@c %**start of header
@setfilename wget.info
@include version.texi
-@set UPDATED Jan 2008
+@set UPDATED Mar 2008
@settitle GNU Wget @value{VERSION} Manual
@c Disable the monstrous rectangles beside overfull hbox-es.
@finalout
@samp{wget -O - http://foo > file}; @file{file} will be truncated
immediately, and @emph{all} downloaded content will be written there.
+For this reason, @samp{-N} (for timestamp-checking) is not supported
+in combination with @samp{-O}: since @var{file} is always newly
+created, it will always have a very new timestamp. Contrary to some
+users' expectations, the combination has never worked, and as of
+version 1.11, it results in an error.
+
+Similarly, using @samp{-r} or @samp{-p} with @samp{-O} may not work as
+you expect: Wget won't just download the first file to @var{file} and
+then download the rest to their normal names: @emph{all} downloaded
+content will be placed in @var{file}. This was disabled in version
+1.11, but has been reinstated (with a warning) in 1.11.2, as there are
+some cases where this behavior can actually have some use.
+
Note that a combination with @samp{-k} is only permitted when
-downloading a single document, and combination with any of @samp{-r},
-@samp{-p}, or @samp{-N} is not allowed.
+downloading a single document, as in that case it will just convert
+all relative URIs to external ones; @samp{-k} makes no sense for
+multiple URIs when they're all being downloaded to a single file.
@cindex clobbering, file
@cindex downloading multiple times
expansion by the shell.
@end table
+@noindent
The @samp{-A} and @samp{-R} options may be combined to achieve even
better fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. @samp{wget -A
"*zelazny*" -R .ps} will download all the files having @samp{zelazny} as
a part of their name, but @emph{not} the PostScript files.
Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of @sc{html}
-files; Wget must load all the @sc{html}s to know where to go at
-all---recursive retrieval would make no sense otherwise.
+files (as determined by a @samp{.htm} or @samp{.html} filename
+prefix). This behavior may not be desirable for all users, and may be
+changed for future versions of Wget.
+
+Note, too, that query strings (strings at the end of a URL beginning
+with a question mark (@samp{?}) are not included as part of the
+filename for accept/reject rules, even though these will actually
+contribute to the name chosen for the local file. It is expected that
+a future version of Wget will provide an option to allow matching
+against query strings.
+
+Finally, it's worth noting that the accept/reject lists are matched
+@emph{twice} against downloaded files: once against the URL's filename
+portion, to determine if the file should be downloaded in the first
+place; then, after it has been accepted and successfully downloaded,
+the local file's name is also checked against the accept/reject lists
+to see if it should be removed. The rationale was that, since
+@samp{.htm} and @samp{.html} files are always downloaded regardless of
+accept/reject rules, they should be removed @emph{after} being
+downloaded and scanned for links, if they did match the accept/reject
+lists. However, this can lead to unexpected results, since the local
+filenames can differ from the original URL filenames in the following
+ways, all of which can change whether an accept/reject rule matches:
+
+@itemize @bullet
+@item
+If the local file already exists and @samp{--no-directories} was
+specified, a numeric suffix will be appended to the original name.
+@item
+If @samp{--html-extension} was specified, the local filename will have
+@samp{.html} appended to it. If Wget is invoked with @samp{-E -A.php},
+a filename such as @samp{index.php} will match be accepted, but upon
+download will be named @samp{index.php.html}, which no longer matches,
+and so the file will be deleted.
+@item
+Query strings do not contribute to URL matching, but are included in
+local filenames, and so @emph{do} contribute to filename matching.
+@end itemize
+
+@noindent
+This behavior, too, is considered less-than-desirable, and may change
+in a future version of Wget.
@node Directory-Based Limits
@section Directory-Based Limits
Daniel Bodea,
Mark Boyns,
John Burden,
+Julien Buty,
Wanderlei Cavassin,
Gilles Cedoc,
Tim Charron,
Ahmon Dancy,
Andrew Davison,
Bertrand Demiddelaer,
+Alexander Dergachev,
Andrew Deryabin,
Ulrich Drepper,
Marc Duponcheel,
Mauro Tortonesi,
Dave Turner,
Gisle Vanem,
+Rabin Vincent,
Russell Vincent,
@iftex
@v{Z}eljko Vrba,
projects / wget / blobdiff