This file documents the the GNU Wget utility for downloading network
data.
Copyright (C) 1996-2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
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".
Wget 1.10
*********
This manual documents version 1.10 of GNU Wget, the freely available
utility for network downloads.
Copyright (C) 1996-2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1 Overview
**********
GNU Wget is a free utility for non-interactive download of files from
the Web. It supports HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP protocols, as well as
retrieval through HTTP proxies.
This chapter is a partial overview of Wget's features.
* Wget is non-interactive, meaning that it can work in the
background, while the user is not logged on. This allows you to
start a retrieval and disconnect from the system, letting Wget
finish the work. By contrast, most of the Web browsers require
constant user's presence, which can be a great hindrance when
transferring a lot of data.
* Wget can follow links in HTML and XHTML pages and create local
versions of remote web sites, fully recreating the directory
structure of the original site. This is sometimes referred to as
"recursive downloading." While doing that, Wget respects the
Robot Exclusion Standard (`/robots.txt'). Wget can be instructed
to convert the links in downloaded HTML files to the local files
for offline viewing.
* File name wildcard matching and recursive mirroring of directories
are available when retrieving via FTP. Wget can read the
time-stamp information given by both HTTP and FTP servers, and
store it locally. Thus Wget can see if the remote file has
changed since last retrieval, and automatically retrieve the new
version if it has. This makes Wget suitable for mirroring of FTP
sites, as well as home pages.
* Wget has been designed for robustness over slow or unstable network
connections; if a download fails due to a network problem, it will
keep retrying until the whole file has been retrieved. If the
server supports regetting, it will instruct the server to continue
the download from where it left off.
* 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 uses the passive FTP downloading by
default, active FTP being an option.
* Wget supports IP version 6, the next generation of IP. IPv6 is
autodetected at compile-time, and can be disabled at either build
or run time. Binaries built with IPv6 support work well in both
IPv4-only and dual family environments.
* Built-in features offer mechanisms to tune which links you wish to
follow (*note Following Links::).
* The progress of individual downloads is traced using a progress
gauge. Interactive downloads are tracked using a
"thermometer"-style gauge, whereas non-interactive ones are traced
with dots, each dot representing a fixed amount of data received
(1KB by default). Either gauge can be customized to your
preferences.
* Most of the features are fully configurable, either through
command line options, or via the initialization file `.wgetrc'
(*note Startup File::). Wget allows you to define "global"
startup files (`/usr/local/etc/wgetrc' by default) for site
settings.
* Finally, GNU Wget is free software. This means that everyone may
use it, redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License, as published by the Free Software
Foundation (*note Copying::).
2 Invoking
**********
By default, Wget is very simple to invoke. The basic syntax is:
wget [OPTION]... [URL]...
Wget will simply download all the URLs specified on the command
line. URL is a "Uniform Resource Locator", as defined below.
However, you may wish to change some of the default parameters of
Wget. You can do it two ways: permanently, adding the appropriate
command to `.wgetrc' (*note Startup File::), or specifying it on the
command line.
2.1 URL Format
==============
"URL" is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A uniform resource
locator is a compact string representation for a resource available via
the Internet. Wget recognizes the URL syntax as per RFC1738. This is
the most widely used form (square brackets denote optional parts):
http://host[:port]/directory/file
ftp://host[:port]/directory/file
You can also encode your username and password within a URL:
ftp://user:password@host/path
http://user:password@host/path
Either USER or PASSWORD, or both, may be left out. If you leave out
either the HTTP username or password, no authentication will be sent.
If you leave out the FTP username, `anonymous' will be used. If you
leave out the FTP password, your email address will be supplied as a
default password.(1)
*Important Note*: if you specify a password-containing URL on the
command line, the username and password will be plainly visible to all
users on the system, by way of `ps'. On multi-user systems, this is a
big security risk. To work around it, use `wget -i -' and feed the
URLs to Wget's standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by
`C-d'.
You can encode unsafe characters in a URL as `%xy', `xy' being the
hexadecimal representation of the character's ASCII value. Some common
unsafe characters include `%' (quoted as `%25'), `:' (quoted as `%3A'),
and `@' (quoted as `%40'). Refer to RFC1738 for a comprehensive list
of unsafe characters.
Wget also supports the `type' feature for FTP URLs. By default, FTP
documents are retrieved in the binary mode (type `i'), which means that
they are downloaded unchanged. Another useful mode is the `a'
("ASCII") mode, which converts the line delimiters between the
different operating systems, and is thus useful for text files. Here
is an example:
ftp://host/directory/file;type=a
Two alternative variants of URL specification are also supported,
because of historical (hysterical?) reasons and their widespreaded use.
FTP-only syntax (supported by `NcFTP'):
host:/dir/file
HTTP-only syntax (introduced by `Netscape'):
host[:port]/dir/file
These two alternative forms are deprecated, and may cease being
supported in the future.
If you do not understand the difference between these notations, or
do not know which one to use, just use the plain ordinary format you use
with your favorite browser, like `Lynx' or `Netscape'.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) If you have a `.netrc' file in your home directory, password
will also be searched for there.
2.2 Option Syntax
=================
Since Wget uses GNU getopt to process command-line arguments, every
option has a long form along with the short one. 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 may write:
wget -r --tries=10 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/ -o log
The space between the option accepting an argument and the argument
may be omitted. Instead `-o log' you can write `-olog'.
You may put several options that do not require arguments together,
like:
wget -drc URL
This is a complete equivalent of:
wget -d -r -c URL
Since the options can be specified after the arguments, you may
terminate them with `--'. So the following will try to download URL
`-x', reporting failure to `log':
wget -o log -- -x
The options that accept comma-separated lists all respect the
convention that specifying an empty list clears its value. This can be
useful to clear the `.wgetrc' settings. For instance, if your `.wgetrc'
sets `exclude_directories' to `/cgi-bin', the following example will
first reset it, and then set it to exclude `/~nobody' and `/~somebody'.
You can also clear the lists in `.wgetrc' (*note Wgetrc Syntax::).
wget -X '' -X /~nobody,/~somebody
Most options that do not accept arguments are "boolean" options, so
named because their state can be captured with a yes-or-no ("boolean")
variable. For example, `--follow-ftp' tells Wget to follow FTP links
from HTML files and, on the other hand, `--no-glob' tells it not to
perform file globbing on FTP URLs. A boolean option is either
"affirmative" or "negative" (beginning with `--no'). All such options
share several properties.
Unless stated otherwise, it is assumed that the default behavior is
the opposite of what the option accomplishes. For example, the
documented existence of `--follow-ftp' assumes that the default is to
_not_ follow FTP links from HTML pages.
Affirmative options can be negated by prepending the `--no-' to the
option name; negative options can be negated by omitting the `--no-'
prefix. This might seem superfluous--if the default for an affirmative
option is to not do something, then why provide a way to explicitly
turn it off? But the startup file may in fact change the default. For
instance, using `follow_ftp = off' in `.wgetrc' makes Wget _not_ follow
FTP links by default, and using `--no-follow-ftp' is the only way to
restore the factory default from the command line.
2.3 Basic Startup Options
=========================
`-V'
`--version'
Display the version of Wget.
`-h'
`--help'
Print a help message describing all of Wget's command-line options.
`-b'
`--background'
Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is
specified via the `-o', output is redirected to `wget-log'.
`-e COMMAND'
`--execute COMMAND'
Execute COMMAND as if it were a part of `.wgetrc' (*note Startup
File::). A command thus invoked will be executed _after_ the
commands in `.wgetrc', thus taking precedence over them. If you
need to specify more than one wgetrc command, use multiple
instances of `-e'.
2.4 Logging and Input File Options
==================================
`-o LOGFILE'
`--output-file=LOGFILE'
Log all messages to LOGFILE. The messages are normally reported
to standard error.
`-a LOGFILE'
`--append-output=LOGFILE'
Append to LOGFILE. This is the same as `-o', only it appends to
LOGFILE instead of overwriting the old log file. If LOGFILE does
not exist, a new file is created.
`-d'
`--debug'
Turn on debug output, meaning various information important to the
developers of Wget if it does not work properly. Your system
administrator may have chosen to compile Wget without debug
support, in which case `-d' will not work. Please note that
compiling with debug support is always safe--Wget compiled with
the debug support will _not_ print any debug info unless requested
with `-d'. *Note Reporting Bugs::, for more information on how to
use `-d' for sending bug reports.
`-q'
`--quiet'
Turn off Wget's output.
`-v'
`--verbose'
Turn on verbose output, with all the available data. The default
output is verbose.
`-nv'
`--non-verbose'
Non-verbose output--turn off verbose without being completely quiet
(use `-q' for that), which means that error messages and basic
information still get printed.
`-i FILE'
`--input-file=FILE'
Read URLs from FILE. If `-' is specified as FILE, URLs are read
from the standard input. (Use `./-' to read from a file literally
named `-'.)
If this function is used, no URLs need be present on the command
line. If there are URLs both on the command line and in an input
file, those on the command lines will be the first ones to be
retrieved. The FILE need not be an HTML document (but no harm if
it is)--it is enough if the URLs are just listed sequentially.
However, if you specify `--force-html', the document will be
regarded as `html'. In that case you may have problems with
relative links, which you can solve either by adding `' to the documents or by specifying `--base=URL' on the
command line.
`-F'
`--force-html'
When input is read from a file, force it to be treated as an HTML
file. This enables you to retrieve relative links from existing
HTML files on your local disk, by adding `' to
HTML, or using the `--base' command-line option.
`-B URL'
`--base=URL'
When used in conjunction with `-F', prepends URL to relative links
in the file specified by `-i'.
2.5 Download Options
====================
`--bind-address=ADDRESS'
When making client TCP/IP connections, bind to ADDRESS on the
local machine. ADDRESS may be specified as a hostname or IP
address. This option can be useful if your machine is bound to
multiple IPs.
`-t NUMBER'
`--tries=NUMBER'
Set number of retries to NUMBER. Specify 0 or `inf' for infinite
retrying. The default is to retry 20 times, with the exception of
fatal errors like "connection refused" or "not found" (404), which
are not retried.
`-O FILE'
`--output-document=FILE'
The documents will not be written to the appropriate files, but all
will be concatenated together and written to FILE. If `-' is used
as FILE, documents will be printed to standard output, disabling
link conversion. (Use `./-' to print to a file literally named
`-'.)
Note that a combination with `-k' is only well-defined for
downloading a single document.
`-nc'
`--no-clobber'
If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory,
Wget's behavior depends on a few options, including `-nc'. In
certain cases, the local file will be "clobbered", or overwritten,
upon repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.
When running Wget without `-N', `-nc', or `-r', downloading the
same file in the same directory will result in the original copy
of FILE being preserved and the second copy being named `FILE.1'.
If that file is downloaded yet again, the third copy will be named
`FILE.2', and so on. When `-nc' is specified, this behavior is
suppressed, and Wget will refuse to download newer copies of
`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.
When running Wget with `-r', but without `-N' or `-nc',
re-downloading a file will result in the new copy simply
overwriting the old. Adding `-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 `-N', with or without `-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 (*note
Time-Stamping::). `-nc' may not be specified at the same time as
`-N'.
Note that when `-nc' is specified, files with the suffixes `.html'
or `.htm' will be loaded from the local disk and parsed as if they
had been retrieved from the Web.
`-c'
`--continue'
Continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when
you want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of
Wget, or by another program. For instance:
wget -c ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ls-lR.Z
If there is a file named `ls-lR.Z' in the current directory, Wget
will assume that it is the first portion of the remote file, and
will ask the server to continue the retrieval from an offset equal
to the length of the local file.
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. `-c' only affects resumption of downloads started
_prior_ to this invocation of Wget, and whose local files are
still sitting around.
Without `-c', the previous example would just download the remote
file to `ls-lR.Z.1', leaving the truncated `ls-lR.Z' file alone.
Beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use `-c' on a non-empty file, and
it turns out that the server does not support continued
downloading, Wget will refuse to start the download from scratch,
which would effectively ruin existing contents. If you really
want the download to start from scratch, remove the file.
Also beginning with Wget 1.7, if you use `-c' on a file which is of
equal size as the one on the server, Wget will refuse to download
the file and print an explanatory message. The same happens when
the file is smaller on the server than locally (presumably because
it was changed on the server since your last download
attempt)--because "continuing" is not meaningful, no download
occurs.
On the other side of the coin, while using `-c', any file that's
bigger on the server than locally will be considered an incomplete
download and only `(length(remote) - length(local))' bytes will be
downloaded and tacked onto the end of the local file. This
behavior can be desirable in certain cases--for instance, you can
use `wget -c' to download just the new portion that's been
appended to a data collection or log file.
However, if the file is bigger on the server because it's been
_changed_, as opposed to just _appended_ to, you'll end up with a
garbled file. Wget has no way of verifying that the local file is
really a valid prefix of the remote file. You need to be
especially careful of this when using `-c' in conjunction with
`-r', since every file will be considered as an "incomplete
download" candidate.
Another instance where you'll get a garbled file if you try to use
`-c' is if you have a lame HTTP proxy that inserts a "transfer
interrupted" string into the local file. In the future a
"rollback" option may be added to deal with this case.
Note that `-c' only works with FTP servers and with HTTP servers
that support the `Range' header.
`--progress=TYPE'
Select the type of the progress indicator you wish to use. Legal
indicators are "dot" and "bar".
The "bar" indicator is used by default. It draws an ASCII progress
bar graphics (a.k.a "thermometer" display) indicating the status of
retrieval. If the output is not a TTY, the "dot" bar will be used
by default.
Use `--progress=dot' to switch to the "dot" display. It traces
the retrieval by printing dots on the screen, each dot
representing a fixed amount of downloaded data.
When using the dotted retrieval, you may also set the "style" by
specifying the type as `dot:STYLE'. Different styles assign
different meaning to one dot. With the `default' style each dot
represents 1K, there are ten dots in a cluster and 50 dots in a
line. The `binary' style has a more "computer"-like
orientation--8K dots, 16-dots clusters and 48 dots per line (which
makes for 384K lines). The `mega' style is suitable for
downloading very large files--each dot represents 64K retrieved,
there are eight dots in a cluster, and 48 dots on each line (so
each line contains 3M).
