@end ignore
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
-any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
-Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
-Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
-Free Documentation License''.
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
+Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
+Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
+Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
+entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
@end ifinfo
@titlepage
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
-any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
-Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
-Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
-Free Documentation License''.
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
+Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
+Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
+Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
+entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
@end titlepage
@ifinfo
By default, Wget supports proxy servers, which can lighten the network
load, speed up retrieval and provide access behind firewalls. However,
if you are behind a firewall that requires that you use a socks style
-gateway, you can get the socks library and build wget with support for
+gateway, you can get the socks library and build Wget with support for
socks. Wget also supports the passive @sc{ftp} downloading as an
option.
Since Wget uses GNU getopts to process its arguments, every option has a
short form and a long form. Long options are more convenient to
remember, but take time to type. You may freely mix different option
-styles, or specify options after the command-line arguments. Thus you
+styles, or specify options after the command-line arguments. Thus you
may write:
@example
@cindex no-clobber
@item -nc
@itemx --no-clobber
-If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, wget's
+If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget's
behavior depends on a few options, including @samp{-nc}. In certain
-cases, the local file will be "clobbered", or overwritten, upon repeated
-download. In other cases it will be preserved.
+cases, the local file will be @dfn{clobbered}, or overwritten, upon
+repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
-When running wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, or @samp{-r},
+When running Wget without @samp{-N}, @samp{-nc}, or @samp{-r},
downloading the same file in the same directory will result in the
-original copy of @samp{@var{file}} being preserved and the second copy
-being named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet again,
-the third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on. When
-@samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior is suppressed, and wget will
+original copy of @var{file} being preserved and the second copy being
+named @samp{@var{file}.1}. If that file is downloaded yet again, the
+third copy will be named @samp{@var{file}.2}, and so on. When
+@samp{-nc} is specified, this behavior is suppressed, and Wget will
refuse to download newer copies of @samp{@var{file}}. Therefore,
-"no-clobber" is actually a misnomer in this mode -- it's not clobbering
-that's prevented (as the numeric suffixes were already preventing
-clobbering), but rather the multiple version saving that's prevented.
+``@code{no-clobber}'' is actually a misnomer in this mode---it's not
+clobbering that's prevented (as the numeric suffixes were already
+preventing clobbering), but rather the multiple version saving that's
+prevented.
-When running wget with @samp{-r}, but without @samp{-N} or @samp{-nc},
+When running Wget with @samp{-r}, but without @samp{-N} or @samp{-nc},
re-downloading a file will result in the new copy simply overwriting the
old. Adding @samp{-nc} will prevent this behavior, instead causing the
original version to be preserved and any newer copies on the server to
be ignored.
-When running wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r}, the
+When running Wget with @samp{-N}, with or without @samp{-r}, the
decision as to whether or not to download a newer copy of a file depends
on the local and remote timestamp and size of the file
(@pxref{Time-Stamping}). @samp{-nc} may not be specified at the same
@item --waitretry=@var{seconds}
If you don't want Wget to wait between @emph{every} retrieval, but only
between retries of failed downloads, you can use this option. Wget will
-use "linear backoff", waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
+use @dfn{linear backoff}, waiting 1 second after the first failure on a
given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second failure on that
file, up to the maximum number of @var{seconds} you specify. Therefore,
a value of 10 will actually make Wget wait up to (1 + 2 + ... + 10) = 55
@cindex proxy
@item -Y on/off
@itemx --proxy=on/off
-Turn proxy support on or off. The proxy is on by default if the
+Turn proxy support on or off. The proxy is on by default if the
appropriate environmental variable is defined.
@cindex quota
@table @samp
@item -nd
@itemx --no-directories
-Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving
-recursively. With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the
-current directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than
-once, the filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
+Do not create a hierarchy of directories when retrieving recursively.
+With this option turned on, all files will get saved to the current
+directory, without clobbering (if a name shows up more than once, the
+filenames will get extensions @samp{.n}).
@item -x
@itemx --force-directories
@item -E
@itemx --html-extension
If a file of type @samp{text/html} is downloaded and the URL does not
-end with the regexp "\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?", this option will cause the
-suffix @samp{.html} to be appended to the local filename. This is
+end with the regexp @samp{\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?}, this option will cause
+the suffix @samp{.html} to be appended to the local filename. This is
useful, for instance, when you're mirroring a remote site that uses
@samp{.asp} pages, but you want the mirrored pages to be viewable on
your stock Apache server. Another good use for this is when you're
@file{article.cgi?25.html}.
