and their widespreaded use.
322 @sc{ftp}-only syntax (supported by @code{NcFTP}):
327 @sc{http}-only syntax (introduced by @code{Netscape}):
332 These two alternative forms are deprecated, and may cease being
333 supported in the future.
335 If you do not understand the difference between these notations, or do
336 not know which one to use, just use the plain ordinary format you use
337 with your favorite browser, like @code{Lynx} or @code{Netscape}.
342 @section Option Syntax
343 @cindex option syntax
344 @cindex syntax of options
346 Since Wget uses GNU getopt to process command-line arguments, every
347 option has a long form along with the short one. Long options are
348 more convenient to remember, but take time to type. You may freely
349 mix different option styles, or specify options after the command-line
350 arguments. Thus you may write:
353 wget -r --tries=10 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/ -o log
356 The space between the option accepting an argument and the argument may
357 be omitted. Instead of @samp{-o log} you can write @samp{-olog}.
359 You may put several options that do not require arguments together,
366 This is a complete equivalent of:
369 wget -d -r -c @var{URL}
372 Since the options can be specified after the arguments, you may
373 terminate them with @samp{--}. So the following will try to download
374 @sc{url} @samp{-x}, reporting failure to @file{log}:
380 The options that accept comma-separated lists all respect the convention
381 that specifying an empty list clears its value. This can be useful to
382 clear the @file{.wgetrc} settings. For instance, if your @file{.wgetrc}
383 sets @code{exclude_directories} to @file{/cgi-bin}, the following
384 example will first reset it, and then set it to exclude @file{/~nobody}
385 and @file{/~somebody}. You can also clear the lists in @file{.wgetrc}
386 (@pxref{Wgetrc Syntax}).
389 wget -X '' -X /~nobody,/~somebody
392 Most options that do not accept arguments are @dfn{boolean} options,
393 so named because their state can be captured with a yes-or-no
394 (``boolean'') variable. For example, @samp{--follow-ftp} tells Wget
395 to follow FTP links from HTML files and, on the other hand,
396 @samp{--no-glob} tells it not to perform file globbing on FTP URLs. A
397 boolean option is either @dfn{affirmative} or @dfn{negative}
398 (beginning with @samp{--no}). All such options share several
401 Unless stated otherwise, it is assumed that the default behavior is
402 the opposite of what the option accomplishes. For example, the
403 documented existence of @samp{--follow-ftp} assumes that the default
404 is to @emph{not} follow FTP links from HTML pages.
406 Affirmative options can be negated by prepending the @samp{--no-} to
407 the option name; negative options can be negated by omitting the
408 @samp{--no-} prefix. This might seem superfluous---if the default for
409 an affirmative option is to not do something, then why provide a way
410 to explicitly turn it off? But the startup file may in fact change
411 the default. For instance, using @code{follow_ftp = off} in
412 @file{.wgetrc} makes Wget @emph{not} follow FTP links by default, and
413 using @samp{--no-follow-ftp} is the only way to restore the factory
414 default from the command line.
416 @node Basic Startup Options
417 @section Basic Startup Options
422 Display the version of Wget.
426 Print a help message describing all of Wget's command-line options.
430 Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is
431 specified via the @samp{-o}, output is redirected to @file{wget-log}.
433 @cindex execute wgetrc command
434 @item -e @var{command}
435 @itemx --execute @var{command}
436 Execute @var{command} as if it were a part of @file{.wgetrc}
437 (@pxref{Startup File}). A command thus invoked will be executed
438 @emph{after} the commands in @file{.wgetrc}, thus taking precedence over
439 them. If you need to specify more than one wgetrc command, use multiple
440 instances of @samp{-e}.
444 @node Logging and Input File Options
445 @section Logging and Input File Options
450 @item -o @var{logfile}
451 @itemx --output-file=@var{logfile}
452 Log all messages to @var{logfile}. The messages are normally reported
455 @cindex append to log
456 @item -a @var{logfile}
457 @itemx --append-output=@var{logfile}
458 Append to @var{logfile}. This is the same as @samp{-o}, only it appends
459 to @var{logfile} instead of overwriting the old log file. If
460 @var{logfile} does not exist, a new file is created.
465 Turn on debug output, meaning various information important to the
466 developers of Wget if it does not work properly. Your system
467 administrator may have chosen to compile Wget without debug support, in
468 which case @samp{-d} will not work. Please note that compiling with
469 debug support is always safe---Wget compiled with the debug support will
470 @emph{not} print any debug info unless requested with @samp{-d}.
471 @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information on how to use @samp{-d} for
477 Turn off Wget's output.
482 Turn on verbose output, with all the available data. The default output
487 Turn off verbose without being completely quiet (use @samp{-q} for
488 that), which means that error messages and basic information still get
493 @itemx --input-file=@var{file}
494 Read @sc{url}s from @var{file}. If @samp{-} is specified as
495 @var{file}, @sc{url}s are read from the standard input. (Use
496 @samp{./-} to read from a file literally named @samp{-}.)
498 If this function is used, no @sc{url}s need be present on the command
499 line. If there are @sc{url}s both on the command line and in an input
500 file, those on the command lines will be the first ones to be
501 retrieved. The @var{file} need not be an @sc{html} document (but no
502 harm if it is)---it is enough if the @sc{url}s are just listed
505 However, if you specify @samp{--force-html}, the document will be
506 regarded as @samp{html}. In that case you may have problems with
507 relative links, which you can solve either by adding @code{<base
508 href="@var{url}">} to the documents or by specifying
509 @samp{--base=@var{url}} on the command line.
514 When input is read from a file, force it to be treated as an @sc{html}
515 file. This enables you to retrieve relative links from existing
516 @sc{html} files on your local disk, by adding @code{<base
517 href="@var{url}">} to @sc{html}, or using the @samp{--base} command-line
520 @cindex base for relative links in input file
522 @itemx --base=@var{URL}
523 Prepends @var{URL} to relative links read from the file specified with
524 the @samp{-i} option.
527 @node Download Options
528 @section Download Options
532 @cindex client IP address
533 @cindex IP address, client
534 @item --bind-address=@var{ADDRESS}
535 When making client TCP/IP connections, bind to @var{ADDRESS} on
536 the local machine. @var{ADDRESS} may be specified as a hostname or IP
537 address. This option can be useful if your machine is bound to multiple
542 @cindex number of retries
543 @item -t @var{number}
544 @itemx --tries=@var{number}
545 Set number of retries to @var{number}. Specify 0 or @samp{inf} for
546 infinite retrying. The default is to retry 20 times, with the exception
547 of fatal errors like ``connection refused'' or ``not found'' (404),
548 which are not retried.
551 @itemx --output-document=@var{file}
552 The documents will not be written to the appropriate files, but all
553 will be concatenated together and written to @var{file}. If @samp{-}
554 is used as @var{file}, documents will be printed to standard output,
555 disabling link conversion. (Use @samp{./-} to print to a file
556 literally named @samp{-}.)
558 Use of @samp{-O} is @emph{not} intended to mean simply ``use the name
559 @var{file} instead of the one in the URL;'' rather, it is
560 analogous to shell redirection:
561 @samp{wget -O file http://foo} is intended to work like
562 @samp{wget -O - http://foo > file}; @file{file} will be truncated
563 immediately, and @emph{all} downloaded content will be written there.
565 Note that a combination with @samp{-k} is only permitted when
566 downloading a single document, and combination with any of @samp{-r},
567 @samp{-p}, or @samp{-N} is not allowed.
569 @cindex clobbering, file
570 @cindex downloading multiple times
574 If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget's
575 behavior depends on a few options, including @samp{-nc}. In certain
576 cases, the local file will be @dfn{clobbered}, or overwritten, upon
577 repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
579 When running Wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, @samp{-r}, or @samp{p},
580 downloading the same file in the same directory will result in the
581 original copy of @var{file} being preserved and the second copy being
582 named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet again, the
583 third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on. When
584 @samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior is suppressed, and Wget will
585 refuse to download newer copies of @samp{@var{file}}. Therefore,
586 ``@code{no-clobber}'' is actually a misnomer in this mode---it's not
587 clobbering that's prevented (as the numeric suffixes were already
588 preventing clobbering), but rather the multiple version saving that's
591 When running Wget with @samp{-r} or @samp{-p}, but without @samp{-N}
592 or @samp{-nc}, re-downloading a file will result in the new copy
593 simply overwriting the old. Adding @samp{-nc} will prevent this
594 behavior, instead causing the original version to be preserved and any
595 newer copies on the server to be ignored.
597 When running Wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r} or
598 @samp{-p}, the decision as to whether or not to download a newer copy
599 of a file depends on the local and remote timestamp and size of the
600 file (@pxref{Time-Stamping}). @samp{-nc} may not be specified at the
601 same time as @samp{-N}.
603 Note that when @samp{-nc} is specified, files with the suffixes
604 @samp{.html} or @samp{.htm} will be loaded from the local disk and
605 parsed as if they had been retrieved from the Web.
607 @cindex continue retrieval
608 @cindex incomplete downloads
609 @cindex resume download
612 Continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you
613 want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or
614 by another program. For instance:
617 wget -c ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ls-lR.Z
620 If there is a file named @file{ls-lR.Z} in the current directory, Wget
621 will assume that it is the first portion of the remote file, and will
622 ask the server to continue the retrieval from an offset equal to the
623 length of the local file.
625 Note that you don't need to specify this option if you just want the
626 current invocation of Wget to retry downloading a file should the
627 connection be lost midway through. This is the default behavior.
628 @samp{-c} only affects resumption of downloads started @emph{prior} to
629 this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are still sitting around.
631 Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just download the remote
632 file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}, leaving the truncated @file{ls-lR.Z} file
635 Beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a non-empty file, and
636 it turns out that the server does not support continued downloading,
637 Wget will refuse to start the download from scratch, which would
638 effectively ruin existing contents. If you really want the download to
639 start from scratch, remove the file.
641 Also beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use @samp{-c} on a file which is of
642 equal size as the one on the server, Wget will refuse to download the
643 file and print an explanatory message. The same happens when the file
644 is smaller on the server than locally (presumably because it was changed
645 on the server since your last download attempt)---because ``continuing''
646 is not meaningful, no download occurs.
648 On the other side of the coin, while using @samp{-c}, any file that's
649 bigger on the server than locally will be considered an incomplete
650 download and only @code{(length(remote) - length(local))} bytes will be
651 downloaded and tacked onto the end of the local file. This behavior can
652 be desirable in certain cases---for instance, you can use @samp{wget -c}
653 to download just the new portion that's been appended to a data
654 collection or log file.
656 However, if the file is bigger on the server because it's been
657 @emph{changed}, as opposed to just @emph{appended} to, you'll end up
658 with a garbled file. Wget has no way of verifying that the local file
659 is really a valid prefix of the remote file. You need to be especially
660 careful of this when using @samp{-c} in conjunction with @samp{-r},
661 since every file will be considered as an "incomplete download" candidate.
663 Another instance where you'll get a garbled file if you try to use
664 @samp{-c} is if you have a lame @sc{http} proxy that inserts a
665 ``transfer interrupted'' string into the local file. In the future a
666 ``rollback'' option may be added to deal with this case.
668 Note that @samp{-c} only works with @sc{ftp} servers and with @sc{http}
669 servers that support the @code{Range} header.
671 @cindex progress indicator
673 @item --progress=@var{type}
674 Select the type of the progress indicator you wish to use. Legal
675 indicators are ``dot'' and ``bar''.
677 The ``bar'' indicator is used by default. It draws an @sc{ascii} progress
678 bar graphics (a.k.a ``thermometer'' display) indicating the status of
679 retrieval. If the output is not a TTY, the ``dot'' bar will be used by
682 Use @samp{--progress=dot} to switch to the ``dot'' display. It traces
683 the retrieval by printing dots on the screen, each dot representing a
684 fixed amount of downloaded data.
686 When using the dotted retrieval, you may also set the @dfn{style} by
687 specifying the type as @samp{dot:@var{style}}. Different styles assign
688 different meaning to one dot. With the @code{default} style each dot
689 represents 1K, there are ten dots in a cluster and 50 dots in a line.
690 The @code{binary} style has a more ``computer''-like orientation---8K
691 dots, 16-dots clusters and 48 dots per line (which makes for 384K
692 lines). The @code{mega} style is suitable for downloading very large
693 files---each dot represents 64K retrieved, there are eight dots in a
694 cluster, and 48 dots on each line (so each line contains 3M).
696 Note that you can set the default style using the @code{progress}
697 command in @file{.wgetrc}. That setting may be overridden from the
698 command line. The exception is that, when the output is not a TTY, the
699 ``dot'' progress will be favored over ``bar''. To force the bar output,
700 use @samp{--progress=bar:force}.