Note that you can set the default style using the `progress'
command in `.wgetrc'. That setting may be overridden from the
command line. The exception is that, when the output is not a
TTY, the "dot" progress will be favored over "bar". To force the
bar output, use `--progress=bar:force'.
`-N'
`--timestamping'
Turn on time-stamping. *Note Time-Stamping::, for details.
`-S'
`--server-response'
Print the headers sent by HTTP servers and responses sent by FTP
servers.
`--spider'
When invoked with this option, Wget will behave as a Web "spider",
which means that it will not download the pages, just check that
they are there. For example, you can use Wget to check your
bookmarks:
wget --spider --force-html -i bookmarks.html
This feature needs much more work for Wget to get close to the
functionality of real web spiders.
`-T seconds'
`--timeout=SECONDS'
Set the network timeout to SECONDS seconds. This is equivalent to
specifying `--dns-timeout', `--connect-timeout', and
`--read-timeout', all at the same time.
When interacting with the network, Wget can check for timeout and
abort the operation if it takes too long. This prevents anomalies
like hanging reads and infinite connects. The only timeout
enabled by default is a 900-second read timeout. Setting a
timeout to 0 disables it altogether. Unless you know what you are
doing, it is best not to change the default timeout settings.
All timeout-related options accept decimal values, as well as
subsecond values. For example, `0.1' seconds is a legal (though
unwise) choice of timeout. Subsecond timeouts are useful for
checking server response times or for testing network latency.
`--dns-timeout=SECONDS'
Set the DNS lookup timeout to SECONDS seconds. DNS lookups that
don't complete within the specified time will fail. By default,
there is no timeout on DNS lookups, other than that implemented by
system libraries.
`--connect-timeout=SECONDS'
Set the connect timeout to SECONDS seconds. TCP connections that
take longer to establish will be aborted. By default, there is no
connect timeout, other than that implemented by system libraries.
`--read-timeout=SECONDS'
Set the read (and write) timeout to SECONDS seconds. The "time"
of this timeout refers "idle time": if, at any point in the
download, no data is received for more than the specified number
of seconds, reading fails and the download is restarted. This
option does not directly affect the duration of the entire
download.
Of course, the remote server may choose to terminate the connection
sooner than this option requires. The default read timeout is 900
seconds.
`--limit-rate=AMOUNT'
Limit the download speed to AMOUNT bytes per second. Amount may
be expressed in bytes, kilobytes with the `k' suffix, or megabytes
with the `m' suffix. For example, `--limit-rate=20k' will limit
the retrieval rate to 20KB/s. This is useful when, for whatever
reason, you don't want Wget to consume the entire available
bandwidth.
This option allows the use of decimal numbers, usually in
conjunction with power suffixes; for example, `--limit-rate=2.5k'
is a legal value.
Note that Wget implements the limiting by sleeping the appropriate
amount of time after a network read that took less time than
specified by the rate. Eventually this strategy causes the TCP
transfer to slow down to approximately the specified rate.
However, it may take some time for this balance to be achieved, so
don't be surprised if limiting the rate doesn't work well with
very small files.
`-w SECONDS'
`--wait=SECONDS'
Wait the specified number of seconds between the retrievals. Use
of this option is recommended, as it lightens the server load by
making the requests less frequent. Instead of in seconds, the
time can be specified in minutes using the `m' suffix, in hours
using `h' suffix, or in days using `d' suffix.
Specifying a large value for this option is useful if the network
or the destination host is down, so that Wget can wait long enough
to reasonably expect the network error to be fixed before the
retry.
`--waitretry=SECONDS'
If you don't want Wget to wait between _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 given file, then waiting 2 seconds after the second
failure on that file, up to the maximum number of SECONDS you
specify. Therefore, a value of 10 will actually make Wget wait up
to (1 + 2 + ... + 10) = 55 seconds per file.
Note that this option is turned on by default in the global
`wgetrc' file.
`--random-wait'
Some web sites may perform log analysis to identify retrieval
programs such as Wget by looking for statistically significant
similarities in the time between requests. This option causes the
time between requests to vary between 0 and 2 * WAIT seconds,
where WAIT was specified using the `--wait' option, in order to
mask Wget's presence from such analysis.
A recent article in a publication devoted to development on a
popular consumer platform provided code to perform this analysis
on the fly. Its author suggested blocking at the class C address
level to ensure automated retrieval programs were blocked despite
changing DHCP-supplied addresses.
The `--random-wait' option was inspired by this ill-advised
recommendation to block many unrelated users from a web site due
to the actions of one.
`--no-proxy'
Don't use proxies, even if the appropriate `*_proxy' environment
variable is defined.
For more information about the use of proxies with Wget, *Note
Proxies::.
`-Q QUOTA'
`--quota=QUOTA'
Specify download quota for automatic retrievals. The value can be
specified in bytes (default), kilobytes (with `k' suffix), or
megabytes (with `m' suffix).
Note that quota will never affect downloading a single file. So
if you specify `wget -Q10k ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/ls-lR.gz',
all of the `ls-lR.gz' will be downloaded. The same goes even when
several URLs are specified on the command-line. However, quota is
respected when retrieving either recursively, or from an input
file. Thus you may safely type `wget -Q2m -i sites'--download
will be aborted when the quota is exceeded.
Setting quota to 0 or to `inf' unlimits the download quota.
`--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 `gethostbyname' or
`getaddrinfo') each time it makes a new connection. Please note
that this option will _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.
`--restrict-file-names=MODE'
Change which characters found in remote URLs may show up in local
file names generated from those URLs. Characters that are
"restricted" by this option are escaped, i.e. replaced with `%HH',
where `HH' is the hexadecimal number that corresponds to the
restricted character.
By default, Wget escapes the characters that are not valid as part
of file names on your operating system, as well as control
characters that are typically unprintable. This option is useful
for changing these defaults, either because you are downloading to
a non-native partition, or because you want to disable escaping of
the control characters.
When mode is set to "unix", Wget escapes the character `/' and the
control characters in the ranges 0-31 and 128-159. This is the
default on Unix-like OS'es.
When mode is set to "windows", Wget escapes the characters `\',
`|', `/', `:', `?', `"', `*', `<', `>', and the control characters
in the ranges 0-31 and 128-159. In addition to this, Wget in
Windows mode uses `+' instead of `:' to separate host and port in
local file names, and uses `@' instead of `?' to separate the
query portion of the file name from the rest. Therefore, a URL
that would be saved as `www.xemacs.org:4300/search.pl?input=blah'
in Unix mode would be saved as
`www.xemacs.org+4300/search.pl@input=blah' in Windows mode. This
mode is the default on Windows.
If you append `,nocontrol' to the mode, as in `unix,nocontrol',
escaping of the control characters is also switched off. You can
use `--restrict-file-names=nocontrol' to turn off escaping of
control characters without affecting the choice of the OS to use
as file name restriction mode.
`-4'
`--inet4-only'
`-6'
`--inet6-only'
Force connecting to IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. With `--inet4-only'
or `-4', Wget will only connect to IPv4 hosts, ignoring AAAA
records in DNS, and refusing to connect to IPv6 addresses
specified in URLs. Conversely, with `--inet6-only' or `-6', Wget
will only connect to IPv6 hosts and ignore A records and IPv4
addresses.
Neither options should be needed normally. By default, an
IPv6-aware Wget will use the address family specified by the
host's DNS record. If the DNS specifies both an A record and an
AAAA record, Wget will try them in sequence until it finds one it
can connect to.
These options can be used to deliberately force the use of IPv4 or
IPv6 address families on dual family systems, usually to aid
debugging or to deal with broken network configuration. Only one
of `--inet6-only' and `--inet4-only' may be specified in the same
command. Neither option is available in Wget compiled without
IPv6 support.
`--prefer-family=IPv4/IPv6/none'
When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
with specified address family first. IPv4 addresses are preferred
by default.
This avoids spurious errors and connect attempts when accessing
hosts that resolve to both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses from IPv4
networks. For example, `www.kame.net' resolves to
`2001:200:0:8002:203:47ff:fea5:3085' and to `203.178.141.194'.
When the preferred family is `IPv4', the IPv4 address is used
first; when the preferred family is `IPv6', the IPv6 address is
used first; if the specified value is `none', the address order
returned by DNS is used without change.
Unlike `-4' and `-6', this option doesn't inhibit access to any
address family, it only changes the _order_ in which the addresses
are accessed. Also note that the reordering performed by this
option is "stable"--it doesn't affect order of addresses of the
same family. That is, the relative order of all IPv4 addresses
and of all IPv6 addresses remains intact in all cases.
`--retry-connrefused'
Consider "connection refused" a transient error and try again.
Normally Wget gives up on a URL when it is unable to connect to the
site because failure to connect is taken as a sign that the server
is not running at all and that retries would not help. This
option is for mirroring unreliable sites whose servers tend to
disappear for short periods of time.
`--user=USER'
`--password=PASSWORD'
Specify the username USER and password PASSWORD for both FTP and
HTTP file retrieval. These parameters can be overridden using the
`--ftp-user' and `--ftp-password' options for FTP connections and
the `--http-user' and `--http-password' options for HTTP
connections.
2.6 Directory Options
=====================
`-nd'
`--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 `.n').
`-x'
`--force-directories'
The opposite of `-nd'--create a hierarchy of directories, even if
one would not have been created otherwise. E.g. `wget -x
http://fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt' will save the downloaded file to
`fly.srk.fer.hr/robots.txt'.
`-nH'
`--no-host-directories'
Disable generation of host-prefixed directories. By default,
invoking Wget with `-r http://fly.srk.fer.hr/' will create a
structure of directories beginning with `fly.srk.fer.hr/'. This
option disables such behavior.
`--protocol-directories'
Use the protocol name as a directory component of local file
names. For example, with this option, `wget -r http://HOST' will
save to `http/HOST/...' rather than just to `HOST/...'.
`--cut-dirs=NUMBER'
Ignore NUMBER directory components. This is useful for getting a
fine-grained control over the directory where recursive retrieval
will be saved.
Take, for example, the directory at
`ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/'. If you retrieve it with `-r',
it will be saved locally under `ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/'.
While the `-nH' option can remove the `ftp.xemacs.org/' part, you
are still stuck with `pub/xemacs'. This is where `--cut-dirs'
comes in handy; it makes Wget not "see" NUMBER remote directory
components. Here are several examples of how `--cut-dirs' option
works.
No options -> ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
-nH -> pub/xemacs/
-nH --cut-dirs=1 -> xemacs/
-nH --cut-dirs=2 -> .
--cut-dirs=1 -> ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs/
...
If you just want to get rid of the directory structure, this
option is similar to a combination of `-nd' and `-P'. However,
unlike `-nd', `--cut-dirs' does not lose with subdirectories--for
instance, with `-nH --cut-dirs=1', a `beta/' subdirectory will be
placed to `xemacs/beta', as one would expect.
`-P PREFIX'
`--directory-prefix=PREFIX'
Set directory prefix to PREFIX. The "directory prefix" is the
directory where all other files and subdirectories will be saved
to, i.e. the top of the retrieval tree. The default is `.' (the
current directory).
2.7 HTTP Options
================
`-E'
`--html-extension'
If a file of type `application/xhtml+xml' or `text/html' is
downloaded and the URL does not end with the regexp
`\.[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]?', this option will cause the suffix `.html'
to be appended to the local filename. This is useful, for
instance, when you're mirroring a remote site that uses `.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
downloading CGI-generated materials. A URL like
`http://site.com/article.cgi?25' will be saved as
`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 `X.html' file corresponds to remote URL `X' (since it
doesn't yet know that the URL produces output of type `text/html'
or `application/xhtml+xml'. To prevent this re-downloading, you
must use `-k' and `-K' so that the original version of the file
will be saved as `X.orig' (*note Recursive Retrieval Options::).
`--http-user=USER'
`--http-password=PASSWORD'
Specify the username USER and password PASSWORD on an HTTP server.
According to the type of the challenge, Wget will encode them
using either the `basic' (insecure) or the `digest' authentication
scheme.
Another way to specify username and password is in the URL itself
(*note URL Format::). Either method reveals your password to
anyone who bothers to run `ps'. To prevent the passwords from
being seen, store them in `.wgetrc' or `.netrc', and make sure to
protect those files from other users with `chmod'. If the
passwords are really important, do not leave them lying in those
files either--edit the files and delete them after Wget has
started the download.
`--no-cache'
Disable server-side cache. In this case, Wget will send the remote
server an appropriate directive (`Pragma: no-cache') to get the
file from the remote service, rather than returning the cached
version. This is especially useful for retrieving and flushing
out-of-date documents on proxy servers.
Caching is allowed by default.
`--no-cookies'
Disable the use of cookies. Cookies are a mechanism for
maintaining server-side state. The server sends the client a
cookie using the `Set-Cookie' header, and the client responds with
the same cookie upon further requests. Since cookies allow the
server owners to keep track of visitors and for sites to exchange
this information, some consider them a breach of privacy. The
default is to use cookies; however, _storing_ cookies is not on by
default.
`--load-cookies FILE'
Load cookies from FILE before the first HTTP retrieval. FILE is a
textual file in the format originally used by Netscape's
`cookies.txt' file.
You will typically use this option when mirroring sites that
require that you be logged in to access some or all of their
content. The login process typically works by the web server
issuing an HTTP cookie upon receiving and verifying your
credentials. The cookie is then resent by the browser when
accessing that part of the site, and so proves your identity.
Mirroring such a site requires Wget to send the same cookies your
browser sends when communicating with the site. This is achieved
by `--load-cookies'--simply point Wget to the location of the
`cookies.txt' file, and it will send the same cookies your browser
would send in the same situation. Different browsers keep textual
cookie files in different locations:
Netscape 4.x.
The cookies are in `~/.netscape/cookies.txt'.
Mozilla and Netscape 6.x.
Mozilla's cookie file is also named `cookies.txt', located
somewhere under `~/.mozilla', in the directory of your
profile. The full path usually ends up looking somewhat like
`~/.mozilla/default/SOME-WEIRD-STRING/cookies.txt'.
Internet Explorer.
You can produce a cookie file Wget can use by using the File
menu, Import and Export, Export Cookies. This has been
tested with Internet Explorer 5; it is not guaranteed to work
with earlier versions.
