@item
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 socks. Wget
-also supports the passive @sc{ftp} downloading as an option.
+behind a firewall that requires that you use a socks style gateway,
+you can get the socks library and build Wget with support for socks.
+Wget uses the passive @sc{ftp} downloading by default, active @sc{ftp}
+being an option.
@sp 1
@item
@cindex DNS cache
@cindex caching of DNS lookups
-@item --dns-cache=off
-Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the addresses
-it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly contact the DNS
-server for the same (typically small) set of addresses it retrieves
-from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will contact DNS
-again.
-
-However, in some cases it is not desirable to cache host names, even for
-the duration of a short-running application like Wget. For example,
-some HTTP servers are hosted on machines with dynamically allocated IP
-addresses that change from time to time. Their DNS entries are updated
-along with each change. When Wget's download from such a host gets
-interrupted by IP address change, Wget retries the download, but (due to
-DNS caching) it contacts the old address. With the DNS cache turned
-off, Wget will repeat the DNS lookup for every connect and will thus get
-the correct dynamic address every time---at the cost of additional DNS
-lookups where they're probably not needed.
-
-If you don't understand the above description, you probably won't need
-this option.
+@item --no-dns-cache
+Turn off caching of DNS lookups. Normally, Wget remembers the IP
+addresses it looked up from DNS so it doesn't have to repeatedly
+contact the DNS server for the same (typically small) set of hosts it
+retrieves from. This cache exists in memory only; a new Wget run will
+contact DNS again.
+
+However, it has been reported that in some situations it is not
+desirable to cache host names, even for the duration of a
+short-running application like Wget. With this option Wget issues a
+new DNS lookup (more precisely, a new call to @code{gethostbyname} or
+@code{getaddrinfo}) each time it makes a new connection. Please note
+that this option will @emph{not} affect caching that might be
+performed by the resolving library or by an external caching layer,
+such as NSCD.
+
+If you don't understand exactly what this option does, you probably
+won't need it.
@cindex file names, restrict
@cindex Windows file names
to send those cookies, bypassing the ``official'' cookie support:
@example
-wget --cookies=off --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
+wget --no-cookies --header "Cookie: @var{name}=@var{value}"
@end example
@cindex saving cookies
servers (and the ones emulating Unix @code{ls} output).
@cindex passive ftp
-@item --passive-ftp
-Use the @dfn{passive} @sc{ftp} retrieval scheme, in which the client
-initiates the data connection. This is sometimes required for @sc{ftp}
-to work behind firewalls.
+@item --no-passive-ftp
+Disable the use of the @dfn{passive} FTP transfer mode. Passive FTP
+mandates that the client connect to the server to establish the data
+connection rather than the other way around.
+
+If the machine is connected to the Internet directly, both passive and
+active FTP should work equally well. Behind most firewall and NAT
+configurations passive FTP has a better chance of working. However,
+in some rare firewall configurations, active FTP actually works when
+passive FTP doesn't. If you suspect this to be the case, use this
+option, or set @code{passive_ftp=off} in your init file.
@cindex symbolic links, retrieving
@item --retr-symlinks
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
-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 command-line.
+Change setting of passive @sc{ftp}, equivalent to the
+@samp{--passive-ftp} option. 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 command-line.
@item passwd = @var{string}
Set your @sc{ftp} password to @var{password}. Without this setting, the
``special'' features of any particular Unix, it should compile (and
work) on all common Unix flavors.
-Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds of
-Unix systems, including Solaris, GNU/Linux, SunOS, OSF (aka Digital Unix
-or Tru64), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, AIX, and others; refer to the file
-@file{MACHINES} in the distribution directory for a comprehensive list.
-If you compile it on an architecture not listed there, please let me
-know so I can update it.
-
-Wget should also compile on the other Unix systems, not listed in
-@file{MACHINES}. If it doesn't, please let me know.
-
-Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works on
-Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. It has been compiled
-successfully using MS Visual C++ 6.0, Watcom, and Borland C compilers,
-with Winsock as networking software. Naturally, it is crippled of some
-features available on Unix, but it should work as a substitute for
-people stuck with Windows. Note that the Windows port is
-@strong{neither tested nor maintained} by me---all questions and
-problems in Windows usage should be reported to Wget mailing list at
+Various Wget versions have been compiled and tested under many kinds
+of Unix systems, including GNU/Linux, Solaris, SunOS 4.x, OSF (aka
+Digital Unix or Tru64), Ultrix, *BSD, IRIX, AIX, and others. Some of
+those systems are no longer in widespread use and may not be able to
+support recent versions of Wget. If Wget fails to compile on your
+system, we would like to know about it.
+
+Thanks to kind contributors, this version of Wget compiles and works
+on 32-bit Microsoft Windows platforms. It has been compiled
+successfully using MS Visual C++ 6.0, Watcom, Borland C, and GCC
+compilers. Naturally, it is crippled of some features available on
+Unix, but it should work as a substitute for people stuck with
+Windows. Note that Windows-specific portions of Wget are not
+guaranteed to be supported in the future, although this has been the
+case in practice for many years now. All questions and problems in
+Windows usage should be reported to Wget mailing list at
@email{wget@@sunsite.dk} where the volunteers who maintain the
Windows-related features might look at them.
to redirect the output of Wget after having started it.
@example
-$ wget http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/gnus.tar.gz &
-$ kill -HUP %% # Redirect the output to wget-log
+$ wget http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz &
+...
+$ kill -HUP %%
+SIGHUP received, redirecting output to `wget-log'.
@end example
Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any way.
Leonid Petrov,
Hans-Andreas Engel,
Ulf Harnhammar,
-Jan Minar.
+Jan Minar,
+Simone Piunno.
Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all the
subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
projects / wget / blobdiff