703 @itemx --timestamping
704 Turn on time-stamping. @xref{Time-Stamping}, for details.
706 @cindex server response, print
708 @itemx --server-response
709 Print the headers sent by @sc{http} servers and responses sent by
712 @cindex Wget as spider
715 When invoked with this option, Wget will behave as a Web @dfn{spider},
716 which means that it will not download the pages, just check that they
717 are there. For example, you can use Wget to check your bookmarks:
720 wget --spider --force-html -i bookmarks.html
723 This feature needs much more work for Wget to get close to the
724 functionality of real web spiders.
728 @itemx --timeout=@var{seconds}
729 Set the network timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. This is equivalent
730 to specifying @samp{--dns-timeout}, @samp{--connect-timeout}, and
731 @samp{--read-timeout}, all at the same time.
733 When interacting with the network, Wget can check for timeout and
734 abort the operation if it takes too long. This prevents anomalies
735 like hanging reads and infinite connects. The only timeout enabled by
736 default is a 900-second read timeout. Setting a timeout to 0 disables
737 it altogether. Unless you know what you are doing, it is best not to
738 change the default timeout settings.
740 All timeout-related options accept decimal values, as well as
741 subsecond values. For example, @samp{0.1} seconds is a legal (though
742 unwise) choice of timeout. Subsecond timeouts are useful for checking
743 server response times or for testing network latency.
747 @item --dns-timeout=@var{seconds}
748 Set the DNS lookup timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. DNS lookups that
749 don't complete within the specified time will fail. By default, there
750 is no timeout on DNS lookups, other than that implemented by system
753 @cindex connect timeout
754 @cindex timeout, connect
755 @item --connect-timeout=@var{seconds}
756 Set the connect timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. TCP connections that
757 take longer to establish will be aborted. By default, there is no
758 connect timeout, other than that implemented by system libraries.
761 @cindex timeout, read
762 @item --read-timeout=@var{seconds}
763 Set the read (and write) timeout to @var{seconds} seconds. The
764 ``time'' of this timeout refers to @dfn{idle time}: if, at any point in
765 the download, no data is received for more than the specified number
766 of seconds, reading fails and the download is restarted. This option
767 does not directly affect the duration of the entire download.
769 Of course, the remote server may choose to terminate the connection
770 sooner than this option requires. The default read timeout is 900
773 @cindex bandwidth, limit
775 @cindex limit bandwidth
776 @item --limit-rate=@var{amount}
777 Limit the download speed to @var{amount} bytes per second. Amount may
778 be expressed in bytes, kilobytes with the @samp{k} suffix, or megabytes
779 with the @samp{m} suffix. For example, @samp{--limit-rate=20k} will
780 limit the retrieval rate to 20KB/s. This is useful when, for whatever
781 reason, you don't want Wget to consume the entire available bandwidth.
783 This option allows the use of decimal numbers, usually in conjunction
784 with power suffixes; for example, @samp{--limit-rate=2.5k} is a legal
787 Note that Wget implements the limiting by sleeping the appropriate
788 amount of time after a network read that took less time than specified
789 by the rate. Eventually this strategy causes the TCP transfer to slow
790 down to approximately the specified rate. However, it may take some
791 time for this balance to be achieved, so don't be surprised if limiting
792 the rate doesn't work well with very small files.
796 @item -w @var{seconds}
797 @itemx --wait=@var{seconds}
798 Wait the specified number of seconds between the retrievals. Use of
799 this option is recommended, as it lightens the server load by making the
800 requests less frequent. Instead of in seconds, the time can be
801 specified in minutes using the @code{m} suffix, in hours using @code{h}
802 suffix, or in days using @code{d} suffix.
804 Specifying a large value for this option is useful if the network or the
805 destination host is down, so that Wget can wait long enough to
806 reasonably expect the network error to be fixed before the retry. The
807 waiting interval specified by this function is influenced by
808 @code{--random-wait}, which see.
810 @cindex retries, waiting between
811 @cindex waiting between retries
812 @item --waitretry=@var{seconds}
813 If you don't want Wget to wait between @emph{every} retrieval, but only
814 between retries of failed downloads, you can use this option. Wget will
815 use @dfn{linear backoff}, waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
816 given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second failure on that
817 file, up to the maximum number of @var{seconds} you specify. Therefore,
818 a value of 10 will actually make Wget wait up to (1 + 2 + ... + 10) = 55
821 Note that this option is turned on by default in the global
827 Some web sites may perform log analysis to identify retrieval programs
828 such as Wget by looking for statistically significant similarities in
829 the time between requests. This option causes the time between requests
830 to vary between 0.5 and 1.5 * @var{wait} seconds, where @var{wait} was
831 specified using the @samp{--wait} option, in order to mask Wget's
832 presence from such analysis.
834 A 2001 article in a publication devoted to development on a popular
835 consumer platform provided code to perform this analysis on the fly.
836 Its author suggested blocking at the class C address level to ensure
837 automated retrieval programs were blocked despite changing DHCP-supplied
840 The @samp{--random-wait} option was inspired by this ill-advised
841 recommendation to block many unrelated users from a web site due to the
846 Don't use proxies, even if the appropriate @code{*_proxy} environment
850 For more information about the use of proxies with Wget, @xref{Proxies}.
855 @itemx --quota=@var{quota}
856 Specify download quota for automatic retrievals. The value can be
857 specified in bytes (default), kilobytes (with @samp{k} suffix), or
858 megabytes (with @samp{m} suffix).
860 Note that quota will never affect downloading a single file. So if you
861 specify @samp{wget -Q10k ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/ls-lR.gz}, all of the
862 @file{ls-lR.gz} will be downloaded. The same goes even when several
863 @sc{url}s are specified on the command-line. However, quota is
864 respected when retrieving either recursively, or from an input file.
865 Thus you may safely type @samp{wget -Q2m -i sites}---download will be
866 aborted when the quota is exceeded.
868 Setting quota to 0 or to @samp{inf} unlimits the download quota.
871 @cindex caching of DNS lookups
873 Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the IP
874 addresses it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly
875 contact the DNS server for the same (typically small) set of hosts it
876 retrieves from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will
879 However, it has been reported that in some situations it is not
880 desirable to cache host names, even for the duration of a
881 short-running application like Wget. With this option Wget issues a
882 new DNS lookup (more precisely, a new call to @code{gethostbyname} or
883 @code{getaddrinfo}) each time it makes a new connection. Please note
884 that this option will @emph{not} affect caching that might be
885 performed by the resolving library or by an external caching layer,
888 If you don't understand exactly what this option does, you probably
891 @cindex file names, restrict
892 @cindex Windows file names
893 @item --restrict-file-names=@var{mode}
894 Change which characters found in remote URLs may show up in local file
895 names generated from those URLs. Characters that are @dfn{restricted}
896 by this option are escaped, i.e. replaced with @samp{%HH}, where
897 @samp{HH} is the hexadecimal number that corresponds to the restricted
900 By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid as part of
901 file names on your operating system, as well as control characters that
902 are typically unprintable. This option is useful for changing these
903 defaults, either because you are downloading to a non-native partition,
904 or because you want to disable escaping of the control characters.
906 When mode is set to ``unix'', Wget escapes the character @samp{/} and
907 the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159. This is the
908 default on Unix-like OS'es.
910 When mode is set to ``windows'', Wget escapes the characters @samp{\},
911 @samp{|}, @samp{/}, @samp{:}, @samp{?}, @samp{"}, @samp{*}, @samp{<},
912 @samp{>}, and the control characters in the ranges 0--31 and 128--159.
913 In addition to this, Wget in Windows mode uses @samp{+} instead of
914 @samp{:} to separate host and port in local file names, and uses
915 @samp{@@} instead of @samp{?} to separate the query portion of the file
916 name from the rest. Therefore, a URL that would be saved as
917 @samp{www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah} in Unix mode would be
918 saved as @samp{www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@@input=blah} in Windows
919 mode. This mode is the default on Windows.
921 If you append @samp{,nocontrol} to the mode, as in
922 @samp{unix,nocontrol}, escaping of the control characters is also
923 switched off. You can use @samp{--restrict-file-names=nocontrol} to
924 turn off escaping of control characters without affecting the choice of
925 the OS to use as file name restriction mode.
932 Force connecting to IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. With @samp{--inet4-only}
933 or @samp{-4}, Wget will only connect to IPv4 hosts, ignoring AAAA
934 records in DNS, and refusing to connect to IPv6 addresses specified in
935 URLs. Conversely, with @samp{--inet6-only} or @samp{-6}, Wget will
936 only connect to IPv6 hosts and ignore A records and IPv4 addresses.
938 Neither options should be needed normally. By default, an IPv6-aware
939 Wget will use the address family specified by the host's DNS record.
940 If the DNS responds with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, Wget will try
941 them in sequence until it finds one it can connect to. (Also see
942 @code{--prefer-family} option described below.)
944 These options can be used to deliberately force the use of IPv4 or
945 IPv6 address families on dual family systems, usually to aid debugging
946 or to deal with broken network configuration. Only one of
947 @samp{--inet6-only} and @samp{--inet4-only} may be specified at the
948 same time. Neither option is available in Wget compiled without IPv6
951 @item --prefer-family=IPv4/IPv6/none
952 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
953 with specified address family first. IPv4 addresses are preferred by
956 This avoids spurious errors and connect attempts when accessing hosts
957 that resolve to both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses from IPv4 networks. For
958 example, @samp{www.kame.net} resolves to
959 @samp{2001:200:0:8002:203:47ff:fea5:3085} and to
960 @samp{203.178.141.194}. When the preferred family is @code{IPv4}, the
961 IPv4 address is used first; when the preferred family is @code{IPv6},
962 the IPv6 address is used first; if the specified value is @code{none},
963 the address order returned by DNS is used without change.
965 Unlike @samp{-4} and @samp{-6}, this option doesn't inhibit access to
966 any address family, it only changes the @emph{order} in which the
967 addresses are accessed. Also note that the reordering performed by
968 this option is @dfn{stable}---it doesn't affect order of addresses of
969 the same family. That is, the relative order of all IPv4 addresses
970 and of all IPv6 addresses remains intact in all cases.
972 @item --retry-connrefused
973 Consider ``connection refused'' a transient error and try again.
974 Normally Wget gives up on a URL when it is unable to connect to the
975 site because failure to connect is taken as a sign that the server is
976 not running at all and that retries would not help. This option is
977 for mirroring unreliable sites whose servers tend to disappear for
978 short periods of time.
982 @cindex authentication
983 @item --user=@var{user}
984 @itemx --password=@var{password}
985 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for both
986 @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval. These parameters can be overridden
987 using the @samp{--ftp-user} and @samp{--ftp-password} options for
988 @sc{ftp} connections and the @samp{--http-user} and @samp{--http-password}
989 options for @sc{http} connections.
992 @node Directory Options
993 @section Directory Options
997 @itemx --no-directories
998 Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
999 With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
1000 directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
1001 filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
1004 @itemx --force-directories
1005 The opposite of @samp{-nd}---create a hierarchy of directories, even if
1006 one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. @samp{wget -x
1007 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt} will save the downloaded file to
1008 @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt}.
1011 @itemx --no-host-directories
1012 Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default, invoking
1013 Wget with @samp{-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/} will create a structure of
1014 directories beginning with @file{fly.srk.fer.hr/}. This option disables
1017 @item --protocol-directories
1018 Use the protocol name as a directory component of local file names. For
1019 example, with this option, @samp{wget -r http://@var{host}} will save to
1020 @samp{http/@var{host}/...} rather than just to @samp{@var{host}/...}.
1022 @cindex cut directories
1023 @item --cut-dirs=@var{number}
1024 Ignore @var{number} directory components. This is useful for getting a
1025 fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval will
1028 Take, for example, the directory at
1029 @samp{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. If you retrieve it with
1030 @samp{-r}, it will be saved locally under
1031 @file{ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}. While the @samp{-nH} option can
1032 remove the @file{ftp.xemacs.org/} part, you are still stuck with
1033 @file{pub/xemacs}. This is where @samp{--cut-dirs} comes in handy; it
1034 makes Wget not ``see'' @var{number} remote directory components. Here
1035 are several examples of how @samp{--cut-dirs} option works.
1039 No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
1041 -nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
1042 -nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
1044 --cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
1049 If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this option is
1050 similar to a combination of @samp{-nd} and @samp{-P}. However, unlike
1051 @samp{-nd}, @samp{--cut-dirs} does not lose with subdirectories---for
1052 instance, with @samp{-nH --cut-dirs=1}, a @file{beta/} subdirectory will
1053 be placed to @file{xemacs/beta}, as one would expect.