Other browsers.
If you are using a different browser to create your cookies,
`--load-cookies' will only work if you can locate or produce a
cookie file in the Netscape format that Wget expects.
If you cannot use `--load-cookies', there might still be an
alternative. If your browser supports a "cookie manager", you can
use it to view the cookies used when accessing the site you're
mirroring. Write down the name and value of the cookie, and
manually instruct Wget to send those cookies, bypassing the
"official" cookie support:
wget --no-cookies --header "Cookie: NAME=VALUE"
`--save-cookies FILE'
Save cookies to FILE before exiting. This will not save cookies
that have expired or that have no expiry time (so-called "session
cookies"), but also see `--keep-session-cookies'.
`--keep-session-cookies'
When specified, causes `--save-cookies' to also save session
cookies. Session cookies are normally not saved because they are
meant to be kept in memory and forgotten when you exit the browser.
Saving them is useful on sites that require you to log in or to
visit the home page before you can access some pages. With this
option, multiple Wget runs are considered a single browser session
as far as the site is concerned.
Since the cookie file format does not normally carry session
cookies, Wget marks them with an expiry timestamp of 0. Wget's
`--load-cookies' recognizes those as session cookies, but it might
confuse other browsers. Also note that cookies so loaded will be
treated as other session cookies, which means that if you want
`--save-cookies' to preserve them again, you must use
`--keep-session-cookies' again.
`--ignore-length'
Unfortunately, some HTTP servers (CGI programs, to be more
precise) send out bogus `Content-Length' headers, which makes Wget
go wild, as it thinks not all the document was retrieved. You can
spot this syndrome if Wget retries getting the same document again
and again, each time claiming that the (otherwise normal)
connection has closed on the very same byte.
With this option, Wget will ignore the `Content-Length' header--as
if it never existed.
`--header=HEADER-LINE'
Send HEADER-LINE along with the rest of the headers in each HTTP
request. The supplied header is sent as-is, which means it must
contain name and value separated by colon, and must not contain
newlines.
You may define more than one additional header by specifying
`--header' more than once.
wget --header='Accept-Charset: iso-8859-2' \
--header='Accept-Language: hr' \
http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
Specification of an empty string as the header value will clear all
previous user-defined headers.
As of Wget 1.10, this option can be used to override headers
otherwise generated automatically. This example instructs Wget to
connect to localhost, but to specify `foo.bar' in the `Host'
header:
wget --header="Host: foo.bar" http://localhost/
In versions of Wget prior to 1.10 such use of `--header' caused
sending of duplicate headers.
`--proxy-user=USER'
`--proxy-password=PASSWORD'
Specify the username USER and password PASSWORD for authentication
on a proxy server. Wget will encode them using the `basic'
authentication scheme.
Security considerations similar to those with `--http-password'
pertain here as well.
`--referer=URL'
Include `Referer: URL' header in HTTP request. Useful for
retrieving documents with server-side processing that assume they
are always being retrieved by interactive web browsers and only
come out properly when Referer is set to one of the pages that
point to them.
`--save-headers'
Save the headers sent by the HTTP server to the file, preceding the
actual contents, with an empty line as the separator.
`-U AGENT-STRING'
`--user-agent=AGENT-STRING'
Identify as AGENT-STRING to the HTTP server.
The HTTP protocol allows the clients to identify themselves using a
`User-Agent' header field. This enables distinguishing the WWW
software, usually for statistical purposes or for tracing of
protocol violations. Wget normally identifies as `Wget/VERSION',
VERSION being the current version number of Wget.
However, some sites have been known to impose the policy of
tailoring the output according to the `User-Agent'-supplied
information. While this is not such a bad idea in theory, it has
been abused by servers denying information to clients other than
(historically) Netscape or, more frequently, Microsoft Internet
Explorer. This option allows you to change the `User-Agent' line
issued by Wget. Use of this option is discouraged, unless you
really know what you are doing.
Specifying empty user agent with `--user-agent=""' instructs Wget
not to send the `User-Agent' header in HTTP requests.
`--post-data=STRING'
`--post-file=FILE'
Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the
specified data in the request body. `--post-data' sends STRING as
data, whereas `--post-file' sends the contents of FILE. Other than
that, they work in exactly the same way.
Please be aware that Wget needs to know the size of the POST data
in advance. Therefore the argument to `--post-file' must be a
regular file; specifying a FIFO or something like `/dev/stdin'
won't work. It's not quite clear how to work around this
limitation inherent in HTTP/1.0. Although HTTP/1.1 introduces
"chunked" transfer that doesn't require knowing the request length
in advance, a client can't use chunked unless it knows it's
talking to an HTTP/1.1 server. And it can't know that until it
receives a response, which in turn requires the request to have
been completed - a chicken-and-egg problem.
Note: if Wget is redirected after the POST request is completed, it
will not send the POST data to the redirected URL. This is because
URLs that process POST often respond with a redirection to a
regular page, which does not desire or accept POST. It is not
completely clear that this behavior is optimal; if it doesn't work
out, it might be changed in the future.
This example shows how to log to a server using POST and then
proceed to download the desired pages, presumably only accessible
to authorized users:
# Log in to the server. This can be done only once.
wget --save-cookies cookies.txt \
--post-data 'user=foo&password=bar' \
http://server.com/auth.php
# Now grab the page or pages we care about.
wget --load-cookies cookies.txt \
-p http://server.com/interesting/article.php
If the server is using session cookies to track user
authentication, the above will not work because `--save-cookies'
will not save them (and neither will browsers) and the
`cookies.txt' file will be empty. In that case use
`--keep-session-cookies' along with `--save-cookies' to force
saving of session cookies.
2.8 HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
===========================
To support encrypted HTTP (HTTPS) downloads, Wget must be compiled with
an external SSL library, currently OpenSSL. If Wget is compiled
without SSL support, none of these options are available.
`--secure-protocol=PROTOCOL'
Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are `auto',
`SSLv2', `SSLv3', and `TLSv1'. If `auto' is used, the SSL library
is given the liberty of choosing the appropriate protocol
automatically, which is achieved by sending an SSLv2 greeting and
announcing support for SSLv3 and TLSv1. This is the default.
Specifying `SSLv2', `SSLv3', or `TLSv1' forces the use of the
corresponding protocol. This is useful when talking to old and
buggy SSL server implementations that make it hard for OpenSSL to
choose the correct protocol version. Fortunately, such servers are
quite rare.
`--no-check-certificate'
Don't check the server certificate against the available
certificate authorities. Also don't require the URL host name to
match the common name presented by the certificate.
As of Wget 1.10, the default is to verify the server's certificate
against the recognized certificate authorities, breaking the SSL
handshake and aborting the download if the verification fails.
Although this provides more secure downloads, it does break
interoperability with some sites that worked with previous Wget
versions, particularly those using self-signed, expired, or
otherwise invalid certificates. This option forces an "insecure"
mode of operation that turns the certificate verification errors
into warnings and allows you to proceed.
If you encounter "certificate verification" errors or ones saying
that "common name doesn't match requested host name", you can use
this option to bypass the verification and proceed with the
download. _Only use this option if you are otherwise convinced of
the site's authenticity, or if you really don't care about the
validity of its certificate._ It is almost always a bad idea not
to check the certificates when transmitting confidential or
important data.
`--certificate=FILE'
Use the client certificate stored in FILE. This is needed for
servers that are configured to require certificates from the
clients that connect to them. Normally a certificate is not
required and this switch is optional.
`--certificate-type=TYPE'
Specify the type of the client certificate. Legal values are
`PEM' (assumed by default) and `DER', also known as `ASN1'.
`--private-key=FILE'
Read the private key from FILE. This allows you to provide the
private key in a file separate from the certificate.
`--private-key-type=TYPE'
Specify the type of the private key. Accepted values are `PEM'
(the default) and `DER'.
`--ca-certificate=FILE'
Use FILE as the file with the bundle of certificate authorities
("CA") to verify the peers. The certificates must be in PEM
format.
Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
`--ca-directory=DIRECTORY'
Specifies directory containing CA certificates in PEM format. Each
file contains one CA certificate, and the file name is based on a
hash value derived from the certificate. This is achieved by
processing a certificate directory with the `c_rehash' utility
supplied with OpenSSL. Using `--ca-directory' is more efficient
than `--ca-certificate' when many certificates are installed
because it allows Wget to fetch certificates on demand.
Without this option Wget looks for CA certificates at the
system-specified locations, chosen at OpenSSL installation time.
`--random-file=FILE'
Use FILE as the source of random data for seeding the
pseudo-random number generator on systems without `/dev/random'.
On such systems the SSL library needs an external source of
randomness to initialize. Randomness may be provided by EGD (see
`--egd-file' below) or read from an external source specified by
the user. If this option is not specified, Wget looks for random
data in `$RANDFILE' or, if that is unset, in `$HOME/.rnd'. If
none of those are available, it is likely that SSL encryption will
not be usable.
If you're getting the "Could not seed OpenSSL PRNG; disabling SSL."
error, you should provide random data using some of the methods
described above.
`--egd-file=FILE'
Use FILE as the EGD socket. EGD stands for "Entropy Gathering
Daemon", a user-space program that collects data from various
unpredictable system sources and makes it available to other
programs that might need it. Encryption software, such as the SSL
library, needs sources of non-repeating randomness to seed the
random number generator used to produce cryptographically strong
keys.
OpenSSL allows the user to specify his own source of entropy using
the `RAND_FILE' environment variable. If this variable is unset,
or if the specified file does not produce enough randomness,
OpenSSL will read random data from EGD socket specified using this
option.
If this option is not specified (and the equivalent startup
command is not used), EGD is never contacted. EGD is not needed
on modern Unix systems that support `/dev/random'.
2.9 FTP Options
===============
`--ftp-user=USER'
`--ftp-password=PASSWORD'
Specify the username USER and password PASSWORD on an FTP server.
Without this, or the corresponding startup option, the password
defaults to `-wget@', normally used for anonymous FTP.
Another way to specify username and password is in the URL itself
(*note URL Format::). Either method reveals your password to
anyone who bothers to run `ps'. To prevent the passwords from
being seen, store them in `.wgetrc' or `.netrc', and make sure to
protect those files from other users with `chmod'. If the
passwords are really important, do not leave them lying in those
files either--edit the files and delete them after Wget has
started the download.
`--no-remove-listing'
Don't remove the temporary `.listing' files generated by FTP
retrievals. Normally, these files contain the raw directory
listings received from FTP servers. Not removing them can be
useful for debugging purposes, or when you want to be able to
easily check on the contents of remote server directories (e.g. to
verify that a mirror you're running is complete).
Note that even though Wget writes to a known filename for this
file, this is not a security hole in the scenario of a user making
`.listing' a symbolic link to `/etc/passwd' or something and
asking `root' to run Wget in his or her directory. Depending on
the options used, either Wget will refuse to write to `.listing',
making the globbing/recursion/time-stamping operation fail, or the
symbolic link will be deleted and replaced with the actual
`.listing' file, or the listing will be written to a
`.listing.NUMBER' file.
Even though this situation isn't a problem, though, `root' should
never run Wget in a non-trusted user's directory. A user could do
something as simple as linking `index.html' to `/etc/passwd' and
asking `root' to run Wget with `-N' or `-r' so the file will be
overwritten.
`--no-glob'
Turn off FTP globbing. Globbing refers to the use of shell-like
special characters ("wildcards"), like `*', `?', `[' and `]' to
retrieve more than one file from the same directory at once, like:
wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/*.msg
By default, globbing will be turned on if the URL contains a
globbing character. This option may be used to turn globbing on
or off permanently.
You may have to quote the URL to protect it from being expanded by
your shell. Globbing makes Wget look for a directory listing,
which is system-specific. This is why it currently works only
with Unix FTP servers (and the ones emulating Unix `ls' output).
`--no-passive-ftp'
Disable the use of the "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 `passive_ftp=off' in your init file.
`--retr-symlinks'
Usually, when retrieving FTP directories recursively and a symbolic
link is encountered, the linked-to file is not downloaded.
Instead, a matching symbolic link is created on the local
filesystem. The pointed-to file will not be downloaded unless
this recursive retrieval would have encountered it separately and
downloaded it anyway.
When `--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 recurse through them, but in the future it should
be enhanced to do this.
Note that when retrieving a file (not a directory) because it was
specified on the command-line, rather than because it was recursed
to, this option has no effect. Symbolic links are always
traversed in this case.
`--no-http-keep-alive'
Turn off the "keep-alive" feature for HTTP downloads. Normally,
Wget asks the server to keep the connection open so that, when you
download more than one document from the same server, they get
transferred over the same TCP connection. This saves time and at
the same time reduces the load on the server.
This option is useful when, for some reason, persistent
(keep-alive) connections don't work for you, for example due to a
server bug or due to the inability of server-side scripts to cope
with the connections.
2.10 Recursive Retrieval Options
================================
`-r'
`--recursive'
Turn on recursive retrieving. *Note Recursive Download::, for more
details.
`-l DEPTH'
`--level=DEPTH'
Specify recursion maximum depth level DEPTH (*note Recursive
Download::). The default maximum depth is 5.
`--delete-after'
This option tells Wget to delete every single file it downloads,
_after_ having done so. It is useful for pre-fetching popular
pages through a proxy, e.g.:
wget -r -nd --delete-after http://whatever.com/~popular/page/
The `-r' option is to retrieve recursively, and `-nd' to not
create directories.
Note that `--delete-after' deletes files on the local machine. It
does not issue the `DELE' command to remote FTP sites, for
instance. Also note that when `--delete-after' is specified,
`--convert-links' is ignored, so `.orig' files are simply not
created in the first place.
`-k'
`--convert-links'
After the download is complete, convert the links in the document
to make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only
the visible hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to
external content, such as embedded images, links to style sheets,
hyperlinks to non-HTML content, etc.
Each link will be changed in one of the two ways:
* The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be
changed to refer to the file they point to as a relative link.
Example: if the downloaded file `/foo/doc.html' links to
`/bar/img.gif', also downloaded, then the link in `doc.html'
will be modified to point to `../bar/img.gif'. This kind of
transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of
directories.
* The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will
be changed to include host name and absolute path of the
location they point to.