Note that filenames changed in this way will be re-downloaded every time
-you re-mirror a site, because wget can't tell that the local
+you re-mirror a site, because Wget can't tell that the local
@file{@var{X}.html} file corresponds to remote URL @samp{@var{X}} (since
it doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type
@samp{text/html}. To prevent this re-downloading, you must use
When @samp{--retr-symlinks} is specified, however, symbolic links are
traversed and the pointed-to files are retrieved. At this time, this
-option does not cause wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
+option does not cause Wget to traverse symlinks to directories and
recurse through them, but in the future it should be enhanced to do
this.
@cindex required images, downloading
@item -p
@itemx --page-requisites
-This option causes wget to download all the files that are necessary to
+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
-@samp{-r} together with @samp{-l} can help, but since wget does not
+@samp{-r} together with @samp{-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.
+generally left with ``leaf documents'' that are missing their
+requisites.
For instance, say document @file{1.html} contains an @code{<IMG>} tag
referencing @file{1.gif} and an @code{<A>} tag pointing to external
then @file{1.html}, @file{1.gif}, @file{2.html}, @file{2.gif}, and
@file{3.html} will be downloaded. As you can see, @file{3.html} is
-without its requisite @file{3.gif} because wget is simply counting the
+without its requisite @file{3.gif} because Wget is simply counting the
number of hops (up to 2) away from @file{1.html} in order to determine
where to stop the recursion. However, with this command:
@end example
would download just @file{1.html} and @file{1.gif}, but unfortunately
-this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to @samp{-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 @samp{-i} @sc{url}
-input file) and its requisites, simply leave off @samp{-p} and @samp{-l}:
+this is not the case, because @samp{-l 0} is equivalent to
+@samp{-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
+@samp{-i} @sc{url} input file) and its requisites, simply leave off
+@samp{-p} and @samp{-l}:
@example
wget -p http://@var{site}/1.html
@end example
-Note that wget will behave as if @samp{-r} had been specified, but only
+Note that Wget will behave as if @samp{-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
wget -E -H -k -K -nh -p http://@var{site}/@var{document}
@end example
-To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that wget's idea of an
+To finish off this topic, it's worth knowing that Wget's idea of an
external document link is any URL specified in an @code{<A>} tag, an
@code{<AREA>} tag, or a @code{<LINK>} tag other than @code{<LINK
REL="stylesheet">}.
However, the author of this option came across a page with tags like
@code{<LINK REL="home" HREF="/">} and came to the realization that
-@samp{-G} was not enough. One can't just tell wget to ignore
+@samp{-G} was not enough. One can't just tell Wget to ignore
@code{<LINK>}, because then stylesheets will not be downloaded. Now the
best bet for downloading a single page and its requisites is the
dedicated @samp{--page-requisites} option.
The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
after the @samp{=}. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using
@samp{on} and @samp{off} or @samp{1} and @samp{0}. A fancier kind of
-Boolean allowed in some cases is the "lockable" Boolean, which may be
-set to @samp{on}, @samp{off}, @samp{always}, or @samp{never}. If an
+Boolean allowed in some cases is the @dfn{lockable Boolean}, which may
+be set to @samp{on}, @samp{off}, @samp{always}, or @samp{never}. If an
option is set to @samp{always} or @samp{never}, that value will be
-locked in for the duration of the wget invocation -- commandline options
+locked in for the duration of the Wget invocation---commandline options
will not override.
Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. @var{address} values can be
Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. @samp{-nH} disables it.
@item continue = on/off
-Enable/disable continuation of the retrieval -- the same as @samp{-c}
+Enable/disable continuation of the retrieval---the same as @samp{-c}
(which enables it).
@item background = on/off
-Enable/disable going to background -- the same as @samp{-b} (which enables
-it).
+Enable/disable going to background---the same as @samp{-b} (which
+enables it).
@item backup_converted = on/off
-Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix @samp{.orig}
--- the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
+Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
+@samp{.orig}---the same as @samp{-K} (which enables it).
@c @item backups = @var{number}
@c #### Document me!
@c
@item base = @var{string}
Consider relative @sc{url}s in @sc{url} input files forced to be
-interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string} -- the same
-as @samp{-B}.
+interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string}---the same as
+@samp{-B}.
@item bind_address = @var{address}
Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address} option.
Debug mode, same as @samp{-d}.
@item delete_after = on/off
-Delete after download -- the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
+Delete after download---the same as @samp{--delete-after}.
@item dir_prefix = @var{string}
-Top of directory tree -- the same as @samp{-P}.
+Top of directory tree---the same as @samp{-P}.
