useful to access the full remote file list when running a mirror,
or for debugging purposes.
+`-p'
+`--page-requisites'
+ This option causes wget to download all the files that are
+ necessary to properly display a given HTML page. This includes
+ such things as inlined images, sounds, and referenced stylesheets.
+
+ Ordinarily, when downloading a single HTML page, any requisite
+ documents that may be needed to display it properly are not
+ downloaded. Using `-r' together with `-l' can help, but since
+ wget does not ordinarily distinguish between external and inlined
+ documents, one is generally left with "leaf documents" that are
+ missing their requisites.
+
+ For instance, say document `1.html' contains an `<IMG>' tag
+ referencing `1.gif' and an `<A>' tag pointing to external document
+ `2.html'. Say that `2.html' is the same but that its image is
+ `2.gif' and it links to `3.html'. Say this continues up to some
+ arbitrarily high number.
+
+ If one executes the command:
+
+ wget -r -l 2 http://SITE/1.html
+
+ then `1.html', `1.gif', `2.html', `2.gif', and `3.html' will be
+ downloaded. As you can see, `3.html' is without its requisite
+ `3.gif' because wget is simply counting the number of hops (up to
+ 2) away from `1.html' in order to determine where to stop the
+ recursion. However, with this command:
+
+ wget -r -l 2 -p http://SITE/1.html
+
+ all the above files *and* `3.html''s requisite `3.gif' will be
+ downloaded. Similarly,
+
+ wget -r -l 1 -p http://SITE/1.html
+
+ will cause `1.html', `1.gif', `2.html', and `2.gif' to be
+ downloaded. One might think that:
+
+ wget -r -l 0 -p http://SITE/1.html
+
+ would download just `1.html' and `1.gif', but unfortunately this
+ is not the case, because `-l 0' is equivalent to `-l inf' - that
+ is, infinite recursion. To download a single HTML page (or a
+ handful of them, all specified on the commandline or in a `-i' URL
+ input file) and its requisites, simply leave off `-p' and `-l':
+
+ wget -p http://SITE/1.html
+
+ Note that wget will behave as if `-r' had been specified, but only
+ that single page and its requisites will be downloaded. Links
+ from that page to external documents will not be followed.
+ Actually, to download a single page and all its requisites (even
+ if they exist on separate websites), and make sure the lot
+ displays properly locally, this author likes to use a few options
+ in addition to `-p':
+
+ wget -H -k -K -nh -p http://SITE/DOCUMENT
+
+ To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that wget's idea of an
+ external document link is any URL specified in an `<A>' tag, an
+ `<AREA>' tag, or a `<LINK>' tag other than `<LINK
+ REL="stylesheet">'.
+
\1f
File: wget.info, Node: Recursive Accept/Reject Options, Prev: Recursive Retrieval Options, Up: Invoking
`--ignore-tags=LIST'
This is the opposite of the `--follow-tags' option. To skip
certain HTML tags when recursively looking for documents to
- download, specify them in a comma-separated LIST. The author of
- this option likes to use the following command to download a
- single HTML page and all files (e.g. images, sounds, and
- stylesheets) necessary to display it properly:
+ download, specify them in a comma-separated LIST.
+
+ In the past, the `-G' option was the best bet for downloading a
+ single page and its requisites, using a commandline like:
wget -Ga,area -H -k -K -nh -r http://SITE/DOCUMENT
+ However, the author of this option came across a page with tags
+ like `<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">' and came to the realization that
+ `-G' was not enough. One can't just tell wget to ignore `<LINK>',
+ because then stylesheets will not be downloaded. Now the best bet
+ for downloading a single page and its requisites is the dedicated
+ `--page-requisites' option.
+
`-H'
`--span-hosts'
Enable spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving
Also note that followed links to FTP directories will not be
retrieved recursively further.
-\1f
-File: wget.info, Node: Time-Stamping, Next: Startup File, Prev: Following Links, Up: Top
-
-Time-Stamping
-*************
-
- One of the most important aspects of mirroring information from the
-Internet is updating your archives.
-
- Downloading the whole archive again and again, just to replace a few
-changed files is expensive, both in terms of wasted bandwidth and money,
-and the time to do the update. This is why all the mirroring tools
-offer the option of incremental updating.
-
- Such an updating mechanism means that the remote server is scanned in
-search of "new" files. Only those new files will be downloaded in the
-place of the old ones.
-
- A file is considered new if one of these two conditions are met:
-
- 1. A file of that name does not already exist locally.
-
- 2. A file of that name does exist, but the remote file was modified
- more recently than the local file.
-
- To implement this, the program needs to be aware of the time of last
-modification of both remote and local files. Such information are
-called the "time-stamps".
-
- The time-stamping in GNU Wget is turned on using `--timestamping'
-(`-N') option, or through `timestamping = on' directive in `.wgetrc'.
-With this option, for each file it intends to download, Wget will check
-whether a local file of the same name exists. If it does, and the
-remote file is older, Wget will not download it.
-
- If the local file does not exist, or the sizes of the files do not
-match, Wget will download the remote file no matter what the time-stamps
-say.
-
-* Menu:
-
-* Time-Stamping Usage::
-* HTTP Time-Stamping Internals::
-* FTP Time-Stamping Internals::
-
-\1f
-File: wget.info, Node: Time-Stamping Usage, Next: HTTP Time-Stamping Internals, Prev: Time-Stamping, Up: Time-Stamping
-
-Time-Stamping Usage
-===================
-
- The usage of time-stamping is simple. Say you would like to
-download a file so that it keeps its date of modification.
-
- wget -S http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
-
- A simple `ls -l' shows that the time stamp on the local file equals
-the state of the `Last-Modified' header, as returned by the server. As
-you can see, the time-stamping info is preserved locally, even without
-`-N'.
-
- Several days later, you would like Wget to check if the remote file
-has changed, and download it if it has.
-
- wget -N http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
-
- Wget will ask the server for the last-modified date. If the local
-file is newer, the remote file will not be re-fetched. However, if the
-remote file is more recent, Wget will proceed fetching it normally.
-
- The same goes for FTP. For example:
-
- wget ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*
-
- `ls' will show that the timestamps are set according to the state on
-the remote server. Reissuing the command with `-N' will make Wget
-re-fetch *only* the files that have been modified.
-
- In both HTTP and FTP retrieval Wget will time-stamp the local file
-correctly (with or without `-N') if it gets the stamps, i.e. gets the
-directory listing for FTP or the `Last-Modified' header for HTTP.
-
- If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use the
-following command every week:
-
- wget --timestamping -r ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/
-