Example: if the downloaded file `/foo/doc.html' links to
`/bar/img.gif' (or to `../bar/img.gif'), then the link in
`doc.html' will be modified to point to
`http://HOSTNAME/bar/img.gif'.
Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file
was downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was
not downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address
rather than presenting a broken link. The fact that the former
links are converted to relative links ensures that you can move
the downloaded hierarchy to another directory.
Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which
links have been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by
`-k' will be performed at the end of all the downloads.
`-K'
`--backup-converted'
When converting a file, back up the original version with a `.orig'
suffix. Affects the behavior of `-N' (*note HTTP Time-Stamping
Internals::).
`-m'
`--mirror'
Turn on options suitable for mirroring. This option turns on
recursion and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and
keeps FTP directory listings. It is currently equivalent to `-r
-N -l inf --no-remove-listing'.
`-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 `' tag
referencing `1.gif' and an `' tag pointing to external document
`2.html'. Say that `2.html' is similar 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 command-line or in a `-i'
URL input file) and its (or their) requisites, simply leave off
`-r' 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 -E -H -k -K -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 `' tag, an
`' tag, or a `' tag other than `'.
`--strict-comments'
Turn on strict parsing of HTML comments. The default is to
terminate comments at the first occurrence of `-->'.
According to specifications, HTML comments are expressed as SGML
"declarations". Declaration is special markup that begins with
`', such as `', that may contain
comments between a pair of `--' delimiters. HTML comments are
"empty declarations", SGML declarations without any non-comment
text. Therefore, `' is a valid comment, and so is
`', but `' is not.
On the other hand, most HTML writers don't perceive comments as
anything other than text delimited with `', which is
not quite the same. For example, something like `'
works as a valid comment as long as the number of dashes is a
multiple of four (!). If not, the comment technically lasts until
the next `--', which may be at the other end of the document.
Because of this, many popular browsers completely ignore the
specification and implement what users have come to expect:
comments delimited with `'.
Until version 1.9, Wget interpreted comments strictly, which
resulted in missing links in many web pages that displayed fine in
browsers, but had the misfortune of containing non-compliant
comments. Beginning with version 1.9, Wget has joined the ranks
of clients that implements "naive" comments, terminating each
comment at the first occurrence of `-->'.
If, for whatever reason, you want strict comment parsing, use this
option to turn it on.
2.11 Recursive Accept/Reject Options
====================================
`-A ACCLIST --accept ACCLIST'
`-R REJLIST --reject REJLIST'
Specify comma-separated lists of file name suffixes or patterns to
accept or reject (*note Types of Files:: for more details).
`-D DOMAIN-LIST'
`--domains=DOMAIN-LIST'
Set domains to be followed. DOMAIN-LIST is a comma-separated list
of domains. Note that it does _not_ turn on `-H'.
`--exclude-domains DOMAIN-LIST'
Specify the domains that are _not_ to be followed. (*note
Spanning Hosts::).
`--follow-ftp'
Follow FTP links from HTML documents. Without this option, Wget
will ignore all the FTP links.
`--follow-tags=LIST'
Wget has an internal table of HTML tag / attribute pairs that it
considers when looking for linked documents during a recursive
retrieval. If a user wants only a subset of those tags to be
considered, however, he or she should be specify such tags in a
comma-separated LIST with this option.
`--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.
In the past, this option was the best bet for downloading a single
page and its requisites, using a command-line like:
wget --ignore-tags=a,area -H -k -K -r http://SITE/DOCUMENT
However, the author of this option came across a page with tags
like `' and came to the realization that
specifying tags to ignore was not enough. One can't just tell
Wget to ignore `', 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
(*note Spanning Hosts::).
`-L'
`--relative'
Follow relative links only. Useful for retrieving a specific home
page without any distractions, not even those from the same hosts
(*note Relative Links::).
`-I LIST'
`--include-directories=LIST'
Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow
when downloading (*note Directory-Based Limits:: for more
details.) Elements of LIST may contain wildcards.
`-X LIST'
`--exclude-directories=LIST'
Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude
from download (*note Directory-Based Limits:: for more details.)
Elements of LIST may contain wildcards.
`-np'
`--no-parent'
Do not ever ascend to the parent directory when retrieving
recursively. This is a useful option, since it guarantees that
only the files _below_ a certain hierarchy will be downloaded.
*Note Directory-Based Limits::, for more details.
3 Recursive Download
********************
GNU Wget is capable of traversing parts of the Web (or a single HTTP or
FTP server), following links and directory structure. We refer to this
as to "recursive retrieval", or "recursion".
With HTTP URLs, Wget retrieves and parses the HTML from the given
URL, documents, retrieving the files the HTML document was referring
to, through markup like `href', or `src'. If the freshly downloaded
file is also of type `text/html' or `application/xhtml+xml', it will be
parsed and followed further.
Recursive retrieval of HTTP and HTML content is "breadth-first".
This means that Wget first downloads the requested HTML document, then
the documents linked from that document, then the documents linked by
them, and so on. In other words, Wget first downloads the documents at
depth 1, then those at depth 2, and so on until the specified maximum
depth.
The maximum "depth" to which the retrieval may descend is specified
with the `-l' option. The default maximum depth is five layers.
When retrieving an FTP URL recursively, Wget will retrieve all the
data from the given directory tree (including the subdirectories up to
the specified depth) on the remote server, creating its mirror image
locally. FTP retrieval is also limited by the `depth' parameter.
Unlike HTTP recursion, FTP recursion is performed depth-first.
By default, Wget will create a local directory tree, corresponding to
the one found on the remote server.
Recursive retrieving can find a number of applications, the most
important of which is mirroring. It is also useful for WWW
presentations, and any other opportunities where slow network
connections should be bypassed by storing the files locally.
You should be warned that recursive downloads can overload the remote
servers. Because of that, many administrators frown upon them and may
ban access from your site if they detect very fast downloads of big
amounts of content. When downloading from Internet servers, consider
using the `-w' option to introduce a delay between accesses to the
server. The download will take a while longer, but the server
administrator will not be alarmed by your rudeness.
Of course, recursive download may cause problems on your machine. If
left to run unchecked, it can easily fill up the disk. If downloading
from local network, it can also take bandwidth on the system, as well as
consume memory and CPU.
Try to specify the criteria that match the kind of download you are
trying to achieve. If you want to download only one page, use
`--page-requisites' without any additional recursion. If you want to
download things under one directory, use `-np' to avoid downloading
things from other directories. If you want to download all the files
from one directory, use `-l 1' to make sure the recursion depth never
exceeds one. *Note Following Links::, for more information about this.
Recursive retrieval should be used with care. Don't say you were not
warned.
4 Following Links
*****************
When retrieving recursively, one does not wish to retrieve loads of
unnecessary data. Most of the time the users bear in mind exactly what
they want to download, and want Wget to follow only specific links.
For example, if you wish to download the music archive from
`fly.srk.fer.hr', you will not want to download all the home pages that
happen to be referenced by an obscure part of the archive.
Wget possesses several mechanisms that allows you to fine-tune which
links it will follow.
4.1 Spanning Hosts
==================
Wget's recursive retrieval normally refuses to visit hosts different
than the one you specified on the command line. This is a reasonable
default; without it, every retrieval would have the potential to turn
your Wget into a small version of google.
However, visiting different hosts, or "host spanning," is sometimes
a useful option. Maybe the images are served from a different server.
Maybe you're mirroring a site that consists of pages interlinked between
three servers. Maybe the server has two equivalent names, and the HTML
pages refer to both interchangeably.
Span to any host--`-H'
The `-H' option turns on host spanning, thus allowing Wget's
recursive run to visit any host referenced by a link. Unless
sufficient recursion-limiting criteria are applied depth, these
foreign hosts will typically link to yet more hosts, and so on
until Wget ends up sucking up much more data than you have
intended.
Limit spanning to certain domains--`-D'
The `-D' option allows you to specify the domains that will be
followed, thus limiting the recursion only to the hosts that
belong to these domains. Obviously, this makes sense only in
conjunction with `-H'. A typical example would be downloading the
contents of `www.server.com', but allowing downloads from
`images.server.com', etc.:
wget -rH -Dserver.com http://www.server.com/
You can specify more than one address by separating them with a
comma, e.g. `-Ddomain1.com,domain2.com'.
Keep download off certain domains--`--exclude-domains'
If there are domains you want to exclude specifically, you can do
it with `--exclude-domains', which accepts the same type of
arguments of `-D', but will _exclude_ all the listed domains. For
example, if you want to download all the hosts from `foo.edu'
domain, with the exception of `sunsite.foo.edu', you can do it like
this:
wget -rH -Dfoo.edu --exclude-domains sunsite.foo.edu \
http://www.foo.edu/
4.2 Types of Files
==================
When downloading material from the web, you will often want to restrict
the retrieval to only certain file types. For example, if you are
interested in downloading GIFs, you will not be overjoyed to get loads
of PostScript documents, and vice versa.
Wget offers two options to deal with this problem. Each option
description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
in `.wgetrc'.
`-A ACCLIST'
`--accept ACCLIST'
`accept = ACCLIST'
The argument to `--accept' option is a list of file suffixes or
patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval. A
suffix is the ending part of a file, and consists of "normal"
letters, e.g. `gif' or `.jpg'. A matching pattern contains
shell-like wildcards, e.g. `books*' or `zelazny*196[0-9]*'.
So, specifying `wget -A gif,jpg' will make Wget download only the
files ending with `gif' or `jpg', i.e. GIFs and JPEGs. On the
other hand, `wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"' will download only files
beginning with `zelazny' and containing numbers from 1960 to 1969
anywhere within. Look up the manual of your shell for a
description of how pattern matching works.
Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined
into a comma-separated list, and given as an argument to `-A'.
`-R REJLIST'
`--reject REJLIST'
`reject = REJLIST'
The `--reject' option works the same way as `--accept', only its
logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files _except_ the
ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.
So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
MPEGs and .AU files, you can use `wget -R mpg,mpeg,au'.
Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
`bjork', use `wget -R "bjork*"'. The quotes are to prevent
expansion by the shell.
The `-A' and `-R' options may be combined to achieve even better
fine-tuning of which files to retrieve. E.g. `wget -A "*zelazny*" -R
.ps' will download all the files having `zelazny' as a part of their
name, but _not_ the PostScript files.
Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of HTML
files; Wget must load all the HTMLs to know where to go at
all--recursive retrieval would make no sense otherwise.
4.3 Directory-Based Limits
==========================
Regardless of other link-following facilities, it is often useful to
place the restriction of what files to retrieve based on the directories
those files are placed in. There can be many reasons for this--the
home pages may be organized in a reasonable directory structure; or some
directories may contain useless information, e.g. `/cgi-bin' or `/dev'
directories.
Wget offers three different options to deal with this requirement.
Each option description lists a short name, a long name, and the
equivalent command in `.wgetrc'.
`-I LIST'
`--include LIST'
`include_directories = LIST'
`-I' option accepts a comma-separated list of directories included
in the retrieval. Any other directories will simply be ignored.
The directories are absolute paths.
So, if you wish to download from `http://host/people/bozo/'
following only links to bozo's colleagues in the `/people'
directory and the bogus scripts in `/cgi-bin', you can specify:
wget -I /people,/cgi-bin http://host/people/bozo/
`-X LIST'
`--exclude LIST'
`exclude_directories = LIST'
`-X' option is exactly the reverse of `-I'--this is a list of
directories _excluded_ from the download. E.g. if you do not want
Wget to download things from `/cgi-bin' directory, specify `-X
/cgi-bin' on the command line.
The same as with `-A'/`-R', these two options can be combined to
get a better fine-tuning of downloading subdirectories. E.g. if
you want to load all the files from `/pub' hierarchy except for
`/pub/worthless', specify `-I/pub -X/pub/worthless'.
`-np'
`--no-parent'
`no_parent = on'
The simplest, and often very useful way of limiting directories is
disallowing retrieval of the links that refer to the hierarchy
"above" than the beginning directory, i.e. disallowing ascent to
the parent directory/directories.
The `--no-parent' option (short `-np') is useful in this case.
Using it guarantees that you will never leave the existing
hierarchy. Supposing you issue Wget with:
wget -r --no-parent http://somehost/~luzer/my-archive/
You may rest assured that none of the references to
`/~his-girls-homepage/' or `/~luzer/all-my-mpegs/' will be
followed. Only the archive you are interested in will be
downloaded. Essentially, `--no-parent' is similar to
`-I/~luzer/my-archive', only it handles redirections in a more
intelligent fashion.
4.4 Relative Links
==================
When `-L' is turned on, only the relative links are ever followed.
Relative links are here defined those that do not refer to the web
server root. For example, these links are relative:
These links are not relative:
Using this option guarantees that recursive retrieval will not span
hosts, even without `-H'. In simple cases it also allows downloads to
"just work" without having to convert links.
This option is probably not very useful and might be removed in a
future release.
4.5 Following FTP Links
=======================
The rules for FTP are somewhat specific, as it is necessary for them to
be. FTP links in HTML documents are often included for purposes of
reference, and it is often inconvenient to download them by default.
To have FTP links followed from HTML documents, you need to specify
the `--follow-ftp' option. Having done that, FTP links will span hosts
regardless of `-H' setting. This is logical, as FTP links rarely point
to the same host where the HTTP server resides. For similar reasons,
the `-L' options has no effect on such downloads. On the other hand,
domain acceptance (`-D') and suffix rules (`-A' and `-R') apply
normally.
Also note that followed links to FTP directories will not be
retrieved recursively further.
5 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 local and remote files. We call this information
the "time-stamp" of a file.
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.
5.1 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' (at least for HTTP).
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 has the same timestamp as the server, or a newer one, the remote
file will not be re-fetched. However, if the remote file is more
recent, Wget will proceed to fetch it.
The same goes for FTP. For example:
wget "ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/*"
(The quotes around that URL are to prevent the shell from trying to
interpret the `*'.)
After download, a local directory listing will show that the
timestamps match those on the remote server. Reissuing the command
with `-N' will make Wget re-fetch _only_ the files that have been
modified since the last download.