@item dirstruct = on/off
-Turning dirstruct on or off -- the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
+Turning dirstruct on or off---the same as @samp{-x} or @samp{-nd},
respectively.
@item domains = @var{string}
@item exclude_directories = @var{string}
Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from
-download -- the same as @samp{-X} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
+download---the same as @samp{-X} (@pxref{Directory-Based Limits}).
@item exclude_domains = @var{string}
Same as @samp{--exclude-domains} (@pxref{Domain Acceptance}).
@item follow_ftp = on/off
-Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents -- the same as @samp{-f}.
+Follow @sc{ftp} links from @sc{html} documents---the same as @samp{-f}.
@item follow_tags = @var{string}
Only follow certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
-@samp{--follow-tags}.
+@samp{--follow-tags}.
@item force_html = on/off
If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an @sc{html}
-document -- the same as @samp{-F}.
+document---the same as @samp{-F}.
@item ftp_proxy = @var{string}
Use @var{string} as @sc{ftp} proxy, instead of the one specified in
environment.
@item glob = on/off
-Turn globbing on/off -- the same as @samp{-g}.
+Turn globbing on/off---the same as @samp{-g}.
@item header = @var{string}
Define an additional header, like @samp{--header}.
@item ignore_tags = @var{string}
Ignore certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like
-@samp{-G} / @samp{--ignore-tags}.
+@samp{-G} / @samp{--ignore-tags}.
@item include_directories = @var{string}
Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when
-downloading -- the same as @samp{-I}.
+downloading---the same as @samp{-I}.
@item input = @var{string}
Read the @sc{url}s from @var{string}, like @samp{-i}.
@item kill_longer = on/off
-Consider data longer than specified in content-length header
-as invalid (and retry getting it). The default behaviour is to save
-as much data as there is, provided there is more than or equal
-to the value in @code{Content-Length}.
+Consider data longer than specified in content-length header as invalid
+(and retry getting it). The default behaviour is to save as much data
+as there is, provided there is more than or equal to the value in
+@code{Content-Length}.
@item logfile = @var{string}
-Set logfile -- the same as @samp{-o}.
+Set logfile---the same as @samp{-o}.
@item login = @var{string}
Your user name on the remote machine, for @sc{ftp}. Defaults to
proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
@item output_document = @var{string}
-Set the output filename -- the same as @samp{-O}.
+Set the output filename---the same as @samp{-O}.
@item page_requisites = on/off
Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single HTML page to
-display properly -- the same as @samp{-p}.
+display properly---the same as @samp{-p}.
@item passive_ftp = on/off/always/never
-Set passive @sc{ftp} -- the same as @samp{--passive-ftp}. Some scripts
+Set passive @sc{ftp}---the same as @samp{--passive-ftp}. Some scripts
and @samp{.pm} (Perl module) files download files using @samp{wget
--passive-ftp}. If your firewall does not allow this, you can set
@samp{passive_ftp = never} to override the commandline.
@item referer = @var{string}
Set HTTP @samp{Referer:} header just like @samp{--referer}. (Note it
was the folks who wrote the @sc{http} spec who got the spelling of
-"referrer" wrong.)
+``referrer'' wrong.)
@item quiet = on/off
-Quiet mode -- the same as @samp{-q}.
+Quiet mode---the same as @samp{-q}.
@item quota = @var{quota}
Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
-@file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop retrieving
-after the download sum has become greater than quota. The quota can be
-specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or mbytes
-(@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota to 5
-mbytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system settings.
+@file{wgetrc}. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop
+retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The
+quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes @samp{k} appended) or
+mbytes (@samp{m} appended). Thus @samp{quota = 5m} will set the quota
+to 5 mbytes. Note that the user's startup file overrides system
+settings.
@item reclevel = @var{n}
-Recursion level -- the same as @samp{-l}.
+Recursion level---the same as @samp{-l}.
@item recursive = on/off
-Recursive on/off -- the same as @samp{-r}.
+Recursive on/off---the same as @samp{-r}.
@item relative_only = on/off
-Follow only relative links -- the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
+Follow only relative links---the same as @samp{-L} (@pxref{Relative
Links}).
@item remove_listing = on/off
@item server_response = on/off
Choose whether or not to print the @sc{http} and @sc{ftp} server
-responses -- the same as @samp{-S}.
+responses---the same as @samp{-S}.
@item simple_host_check = on/off
Same as @samp{-nh} (@pxref{Host Checking}).
Same as @samp{-H}.
@item timeout = @var{n}
-Set timeout value -- the same as @samp{-T}.
+Set timeout value---the same as @samp{-T}.