1055 @cindex directory prefix
1056 @item -P @var{prefix}
1057 @itemx --directory-prefix=@var{prefix}
1058 Set directory prefix to @var{prefix}. The @dfn{directory prefix} is the
1059 directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved to,
1060 i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is @samp{.} (the
1065 @section HTTP Options
1068 @cindex .html extension
1070 @itemx --html-extension
1071 If a file of type @samp{application/xhtml+xml} or @samp{text/html} is
1072 downloaded and the URL does not end with the regexp
1073 @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause the suffix @samp{.html}
1074 to be appended to the local filename. This is useful, for instance, when
1075 you're mirroring a remote site that uses @samp{.asp} pages, but you want
1076 the mirrored pages to be viewable on your stock Apache server. Another
1077 good use for this is when you're downloading CGI-generated materials. A URL
1078 like @samp{http://site.com/article.cgi?25} will be saved as
1079 @file{article.cgi?25.html}.
1081 Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
1082 you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
1083 @file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
1084 it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
1085 @samp{text/html} or @samp{application/xhtml+xml}. To prevent this
1086 re-downloading, you must use @samp{-k} and @samp{-K} so that the original
1087 version of the file will be saved as @file{@var{X}.orig} (@pxref{Recursive
1088 Retrieval Options}).
1091 @cindex http password
1092 @cindex authentication
1093 @item --http-user=@var{user}
1094 @itemx --http-password=@var{password}
1095 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1096 @sc{http} server. According to the type of the challenge, Wget will
1097 encode them using either the @code{basic} (insecure),
1098 the @code{digest}, or the Windows @code{NTLM} authentication scheme.
1100 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1101 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1102 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1103 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1104 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1105 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1106 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1109 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1116 Disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will send the remote
1117 server an appropriate directive (@samp{Pragma: no-cache}) to get the
1118 file from the remote service, rather than returning the cached version.
1119 This is especially useful for retrieving and flushing out-of-date
1120 documents on proxy servers.
1122 Caching is allowed by default.
1126 Disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism for maintaining
1127 server-side state. The server sends the client a cookie using the
1128 @code{Set-Cookie} header, and the client responds with the same cookie
1129 upon further requests. Since cookies allow the server owners to keep
1130 track of visitors and for sites to exchange this information, some
1131 consider them a breach of privacy. The default is to use cookies;
1132 however, @emph{storing} cookies is not on by default.
1134 @cindex loading cookies
1135 @cindex cookies, loading
1136 @item --load-cookies @var{file}
1137 Load cookies from @var{file} before the first HTTP retrieval.
1138 @var{file} is a textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
1139 @file{cookies.txt} file.
1141 You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that require
1142 that you be logged in to access some or all of their content. The login
1143 process typically works by the web server issuing an @sc{http} cookie
1144 upon receiving and verifying your credentials. The cookie is then
1145 resent by the browser when accessing that part of the site, and so
1146 proves your identity.
1148 Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
1149 browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved by
1150 @samp{--load-cookies}---simply point Wget to the location of the
1151 @file{cookies.txt} file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
1152 would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
1153 cookie files in different locations:
1157 The cookies are in @file{~/.netscape/cookies.txt}.
1159 @item Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
1160 Mozilla's cookie file is also named @file{cookies.txt}, located
1161 somewhere under @file{~/.mozilla}, in the directory of your profile.
1162 The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
1163 @file{~/.mozilla/default/@var{some-weird-string}/cookies.txt}.
1165 @item Internet Explorer.
1166 You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File menu,
1167 Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been tested with Internet
1168 Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work with earlier versions.
1170 @item Other browsers.
1171 If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
1172 @samp{--load-cookies} will only work if you can locate or produce a
1173 cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
1176 If you cannot use @samp{--load-cookies}, there might still be an
1177 alternative. If your browser supports a ``cookie manager'', you can use
1178 it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're mirroring.
1179 Write down the name and value of the cookie, and manually instruct Wget
1180 to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
1183 wget --no-cookies --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
1186 @cindex saving cookies
1187 @cindex cookies, saving
1188 @item --save-cookies @var{file}
1189 Save cookies to @var{file} before exiting. This will not save cookies
1190 that have expired or that have no expiry time (so-called ``session
1191 cookies''), but also see @samp{--keep-session-cookies}.
1193 @cindex cookies, session
1194 @cindex session cookies
1195 @item --keep-session-cookies
1196 When specified, causes @samp{--save-cookies} to also save session
1197 cookies. Session cookies are normally not saved because they are
1198 meant to be kept in memory and forgotten when you exit the browser.
1199 Saving them is useful on sites that require you to log in or to visit
1200 the home page before you can access some pages. With this option,
1201 multiple Wget runs are considered a single browser session as far as
1202 the site is concerned.
1204 Since the cookie file format does not normally carry session cookies,
1205 Wget marks them with an expiry timestamp of 0. Wget's
1206 @samp{--load-cookies} recognizes those as session cookies, but it might
1207 confuse other browsers. Also note that cookies so loaded will be
1208 treated as other session cookies, which means that if you want
1209 @samp{--save-cookies} to preserve them again, you must use
1210 @samp{--keep-session-cookies} again.
1212 @cindex Content-Length, ignore
1213 @cindex ignore length
1214 @item --ignore-length
1215 Unfortunately, some @sc{http} servers (@sc{cgi} programs, to be more
1216 precise) send out bogus @code{Content-Length} headers, which makes Wget
1217 go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can spot
1218 this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again and again,
1219 each time claiming that the (otherwise normal) connection has closed on
1222 With this option, Wget will ignore the @code{Content-Length} header---as
1223 if it never existed.
1226 @item --header=@var{header-line}
1227 Send @var{header-line} along with the rest of the headers in each
1228 @sc{http} request. The supplied header is sent as-is, which means it
1229 must contain name and value separated by colon, and must not contain
1232 You may define more than one additional header by specifying
1233 @samp{--header} more than once.
1237 wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
1238 --header='Accept-Language: hr' \
1239 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
1243 Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
1244 previous user-defined headers.
1246 As of Wget 1.10, this option can be used to override headers otherwise
1247 generated automatically. This example instructs Wget to connect to
1248 localhost, but to specify @samp{foo.bar} in the @code{Host} header:
1251 wget --header="Host: foo.bar" http://localhost/
1254 In versions of Wget prior to 1.10 such use of @samp{--header} caused
1255 sending of duplicate headers.
1258 @item --max-redirect=@var{number}
1259 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
1260 The default is 20, which is usually far more than necessary. However, on
1261 those occasions where you want to allow more (or fewer), this is the
1265 @cindex proxy password
1266 @cindex proxy authentication
1267 @item --proxy-user=@var{user}
1268 @itemx --proxy-password=@var{password}
1269 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} for
1270 authentication on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the
1271 @code{basic} authentication scheme.
1273 Security considerations similar to those with @samp{--http-password}
1274 pertain here as well.
1276 @cindex http referer
1277 @cindex referer, http
1278 @item --referer=@var{url}
1279 Include `Referer: @var{url}' header in HTTP request. Useful for
1280 retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they are
1281 always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only come out
1282 properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that point to them.
1284 @cindex server response, save
1285 @item --save-headers
1286 Save the headers sent by the @sc{http} server to the file, preceding the
1287 actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
1290 @item -U @var{agent-string}
1291 @itemx --user-agent=@var{agent-string}
1292 Identify as @var{agent-string} to the @sc{http} server.
1294 The @sc{http} protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
1295 @code{User-Agent} header field. This enables distinguishing the
1296 @sc{www} software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
1297 protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as
1298 @samp{Wget/@var{version}}, @var{version} being the current version
1301 However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of tailoring
1302 the output according to the @code{User-Agent}-supplied information.
1303 While this is not such a bad idea in theory, it has been abused by
1304 servers denying information to clients other than (historically)
1305 Netscape or, more frequently, Microsoft Internet Explorer. This
1306 option allows you to change the @code{User-Agent} line issued by Wget.
1307 Use of this option is discouraged, unless you really know what you are
1310 Specifying empty user agent with @samp{--user-agent=""} instructs Wget
1311 not to send the @code{User-Agent} header in @sc{http} requests.
1314 @item --post-data=@var{string}
1315 @itemx --post-file=@var{file}
1316 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the specified data
1317 in the request body. @code{--post-data} sends @var{string} as data,
1318 whereas @code{--post-file} sends the contents of @var{file}. Other than
1319 that, they work in exactly the same way.
1321 Please be aware that Wget needs to know the size of the POST data in
1322 advance. Therefore the argument to @code{--post-file} must be a regular
1323 file; specifying a FIFO or something like @file{/dev/stdin} won't work.
1324 It's not quite clear how to work around this limitation inherent in
1325 HTTP/1.0. Although HTTP/1.1 introduces @dfn{chunked} transfer that
1326 doesn't require knowing the request length in advance, a client can't
1327 use chunked unless it knows it's talking to an HTTP/1.1 server. And it
1328 can't know that until it receives a response, which in turn requires the
1329 request to have been completed -- a chicken-and-egg problem.
1331 Note: if Wget is redirected after the POST request is completed, it
1332 will not send the POST data to the redirected URL. This is because
1333 URLs that process POST often respond with a redirection to a regular
1334 page, which does not desire or accept POST. It is not completely
1335 clear that this behavior is optimal; if it doesn't work out, it might
1336 be changed in the future.
1338 This example shows how to log to a server using POST and then proceed to
1339 download the desired pages, presumably only accessible to authorized
1344 # @r{Log in to the server. This can be done only once.}
1345 wget --save-cookies cookies.txt \
1346 --post-data 'user=foo&password=bar' \
1347 http://server.com/auth.php
1349 # @r{Now grab the page or pages we care about.}
1350 wget --load-cookies cookies.txt \
1351 -p http://server.com/interesting/article.php
1355 If the server is using session cookies to track user authentication,
1356 the above will not work because @samp{--save-cookies} will not save
1357 them (and neither will browsers) and the @file{cookies.txt} file will
1358 be empty. In that case use @samp{--keep-session-cookies} along with
1359 @samp{--save-cookies} to force saving of session cookies.
1361 @cindex Content-Disposition
1362 @item --content-disposition
1364 If this is set to on, experimental (not fully-functional) support for
1365 @code{Content-Disposition} headers is enabled. This can currently result in
1366 extra round-trips to the server for a @code{HEAD} request, and is known
1367 to suffer from a few bugs, which is why it is not currently enabled by default.
1369 This option is useful for some file-downloading CGI programs that use
1370 @code{Content-Disposition} headers to describe what the name of a
1371 downloaded file should be.
1375 @node HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
1376 @section HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
1379 To support encrypted HTTP (HTTPS) downloads, Wget must be compiled
1380 with an external SSL library, currently OpenSSL. If Wget is compiled
1381 without SSL support, none of these options are available.
1384 @cindex SSL protocol, choose
1385 @item --secure-protocol=@var{protocol}
1386 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto},
1387 @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. If @samp{auto} is used,
1388 the SSL library is given the liberty of choosing the appropriate
1389 protocol automatically, which is achieved by sending an SSLv2 greeting
1390 and announcing support for SSLv3 and TLSv1. This is the default.
1392 Specifying @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, or @samp{TLSv1} forces the use
1393 of the corresponding protocol. This is useful when talking to old and
1394 buggy SSL server implementations that make it hard for OpenSSL to
1395 choose the correct protocol version. Fortunately, such servers are
1398 @cindex SSL certificate, check
1399 @item --no-check-certificate
1400 Don't check the server certificate against the available certificate
1401 authorities. Also don't require the URL host name to match the common
1402 name presented by the certificate.
1404 As of Wget 1.10, the default is to verify the server's certificate
1405 against the recognized certificate authorities, breaking the SSL
1406 handshake and aborting the download if the verification fails.
1407 Although this provides more secure downloads, it does break
1408 interoperability with some sites that worked with previous Wget
1409 versions, particularly those using self-signed, expired, or otherwise
1410 invalid certificates. This option forces an ``insecure'' mode of
1411 operation that turns the certificate verification errors into warnings
1412 and allows you to proceed.
1414 If you encounter ``certificate verification'' errors or ones saying
1415 that ``common name doesn't match requested host name'', you can use
1416 this option to bypass the verification and proceed with the download.
1417 @emph{Only use this option if you are otherwise convinced of the
1418 site's authenticity, or if you really don't care about the validity of
1419 its certificate.} It is almost always a bad idea not to check the
1420 certificates when transmitting confidential or important data.
1422 @cindex SSL certificate
1423 @item --certificate=@var{file}
1424 Use the client certificate stored in @var{file}. This is needed for
1425 servers that are configured to require certificates from the clients
1426 that connect to them. Normally a certificate is not required and this
1429 @cindex SSL certificate type, specify
1430 @item --certificate-type=@var{type}
1431 Specify the type of the client certificate. Legal values are
1432 @samp{PEM} (assumed by default) and @samp{DER}, also known as
1435 @item --private-key=@var{file}
1436 Read the private key from @var{file}. This allows you to provide the
1437 private key in a file separate from the certificate.