If you wished to mirror the GNU archive every week, you would use a
command like the following, weekly:
wget --timestamping -r ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
Note that time-stamping will only work for files for which the server
gives a timestamp. For HTTP, this depends on getting a `Last-Modified'
header. For FTP, this depends on getting a directory listing with
dates in a format that Wget can parse (*note FTP Time-Stamping
Internals::).
5.2 HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
================================
Time-stamping in HTTP is implemented by checking of the `Last-Modified'
header. If you wish to retrieve the file `foo.html' through HTTP, Wget
will check whether `foo.html' exists locally. If it doesn't,
`foo.html' will be retrieved unconditionally.
If the file does exist locally, Wget will first check its local
time-stamp (similar to the way `ls -l' checks it), and then send a
`HEAD' request to the remote server, demanding the information on the
remote file.
The `Last-Modified' header is examined to find which file was
modified more recently (which makes it "newer"). If the remote file is
newer, it will be downloaded; if it is older, Wget will give up.(1)
When `--backup-converted' (`-K') is specified in conjunction with
`-N', server file `X' is compared to local file `X.orig', if extant,
rather than being compared to local file `X', which will always differ
if it's been converted by `--convert-links' (`-k').
Arguably, HTTP time-stamping should be implemented using the
`If-Modified-Since' request.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) As an additional check, Wget will look at the `Content-Length'
header, and compare the sizes; if they are not the same, the remote
file will be downloaded no matter what the time-stamp says.
5.3 FTP Time-Stamping Internals
===============================
In theory, FTP time-stamping works much the same as HTTP, only FTP has
no headers--time-stamps must be ferreted out of directory listings.
If an FTP download is recursive or uses globbing, Wget will use the
FTP `LIST' command to get a file listing for the directory containing
the desired file(s). It will try to analyze the listing, treating it
like Unix `ls -l' output, extracting the time-stamps. The rest is
exactly the same as for HTTP. Note that when retrieving individual
files from an FTP server without using globbing or recursion, listing
files will not be downloaded (and thus files will not be time-stamped)
unless `-N' is specified.
Assumption that every directory listing is a Unix-style listing may
sound extremely constraining, but in practice it is not, as many
non-Unix FTP servers use the Unixoid listing format because most (all?)
of the clients understand it. Bear in mind that RFC959 defines no
standard way to get a file list, let alone the time-stamps. We can
only hope that a future standard will define this.
Another non-standard solution includes the use of `MDTM' command
that is supported by some FTP servers (including the popular
`wu-ftpd'), which returns the exact time of the specified file. Wget
may support this command in the future.
6 Startup File
**************
Once you know how to change default settings of Wget through command
line arguments, you may wish to make some of those settings permanent.
You can do that in a convenient way by creating the Wget startup
file--`.wgetrc'.
Besides `.wgetrc' is the "main" initialization file, it is
convenient to have a special facility for storing passwords. Thus Wget
reads and interprets the contents of `$HOME/.netrc', if it finds it.
You can find `.netrc' format in your system manuals.
Wget reads `.wgetrc' upon startup, recognizing a limited set of
commands.
6.1 Wgetrc Location
===================
When initializing, Wget will look for a "global" startup file,
`/usr/local/etc/wgetrc' by default (or some prefix other than
`/usr/local', if Wget was not installed there) and read commands from
there, if it exists.
Then it will look for the user's file. If the environmental variable
`WGETRC' is set, Wget will try to load that file. Failing that, no
further attempts will be made.
If `WGETRC' is not set, Wget will try to load `$HOME/.wgetrc'.
The fact that user's settings are loaded after the system-wide ones
means that in case of collision user's wgetrc _overrides_ the
system-wide wgetrc (in `/usr/local/etc/wgetrc' by default). Fascist
admins, away!
6.2 Wgetrc Syntax
=================
The syntax of a wgetrc command is simple:
variable = value
The "variable" will also be called "command". Valid "values" are
different for different commands.
The commands are case-insensitive and underscore-insensitive. Thus
`DIr__PrefiX' is the same as `dirprefix'. Empty lines, lines beginning
with `#' and lines containing white-space only are discarded.
Commands that expect a comma-separated list will clear the list on an
empty command. So, if you wish to reset the rejection list specified in
global `wgetrc', you can do it with:
reject =
6.3 Wgetrc Commands
===================
The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed
after the `='. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using `on'
and `off' or `1' and `0'. A fancier kind of Boolean allowed in some
cases is the "lockable Boolean", which may be set to `on', `off',
`always', or `never'. If an option is set to `always' or `never', that
value will be locked in for the duration of the Wget
invocation--command-line options will not override.
Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. ADDRESS values can be
hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. N can be any positive integer,
or `inf' for infinity, where appropriate. STRING values can be any
non-empty string.
Most of these commands have direct command-line equivalents. Also,
any wgetrc command can be specified on the command line using the
`--execute' switch (*note Basic Startup Options::.)
accept/reject = STRING
Same as `-A'/`-R' (*note Types of Files::).
add_hostdir = on/off
Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. `-nH' disables it.
continue = on/off
If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved
files. See `-c' before setting it.
background = on/off
Enable/disable going to background--the same as `-b' (which
enables it).
backup_converted = on/off
Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
`.orig'--the same as `-K' (which enables it).
base = STRING
Consider relative URLs in URL input files forced to be interpreted
as HTML as being relative to STRING--the same as `--base=STRING'.
bind_address = ADDRESS
Bind to ADDRESS, like the `--bind-address=ADDRESS'.
ca_certificate = FILE
Set the certificate authority bundle file to FILE. The same as
`--ca-certificate=FILE'.
ca_directory = DIRECTORY
Set the directory used for certificate authorities. The same as
`--ca-directory=DIRECTORY'.
cache = on/off
When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the `--no-cache'
option.
certificate = FILE
Set the client certificate file name to FILE. The same as
`--certificate=FILE'.
certificate_type = STRING
Specify the type of the client certificate, legal values being
`PEM' (the default) and `DER' (aka ASN1). The same as
`--certificate-type=STRING'.
check_certificate = on/off
If this is set to off, the server certificate is not checked
against the specified client authorities. The default is "on".
The same as `--check-certificate'.
convert_links = on/off
Convert non-relative links locally. The same as `-k'.
cookies = on/off
When set to off, disallow cookies. See the `--cookies' option.
connect_timeout = N
Set the connect timeout--the same as `--connect-timeout'.
cut_dirs = N
Ignore N remote directory components. Equivalent to
`--cut-dirs=N'.
debug = on/off
Debug mode, same as `-d'.
delete_after = on/off
Delete after download--the same as `--delete-after'.
dir_prefix = STRING
Top of directory tree--the same as `-P STRING'.
dirstruct = on/off
Turning dirstruct on or off--the same as `-x' or `-nd',
respectively.
dns_cache = on/off
Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this
option is normally used to turn it off and is equivalent to
`--no-dns-cache'.
dns_timeout = N
Set the DNS timeout--the same as `--dns-timeout'.
domains = STRING
Same as `-D' (*note Spanning Hosts::).
dot_bytes = N
Specify the number of bytes "contained" in a dot, as seen
throughout the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the
value with `k' or `m', representing kilobytes and megabytes,
respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval
to suit your needs, or you can use the predefined "styles" (*note
Download Options::).
dots_in_line = N
Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line
throughout the retrieval (50 by default).
dot_spacing = N
Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
egd_file = FILE
Use STRING as the EGD socket file name. The same as
`--egd-file=FILE'.
exclude_directories = STRING
Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude
from download--the same as `-X STRING' (*note Directory-Based
Limits::).
exclude_domains = STRING
Same as `--exclude-domains=STRING' (*note Spanning Hosts::).
follow_ftp = on/off
Follow FTP links from HTML documents--the same as `--follow-ftp'.
follow_tags = STRING
Only follow certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval,
just like `--follow-tags=STRING'.
force_html = on/off
If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an HTML
document--the same as `-F'.
ftp_password = STRING
Set your FTP password to STRING. Without this setting, the
password defaults to `-wget@', which is a useful default for
anonymous FTP access.
This command used to be named `passwd' prior to Wget 1.10.
ftp_proxy = STRING
Use STRING as FTP proxy, instead of the one specified in
environment.
ftp_user = STRING
Set FTP user to STRING.
This command used to be named `login' prior to Wget 1.10.
glob = on/off
Turn globbing on/off--the same as `--glob' and `--no-glob'.
header = STRING
Define a header for HTTP doewnloads, like using `--header=STRING'.
html_extension = on/off
Add a `.html' extension to `text/html' or `application/xhtml+xml'
files without it, like `-E'.
http_keep_alive = on/off
Turn the keep-alive feature on or off (defaults to on). Turning it
off is equivalent to `--no-http-keep-alive'.
http_password = STRING
Set HTTP password, equivalent to `--http-password=STRING'.
http_proxy = STRING
Use STRING as HTTP proxy, instead of the one specified in
environment.
http_user = STRING
Set HTTP user to STRING, equivalent to `--http-user=STRING'.
ignore_length = on/off
When set to on, ignore `Content-Length' header; the same as
`--ignore-length'.
ignore_tags = STRING
Ignore certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, like
`--ignore-tags=STRING'.
include_directories = STRING
Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow
when downloading--the same as `-I STRING'.
inet4_only = on/off
Force connecting to IPv4 addresses, off by default. You can put
this in the global init file to disable Wget's attempts to resolve
and connect to IPv6 hosts. Available only if Wget was compiled
with IPv6 support. The same as `--inet4-only' or `-4'.
inet6_only = on/off
Force connecting to IPv6 addresses, off by default. Available
only if Wget was compiled with IPv6 support. The same as
`--inet6-only' or `-6'.
input = FILE
Read the URLs from STRING, like `-i FILE'.
kill_longer = on/off
Consider data longer than specified in content-length header as
invalid (and retry getting it). The default behavior is to save
as much data as there is, provided there is more than or equal to
the value in `Content-Length'.
limit_rate = RATE
Limit the download speed to no more than RATE bytes per second.
The same as `--limit-rate=RATE'.
load_cookies = FILE
Load cookies from FILE. See `--load-cookies FILE'.
logfile = FILE
Set logfile to FILE, the same as `-o FILE'.
mirror = on/off
Turn mirroring on/off. The same as `-m'.
netrc = on/off
Turn reading netrc on or off.
noclobber = on/off
Same as `-nc'.
no_parent = on/off
Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like
`--no-parent' (*note Directory-Based Limits::).
no_proxy = STRING
Use STRING as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in
proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
output_document = FILE
Set the output filename--the same as `-O FILE'.
page_requisites = on/off
Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single HTML page
to display properly--the same as `-p'.
passive_ftp = on/off/always/never
Change setting of passive FTP, equivalent to the `--passive-ftp'
option. Some scripts and `.pm' (Perl module) files download files
using `wget --passive-ftp'. If your firewall does not allow this,
you can set `passive_ftp = never' to override the command-line.
password = STRING
Specify password STRING for both FTP and HTTP file retrieval.
This command can be overridden using the `ftp_password' and
`http_password' command for FTP and HTTP respectively.
post_data = STRING
Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send STRING in
the request body. The same as `--post-data=STRING'.
post_file = FILE
Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the contents
of FILE in the request body. The same as `--post-file=FILE'.
prefer_family = IPv4/IPv6/none
When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
with specified address family first. IPv4 addresses are preferred
by default. The same as `--prefer-family', which see for a
detailed discussion of why this is useful.
private_key = FILE
Set the private key file to FILE. The same as
`--private-key=FILE'.
private_key_type = STRING
Specify the type of the private key, legal values being `PEM' (the
default) and `DER' (aka ASN1). The same as
`--private-type=STRING'.
progress = STRING
Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are `dot' and
`bar'. Equivalent to `--progress=STRING'.
protocol_directories = on/off
When set, use the protocol name as a directory component of local
file names. The same as `--protocol-directories'.
proxy_user = STRING
Set proxy authentication user name to STRING, like
`--proxy-user=STRING'.
proxy_password = STRING
Set proxy authentication password to STRING, like
`--proxy-password=STRING'.
quiet = on/off
Quiet mode--the same as `-q'.
quota = QUOTA
Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global
`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 `k'
appended) or mbytes (`m' appended). Thus `quota = 5m' will set
the quota to 5 megabytes. Note that the user's startup file
overrides system settings.
random_file = FILE
Use FILE as a source of randomness on systems lacking
`/dev/random'.
read_timeout = N
Set the read (and write) timeout--the same as `--read-timeout=N'.
reclevel = N
Recursion level (depth)--the same as `-l N'.
recursive = on/off
Recursive on/off--the same as `-r'.
referer = STRING
Set HTTP `Referer:' header just like `--referer=STRING'. (Note it
was the folks who wrote the HTTP spec who got the spelling of
"referrer" wrong.)
relative_only = on/off
Follow only relative links--the same as `-L' (*note Relative
Links::).
remove_listing = on/off
If set to on, remove FTP listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it
to off is the same as `--no-remove-listing'.
restrict_file_names = unix/windows
Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See
`--restrict-file-names' for a more detailed description.
retr_symlinks = on/off
When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain
files; the same as `--retr-symlinks'.
retry_connrefused = on/off
When set to on, consider "connection refused" a transient
error--the same as `--retry-connrefused'.
robots = on/off
Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, "on"
by default. This switch controls both the `/robots.txt' and the
`nofollow' aspect of the spec. *Note Robot Exclusion::, for more
details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before
turning this off.
save_cookies = FILE
Save cookies to FILE. The same as `--save-cookies FILE'.
secure_protocol = STRING
Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are `auto'
(the default), `SSLv2', `SSLv3', and `TLSv1'. The same as
`--secure-protocol=STRING'.
server_response = on/off
Choose whether or not to print the HTTP and FTP server
responses--the same as `-S'.
span_hosts = on/off
Same as `-H'.
strict_comments = on/off
Same as `--strict-comments'.
timeout = N
Set all applicable timeout values to N, the same as `-T N'.
timestamping = on/off
Turn timestamping on/off. The same as `-N' (*note
Time-Stamping::).
tries = N
Set number of retries per URL--the same as `-t N'.
use_proxy = on/off
When set to off, don't use proxy even when proxy-related
environment variables are set. In that case it is the same as
using `--no-proxy'.
user = STRING
Specify username STRING for both FTP and HTTP file retrieval.
