-Note that you need not specify this option if all you want is Wget to
-continue retrieving where it left off when the connection is lost---Wget
-does this by default. You need this option only when you want to
-continue retrieval of a file already halfway retrieved, saved by another
-@sc{ftp} client, or left by Wget being killed.
-
-Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just begin to download the
-remote file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}. The @samp{-c} option is also
-applicable for @sc{http} servers that support the @code{Range} header.
-
-Note that if you use @samp{-c} on a file that's already downloaded
-completely, @samp{@var{file}} will not be changed, nor will a second
-@samp{@var{file}.1} copy be created.
+Note that you don't need to specify this option if you just want the
+current invocation of Wget to retry downloading a file should the
+connection be lost midway through. This is the default behavior.
+@samp{-c} only affects resumption of downloads started @emph{prior} to
+this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are still sitting around.
+
+Without @samp{-c}, the previous example would just download the remote
+file to @file{ls-lR.Z.1}, leaving the truncated @file{ls-lR.Z} file
+alone.
+
+Note that @samp{-c} only works with @sc{ftp} servers and with @sc{http}
+servers that support the @code{Range} header. Also note that Wget has
+no way of verifying that the local file really is a valid prefix of the
+remote file. If you use a lame @sc{http} proxy that inserts a ``transfer
+interrupted'' string, you'll get a corrupted file. In the future a
+``rollback'' option may be added to deal with this case.
+
+Currently, if you use @samp{-c} on a @file{file} that's already
+completely downloaded, it will be re-downloaded from scratch (to the
+same name, not to @file{file.1}). This will be fixed in a future
+version of Wget.
projects / wget / commitdiff