Home > Wget

It is written in a highly portable style of C. It is a command line program and is used mainly on Unix systems. Graphical front-ends such as gwget and builds for Microsoft Windows platforms are also available.

Wget is also non-interactive, meaning that it can work in the background, while the user is not logged on. By contrast, most Web browsers require constant user presence, which can be a great hindrance when transferring a lot of data.

When mirroring, or "recursive downloading," wget respects the Robots Exclusion Standard. Wget can be instructed to convert the links in downloaded HTMLHyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a markup language designed for creating web pages, that is, information presented on the World Wide Web. Defined as a simple "application" of SGML, which is used by organizations with complex publishing requirements, HT 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 timestamp 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, continuing from where it left off.

Wget supports proxy serverA proxy server is a computer network service which allows clients to make indirect network connections to other network services. A client connects to the proxy server, then requests a connection, file, or other resource available on a different server.s, which can lighten the network load, speed up retrieval and provide access behind firewallFirewalls protect against the spread of fire or of other danger. Firewalls in construction In the traditional meaning in construction, a firewall consists of a windowless, fireproof wall (or a wall of substantially heavier construction than other walls ins.

Wget does not support files over 2 gibibyteA Gibibyte is a unit of information or computer storage. 1 Gibibyte 230 bytes 1 073 741 824 bytes Mebibyte 9 bytes 1 000 000 000 bytes It is abbreviated Gi-, as in GiB for Gibibytes. See also Binary prefix Units of information.s in size. This has led people to use alternatives, such as ncftpget or cURLcURL is a command line tool for transferring files with URL syntax, supporting FTP, SFTP, HTTP, HTTPS, GOPHER, TELNET, DICT, FILE and LDAP. cURL supports HTTPS certificates, HTTP POST, HTTP PUT, FTP uploading, Kerberos, HTTP form based upload, proxies, co.

Portions of this article are based on the Wget documentation.