This command can be overridden using the `ftp_user' and
`http_user' command for FTP and HTTP respectively.
verbose = on/off
Turn verbose on/off--the same as `-v'/`-nv'.
wait = N
Wait N seconds between retrievals--the same as `-w N'.
waitretry = N
Wait up to N seconds between retries of failed retrievals
only--the same as `--waitretry=N'. Note that this is turned on by
default in the global `wgetrc'.
randomwait = on/off
Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as
`--random-wait'.
6.4 Sample Wgetrc
=================
This is the sample initialization file, as given in the distribution.
It is divided in two section--one for global usage (suitable for global
startup file), and one for local usage (suitable for `$HOME/.wgetrc').
Be careful about the things you change.
Note that almost all the lines are commented out. For a command to
have any effect, you must remove the `#' character at the beginning of
its line.
###
### Sample Wget initialization file .wgetrc
###
## You can use this file to change the default behaviour of wget or to
## avoid having to type many many command-line options. This file does
## not contain a comprehensive list of commands -- look at the manual
## to find out what you can put into this file.
##
## Wget initialization file can reside in /usr/local/etc/wgetrc
## (global, for all users) or $HOME/.wgetrc (for a single user).
##
## To use the settings in this file, you will have to uncomment them,
## as well as change them, in most cases, as the values on the
## commented-out lines are the default values (e.g. "off").
##
## Global settings (useful for setting up in /usr/local/etc/wgetrc).
## Think well before you change them, since they may reduce wget's
## functionality, and make it behave contrary to the documentation:
##
# You can set retrieve quota for beginners by specifying a value
# optionally followed by 'K' (kilobytes) or 'M' (megabytes). The
# default quota is unlimited.
#quota = inf
# You can lower (or raise) the default number of retries when
# downloading a file (default is 20).
#tries = 20
# Lowering the maximum depth of the recursive retrieval is handy to
# prevent newbies from going too "deep" when they unwittingly start
# the recursive retrieval. The default is 5.
#reclevel = 5
# Many sites are behind firewalls that do not allow initiation of
# connections from the outside. On these sites you have to use the
# `passive' feature of FTP. If you are behind such a firewall, you
# can turn this on to make Wget use passive FTP by default.
#passive_ftp = off
# The "wait" command below makes Wget wait between every connection.
# If, instead, you want Wget to wait only between retries of failed
# downloads, set waitretry to maximum number of seconds to wait (Wget
# will use "linear backoff", waiting 1 second after the first failure
# on a file, 2 seconds after the second failure, etc. up to this max).
waitretry = 10
##
## Local settings (for a user to set in his $HOME/.wgetrc). It is
## *highly* undesirable to put these settings in the global file, since
## they are potentially dangerous to "normal" users.
##
## Even when setting up your own ~/.wgetrc, you should know what you
## are doing before doing so.
##
# Set this to on to use timestamping by default:
#timestamping = off
# It is a good idea to make Wget send your email address in a `From:'
# header with your request (so that server administrators can contact
# you in case of errors). Wget does *not* send `From:' by default.
#header = From: Your Name
# You can set up other headers, like Accept-Language. Accept-Language
# is *not* sent by default.
#header = Accept-Language: en
# You can set the default proxies for Wget to use for http and ftp.
# They will override the value in the environment.
#http_proxy = http://proxy.yoyodyne.com:18023/
#ftp_proxy = http://proxy.yoyodyne.com:18023/
# If you do not want to use proxy at all, set this to off.
#use_proxy = on
# You can customize the retrieval outlook. Valid options are default,
# binary, mega and micro.
#dot_style = default
# Setting this to off makes Wget not download /robots.txt. Be sure to
# know *exactly* what /robots.txt is and how it is used before changing
# the default!
#robots = on
# It can be useful to make Wget wait between connections. Set this to
# the number of seconds you want Wget to wait.
#wait = 0
# You can force creating directory structure, even if a single is being
# retrieved, by setting this to on.
#dirstruct = off
# You can turn on recursive retrieving by default (don't do this if
# you are not sure you know what it means) by setting this to on.
#recursive = off
# To always back up file X as X.orig before converting its links (due
# to -k / --convert-links / convert_links = on having been specified),
# set this variable to on:
#backup_converted = off
# To have Wget follow FTP links from HTML files by default, set this
# to on:
#follow_ftp = off
7 Examples
**********
The examples are divided into three sections loosely based on their
complexity.
7.1 Simple Usage
================
* Say you want to download a URL. Just type:
wget http://fly.srk.fer.hr/
* But what will happen if the connection is slow, and the file is
lengthy? The connection will probably fail before the whole file
is retrieved, more than once. In this case, Wget will try getting
the file until it either gets the whole of it, or exceeds the
default number of retries (this being 20). It is easy to change
the number of tries to 45, to insure that the whole file will
arrive safely:
wget --tries=45 http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg
* Now let's leave Wget to work in the background, and write its
progress to log file `log'. It is tiring to type `--tries', so we
shall use `-t'.
wget -t 45 -o log http://fly.srk.fer.hr/jpg/flyweb.jpg &
The ampersand at the end of the line makes sure that Wget works in
the background. To unlimit the number of retries, use `-t inf'.
* The usage of FTP is as simple. Wget will take care of login and
password.
wget ftp://gnjilux.srk.fer.hr/welcome.msg
* If you specify a directory, Wget will retrieve the directory
listing, parse it and convert it to HTML. Try:
wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
links index.html
7.2 Advanced Usage
==================
* You have a file that contains the URLs you want to download? Use
the `-i' switch:
wget -i FILE
If you specify `-' as file name, the URLs will be read from
standard input.
* Create a five levels deep mirror image of the GNU web site, with
the same directory structure the original has, with only one try
per document, saving the log of the activities to `gnulog':
wget -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
* The same as the above, but convert the links in the HTML files to
point to local files, so you can view the documents off-line:
wget --convert-links -r http://www.gnu.org/ -o gnulog
* Retrieve only one HTML page, but make sure that all the elements
needed for the page to be displayed, such as inline images and
external style sheets, are also downloaded. Also make sure the
downloaded page references the downloaded links.
wget -p --convert-links http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
The HTML page will be saved to `www.server.com/dir/page.html', and
the images, stylesheets, etc., somewhere under `www.server.com/',
depending on where they were on the remote server.
* The same as the above, but without the `www.server.com/' directory.
In fact, I don't want to have all those random server directories
anyway--just save _all_ those files under a `download/'
subdirectory of the current directory.
wget -p --convert-links -nH -nd -Pdownload \
http://www.server.com/dir/page.html
* Retrieve the index.html of `www.lycos.com', showing the original
server headers:
wget -S http://www.lycos.com/
* Save the server headers with the file, perhaps for post-processing.
wget --save-headers http://www.lycos.com/
more index.html
* Retrieve the first two levels of `wuarchive.wustl.edu', saving them
to `/tmp'.
wget -r -l2 -P/tmp ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/
* You want to download all the GIFs from a directory on an HTTP
server. You tried `wget http://www.server.com/dir/*.gif', but that
didn't work because HTTP retrieval does not support globbing. In
that case, use:
wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gif http://www.server.com/dir/
More verbose, but the effect is the same. `-r -l1' means to
retrieve recursively (*note Recursive Download::), with maximum
depth of 1. `--no-parent' means that references to the parent
directory are ignored (*note Directory-Based Limits::), and
`-A.gif' means to download only the GIF files. `-A "*.gif"' would
have worked too.
* Suppose you were in the middle of downloading, when Wget was
interrupted. Now you do not want to clobber the files already
present. It would be:
wget -nc -r http://www.gnu.org/
* If you want to encode your own username and password to HTTP or
FTP, use the appropriate URL syntax (*note URL Format::).
wget ftp://hniksic:mypassword@unix.server.com/.emacs
Note, however, that this usage is not advisable on multi-user
systems because it reveals your password to anyone who looks at
the output of `ps'.
* You would like the output documents to go to standard output
instead of to files?
wget -O - http://jagor.srce.hr/ http://www.srce.hr/
You can also combine the two options and make pipelines to
retrieve the documents from remote hotlists:
wget -O - http://cool.list.com/ | wget --force-html -i -
7.3 Very Advanced Usage
=======================
* If you wish Wget to keep a mirror of a page (or FTP
subdirectories), use `--mirror' (`-m'), which is the shorthand for
`-r -l inf -N'. You can put Wget in the crontab file asking it to
recheck a site each Sunday:
crontab
0 0 * * 0 wget --mirror http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
* In addition to the above, you want the links to be converted for
local viewing. But, after having read this manual, you know that
link conversion doesn't play well with timestamping, so you also
want Wget to back up the original HTML files before the
conversion. Wget invocation would look like this:
wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
* But you've also noticed that local viewing doesn't work all that
well when HTML files are saved under extensions other than `.html',
perhaps because they were served as `index.cgi'. So you'd like
Wget to rename all the files served with content-type `text/html'
or `application/xhtml+xml' to `NAME.html'.
wget --mirror --convert-links --backup-converted \
--html-extension -o /home/me/weeklog \
http://www.gnu.org/
Or, with less typing:
wget -m -k -K -E http://www.gnu.org/ -o /home/me/weeklog
8 Various
*********
This chapter contains all the stuff that could not fit anywhere else.
8.1 Proxies
===========
"Proxies" are special-purpose HTTP servers designed to transfer data
from remote servers to local clients. One typical use of proxies is
lightening network load for users behind a slow connection. This is
achieved by channeling all HTTP and FTP requests through the proxy
which caches the transferred data. When a cached resource is requested
again, proxy will return the data from cache. Another use for proxies
is for companies that separate (for security reasons) their internal
networks from the rest of Internet. In order to obtain information
from the Web, their users connect and retrieve remote data using an
authorized proxy.
Wget supports proxies for both HTTP and FTP retrievals. The
standard way to specify proxy location, which Wget recognizes, is using
the following environment variables:
`http_proxy'
This variable should contain the URL of the proxy for HTTP
connections.
`ftp_proxy'
This variable should contain the URL of the proxy for FTP
connections. It is quite common that HTTP_PROXY and FTP_PROXY are
set to the same URL.
`no_proxy'
This variable should contain a comma-separated list of domain
extensions proxy should _not_ be used for. For instance, if the
value of `no_proxy' is `.mit.edu', proxy will not be used to
retrieve documents from MIT.
In addition to the environment variables, proxy location and settings
may be specified from within Wget itself.
`--no-proxy'
`proxy = on/off'
This option and the corresponding command may be used to suppress
the use of proxy, even if the appropriate environment variables
are set.
`http_proxy = URL'
`ftp_proxy = URL'
`no_proxy = STRING'
These startup file variables allow you to override the proxy
settings specified by the environment.
Some proxy servers require authorization to enable you to use them.
The authorization consists of "username" and "password", which must be
sent by Wget. As with HTTP authorization, several authentication
schemes exist. For proxy authorization only the `Basic' authentication
scheme is currently implemented.
You may specify your username and password either through the proxy
URL or through the command-line options. Assuming that the company's
proxy is located at `proxy.company.com' at port 8001, a proxy URL
location containing authorization data might look like this:
http://hniksic:mypassword@proxy.company.com:8001/
Alternatively, you may use the `proxy-user' and `proxy-password'
options, and the equivalent `.wgetrc' settings `proxy_user' and
`proxy_password' to set the proxy username and password.
8.2 Distribution
================
Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
master GNU archive site ftp.gnu.org, and its mirrors. For example,
Wget 1.10 can be found at
`ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/wget/wget-1.10.tar.gz'
8.3 Mailing List
================
There are several Wget-related mailing lists, all hosted by SunSITE.dk.
The general discussion list is at . It is the
preferred place for bug reports and suggestions, as well as for
discussion of development. You are invited to subscribe.
To subscribe, simply send mail to and
follow the instructions. Unsubscribe by mailing to
. The mailing list is archived at
`http://www.mail-archive.com/wget%40sunsite.dk/' and at
`http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.general'.
The second mailing list is at , and is used
to submit patches for review by Wget developers. A "patch" is a
textual representation of change to source code, readable by both
humans and programs. The file `PATCHES' that comes with Wget covers
the creation and submitting of patches in detail. Please don't send
general suggestions or bug reports to `wget-patches'; use it only for
patch submissions.
To subscribe, simply send mail to and
follow the instructions. Unsubscribe by mailing to
. The mailing list is archived at
`http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wget.patches'.
Finally, there is a read-only list at that
tracks commits to the Wget CVS repository. To subscribe to that list,
send mail to . The list is not archived.
8.4 Reporting Bugs
==================
You are welcome to send bug reports about GNU Wget to
.
Before actually submitting a bug report, please try to follow a few
simple guidelines.
1. Please try to ascertain that the behavior you see really is a bug.
If Wget crashes, it's a bug. If Wget does not behave as
documented, it's a bug. If things work strange, but you are not
sure about the way they are supposed to work, it might well be a
bug.
2. Try to repeat the bug in as simple circumstances as possible.
E.g. if Wget crashes while downloading `wget -rl0 -kKE -t5 -Y0
http://yoyodyne.com -o /tmp/log', you should try to see if the
crash is repeatable, and if will occur with a simpler set of
options. You might even try to start the download at the page
where the crash occurred to see if that page somehow triggered the
crash.
Also, while I will probably be interested to know the contents of
your `.wgetrc' file, just dumping it into the debug message is
probably a bad idea. Instead, you should first try to see if the
bug repeats with `.wgetrc' moved out of the way. Only if it turns
out that `.wgetrc' settings affect the bug, mail me the relevant
parts of the file.
3. Please start Wget with `-d' option and send us the resulting
output (or relevant parts thereof). If Wget was compiled without
debug support, recompile it--it is _much_ easier to trace bugs
with debug support on.
Note: please make sure to remove any potentially sensitive
information from the debug log before sending it to the bug
address. The `-d' won't go out of its way to collect sensitive
information, but the log _will_ contain a fairly complete
transcript of Wget's communication with the server, which may
include passwords and pieces of downloaded data. Since the bug
address is publically archived, you may assume that all bug
reports are visible to the public.
4. If Wget has crashed, try to run it in a debugger, e.g. `gdb `which
wget` core' and type `where' to get the backtrace. This may not
work if the system administrator has disabled core files, but it is
safe to try.