1439 @item --private-key-type=@var{type}
1440 Specify the type of the private key. Accepted values are @samp{PEM}
1441 (the default) and @samp{DER}.
1443 @item --ca-certificate=@var{file}
1444 Use @var{file} as the file with the bundle of certificate authorities
1445 (``CA'') to verify the peers. The certificates must be in PEM format.
1447 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1448 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1450 @cindex SSL certificate authority
1451 @item --ca-directory=@var{directory}
1452 Specifies directory containing CA certificates in PEM format. Each
1453 file contains one CA certificate, and the file name is based on a hash
1454 value derived from the certificate. This is achieved by processing a
1455 certificate directory with the @code{c_rehash} utility supplied with
1456 OpenSSL. Using @samp{--ca-directory} is more efficient than
1457 @samp{--ca-certificate} when many certificates are installed because
1458 it allows Wget to fetch certificates on demand.
1460 Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
1461 system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
1463 @cindex entropy, specifying source of
1464 @cindex randomness, specifying source of
1465 @item --random-file=@var{file}
1466 Use @var{file} as the source of random data for seeding the
1467 pseudo-random number generator on systems without @file{/dev/random}.
1469 On such systems the SSL library needs an external source of randomness
1470 to initialize. Randomness may be provided by EGD (see
1471 @samp{--egd-file} below) or read from an external source specified by
1472 the user. If this option is not specified, Wget looks for random data
1473 in @code{$RANDFILE} or, if that is unset, in @file{$HOME/.rnd}. If
1474 none of those are available, it is likely that SSL encryption will not
1477 If you're getting the ``Could not seed OpenSSL PRNG; disabling SSL.''
1478 error, you should provide random data using some of the methods
1482 @item --egd-file=@var{file}
1483 Use @var{file} as the EGD socket. EGD stands for @dfn{Entropy
1484 Gathering Daemon}, a user-space program that collects data from
1485 various unpredictable system sources and makes it available to other
1486 programs that might need it. Encryption software, such as the SSL
1487 library, needs sources of non-repeating randomness to seed the random
1488 number generator used to produce cryptographically strong keys.
1490 OpenSSL allows the user to specify his own source of entropy using the
1491 @code{RAND_FILE} environment variable. If this variable is unset, or
1492 if the specified file does not produce enough randomness, OpenSSL will
1493 read random data from EGD socket specified using this option.
1495 If this option is not specified (and the equivalent startup command is
1496 not used), EGD is never contacted. EGD is not needed on modern Unix
1497 systems that support @file{/dev/random}.
1501 @section FTP Options
1505 @cindex ftp password
1506 @cindex ftp authentication
1507 @item --ftp-user=@var{user}
1508 @itemx --ftp-password=@var{password}
1509 Specify the username @var{user} and password @var{password} on an
1510 @sc{ftp} server. Without this, or the corresponding startup option,
1511 the password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, normally used for anonymous
1514 Another way to specify username and password is in the @sc{url} itself
1515 (@pxref{URL Format}). Either method reveals your password to anyone who
1516 bothers to run @code{ps}. To prevent the passwords from being seen,
1517 store them in @file{.wgetrc} or @file{.netrc}, and make sure to protect
1518 those files from other users with @code{chmod}. If the passwords are
1519 really important, do not leave them lying in those files either---edit
1520 the files and delete them after Wget has started the download.
1523 For more information about security issues with Wget, @xref{Security
1527 @cindex .listing files, removing
1528 @item --no-remove-listing
1529 Don't remove the temporary @file{.listing} files generated by @sc{ftp}
1530 retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory listings
1531 received from @sc{ftp} servers. Not removing them can be useful for
1532 debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to easily check on the
1533 contents of remote server directories (e.g. to verify that a mirror
1534 you're running is complete).
1536 Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this file,
1537 this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
1538 @file{.listing} a symbolic link to @file{/etc/passwd} or something and
1539 asking @code{root} to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
1540 the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to @file{.listing},
1541 making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
1542 symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
1543 @file{.listing} file, or the listing will be written to a
1544 @file{.listing.@var{number}} file.
1546 Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, @code{root} should
1547 never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
1548 something as simple as linking @file{index.html} to @file{/etc/passwd}
1549 and asking @code{root} to run Wget with @samp{-N} or @samp{-r} so the file
1550 will be overwritten.
1552 @cindex globbing, toggle
1554 Turn off @sc{ftp} globbing. Globbing refers to the use of shell-like
1555 special characters (@dfn{wildcards}), like @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[}
1556 and @samp{]} to retrieve more than one file from the same directory at
1560 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
1563 By default, globbing will be turned on if the @sc{url} contains a
1564 globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on or off
1567 You may have to quote the @sc{url} to protect it from being expanded by
1568 your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing, which is
1569 system-specific. This is why it currently works only with Unix @sc{ftp}
1570 servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
1573 @item --no-passive-ftp
1574 Disable the use of the @dfn{passive} FTP transfer mode. Passive FTP
1575 mandates that the client connect to the server to establish the data
1576 connection rather than the other way around.
1578 If the machine is connected to the Internet directly, both passive and
1579 active FTP should work equally well. Behind most firewall and NAT
1580 configurations passive FTP has a better chance of working. However,
1581 in some rare firewall configurations, active FTP actually works when
1582 passive FTP doesn't. If you suspect this to be the case, use this
1583 option, or set @code{passive_ftp=off} in your init file.
1585 @cindex symbolic links, retrieving
1586 @item --retr-symlinks
1587 Usually, when retrieving @sc{ftp} directories recursively and a symbolic
1588 link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded. Instead, a
1589 matching symbolic link is created on the local filesystem. The
1590 pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless this recursive retrieval
1591 would have encountered it separately and downloaded it anyway.
1593 When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
1594 traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
1595 option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
1596 recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
1599 Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
1600 specified on the command-line, rather than because it was recursed to,
1601 this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always traversed in this
1604 @cindex Keep-Alive, turning off
1605 @cindex Persistent Connections, disabling
1606 @item --no-http-keep-alive
1607 Turn off the ``keep-alive'' feature for HTTP downloads. Normally, Wget
1608 asks the server to keep the connection open so that, when you download
1609 more than one document from the same server, they get transferred over
1610 the same TCP connection. This saves time and at the same time reduces
1611 the load on the server.
1613 This option is useful when, for some reason, persistent (keep-alive)
1614 connections don't work for you, for example due to a server bug or due
1615 to the inability of server-side scripts to cope with the connections.
1618 @node Recursive Retrieval Options
1619 @section Recursive Retrieval Options
1624 Turn on recursive retrieving. @xref{Recursive Download}, for more
1627 @item -l @var{depth}
1628 @itemx --level=@var{depth}
1629 Specify recursion maximum depth level @var{depth} (@pxref{Recursive
1630 Download}). The default maximum depth is 5.
1632 @cindex proxy filling
1633 @cindex delete after retrieval
1634 @cindex filling proxy cache
1635 @item --delete-after
1636 This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
1637 @emph{after} having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
1638 pages through a proxy, e.g.:
1641 wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
1644 The @samp{-r} option is to retrieve recursively, and @samp{-nd} to not
1647 Note that @samp{--delete-after} deletes files on the local machine. It
1648 does not issue the @samp{DELE} command to remote FTP sites, for
1649 instance. Also note that when @samp{--delete-after} is specified,
1650 @samp{--convert-links} is ignored, so @samp{.orig} files are simply not
1651 created in the first place.
1653 @cindex conversion of links
1654 @cindex link conversion
1656 @itemx --convert-links
1657 After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to
1658 make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible
1659 hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content,
1660 such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-@sc{html}
1663 Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
1667 The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to
1668 refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
1670 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1671 @file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html}
1672 will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of
1673 transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories.
1676 The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed
1677 to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to.
1679 Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to
1680 @file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in
1681 @file{doc.html} will be modified to point to
1682 @file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}.
1685 Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was
1686 downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not
1687 downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than
1688 presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted
1689 to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to
1692 Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have
1693 been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be
1694 performed at the end of all the downloads.
1696 @cindex backing up converted files
1698 @itemx --backup-converted
1699 When converting a file, back up the original version with a @samp{.orig}
1700 suffix. Affects the behavior of @samp{-N} (@pxref{HTTP Time-Stamping
1705 Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on recursion
1706 and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and keeps @sc{ftp}
1707 directory listings. It is currently equivalent to
1708 @samp{-r -N -l inf --no-remove-listing}.
1710 @cindex page requisites
1711 @cindex required images, downloading
1713 @itemx --page-requisites
1714 This option causes Wget to download all the files that are necessary to
1715 properly display a given @sc{html} page. This includes such things as
1716 inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
1718 Ordinarily, when downloading a single @sc{html} page, any requisite documents
1719 that may be needed to display it properly are not downloaded. Using
1720 @samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since Wget does not
1721 ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined documents, one is
1722 generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
1725 For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
1726 referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
1727 document @file{2.html}. Say that @file{2.html} is similar but that its
1728 image is @file{2.gif} and it links to @file{3.html}. Say this
1729 continues up to some arbitrarily high number.
1731 If one executes the command:
1734 wget -r -l 2 http://@var{site}/1.html
1737 then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
1738 @file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
1739 without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
1740 number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
1741 where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
1744 wget -r -l 2 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1747 all the above files @emph{and} @file{3.html}'s requisite @file{3.gif}
1748 will be downloaded. Similarly,
1751 wget -r -l 1 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1754 will cause @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, and @file{2.gif}
1755 to be downloaded. One might think that:
1758 wget -r -l 0 -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1761 would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
1762 this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
1763 @samp{-l inf}---that is, infinite recursion. To download a single @sc{html}
1764 page (or a handful of them, all specified on the command-line or in a
1765 @samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
1766 @samp{-r} and @samp{-l}:
1769 wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
1772 Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
1773 that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links from that
1774 page to external documents will not be followed. Actually, to download
1775 a single page and all its requisites (even if they exist on separate
1776 websites), and make sure the lot displays properly locally, this author
1777 likes to use a few options in addition to @samp{-p}:
1780 wget -E -H -k -K -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1783 To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
1784 external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
1785 @code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
1788 @cindex @sc{html} comments
1789 @cindex comments, @sc{html}
1790 @item --strict-comments
1791 Turn on strict parsing of @sc{html} comments. The default is to terminate
1792 comments at the first occurrence of @samp{-->}.
1794 According to specifications, @sc{html} comments are expressed as @sc{sgml}
1795 @dfn{declarations}. Declaration is special markup that begins with
1796 @samp{<!} and ends with @samp{>}, such as @samp{<!DOCTYPE ...>}, that
1797 may contain comments between a pair of @samp{--} delimiters. @sc{html}
1798 comments are ``empty declarations'', @sc{sgml} declarations without any
1799 non-comment text. Therefore, @samp{<!--foo-->} is a valid comment, and
1800 so is @samp{<!--one-- --two-->}, but @samp{<!--1--2-->} is not.
1802 On the other hand, most @sc{html} writers don't perceive comments as anything
1803 other than text delimited with @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}, which is not
1804 quite the same. For example, something like @samp{<!------------>}
1805 works as a valid comment as long as the number of dashes is a multiple
1806 of four (!). If not, the comment technically lasts until the next
1807 @samp{--}, which may be at the other end of the document. Because of
1808 this, many popular browsers completely ignore the specification and
1809 implement what users have come to expect: comments delimited with
1810 @samp{<!--} and @samp{-->}.
1812 Until version 1.9, Wget interpreted comments strictly, which resulted in
1813 missing links in many web pages that displayed fine in browsers, but had
1814 the misfortune of containing non-compliant comments. Beginning with
1815 version 1.9, Wget has joined the ranks of clients that implements
1816 ``naive'' comments, terminating each comment at the first occurrence of
1819 If, for whatever reason, you want strict comment parsing, use this
1820 option to turn it on.
1823 @node Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1824 @section Recursive Accept/Reject Options
1827 @item -A @var{acclist} --accept @var{acclist}
1828 @itemx -R @var{rejlist} --reject @var{rejlist}
1829 Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
1830 accept or reject (@pxref{Types of Files}). Note that if
1831 any of the wildcard characters, @samp{*}, @samp{?}, @samp{[} or
1832 @samp{]}, appear in an element of @var{acclist} or @var{rejlist},
1833 it will be treated as a pattern, rather than a suffix.
1835 @item -D @var{domain-list}
1836 @itemx --domains=@var{domain-list}
1837 Set domains to be followed. @var{domain-list} is a comma-separated list
1838 of domains. Note that it does @emph{not} turn on @samp{-H}.