@item timestamping = on/off
-Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
+Turn timestamping on/off. The same as @samp{-N} (@pxref{Time-Stamping}).
@item tries = @var{n}
-Set number of retries per @sc{url} -- the same as @samp{-t}.
+Set number of retries per @sc{url}---the same as @samp{-t}.
@item use_proxy = on/off
-Turn proxy support on/off. The same as @samp{-Y}.
+Turn proxy support on/off. The same as @samp{-Y}.
@item verbose = on/off
-Turn verbose on/off -- the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
+Turn verbose on/off---the same as @samp{-v}/@samp{-nv}.
@item wait = @var{n}
-Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals -- the same as @samp{-w}.
+Wait @var{n} seconds between retrievals---the same as @samp{-w}.
@item waitretry = @var{n}
-Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals only --
-the same as @samp{--waitretry}. Note that this is turned on by default
-in the global @file{wgetrc}.
+Wait up to @var{n} seconds between retries of failed retrievals
+only---the same as @samp{--waitretry}. Note that this is turned on by
+default in the global @file{wgetrc}.
@end table
@node Sample Wgetrc, , Wgetrc Commands, Startup File
$ kill -HUP %% # Redirect the output to wget-log
@end example
-Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any
-way. @kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it
-alike.
+Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
+@kbd{C-c}, @code{kill -TERM} and @code{kill -KILL} should kill it alike.
@node Appendices, Copying, Various, Top
@chapter Appendices
@cindex robots.txt
@cindex server maintenance
-Since Wget is able to traverse the web, it counts as one of the Web
-@dfn{robots}. Thus Wget understands @dfn{Robots Exclusion Standard}
-(@sc{res})---contents of @file{/robots.txt}, used by server
-administrators to shield parts of their systems from wanderings of Wget.
+It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
+sucking all the available data in progress. @samp{wget -r @var{site}},
+and you're set. Great? Not for the server admin.
+
+While Wget is retrieving static pages, there's not much of a problem.
+But for Wget, there is no real difference between the smallest static
+page and the hardest, most demanding CGI or dynamic page. For instance,
+a site I know has a section handled by an, uh, bitchin' CGI script that
+converts all the Info files to HTML. The script can and does bring the
+machine to its knees without providing anything useful to the
+downloader.
+
+For such and similar cases various robot exclusion schemes have been
+devised as a means for the server administrators and document authors to
+protect chosen portions of their sites from the wandering of robots.
+
+The more popular mechanism is the @dfn{Robots Exclusion Standard}
+written by Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It is specified by placing a
+file named @file{/robots.txt} in the server root, which the robots are
+supposed to download and parse. Wget supports this specification.
Norobots support is turned on only when retrieving recursively, and
@emph{never} for the first page. Thus, you may issue:
First the index of fly.srk.fer.hr will be downloaded. If Wget finds
anything worth downloading on the same host, only @emph{then} will it
load the robots, and decide whether or not to load the links after all.
-@file{/robots.txt} is loaded only once per host. Wget does not support
-the robots @code{META} tag.
+@file{/robots.txt} is loaded only once per host.
Note that the exlusion standard discussed here has undergone some
revisions. However, but Wget supports only the first version of
This manual no longer includes the text of the old standard.
+The second, less known mechanism, enables the author of an individual
+document to specify whether they want the links from the file to be
+followed by a robot. This is achieved using the @code{META} tag, like
+this:
+
+@example
+<meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
+@end example
+
+This is explained in some detail at
+@url{http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/meta-user.html}.
+Wget supports this method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual
+@file{/robots.txt} exclusion.
+
@node Security Considerations, Contributors, Robots, Appendices
@section Security Considerations
@cindex security
@cindex GFDL
Wget is @dfn{free software}, where ``free'' refers to liberty, not
-price. The exact legal distribution terms follow below, but in short,
-it means that you have the right (freedom) to run and change and copy
-Wget, and even---if you want---charge money for any of those things.
-The sole restriction is that you have to grant your recipients the same
-rights.
+price. As the GNU people like to say, think of ``free speech'' rather
+than ``free beer''. The exact legal distribution terms follow below,
+but in short, you have the right (freedom) to run and change Wget and
+distribute it to other people, and even---if you want---charge money for
+any of these things. The sole restriction is that you have to grant
+your recipients the same rights.
This method of licensing software is also known as @dfn{open-source},
because it requires that the recipients always receive a program's
@quotation
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
-any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
-Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
-Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
-Free Documentation License''.
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
+Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``GNU Free
+Documentation License'', with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
+Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
+entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
@end quotation
@c #### Maybe we should wrap these licenses in ifinfo? Stallman says
projects / wget / blobdiff