8.5 Portability
===============
Like all GNU software, Wget works on the GNU system. However, since it
uses GNU Autoconf for building and configuring, and mostly avoids using
"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 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 where the
volunteers who maintain the Windows-related features might look at them.
8.6 Signals
===========
Since the purpose of Wget is background work, it catches the hangup
signal (`SIGHUP') and ignores it. If the output was on standard
output, it will be redirected to a file named `wget-log'. Otherwise,
`SIGHUP' is ignored. This is convenient when you wish to redirect the
output of Wget after having started it.
$ wget http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz &
...
$ kill -HUP %%
SIGHUP received, redirecting output to `wget-log'.
Other than that, Wget will not try to interfere with signals in any
way. `C-c', `kill -TERM' and `kill -KILL' should kill it alike.
9 Appendices
************
This chapter contains some references I consider useful.
9.1 Robot Exclusion
===================
It is extremely easy to make Wget wander aimlessly around a web site,
sucking all the available data in progress. `wget -r SITE', and you're
set. Great? Not for the server admin.
As long as Wget is only retrieving static pages, and doing it at a
reasonable rate (see the `--wait' option), there's not much of a
problem. The trouble is that Wget can't tell the difference between the
smallest static page and the most demanding CGI. A site I know has a
section handled by a CGI Perl script that converts Info files to HTML on
the fly. The script is slow, but works well enough for human users
viewing an occasional Info file. However, when someone's recursive Wget
download stumbles upon the index page that links to all the Info files
through the script, the system is brought to its knees without providing
anything useful to the user (This task of converting Info files could be
done locally and access to Info documentation for all installed GNU
software on a system is available from the `info' command).
To avoid this kind of accident, as well as to preserve privacy for
documents that need to be protected from well-behaved robots, the
concept of "robot exclusion" was invented. The idea is that the server
administrators and document authors can specify which portions of the
site they wish to protect from robots and those they will permit access.
The most popular mechanism, and the de facto standard supported by
all the major robots, is the "Robots Exclusion Standard" (RES) written
by Martijn Koster et al. in 1994. It specifies the format of a text
file containing directives that instruct the robots which URL paths to
avoid. To be found by the robots, the specifications must be placed in
`/robots.txt' in the server root, which the robots are expected to
download and parse.
Although Wget is not a web robot in the strictest sense of the word,
it can downloads large parts of the site without the user's
intervention to download an individual page. Because of that, Wget
honors RES when downloading recursively. For instance, when you issue:
wget -r http://www.server.com/
First the index of `www.server.com' will be downloaded. If Wget
finds that it wants to download more documents from that server, it will
request `http://www.server.com/robots.txt' and, if found, use it for
further downloads. `robots.txt' is loaded only once per each server.
Until version 1.8, Wget supported the first version of the standard,
written by Martijn Koster in 1994 and available at
`http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html'. As of version 1.8, Wget
has supported the additional directives specified in the internet draft
`' titled "A Method for Web Robots
Control". The draft, which has as far as I know never made to an RFC,
is available at `http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots-rfc.txt'.
This manual no longer includes the text of the Robot Exclusion
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 `META' tag, like this:
This is explained in some detail at
`http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/meta-user.html'. Wget supports this
method of robot exclusion in addition to the usual `/robots.txt'
exclusion.
If you know what you are doing and really really wish to turn off the
robot exclusion, set the `robots' variable to `off' in your `.wgetrc'.
You can achieve the same effect from the command line using the `-e'
switch, e.g. `wget -e robots=off URL...'.
9.2 Security Considerations
===========================
When using Wget, you must be aware that it sends unencrypted passwords
through the network, which may present a security problem. Here are the
main issues, and some solutions.
1. The passwords on the command line are visible using `ps'. The best
way around it is to use `wget -i -' and feed the URLs to Wget's
standard input, each on a separate line, terminated by `C-d'.
Another workaround is to use `.netrc' to store passwords; however,
storing unencrypted passwords is also considered a security risk.
2. Using the insecure "basic" authentication scheme, unencrypted
passwords are transmitted through the network routers and gateways.
3. The FTP passwords are also in no way encrypted. There is no good
solution for this at the moment.
4. Although the "normal" output of Wget tries to hide the passwords,
debugging logs show them, in all forms. This problem is avoided by
being careful when you send debug logs (yes, even when you send
them to me).
9.3 Contributors
================
GNU Wget was written by Hrvoje Niksic . However,
its development could never have gone as far as it has, were it not for
the help of many people, either with bug reports, feature proposals,
patches, or letters saying "Thanks!".
Special thanks goes to the following people (no particular order):
* Karsten Thygesen--donated system resources such as the mailing
list, web space, and FTP space, along with a lot of time to make
these actually work.
* Shawn McHorse--bug reports and patches.
* Kaveh R. Ghazi--on-the-fly `ansi2knr'-ization. Lots of
portability fixes.
* Gordon Matzigkeit--`.netrc' support.
* Zlatko Calusic, Tomislav Vujec and Drazen Kacar--feature
suggestions and "philosophical" discussions.
* Darko Budor--initial port to Windows.
* Antonio Rosella--help and suggestions, plus the Italian
translation.
* Tomislav Petrovic, Mario Mikocevic--many bug reports and
suggestions.
* Francois Pinard--many thorough bug reports and discussions.
* Karl Eichwalder--lots of help with internationalization and other
things.
* Junio Hamano--donated support for Opie and HTTP `Digest'
authentication.
* The people who provided donations for development, including Brian
Gough.
The following people have provided patches, bug/build reports, useful
suggestions, beta testing services, fan mail and all the other things
that make maintenance so much fun:
Ian Abbott Tim Adam, Adrian Aichner, Martin Baehr, Dieter Baron,
Roger Beeman, Dan Berger, T. Bharath, Christian Biere, Paul Bludov,
Daniel Bodea, Mark Boyns, John Burden, Wanderlei Cavassin, Gilles Cedoc,
Tim Charron, Noel Cragg, Kristijan Conkas, John Daily, Andreas Damm,
Ahmon Dancy, Andrew Davison, Bertrand Demiddelaer, Andrew Deryabin,
Ulrich Drepper, Marc Duponcheel, Damir Dzeko, Alan Eldridge,
Hans-Andreas Engel, Aleksandar Erkalovic, Andy Eskilsson, Christian
Fraenkel, David Fritz, Charles C. Fu, FUJISHIMA Satsuki, Masashi Fujita,
Howard Gayle, Marcel Gerrits, Lemble Gregory, Hans Grobler, Mathieu
Guillaume, Dan Harkless, Aaron Hawley, Herold Heiko, Jochen Hein, Karl
Heuer, HIROSE Masaaki, Ulf Harnhammar, Gregor Hoffleit, Erik Magnus
Hulthen, Richard Huveneers, Jonas Jensen, Larry Jones, Simon Josefsson,
Mario Juric, Hack Kampbjorn, Const Kaplinsky, Goran Kezunovic, Igor
Khristophorov, Robert Kleine, KOJIMA Haime, Fila Kolodny, Alexander
Kourakos, Martin Kraemer, Sami Krank, Simos KSenitellis, Christian
Lackas, Hrvoje Lacko, Daniel S. Lewart, Nicolas Lichtmeier, Dave Love,
Alexander V. Lukyanov, Thomas Lussnig, Andre Majorel, Aurelien Marchand,
Matthew J. Mellon, Jordan Mendelson, Lin Zhe Min, Jan Minar, Tim Mooney,
Keith Moore, Adam D. Moss, Simon Munton, Charlie Negyesi, R. K. Owen,
Leonid Petrov, Simone Piunno, Andrew Pollock, Steve Pothier, Jan
Prikryl, Marin Purgar, Csaba Raduly, Keith Refson, Bill Richardson,
Tyler Riddle, Tobias Ringstrom, Juan Jose Rodriguez, Maciej W. Rozycki,
Edward J. Sabol, Heinz Salzmann, Robert Schmidt, Nicolas Schodet,
Andreas Schwab, Chris Seawood, Dennis Smit, Toomas Soome, Tage
Stabell-Kulo, Philip Stadermann, Daniel Stenberg, Sven Sternberger,
Markus Strasser, John Summerfield, Szakacsits Szabolcs, Mike Thomas,
Philipp Thomas, Mauro Tortonesi, Dave Turner, Gisle Vanem, Russell
Vincent, Zeljko Vrba, Charles G Waldman, Douglas E. Wegscheid, YAMAZAKI
Makoto, Jasmin Zainul, Bojan Zdrnja, Kristijan Zimmer.
Apologies to all who I accidentally left out, and many thanks to all
the subscribers of the Wget mailing list.
10 Copying
**********
GNU Wget is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL),
which makes it "free software". Please note that "free" in "free
software" refers to liberty, not price. As some people like to point
out, it's the "free" of "free speech", not the "free" of "free beer".
The exact and legally binding distribution terms are spelled out
below. The GPL guarantees that you have the right (freedom) to run and
change GNU Wget and distribute it to others, and even--if you
want--charge money for doing any of those things. With these rights
comes the obligation to distribute the source code along with the
software and to grant your recipients the same rights and impose the
same restrictions.
This licensing model is also known as "open source" because it,
among other things, makes sure that all recipients will receive the
source code along with the program, and be able to improve it. The GNU
project prefers the term "free software" for reasons outlined at
`http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html'.
The exact license terms are defined by this paragraph and the GNU
General Public License it refers to:
GNU Wget is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
GNU Wget is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as part of
this manual; if you did not receive it, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
In addition to this, this manual is free in the same sense:
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
Version 1.2 or 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".
The full texts of the GNU General Public License and of the GNU Free
Documentation License are available below.
10.1 GNU General Public License
===============================
Version 2, June 1991
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Preamble
========
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom
to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is
intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
your programs, too.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in
new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software,
and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.
Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
authors' reputations.
Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
1. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a
notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program",
below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on
the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under
copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or a
portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or
translated into another language. (Hereinafter, translation is
included without limitation in the term "modification".) Each
licensee is addressed as "you".
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are
not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act
of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the
Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on
the Program (independent of having been made by running the
Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
2. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any
warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of
this License along with the Program.
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy,
and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange
for a fee.
3. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
a. You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
b. You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that
in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program
or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge
to all third parties under the terms of this License.
c. If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display
an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and
a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you
provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the
program under these conditions, and telling the user how to
view a copy of this License. (Exception: if the Program
itself is interactive but does not normally print such an
announcement, your work based on the Program is not required
to print an announcement.)
These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the
Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate
works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not
apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate
works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a
whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of
the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions
for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each
and every part regardless of who wrote it.
Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or
contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the
intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of
derivative or collective works based on the Program.
In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the
Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on
a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the
other work under the scope of this License.
4. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms
of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the
following:
a. Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
source code, which must be distributed under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for
software interchange; or,
b. Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a
medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
c. Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
received the program in object code or executable form with
such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete
source code means all the source code for all modules it contains,
plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts
used to control compilation and installation of the executable.
However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need
not include anything that is normally distributed (in either
source or binary form) with the major components (compiler,
kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable
runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.
If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
5. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this
License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights,
from you under this License will not have their licenses
terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.
6. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify
or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions
are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.
Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work
based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this
License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying,
distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.
7. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program
subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any
further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights
granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance
by third parties to this License.
8. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent
issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order,
agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this
License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this
License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously
your obligations under this License and any other pertinent
obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the
Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit
royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who
receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only
way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain
entirely from distribution of the Program.
If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable
under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is
intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply
in other circumstances.
It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of
any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting
the integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is
willing to distribute software through any other system and a
licensee cannot impose that choice.
This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed
to be a consequence of the rest of this License.
9. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces,
the original copyright holder who places the Program under this
License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation
excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only
in or among countries not thus excluded. In such case, this
License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of
this License.
10. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new
versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such
new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but
may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the
Program specifies a version number of this License which applies
to it and "any later version", you have the option of following
the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later
version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program
does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose
any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.
11. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the
author to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted
by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software
Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision
will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of
all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing
and reuse of software generally.
NO WARRANTY
12. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO
WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE
LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT
NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE
QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY
SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
13. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN
WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY
MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL,
INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR
INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF
DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU
OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY
OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
=============================================
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these
terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
ONE LINE TO GIVE THE PROGRAM'S NAME AND AN IDEA OF WHAT IT DOES.
Copyright (C) 20YY NAME OF AUTHOR
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper
mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like
this when it starts in an interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 20YY NAME OF AUTHOR
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome
to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c'
for details.
The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the
appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
commands you use may be called something other than `show w' and `show
c'; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your
program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or
your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program,
if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright
interest in the program `Gnomovision'
(which makes passes at compilers) written
by James Hacker.
SIGNATURE OF TY COON, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your
program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine
library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary
applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the
GNU Library General Public License instead of this License.
10.2 GNU Free Documentation License
===================================
Version 1.2, November 2002
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
0. PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to
assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it,
with or without modifying it, either commercially or
noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the
author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not
being considered responsible for modifications made by others.
This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative
works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense.
It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft
license designed for free software.
We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for
free software, because free software needs free documentation: a
free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms
that the software does. But this License is not limited to
software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless
of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book.
We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is
instruction or reference.
1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium,
that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it
can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice
grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration,
to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The
"Document", below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member
of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you". You
accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a
way requiring permission under copyright law.
A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the
Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with
modifications and/or translated into another language.
A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section
of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the
publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall
subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could
fall directly within that overall subject. (Thus, if the Document
is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not
explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of
historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or
of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position
regarding them.
The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose
titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in
the notice that says that the Document is released under this
License. If a section does not fit the above definition of
Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant.
The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document
does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.
The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are
listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice
that says that the Document is released under this License. A
Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may
be at most 25 words.
A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy,
represented in a format whose specification is available to the
general public, that is suitable for revising the document
straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images
composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some
widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to
text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of
formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an
otherwise Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of
markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent
modification by readers is not Transparent. An image format is
not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A
copy that is not "Transparent" is called "Opaque".
Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain
ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format,
SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and
standard-conforming simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for
human modification. Examples of transparent image formats include
PNG, XCF and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that
can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or
XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally
available, and the machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF
produced by some word processors for output purposes only.