1840 @item --exclude-domains @var{domain-list}
1841 Specify the domains that are @emph{not} to be followed.
1842 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1844 @cindex follow FTP links
1846 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents. Without this option,
1847 Wget will ignore all the @sc{ftp} links.
1849 @cindex tag-based recursive pruning
1850 @item --follow-tags=@var{list}
1851 Wget has an internal table of @sc{html} tag / attribute pairs that it
1852 considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
1853 retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
1854 considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
1855 comma-separated @var{list} with this option.
1857 @item --ignore-tags=@var{list}
1858 This is the opposite of the @samp{--follow-tags} option. To skip
1859 certain @sc{html} tags when recursively looking for documents to download,
1860 specify them in a comma-separated @var{list}.
1862 In the past, this option was the best bet for downloading a single page
1863 and its requisites, using a command-line like:
1866 wget --ignore-tags=a,area -H -k -K -r http://@var{site}/@var{document}
1869 However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
1870 @code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
1871 specifying tags to ignore was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to
1872 ignore @code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded.
1873 Now the best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
1874 dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
1879 Ignore case when matching files and directories. This influences the
1880 behavior of -R, -A, -I, and -X options, as well as globbing
1881 implemented when downloading from FTP sites. For example, with this
1882 option, @samp{-A *.txt} will match @samp{file1.txt}, but also
1883 @samp{file2.TXT}, @samp{file3.TxT}, and so on.
1887 Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
1888 (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
1892 Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home page
1893 without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
1894 (@pxref{Relative Links}).
1897 @itemx --include-directories=@var{list}
1898 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
1899 downloading (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements
1900 of @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1903 @itemx --exclude-directories=@var{list}
1904 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
1905 download (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}). Elements of
1906 @var{list} may contain wildcards.
1910 Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving recursively.
1911 This is a useful option, since it guarantees that only the files
1912 @emph{below} a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
1913 @xref{Directory-Based Limits}, for more details.
1918 @node Recursive Download
1919 @chapter Recursive Download
1922 @cindex recursive download
1924 GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single
1925 @sc{http} or @sc{ftp} server), following links and directory structure.
1926 We refer to this as to @dfn{recursive retrieval}, or @dfn{recursion}.
1928 With @sc{http} @sc{url}s, Wget retrieves and parses the @sc{html} from
1929 the given @sc{url}, documents, retrieving the files the @sc{html}
1930 document was referring to, through markup like @code{href}, or
1931 @code{src}. If the freshly downloaded file is also of type
1932 @code{text/html} or @code{application/xhtml+xml}, it will be parsed and
1935 Recursive retrieval of @sc{http} and @sc{html} content is
1936 @dfn{breadth-first}. This means that Wget first downloads the requested
1937 @sc{html} document, then the documents linked from that document, then the
1938 documents linked by them, and so on. In other words, Wget first
1939 downloads the documents at depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on
1940 until the specified maximum depth.
1942 The maximum @dfn{depth} to which the retrieval may descend is specified
1943 with the @samp{-l} option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
1945 When retrieving an @sc{ftp} @sc{url} recursively, Wget will retrieve all
1946 the data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up
1947 to the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
1948 locally. @sc{ftp} retrieval is also limited by the @code{depth}
1949 parameter. Unlike @sc{http} recursion, @sc{ftp} recursion is performed
1952 By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
1953 the one found on the remote server.
1955 Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
1956 important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for @sc{www}
1957 presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
1958 connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
1960 You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
1961 servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
1962 ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
1963 amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
1964 using the @samp{-w} option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
1965 server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
1966 administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
1968 Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
1969 left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
1970 from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
1971 consume memory and CPU.
1973 Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
1974 trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
1975 @samp{--page-requisites} without any additional recursion. If you want
1976 to download things under one directory, use @samp{-np} to avoid
1977 downloading things from other directories. If you want to download all
1978 the files from one directory, use @samp{-l 1} to make sure the recursion
1979 depth never exceeds one. @xref{Following Links}, for more information
1982 Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
1985 @node Following Links
1986 @chapter Following Links
1988 @cindex following links
1990 When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
1991 unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
1992 they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
1994 For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
1995 @samp{fly.srk.fer.hr}, you will not want to download all the home pages
1996 that happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
1998 Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
1999 links it will follow.
2002 * Spanning Hosts:: (Un)limiting retrieval based on host name.
2003 * Types of Files:: Getting only certain files.
2004 * Directory-Based Limits:: Getting only certain directories.
2005 * Relative Links:: Follow relative links only.
2006 * FTP Links:: Following FTP links.
2009 @node Spanning Hosts
2010 @section Spanning Hosts
2011 @cindex spanning hosts
2012 @cindex hosts, spanning
2014 Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
2015 than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
2016 default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
2017 your Wget into a small version of google.
2019 However, visiting different hosts, or @dfn{host spanning,} is sometimes
2020 a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
2021 Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
2022 three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the @sc{html}
2023 pages refer to both interchangeably.
2026 @item Span to any host---@samp{-H}
2028 The @samp{-H} option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
2029 recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless sufficient
2030 recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these foreign hosts will
2031 typically link to yet more hosts, and so on until Wget ends up sucking
2032 up much more data than you have intended.
2034 @item Limit spanning to certain domains---@samp{-D}
2036 The @samp{-D} option allows you to specify the domains that will be
2037 followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that belong to
2038 these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in conjunction with
2039 @samp{-H}. A typical example would be downloading the contents of
2040 @samp{www.server.com}, but allowing downloads from
2041 @samp{images.server.com}, etc.:
2044 wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
2047 You can specify more than one address by separating them with a comma,
2048 e.g. @samp{-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com}.
2050 @item Keep download off certain domains---@samp{--exclude-domains}
2052 If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do it
2053 with @samp{--exclude-domains}, which accepts the same type of arguments
2054 of @samp{-D}, but will @emph{exclude} all the listed domains. For
2055 example, if you want to download all the hosts from @samp{foo.edu}
2056 domain, with the exception of @samp{sunsite.foo.edu}, you can do it like
2060 wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
2066 @node Types of Files
2067 @section Types of Files
2068 @cindex types of files
2070 When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
2071 the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
2072 interested in downloading @sc{gif}s, you will not be overjoyed to get
2073 loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
2075 Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
2076 description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
2079 @cindex accept wildcards
2080 @cindex accept suffixes
2081 @cindex wildcards, accept
2082 @cindex suffixes, accept
2084 @item -A @var{acclist}
2085 @itemx --accept @var{acclist}
2086 @itemx accept = @var{acclist}
2087 The argument to @samp{--accept} option is a list of file suffixes or
2088 patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A suffix
2089 is the ending part of a file, and consists of ``normal'' letters,
2090 e.g. @samp{gif} or @samp{.jpg}. A matching pattern contains shell-like
2091 wildcards, e.g. @samp{books*} or @samp{zelazny*196[0-9]*}.
2093 So, specifying @samp{wget -A gif,jpg} will make Wget download only the
2094 files ending with @samp{gif} or @samp{jpg}, i.e. @sc{gif}s and
2095 @sc{jpeg}s. On the other hand, @samp{wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"} will
2096 download only files beginning with @samp{zelazny} and containing numbers
2097 from 1960 to 1969 anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for
2098 a description of how pattern matching works.
2100 Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined into a
2101 comma-separated list, and given as an argument to @samp{-A}.
2103 @cindex reject wildcards
2104 @cindex reject suffixes
2105 @cindex wildcards, reject
2106 @cindex suffixes, reject
2107 @item -R @var{rejlist}
2108 @itemx --reject @var{rejlist}
2109 @itemx reject = @var{rejlist}
2110 The @samp{--reject} option works the same way as @samp{--accept}, only
2111 its logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files @emph{except} the
2112 ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
2114 So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
2115 @sc{mpeg}s and @sc{.au} files, you can use @samp{wget -R mpg,mpeg,au}.
2116 Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
2117 @samp{bjork}, use @samp{wget -R "bjork*"}. The quotes are to prevent
2118 expansion by the shell.
2121 The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
2122 better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
2123 "*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
2124 a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
2126 Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
2127 files; Wget must load all the @sc{html}s to know where to go at
2128 all---recursive retrieval would make no sense otherwise.
2130 @node Directory-Based Limits
2131 @section Directory-Based Limits
2133 @cindex directory limits
2135 Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
2136 place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
2137 those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this---the
2138 home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
2139 directories may contain useless information, e.g. @file{/cgi-bin} or
2140 @file{/dev} directories.
2142 Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement. Each
2143 option description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent
2144 command in @file{.wgetrc}.
2146 @cindex directories, include
2147 @cindex include directories
2148 @cindex accept directories
2151 @itemx --include @var{list}
2152 @itemx include_directories = @var{list}
2153 @samp{-I} option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
2154 in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored. The
2155 directories are absolute paths.
2157 So, if you wish to download from @samp{http://host/people/bozo/}
2158 following only links to bozo's colleagues in the @file{/people}
2159 directory and the bogus scripts in @file{/cgi-bin}, you can specify:
2162 wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
2165 @cindex directories, exclude
2166 @cindex exclude directories
2167 @cindex reject directories
2169 @itemx --exclude @var{list}
2170 @itemx exclude_directories = @var{list}
2171 @samp{-X} option is exactly the reverse of @samp{-I}---this is a list of
2172 directories @emph{excluded} from the download. E.g. if you do not want
2173 Wget to download things from @file{/cgi-bin} directory, specify @samp{-X
2174 /cgi-bin} on the command line.
2176 The same as with @samp{-A}/@samp{-R}, these two options can be combined
2177 to get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if you
2178 want to load all the files from @file{/pub} hierarchy except for
2179 @file{/pub/worthless}, specify @samp{-I/pub -X/pub/worthless}.
2184 @itemx no_parent = on
2185 The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
2186 disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
2187 @dfn{above} than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to the
2188 parent directory/directories.
2190 The @samp{--no-parent} option (short @samp{-np}) is useful in this case.
2191 Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing hierarchy.
2192 Supposing you issue Wget with:
2195 wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
2198 You may rest assured that none of the references to
2199 @file{/~his-girls-homepage/} or @file{/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/} will be
2200 followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be downloaded.
2201 Essentially, @samp{--no-parent} is similar to
2202 @samp{-I/~luzer/my-archive}, only it handles redirections in a more
2203 intelligent fashion.
2206 @node Relative Links
2207 @section Relative Links
2208 @cindex relative links
2210 When @samp{-L} is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
2211 Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
2212 server root. For example, these links are relative:
2216 <a href="foo/bar.gif">
2217 <a href="../foo/bar.gif">
2220 These links are not relative:
2224 <a href="/foo/bar.gif">
2225 <a href="http://www.server.com/foo/bar.gif">
2228 Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
2229 hosts, even without @samp{-H}. In simple cases it also allows downloads
2230 to ``just work'' without having to convert links.
2232 This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a future
2236 @section Following FTP Links
2237 @cindex following ftp links
2239 The rules for @sc{ftp} are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for
2240 them to be. @sc{ftp} links in @sc{html} documents are often included
2241 for purposes of reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them
2244 To have @sc{ftp} links followed from @sc{html} documents, you need to
2245 specify the @samp{--follow-ftp} option. Having done that, @sc{ftp}
2246 links will span hosts regardless of @samp{-H} setting. This is logical,
2247 as @sc{ftp} links rarely point to the same host where the @sc{http}
2248 server resides. For similar reasons, the @samp{-L} options has no
2249 effect on such downloads. On the other hand, domain acceptance
2250 (@samp{-D}) and suffix rules (@samp{-A} and @samp{-R}) apply normally.
2252 Also note that followed links to @sc{ftp} directories will not be
2253 retrieved recursively further.
2256 @chapter Time-Stamping
2257 @cindex time-stamping
2258 @cindex timestamping
2259 @cindex updating the archives
2260 @cindex incremental updating
2262 One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
2263 Internet is updating your archives.
2265 Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
2266 changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
2267 and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
2268 offer the option of incremental updating.
2270 Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
2271 search of @dfn{new} files. Only those new files will be downloaded in
2272 the place of the old ones.
2274 A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
2278 A file of that name does not already exist locally.
2281 A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified more
2282 recently than the local file.
2285 To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
2286 modification of both local and remote files. We call this information the
2287 @dfn{time-stamp} of a file.
2289 The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using @samp{--timestamping}
2290 (@samp{-N}) option, or through @code{timestamping = on} directive in
2291 @file{.wgetrc}. With this option, for each file it intends to download,
2292 Wget will check whether a local file of the same name exists. If it
2293 does, and the remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
2295 If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
2296 match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
2300 * Time-Stamping Usage::
2301 * HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2302 * FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
2305 @node Time-Stamping Usage
2306 @section Time-Stamping Usage
2307 @cindex time-stamping usage
2308 @cindex usage, time-stamping
2310 The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to download a
2311 file so that it keeps its date of modification.
2314 wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2317 A simple @code{ls -l} shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
2318 the state of the @code{Last-Modified} header, as returned by the server.
2319 As you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even
2320 without @samp{-N} (at least for @sc{http}).
2322 Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file has
2323 changed, and download it if it has.
2326 wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
2329 Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local file
2330 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote file
2331 will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more recent,
2332 Wget will proceed to fetch it.
2334 The same goes for @sc{ftp}. For example:
2337 wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
2340 (The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
2341 interpret the @samp{*}.)
2343 After download, a local directory listing will show that the timestamps
2344 match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command with @samp{-N}
2345 will make Wget re-fetch @emph{only} the files that have been modified
2346 since the last download.
2348 If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
2349 command like the following, weekly:
2352 wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
2355 Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
2356 gives a timestamp. For @sc{http}, this depends on getting a
2357 @code{Last-Modified} header. For @sc{ftp}, this depends on getting a
2358 directory listing with dates in a format that Wget can parse
2359 (@pxref{FTP Time-Stamping Internals}).
2361 @node HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2362 @section HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
2363 @cindex http time-stamping
2365 Time-stamping in @sc{http} is implemented by checking of the
2366 @code{Last-Modified} header. If you wish to retrieve the file
2367 @file{foo.html} through @sc{http}, Wget will check whether
2368 @file{foo.html} exists locally. If it doesn't, @file{foo.html} will be
2369 retrieved unconditionally.
2371 If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
2372 time-stamp (similar to the way @code{ls -l} checks it), and then send a
2373 @code{HEAD} request to the remote server, demanding the information on
2376 The @code{Last-Modified} header is examined to find which file was
2377 modified more recently (which makes it ``newer''). If the remote file
2378 is newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give
2379 up.@footnote{As an additional check, Wget will look at the
2380 @code{Content-Length} header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the
2381 same, the remote file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp
2384 When @samp{--backup-converted} (@samp{-K}) is specified in conjunction
2385 with @samp{-N}, server file @samp{@var{X}} is compared to local file
2386 @samp{@var{X}.orig}, if extant, rather than being compared to local file
2387 @samp{@var{X}}, which will always differ if it's been converted by
2388 @samp{--convert-links} (@samp{-k}).
2390 Arguably, @sc{http} time-stamping should be implemented using the
2391 @code{If-Modified-Since} request.
2393 @node FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2394 @section FTP Time-Stamping Internals
2395 @cindex ftp time-stamping
2397 In theory, @sc{ftp} time-stamping works much the same as @sc{http}, only
2398 @sc{ftp} has no headers---time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory
2401 If an @sc{ftp} download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
2402 @sc{ftp} @code{LIST} command to get a file listing for the directory
2403 containing the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing,
2404 treating it like Unix @code{ls -l} output, extracting the time-stamps.
2405 The rest is exactly the same as for @sc{http}. Note that when
2406 retrieving individual files from an @sc{ftp} server without using
2407 globbing or recursion, listing files will not be downloaded (and thus
2408 files will not be time-stamped) unless @samp{-N} is specified.
2410 Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
2411 sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
2412 non-Unix @sc{ftp} servers use the Unixoid listing format because most
2413 (all?) of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that @sc{rfc959}
2414 defines no standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps.
2415 We can only hope that a future standard will define this.
2417 Another non-standard solution includes the use of @code{MDTM} command
2418 that is supported by some @sc{ftp} servers (including the popular
2419 @code{wu-ftpd}), which returns the exact time of the specified file.
2420 Wget may support this command in the future.
2423 @chapter Startup File
2424 @cindex startup file
2430 Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
2431 line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
2432 You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
2433 file---@file{.wgetrc}.
2435 Besides @file{.wgetrc} is the ``main'' initialization file, it is
2436 convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
2437 reads and interprets the contents of @file{$HOME/.netrc}, if it finds
2438 it. You can find @file{.netrc} format in your system manuals.
2440 Wget reads @file{.wgetrc} upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
2444 * Wgetrc Location:: Location of various wgetrc files.
2445 * Wgetrc Syntax:: Syntax of wgetrc.
2446 * Wgetrc Commands:: List of available commands.
2447 * Sample Wgetrc:: A wgetrc example.
2450 @node Wgetrc Location
2451 @section Wgetrc Location
2452 @cindex wgetrc location
2453 @cindex location of wgetrc
2455 When initializing, Wget will look for a @dfn{global} startup file,
2456 @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default (or some prefix other than
2457 @file{/usr/local}, if Wget was not installed there) and read commands
2458 from there, if it exists.
2460 Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
2461 @code{WGETRC} is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
2462 further attempts will be made.
2464 If @code{WGETRC} is not set, Wget will try to load @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}.
2466 The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
2467 means that in case of collision user's wgetrc @emph{overrides} the
2468 system-wide wgetrc (in @file{/usr/local/etc/wgetrc} by default).
2469 Fascist admins, away!
2472 @section Wgetrc Syntax
2473 @cindex wgetrc syntax
2474 @cindex syntax of wgetrc
2476 The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
2482 The @dfn{variable} will also be called @dfn{command}. Valid
2483 @dfn{values} are different for different commands.
2485 The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
2486 @samp{DIr__PrefiX} is the same as @samp{dirprefix}. Empty lines, lines
2487 beginning with @samp{#} and lines containing white-space only are
2490 Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
2491 empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
2492 global @file{wgetrc}, you can do it with:
2498 @node Wgetrc Commands
2499 @section Wgetrc Commands
2500 @cindex wgetrc commands
2502 The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
2503 after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
2504 @samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}.
2506 Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
2507 hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. @var{n} can be any positive
2508 integer, or @samp{inf} for infinity, where appropriate. @var{string}
2509 values can be any non-empty string.
2511 Most of these commands have direct command-line equivalents. Also, any
2512 wgetrc command can be specified on the command line using the
2513 @samp{--execute} switch (@pxref{Basic Startup Options}.)
2516 @item accept/reject = @var{string}
2517 Same as @samp{-A}/@samp{-R} (@pxref{Types of Files}).
2519 @item add_hostdir = on/off
2520 Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
2522 @item background = on/off
2523 Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
2526 @item backup_converted = on/off
2527 Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
2528 @samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
2530 @c @item backups = @var{number}
2531 @c #### Document me!
2533 @item base = @var{string}
2534 Consider relative @sc{url}s in @sc{url} input files forced to be
2535 interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string}---the same as
2536 @samp{--base=@var{string}}.
2538 @item bind_address = @var{address}
2539 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address=@var{address}}.
2541 @item ca_certificate = @var{file}
2542 Set the certificate authority bundle file to @var{file}. The same
2543 as @samp{--ca-certificate=@var{file}}.
2545 @item ca_directory = @var{directory}
2546 Set the directory used for certificate authorities. The same as
2547 @samp{--ca-directory=@var{directory}}.
2549 @item cache = on/off
2550 When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the @samp{--no-cache}
2553 @item certificate = @var{file}
2554 Set the client certificate file name to @var{file}. The same as
2555 @samp{--certificate=@var{file}}.
2557 @item certificate_type = @var{string}
2558 Specify the type of the client certificate, legal values being
2559 @samp{PEM} (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2560 @samp{--certificate-type=@var{string}}.
2562 @item check_certificate = on/off
2563 If this is set to off, the server certificate is not checked against
2564 the specified client authorities. The default is ``on''. The same as
2565 @samp{--check-certificate}.
2567 @item connect_timeout = @var{n}
2568 Set the connect timeout---the same as @samp{--connect-timeout}.
2570 @item content_disposition = on/off
2571 Turn on recognition of the (non-standard) @samp{Content-Disposition}
2572 HTTP header---if set to @samp{on}, the same as @samp{--content-disposition}.
2574 @item continue = on/off
2575 If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
2576 files. See @samp{-c} before setting it.
2578 @item convert_links = on/off
2579 Convert non-relative links locally. The same as @samp{-k}.
2581 @item cookies = on/off
2582 When set to off, disallow cookies. See the @samp{--cookies} option.
2584 @item cut_dirs = @var{n}
2585 Ignore @var{n} remote directory components. Equivalent to
2586 @samp{--cut-dirs=@var{n}}.
2588 @item debug = on/off
2589 Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
2591 @item delete_after = on/off
2592 Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
2594 @item dir_prefix = @var{string}
2595 Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P @var{string}}.
2597 @item dirstruct = on/off
2598 Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
2601 @item dns_cache = on/off
2602 Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
2603 option is normally used to turn it off and is equivalent to
2604 @samp{--no-dns-cache}.
2606 @item dns_timeout = @var{n}
2607 Set the DNS timeout---the same as @samp{--dns-timeout}.
2609 @item domains = @var{string}
2610 Same as @samp{-D} (@pxref{Spanning Hosts}).
2612 @item dot_bytes = @var{n}
2613 Specify the number of bytes ``contained'' in a dot, as seen throughout
2614 the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with
2615 @samp{k} or @samp{m}, representing kilobytes and megabytes,
2616 respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to
2617 suit your needs, or you can use the predefined @dfn{styles}
2618 (@pxref{Download Options}).
2620 @item dot_spacing = @var{n}
2621 Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
2623 @item dots_in_line = @var{n}
2624 Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout
2625 the retrieval (50 by default).
2627 @item egd_file = @var{file}
2628 Use @var{string} as the EGD socket file name. The same as
2629 @samp{--egd-file=@var{file}}.
2631 @item exclude_directories = @var{string}
2632 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
2633 download---the same as @samp{-X @var{string}} (@pxref{Directory-Based
2636 @item exclude_domains = @var{string}
2637 Same as @samp{--exclude-domains=@var{string}} (@pxref{Spanning
2640 @item follow_ftp = on/off
2641 Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as
2642 @samp{--follow-ftp}.
2644 @item follow_tags = @var{string}
2645 Only follow certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval,
2646 just like @samp{--follow-tags=@var{string}}.
2648 @item force_html = on/off
2649 If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
2650 document---the same as @samp{-F}.
2652 @item ftp_password = @var{string}
2653 Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{string}. Without this setting, the
2654 password defaults to @samp{-wget@@}, which is a useful default for
2655 anonymous @sc{ftp} access.
2657 This command used to be named @code{passwd} prior to Wget 1.10.
2659 @item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
2660 Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2663 @item ftp_user = @var{string}
2664 Set @sc{ftp} user to @var{string}.
2666 This command used to be named @code{login} prior to Wget 1.10.
2669 Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{--glob} and @samp{--no-glob}.
2671 @item header = @var{string}
2672 Define a header for HTTP downloads, like using
2673 @samp{--header=@var{string}}.
2675 @item html_extension = on/off
2676 Add a @samp{.html} extension to @samp{text/html} or
2677 @samp{application/xhtml+xml} files without it, like @samp{-E}.
2679 @item http_keep_alive = on/off
2680 Turn the keep-alive feature on or off (defaults to on). Turning it
2681 off is equivalent to @samp{--no-http-keep-alive}.
2683 @item http_password = @var{string}
2684 Set @sc{http} password, equivalent to
2685 @samp{--http-password=@var{string}}.
2687 @item http_proxy = @var{string}
2688 Use @var{string} as @sc{http} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2691 @item http_user = @var{string}
2692 Set @sc{http} user to @var{string}, equivalent to
2693 @samp{--http-user=@var{string}}.
2695 @item https_proxy = @var{string}
2696 Use @var{string} as @sc{https} proxy, instead of the one specified in
2699 @item ignore_case = on/off
2700 When set to on, match files and directories case insensitively; the
2701 same as @samp{--ignore-case}.
2703 @item ignore_length = on/off
2704 When set to on, ignore @code{Content-Length} header; the same as
2705 @samp{--ignore-length}.
2707 @item ignore_tags = @var{string}
2708 Ignore certain @sc{html} tags when doing a recursive retrieval, like
2709 @samp{--ignore-tags=@var{string}}.
2711 @item include_directories = @var{string}
2712 Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
2713 downloading---the same as @samp{-I @var{string}}.
2715 @item inet4_only = on/off
2716 Force connecting to IPv4 addresses, off by default. You can put this
2717 in the global init file to disable Wget's attempts to resolve and
2718 connect to IPv6 hosts. Available only if Wget was compiled with IPv6
2719 support. The same as @samp{--inet4-only} or @samp{-4}.
2721 @item inet6_only = on/off
2722 Force connecting to IPv6 addresses, off by default. Available only if
2723 Wget was compiled with IPv6 support. The same as @samp{--inet6-only}
2726 @item input = @var{file}
2727 Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i @var{file}}.
2729 @item limit_rate = @var{rate}
2730 Limit the download speed to no more than @var{rate} bytes per second.
2731 The same as @samp{--limit-rate=@var{rate}}.
2733 @item load_cookies = @var{file}
2734 Load cookies from @var{file}. See @samp{--load-cookies @var{file}}.
2736 @item logfile = @var{file}
2737 Set logfile to @var{file}, the same as @samp{-o @var{file}}.
2739 @item max_redirect = @var{number}
2740 Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource.