The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself,
plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the
material this License requires to appear in the title page. For
works in formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title
Page" means the text near the most prominent appearance of the
work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.
A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named subunit of the Document
whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses
following text that translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ
stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as
"Acknowledgements", "Dedications", "Endorsements", or "History".)
To "Preserve the Title" of such a section when you modify the
Document means that it remains a section "Entitled XYZ" according
to this definition.
The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice
which states that this License applies to the Document. These
Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in
this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other
implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and
has no effect on the meaning of this License.
2. VERBATIM COPYING
You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License
applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you
add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You
may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading
or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However,
you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you
distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow
the conditions in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above,
and you may publicly display copies.
3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly
have printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and
the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must
enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all
these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and
Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly
and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The
front cover must present the full title with all words of the
title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material
on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the
covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and
satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in
other respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto
adjacent pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document
numbering more than 100, you must either include a
machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or
state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from
which the general network-using public has access to download
using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent
copy of the Document, free of added material. If you use the
latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you
begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that
this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated
location until at least one year after the last time you
distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or
retailers) of that edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of
the Document well before redistributing any large number of
copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated
version of the Document.
4. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document
under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you
release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with
the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus
licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to
whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these
things in the Modified Version:
A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title
distinct from that of the Document, and from those of
previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed
in the History section of the Document). You may use the
same title as a previous version if the original publisher of
that version gives permission.
B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or
entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in
the Modified Version, together with at least five of the
principal authors of the Document (all of its principal
authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you
from this requirement.
C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the
Modified Version, as the publisher.
D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
adjacent to the other copyright notices.
F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license
notice giving the public permission to use the Modified
Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in
the Addendum below.
G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant
Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's
license notice.
H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title,
and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new
authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on
the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled "History" in
the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors,
and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page,
then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in
the previous sentence.
J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document
for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and
likewise the network locations given in the Document for
previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in
the "History" section. You may omit a network location for a
work that was published at least four years before the
Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version
it refers to gives permission.
K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications",
Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the
section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor
acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document,
unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers
or the equivalent are not considered part of the section
titles.
M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements". Such a section
may not be included in the Modified Version.
N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled
"Endorsements" or to conflict in title with any Invariant
Section.
O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or
appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no
material copied from the Document, you may at your option
designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this,
add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified
Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from any
other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains
nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text
has been approved by an organization as the authoritative
definition of a standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text,
and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end
of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one
passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be
added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the
Document already includes a cover text for the same cover,
previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity
you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may
replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous
publisher that added the old one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this
License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to
assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.
5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under
this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for
modified versions, provided that you include in the combination
all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents,
unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your
combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all
their Warranty Disclaimers.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name
but different contents, make the title of each such section unique
by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the
original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a
unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in
the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the
combined work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled
"History" in the various original documents, forming one section
Entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled
"Acknowledgements", and any sections Entitled "Dedications". You
must delete all sections Entitled "Endorsements."
6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other
documents released under this License, and replace the individual
copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy
that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the
rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the
documents in all other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and
distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert
a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow
this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of
that document.
7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other
separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of
a storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the
copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the
legal rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual
works permit. When the Document is included in an aggregate, this
License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which
are not themselves derivative works of the Document.
If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these
copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half
of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed
on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the
electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic
form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket
the whole aggregate.
8. TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section
4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a
translation of this License, and all the license notices in the
Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also
include the original English version of this License and the
original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a
disagreement between the translation and the original version of
this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will
prevail.
If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements",
"Dedications", or "History", the requirement (section 4) to
Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the
actual title.
9. TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document
except as expressly provided for under this License. Any other
attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is
void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this
License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights,
from you under this License will not have their licenses
terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.
10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of
the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new
versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See
`http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/'.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version
number. If the Document specifies that a particular numbered
version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you
have the option of following the terms and conditions either of
that specified version or of any later version that has been
published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If
the Document does not specify a version number of this License,
you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the
Free Software Foundation.
10.2.1 ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
-----------------------------------------------------------
To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of
the License in the document and put the following copyright and license
notices just after the title page:
Copyright (C) YEAR YOUR NAME.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
Free Documentation License''.
If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover
Texts, replace the "with...Texts." line with this:
with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with
the Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts
being LIST.
If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other
combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the
situation.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of
free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to
permit their use in free software.
Concept Index
*************
.html extension: See 2.7. (line 822)
.listing files, removing: See 2.9. (line 1207)
.netrc: See 6. (line 1965)
.wgetrc: See 6. (line 1965)
accept directories: See 4.3. (line 1733)
accept suffixes: See 4.2. (line 1678)
accept wildcards: See 4.2. (line 1678)
append to log: See 2.4. (line 279)
arguments: See 2. (line 109)
authentication <1>: See 2.7. (line 843)
authentication: See 2.5. (line 747)
backing up converted files: See 2.10. (line 1358)
bandwidth, limit: See 2.5. (line 554)
base for relative links in input file: See 2.4. (line 336)
bind address: See 2.5. (line 344)
bug reports: See 8.4. (line 2835)
bugs: See 8.4. (line 2835)
cache: See 2.7. (line 859)
caching of DNS lookups: See 2.5. (line 640)
client IP address: See 2.5. (line 344)
clobbering, file: See 2.5. (line 368)
command line: See 2. (line 109)
comments, HTML: See 2.10. (line 1436)
connect timeout: See 2.5. (line 537)
Content-Length, ignore: See 2.7. (line 948)
continue retrieval: See 2.5. (line 402)
contributors: See 9.3. (line 3029)
conversion of links: See 2.10. (line 1319)
cookies: See 2.7. (line 868)
cookies, loading: See 2.7. (line 878)
cookies, saving: See 2.7. (line 926)
cookies, session: See 2.7. (line 931)
copying: See 10. (line 3109)
cut directories: See 2.6. (line 784)
debug: See 2.4. (line 285)
delete after retrieval: See 2.10. (line 1303)
directories: See 4.3. (line 1722)
directories, exclude: See 4.3. (line 1746)
directories, include: See 4.3. (line 1733)
directory limits: See 4.3. (line 1722)
directory prefix: See 2.6. (line 812)
DNS cache: See 2.5. (line 640)
DNS timeout: See 2.5. (line 531)
dot style: See 2.5. (line 463)
downloading multiple times: See 2.5. (line 368)
EGD: See 2.8. (line 1170)
entropy, specifying source of: See 2.8. (line 1154)
examples: See 7. (line 2554)
exclude directories: See 4.3. (line 1746)
execute wgetrc command: See 2.3. (line 262)
FDL, GNU Free Documentation License: See 10.2. (line 3519)
features: See 1. (line 29)
file names, restrict: See 2.5. (line 659)
filling proxy cache: See 2.10. (line 1303)
follow FTP links: See 2.11. (line 1485)
following ftp links: See 4.5. (line 1807)
following links: See 4. (line 1608)
force html: See 2.4. (line 329)
free software: See 10. (line 3109)
ftp authentication: See 2.9. (line 1192)
ftp password: See 2.9. (line 1192)
ftp time-stamping: See 5.3. (line 1938)
ftp user: See 2.9. (line 1192)
GFDL: See 10. (line 3109)
globbing, toggle: See 2.9. (line 1231)
GPL: See 10. (line 3109)
hangup: See 8.6. (line 2910)
header, add: See 2.7. (line 959)
hosts, spanning: See 4.1. (line 1622)
HTML comments: See 2.10. (line 1436)
http password: See 2.7. (line 843)
http referer: See 2.7. (line 994)
http time-stamping: See 5.2. (line 1907)
http user: See 2.7. (line 843)
ignore length: See 2.7. (line 948)
include directories: See 4.3. (line 1733)
incomplete downloads: See 2.5. (line 402)
incremental updating: See 5. (line 1825)
input-file: See 2.4. (line 311)
invoking: See 2. (line 109)
IP address, client: See 2.5. (line 344)
IPv6: See 2.5. (line 694)
Keep-Alive, turning off: See 2.9. (line 1278)
latest version: See 8.2. (line 2796)
limit bandwidth: See 2.5. (line 554)
link conversion: See 2.10. (line 1319)
links: See 4. (line 1608)
list: See 8.3. (line 2804)
loading cookies: See 2.7. (line 878)
location of wgetrc: See 6.1. (line 1981)
log file: See 2.4. (line 274)
mailing list: See 8.3. (line 2804)
mirroring: See 7.3. (line 2692)
no parent: See 4.3. (line 1759)
no warranty: See 10.1. (line 3427)
no-clobber: See 2.5. (line 368)
nohup: See 2. (line 109)
number of retries: See 2.5. (line 350)
operating systems: See 8.5. (line 2884)
option syntax: See 2.2. (line 189)
output file: See 2.4. (line 274)
overview: See 1. (line 29)
page requisites: See 2.10. (line 1371)
passive ftp: See 2.9. (line 1247)
password: See 2.5. (line 747)
pause: See 2.5. (line 574)
Persistent Connections, disabling: See 2.9. (line 1278)
portability: See 8.5. (line 2884)
POST: See 2.7. (line 1027)
progress indicator: See 2.5. (line 463)
proxies: See 8.1. (line 2731)
proxy <1>: See 2.7. (line 859)
proxy: See 2.5. (line 617)
proxy authentication: See 2.7. (line 985)
proxy filling: See 2.10. (line 1303)
proxy password: See 2.7. (line 985)
proxy user: See 2.7. (line 985)
quiet: See 2.4. (line 296)
quota: See 2.5. (line 624)
random wait: See 2.5. (line 599)
randomness, specifying source of: See 2.8. (line 1154)
rate, limit: See 2.5. (line 554)
read timeout: See 2.5. (line 542)
recursion: See 3. (line 1547)
recursive download: See 3. (line 1547)
redirecting output: See 7.2. (line 2679)
referer, http: See 2.7. (line 994)
reject directories: See 4.3. (line 1746)
reject suffixes: See 4.2. (line 1697)
reject wildcards: See 4.2. (line 1697)
relative links: See 4.4. (line 1783)
reporting bugs: See 8.4. (line 2835)
required images, downloading: See 2.10. (line 1371)
resume download: See 2.5. (line 402)
retries: See 2.5. (line 350)
retries, waiting between: See 2.5. (line 587)
retrieving: See 3. (line 1547)
robot exclusion: See 9.1. (line 2932)
robots.txt: See 9.1. (line 2932)
sample wgetrc: See 6.4. (line 2432)
saving cookies: See 2.7. (line 926)
security: See 9.2. (line 3005)
server maintenance: See 9.1. (line 2932)
server response, print: See 2.5. (line 497)
server response, save: See 2.7. (line 1001)
session cookies: See 2.7. (line 931)
signal handling: See 8.6. (line 2910)
spanning hosts: See 4.1. (line 1622)
spider: See 2.5. (line 502)
SSL: See 2.8. (line 1075)
SSL certificate: See 2.8. (line 1116)
SSL certificate authority: See 2.8. (line 1142)
SSL certificate type, specify: See 2.8. (line 1122)
SSL certificate, check: See 2.8. (line 1092)
SSL protocol, choose: See 2.8. (line 1079)
startup: See 6. (line 1965)
startup file: See 6. (line 1965)
suffixes, accept: See 4.2. (line 1678)
suffixes, reject: See 4.2. (line 1697)
symbolic links, retrieving: See 2.9. (line 1259)
syntax of options: See 2.2. (line 189)
syntax of wgetrc: See 6.2. (line 2000)
tag-based recursive pruning: See 2.11. (line 1489)
time-stamping: See 5. (line 1825)
time-stamping usage: See 5.1. (line 1861)
timeout: See 2.5. (line 513)
timeout, connect: See 2.5. (line 537)
timeout, DNS: See 2.5. (line 531)
timeout, read: See 2.5. (line 542)
timestamping: See 5. (line 1825)
tries: See 2.5. (line 350)
types of files: See 4.2. (line 1669)
updating the archives: See 5. (line 1825)
URL: See 2.1. (line 124)
URL syntax: See 2.1. (line 124)
usage, time-stamping: See 5.1. (line 1861)
user: See 2.5. (line 747)
user-agent: See 2.7. (line 1005)
various: See 8. (line 2726)
verbose: See 2.4. (line 300)
wait: See 2.5. (line 574)
wait, random: See 2.5. (line 599)
waiting between retries: See 2.5. (line 587)
Wget as spider: See 2.5. (line 502)
wgetrc: See 6. (line 1965)
wgetrc commands: See 6.3. (line 2020)
wgetrc location: See 6.1. (line 1981)
wgetrc syntax: See 6.2. (line 2000)
wildcards, accept: See 4.2. (line 1678)
wildcards, reject: See 4.2. (line 1697)
Windows file names: See 2.5. (line 659)
Table of Contents
*****************
Wget 1.10
1 Overview
2 Invoking
2.1 URL Format
2.2 Option Syntax
2.3 Basic Startup Options
2.4 Logging and Input File Options
2.5 Download Options
2.6 Directory Options
2.7 HTTP Options
2.8 HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
2.9 FTP Options
2.10 Recursive Retrieval Options
2.11 Recursive Accept/Reject Options
3 Recursive Download
4 Following Links
4.1 Spanning Hosts
4.2 Types of Files
4.3 Directory-Based Limits
4.4 Relative Links
4.5 Following FTP Links
5 Time-Stamping
5.1 Time-Stamping Usage
5.2 HTTP Time-Stamping Internals
5.3 FTP Time-Stamping Internals
6 Startup File
6.1 Wgetrc Location
6.2 Wgetrc Syntax
6.3 Wgetrc Commands
6.4 Sample Wgetrc
7 Examples
7.1 Simple Usage
7.2 Advanced Usage
7.3 Very Advanced Usage
8 Various
8.1 Proxies
8.2 Distribution
8.3 Mailing List
8.4 Reporting Bugs
8.5 Portability
8.6 Signals
9 Appendices
9.1 Robot Exclusion
9.2 Security Considerations
9.3 Contributors
10 Copying
10.1 GNU General Public License
Preamble
How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
10.2 GNU Free Documentation License
10.2.1 ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
Concept Index