2741 See @samp{--max-redirect=@var{number}}.
2743 @item mirror = on/off
2744 Turn mirroring on/off. The same as @samp{-m}.
2746 @item netrc = on/off
2747 Turn reading netrc on or off.
2749 @item no_clobber = on/off
2752 @item no_parent = on/off
2753 Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
2754 @samp{--no-parent} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
2756 @item no_proxy = @var{string}
2757 Use @var{string} as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
2758 proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
2760 @item output_document = @var{file}
2761 Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O @var{file}}.
2763 @item page_requisites = on/off
2764 Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single @sc{html} page to
2765 display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
2767 @item passive_ftp = on/off
2768 Change setting of passive @sc{ftp}, equivalent to the
2769 @samp{--passive-ftp} option.
2771 @itemx password = @var{string}
2772 Specify password @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
2773 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_password} and
2774 @samp{http_password} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
2776 @item post_data = @var{string}
2777 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send @var{string} in
2778 the request body. The same as @samp{--post-data=@var{string}}.
2780 @item post_file = @var{file}
2781 Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the contents of
2782 @var{file} in the request body. The same as
2783 @samp{--post-file=@var{file}}.
2785 @item prefer_family = IPv4/IPv6/none
2786 When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
2787 with specified address family first. IPv4 addresses are preferred by
2788 default. The same as @samp{--prefer-family}, which see for a detailed
2789 discussion of why this is useful.
2791 @item private_key = @var{file}
2792 Set the private key file to @var{file}. The same as
2793 @samp{--private-key=@var{file}}.
2795 @item private_key_type = @var{string}
2796 Specify the type of the private key, legal values being @samp{PEM}
2797 (the default) and @samp{DER} (aka ASN1). The same as
2798 @samp{--private-type=@var{string}}.
2800 @item progress = @var{string}
2801 Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are @samp{dot}
2802 and @samp{bar}. Equivalent to @samp{--progress=@var{string}}.
2804 @item protocol_directories = on/off
2805 When set, use the protocol name as a directory component of local file
2806 names. The same as @samp{--protocol-directories}.
2808 @item proxy_password = @var{string}
2809 Set proxy authentication password to @var{string}, like
2810 @samp{--proxy-password=@var{string}}.
2812 @item proxy_user = @var{string}
2813 Set proxy authentication user name to @var{string}, like
2814 @samp{--proxy-user=@var{string}}.
2816 @item quiet = on/off
2817 Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
2819 @item quota = @var{quota}
2820 Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
2821 @file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
2822 retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
2823 quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
2824 mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
2825 to 5 megabytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
2828 @item random_file = @var{file}
2829 Use @var{file} as a source of randomness on systems lacking
2832 @item random_wait = on/off
2833 Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
2834 @samp{--random-wait}.
2836 @item read_timeout = @var{n}
2837 Set the read (and write) timeout---the same as
2838 @samp{--read-timeout=@var{n}}.
2840 @item reclevel = @var{n}
2841 Recursion level (depth)---the same as @samp{-l @var{n}}.
2843 @item recursive = on/off
2844 Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
2846 @item referer = @var{string}
2847 Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like
2848 @samp{--referer=@var{string}}. (Note that it was the folks who wrote
2849 the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of ``referrer'' wrong.)
2851 @item relative_only = on/off
2852 Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
2855 @item remove_listing = on/off
2856 If set to on, remove @sc{ftp} listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
2857 to off is the same as @samp{--no-remove-listing}.
2859 @item restrict_file_names = unix/windows
2860 Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
2861 @samp{--restrict-file-names} for a more detailed description.
2863 @item retr_symlinks = on/off
2864 When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the
2865 same as @samp{--retr-symlinks}.
2867 @item retry_connrefused = on/off
2868 When set to on, consider ``connection refused'' a transient
2869 error---the same as @samp{--retry-connrefused}.
2871 @item robots = on/off
2872 Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, ``on'' by
2873 default. This switch controls both the @file{/robots.txt} and the
2874 @samp{nofollow} aspect of the spec. @xref{Robot Exclusion}, for more
2875 details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning
2878 @item save_cookies = @var{file}
2879 Save cookies to @var{file}. The same as @samp{--save-cookies
2882 @item secure_protocol = @var{string}
2883 Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are @samp{auto}
2884 (the default), @samp{SSLv2}, @samp{SSLv3}, and @samp{TLSv1}. The same
2885 as @samp{--secure-protocol=@var{string}}.
2887 @item server_response = on/off
2888 Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
2889 responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
2891 @item span_hosts = on/off
2894 @item strict_comments = on/off
2895 Same as @samp{--strict-comments}.
2897 @item timeout = @var{n}
2898 Set all applicable timeout values to @var{n}, the same as @samp{-T
2901 @item timestamping = on/off
2902 Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
2904 @item tries = @var{n}
2905 Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t @var{n}}.
2907 @item use_proxy = on/off
2908 When set to off, don't use proxy even when proxy-related environment
2909 variables are set. In that case it is the same as using
2912 @item user = @var{string}
2913 Specify username @var{string} for both @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} file retrieval.
2914 This command can be overridden using the @samp{ftp_user} and
2915 @samp{http_user} command for @sc{ftp} and @sc{http} respectively.
2917 @item verbose = on/off
2918 Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
2920 @item wait = @var{n}
2921 Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w
2924 @item wait_retry = @var{n}
2925 Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
2926 only---the same as @samp{--waitretry=@var{n}}. Note that this is
2927 turned on by default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
2931 @section Sample Wgetrc
2932 @cindex sample wgetrc
2934 This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
2935 It is divided in two section---one for global usage (suitable for global
2936 startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for
2937 @file{$HOME/.wgetrc}). Be careful about the things you change.
2939 Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to have
2940 any effect, you must remove the @samp{#} character at the beginning of
2944 @include sample.wgetrc.munged_for_texi_inclusion
2951 @c man begin EXAMPLES
2952 The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
2956 * Simple Usage:: Simple, basic usage of the program.
2957 * Advanced Usage:: Advanced tips.
2958 * Very Advanced Usage:: The hairy stuff.
2962 @section Simple Usage
2966 Say you want to download a @sc{url}. Just type:
2969 wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
2973 But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is lengthy?
2974 The connection will probably fail before the whole file is retrieved,
2975 more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting the file until it
2976 either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the default number of retries
2977 (this being 20). It is easy to change the number of tries to 45, to
2978 insure that the whole file will arrive safely:
2981 wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
2985 Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its progress
2986 to log file @file{log}. It is tiring to type @samp{--tries}, so we
2987 shall use @samp{-t}.
2990 wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
2993 The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in the
2994 background. To unlimit the number of retries, use @samp{-t inf}.
2997 The usage of @sc{ftp} is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
3001 wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
3005 If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory listing,
3006 parse it and convert it to @sc{html}. Try:
3009 wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
3014 @node Advanced Usage
3015 @section Advanced Usage
3019 You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use the
3026 If you specify @samp{-} as file name, the @sc{url}s will be read from
3030 Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with the
3031 same directory structure the original has, with only one try per
3032 document, saving the log of the activities to @file{gnulog}:
3035 wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3039 The same as the above, but convert the links in the @sc{html} files to
3040 point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
3043 wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
3047 Retrieve only one @sc{html} page, but make sure that all the elements needed
3048 for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and external style
3049 sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the downloaded page
3050 references the downloaded links.
3053 wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3056 The @sc{html} page will be saved to @file{www.server.com/dir/page.html}, and
3057 the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under @file{www.server.com/},
3058 depending on where they were on the remote server.
3061 The same as the above, but without the @file{www.server.com/} directory.
3062 In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
3063 anyway---just save @emph{all} those files under a @file{download/}
3064 subdirectory of the current directory.
3067 wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
3068 http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
3072 Retrieve the index.html of @samp{www.lycos.com}, showing the original
3076 wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
3080 Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
3083 wget --save-headers http://www.lycos.com/
3088 Retrieve the first two levels of @samp{wuarchive.wustl.edu}, saving them
3092 wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
3096 You want to download all the @sc{gif}s from a directory on an @sc{http}
3097 server. You tried @samp{wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif}, but that
3098 didn't work because @sc{http} retrieval does not support globbing. In
3102 wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
3105 More verbose, but the effect is the same. @samp{-r -l1} means to
3106 retrieve recursively (@pxref{Recursive Download}), with maximum depth
3107 of 1. @samp{--no-parent} means that references to the parent directory
3108 are ignored (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}), and @samp{-A.gif} means to
3109 download only the @sc{gif} files. @samp{-A "*.gif"} would have worked
3113 Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
3114 interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already present.
3118 wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
3122 If you want to encode your own username and password to @sc{http} or
3123 @sc{ftp}, use the appropriate @sc{url} syntax (@pxref{URL Format}).
3126 wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@@unix.server.com/.emacs
3129 Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user systems
3130 because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at the output of
3133 @cindex redirecting output
3135 You would like the output documents to go to standard output instead of
3139 wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
3142 You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to retrieve the
3143 documents from remote hotlists:
3146 wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
3150 @node Very Advanced Usage
3151 @section Very Advanced Usage
3156 If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or @sc{ftp}
3157 subdirectories), use @samp{--mirror} (@samp{-m}), which is the shorthand
3158 for @samp{-r -l inf -N}. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it
3159 to recheck a site each Sunday:
3163 0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3167 In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for local
3168 viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that link
3169 conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also want Wget to
3170 back up the original @sc{html} files before the conversion. Wget invocation
3171 would look like this:
3174 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3175 http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3179 But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that well
3180 when @sc{html} files are saved under extensions other than @samp{.html},
3181 perhaps because they were served as @file{index.cgi}. So you'd like
3182 Wget to rename all the files served with content-type @samp{text/html}
3183 or @samp{application/xhtml+xml} to @file{@var{name}.html}.
3186 wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
3187 --html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
3191 Or, with less typing:
3194 wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
3203 This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
3206 * Proxies:: Support for proxy servers.
3207 * Distribution:: Getting the latest version.
3208 * Web Site:: GNU Wget's presence on the World Wide Web.
3209 * Mailing List:: Wget mailing list for announcements and discussion.
3210 * Internet Relay Chat:: Wget's presence on IRC.
3211 * Reporting Bugs:: How and where to report bugs.
3212 * Portability:: The systems Wget works on.
3213 * Signals:: Signal-handling performed by Wget.
3220 @dfn{Proxies} are special-purpose @sc{http} servers designed to transfer
3221 data from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies
3222 is lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
3223 achieved by channeling all @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} requests through the
3224 proxy which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is
3225 requested again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for
3226 proxies is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their
3227 internal networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain
3228 information from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data
3229 using an authorized proxy.
3231 Wget supports proxies for both @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} retrievals. The
3232 standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
3233 the following environment variables:
3238 If set, the @code{http_proxy} and @code{https_proxy} variables should
3239 contain the @sc{url}s of the proxies for @sc{http} and @sc{https}
3240 connections respectively.
3243 This variable should contain the @sc{url} of the proxy for @sc{ftp}
3244 connections. It is quite common that @code{http_proxy} and
3245 @code{ftp_proxy} are set to the same @sc{url}.
3248 This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain extensions
3249 proxy should @emph{not} be used for. For instance, if the value of
3250 @code{no_proxy} is @samp{.mit.edu}, proxy will not be used to retrieve
3254 In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
3255 may be specified from within Wget itself.
3259 @itemx proxy = on/off
3260 This option and the corresponding command may be used to suppress the
3261 use of proxy, even if the appropriate environment variables are set.
3263 @item http_proxy = @var{URL}
3264 @itemx https_proxy = @var{URL}
3265 @itemx ftp_proxy = @var{URL}
3266 @itemx no_proxy = @var{string}
3267 These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy settings
3268 specified by the environment.
3271 Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them. The
3272 authorization consists of @dfn{username} and @dfn{password}, which must
3273 be sent by Wget. As with @sc{http} authorization, several
3274 authentication schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the
3275 @code{Basic} authentication scheme is currently implemented.
3277 You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
3278 @sc{url} or through the command-line options. Assuming that the
3279 company's proxy is located at @samp{proxy.company.com} at port 8001, a
3280 proxy @sc{url} location containing authorization data might look like
3284 http://hniksic:mypassword@@proxy.company.com:8001/
3287 Alternatively, you may use the @samp{proxy-user} and
3288 @samp{proxy-password} options, and the equivalent @file{.wgetrc}
3289 settings @code{proxy_user} and @code{proxy_password} to set the proxy
3290 username and password.
3293 @section Distribution
3294 @cindex latest version
3296 Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
3297 master GNU archive site ftp.gnu.org, and its mirrors. For example,
3298 Wget @value{VERSION} can be found at
3299 @url{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/wget/wget-@value{VERSION}.tar.gz}
3305 The official web site for GNU Wget is at
3306 @url{http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/}. However, most useful
3307 information resides at ``The Wget Wgiki'',
3308 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/}.
3311 @section Mailing List
3312 @cindex mailing list
3315 There are several Wget-related mailing lists. The general discussion
3316 list is at @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}. It is the preferred place for
3317 support requests and suggestions, as well as for discussion of
3318 development. You are invited to subscribe.
3320 To subscribe, simply send mail to @email{wget-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}
3321 and follow the instructions. Unsubscribe by mailing to
3322 @email{wget-unsubscribe@@sunsite.dk}. The mailing list is archived at
3323 @url{http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.dk/} and at
3324 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.general}.
3326 Another mailing list is at @email{wget-patches@@sunsite.dk}, and is
3327 used to submit patches for review by Wget developers. A ``patch'' is
3328 a textual representation of change to source code, readable by both
3329 humans and programs. The
3330 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/PatchGuidelines} page
3331 covers the creation and submitting of patches in detail. Please don't
3332 send general suggestions or bug reports to @samp{wget-patches}; use it
3333 only for patch submissions.
3335 Subscription is the same as above for @email{wget@@sunsite.dk}, except
3336 that you send to @email{wget-patches-subscribe@@sunsite.dk}, instead.
3337 The mailing list is archived at
3338 @url{http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.patches}.
3340 Finally, there is the @email{wget-notify@@addictivecode.org} mailing
3341 list. This is a non-discussion list that receives commit notifications
3342 from the source repository, and also bug report-change notifications.
3343 This is the highest-traffic list for Wget, and is recommended only for
3344 people who are seriously interested in ongoing Wget development.
3345 Subscription is through the @code{mailman} interface at
3346 @url{http://addictivecode.org/mailman/listinfo/wget-notify}.
3348 @node Internet Relay Chat
3349 @section Internet Relay Chat
3350 @cindex Internet Relay Chat
3354 While, at the time of this writing, there is very low activity, we do
3355 have a support channel set up via IRC at @code{irc.freenode.org},
3356 @code{#wget}. Come check it out!
3358 @node Reporting Bugs
3359 @section Reporting Bugs
3361 @cindex reporting bugs
3365 You are welcome to submit bug reports via the GNU Wget bug tracker (see
3366 @url{http://wget.addictivecode.org/BugTracker}).
3368 Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
3373 Please try to ascertain that the behavior you see really is a bug. If
3374 Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as documented,
3375 it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not sure about the way
3376 they are supposed to work, it might well be a bug, but you might want to
3377 double-check the documentation and the mailing lists (@pxref{Mailing
3381 Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible. E.g. if
3382 Wget crashes while downloading @samp{wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 --no-proxy
3383 http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log}, you should try to see if the crash is
3384 repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of options. You might
3385 even try to start the download at the page where the crash occurred to
3386 see if that page somehow triggered the crash.
3388 Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of your
3389 @file{.wgetrc} file, just dumping it into the debug message is probably
3390 a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the bug repeats
3391 with @file{.wgetrc} moved out of the way. Only if it turns out that
3392 @file{.wgetrc} settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant parts of
3396 Please start Wget with @samp{-d} option and send us the resulting
3397 output (or relevant parts thereof). If Wget was compiled without
3398 debug support, recompile it---it is @emph{much} easier to trace bugs
3399 with debug support on.
3401 Note: please make sure to remove any potentially sensitive information
3402 from the debug log before sending it to the bug address. The
3403 @code{-d} won't go out of its way to collect sensitive information,
3404 but the log @emph{will} contain a fairly complete transcript of Wget's
3405 communication with the server, which may include passwords and pieces
3406 of downloaded data. Since the bug address is publically archived, you
3407 may assume that all bug reports are visible to the public.
3410 If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. @code{gdb `which
3411 wget` core} and type @code{where} to get the backtrace. This may not
3412 work if the system administrator has disabled core files, but it is
3418 @section Portability
3420 @cindex operating systems
3422 Like all GNU software, Wget works on the GNU system. However, since it
3423 uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and mostly avoids using
3424 ``special'' features of any particular Unix, it should compile (and
3425 work) on all common Unix flavors.
3427 Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
3428 Unix systems, including GNU/Linux, Solaris, SunOS 4.x, Mac OS X, OSF
3429 (aka Digital Unix or Tru64), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, AIX, and others. Some
3430 of those systems are no longer in widespread use and may not be able to
3431 support recent versions of Wget. If Wget fails to compile on your
3432 system, we would like to know about it.
3434 Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works
3435 on 32-bit Microsoft Windows platforms. It has been compiled
3436 successfully using MS Visual C++ 6.0, Watcom, Borland C, and GCC
3437 compilers. Naturally, it is crippled of some features available on
3438 Unix, but it should work as a substitute for people stuck with
3439 Windows. Note that Windows-specific portions of Wget are not
3440 guaranteed to be supported in the future, although this has been the
3441 case in practice for many years now. All questions and problems in
3442 Windows usage should be reported to Wget mailing list at
3443 @email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the volunteers who maintain the
3444 Windows-related features might look at them.
3446 Support for building on MS-DOS via DJGPP has been contributed by Gisle
3447 Vanem; a port to VMS is maintained by Steven Schweda, and is available
3448 at @url{http://antinode.org/}.
3452 @cindex signal handling
3455 Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
3456 signal (@code{SIGHUP}) and ignores it. If the output was on standard
3457 output, it will be redirected to a file named @file{wget-log}.
3458 Otherwise, @code{SIGHUP} is ignored. This is convenient when you wish
3459 to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
3462 $ wget http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz &
3465 SIGHUP received, redirecting output to `wget-log'.
3468 Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
3469 @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
3474 This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
3477 * Robot Exclusion:: Wget's support for RES.
3478 * Security Considerations:: Security with Wget.
3479 * Contributors:: People who helped.
3482 @node Robot Exclusion
3483 @section Robot Exclusion
3484 @cindex robot exclusion
3486 @cindex server maintenance
3488 It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
3489 sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
3490 and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
3492 As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
3493 reasonable rate (see the @samp{--wait} option), there's not much of a
3494 problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
3495 smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
3496 section handled by a CGI Perl script that converts Info files to @sc{html} on
3497 the fly. The script is slow, but works well enough for human users
3498 viewing an occasional Info file. However, when someone's recursive Wget
3499 download stumbles upon the index page that links to all the Info files
3500 through the script, the system is brought to its knees without providing
3501 anything useful to the user (This task of converting Info files could be
3502 done locally and access to Info documentation for all installed GNU
3503 software on a system is available from the @code{info} command).
3505 To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
3506 documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
3507 concept of @dfn{robot exclusion} was invented. The idea is that
3508 the server administrators and document authors can specify which
3509 portions of the site they wish to protect from robots and those
3510 they will permit access.
3512 The most popular mechanism, and the @i{de facto} standard supported by
3513 all the major robots, is the ``Robots Exclusion Standard'' (RES) written
3514 by Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text
3515 file containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to
3516 avoid. To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
3517 @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are expected to
3520 Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word, it
3521 can downloads large parts of the site without the user's intervention to
3522 download an individual page. Because of that, Wget honors RES when
3523 downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
3526 wget -r http://www.server.com/
3529 First the index of @samp{www.server.com} will be downloaded. If Wget
3530 finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
3531 request @samp{http://www.server.com/robots.txt} and, if found, use it
3532 for further downloads. @file{robots.txt} is loaded only once per each
3535 Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
3536 written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
3537 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html}. As of version 1.8,
3538 Wget has supported the additional directives specified in the internet
3539 draft @samp{<draft-koster-robots-00.txt>} titled ``A Method for Web
3540 Robots Control''. The draft, which has as far as I know never made to
3541 an @sc{rfc}, is available at
3542 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt}.
3544 This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion Standard.
3546 The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
3547 document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
3548 followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
3552 <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
3555 This is explained in some detail at
3556 @url{http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html}. Wget supports this
3557 method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual @file{/robots.txt}
3560 If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
3561 robot exclusion, set the @code{robots} variable to @samp{off} in your
3562 @file{.wgetrc}. You can achieve the same effect from the command line
3563 using the @code{-e} switch, e.g. @samp{wget -e robots=off @var{url}...}.
3565 @node Security Considerations
3566 @section Security Considerations
3569 When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
3570 through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
3571 main issues, and some solutions.
3575 The passwords on the command line are visible using @code{ps}. The best
3576 way around it is to use @code{wget -i -} and feed the @sc{url}s to
3577 Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by @kbd{C-d}.
3578 Another workaround is to use @file{.netrc} to store passwords; however,
3579 storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a security risk.
3582 Using the insecure @dfn{basic} authentication scheme, unencrypted
3583 passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
3586 The @sc{ftp} passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
3587 solution for this at the moment.
3590 Although the ``normal'' output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
3591 debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
3592 being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send them to
3597 @section Contributors
3598 @cindex contributors
3601 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Nik@v{s}i@'{c} @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org},
3604 GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic @email{hniksic@@xemacs.org},
3606 and it is currently maintained by Micah Cowan @email{micah@@cowan.name}.
3608 However, the development of Wget could never have gone as far as it has, were
3609 it not for the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature proposals,
3610 patches, or letters saying ``Thanks!''.
3612 Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
3615 @item Dan Harkless---contributed a lot of code and documentation of
3616 extremely high quality, as well as the @code{--page-requisites} and
3617 related options. He was the principal maintainer for some time and
3620 @item Ian Abbott---contributed bug fixes, Windows-related fixes, and
3621 provided a prototype implementation of the breadth-first recursive
3622 download. Co-maintained Wget during the 1.8 release cycle.
3625 The dotsrc.org crew, in particular Karsten Thygesen---donated system
3626 resources such as the mailing list, web space, @sc{ftp} space, and
3627 version control repositories, along with a lot of time to make these
3628 actually work. Christian Reiniger was of invaluable help with setting
3632 Heiko Herold---provided high-quality Windows builds and contributed
3633 bug and build reports for many years.
3636 Shawn McHorse---bug reports and patches.
3639 Kaveh R. Ghazi---on-the-fly @code{ansi2knr}-ization. Lots of
3643 Gordon Matzigkeit---@file{.netrc} support.
3647 Zlatko @v{C}alu@v{s}i@'{c}, Tomislav Vujec and Dra@v{z}en
3648 Ka@v{c}ar---feature suggestions and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3651 Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar---feature suggestions
3652 and ``philosophical'' discussions.
3656 Darko Budor---initial port to Windows.
3659 Antonio Rosella---help and suggestions, plus the initial Italian
3664 Tomislav Petrovi@'{c}, Mario Miko@v{c}evi@'{c}---many bug reports and
3668 Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic---many bug reports and suggestions.
3673 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3676 Francois Pinard---many thorough bug reports and discussions.
3680 Karl Eichwalder---lots of help with internationalization, Makefile
3681 layout and many other things.
3684 Junio Hamano---donated support for Opie and @sc{http} @code{Digest}
3688 Mauro Tortonesi---Improved IPv6 support, adding support for dual
3689 family systems. Refactored and enhanced FTP IPv6 code. Maintained GNU
3690 Wget from 2004--2007.
3693 Christopher G.@: Lewis---Maintenance of the Windows version of GNU WGet.
3696 Gisle Vanem---Many helpful patches and improvements, especially for
3697 Windows and MS-DOS support.
3700 Ralf Wildenhues---Contributed patches to convert Wget to use Automake as
3701 part of its build process, and various bugfixes.
3704 People who provided donations for development---including Brian Gough.
3707 The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
3708 suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
3709 that make maintenance so much fun:
3728 Kristijan @v{C}onka@v{s},
3737 Bertrand Demiddelaer,
3750 Aleksandar Erkalovi@'{c},
3753 Aleksandar Erkalovic,
3772 Erik Magnus Hulthen,
3791 Goran Kezunovi@'{c},
3804 $\Sigma\acute{\iota}\mu o\varsigma\;
3805 \Xi\varepsilon\nu\iota\tau\acute{\epsilon}\lambda\lambda\eta\varsigma$
3806 (Simos KSenitellis),
3815 Nicol@'{a}s Lichtmeier,
3821 Alexander V.@: Lukyanov,
3830 Matthew J.@: Mellon,
3862 @c Texinfo doesn't grok @'{@i}, so we have to use TeX itself.
3864 Juan Jos\'{e} Rodr\'{\i}guez,
3867 Juan Jose Rodriguez,
3869 Maciej W.@: Rozycki,
3875 Steven M.@: Schweda,
3885 Szakacsits Szabolcs,
3899 Douglas E.@: Wegscheid,
3901 Joshua David Williams,
3912 Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
3913 subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
3915 @node Copying this manual
3916 @appendix Copying this manual
3919 * GNU Free Documentation License:: Licnse for copying this manual.
3926 @unnumbered Concept Index