(wget.info.gz) Overview

 
 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 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 also supports the passive FTP downloading
      as an option.
 
 
    * Builtin features offer mechanisms to tune which links you wish to
      follow ( Following Links).
 
 
    * The retrieval is conveniently traced with printing dots, each dot
      representing a fixed amount of data received (1KB by default).
      These representations can be customized to your preferences.
 
 
    * Most of the features are fully configurable, either through
      command line options, or via the initialization file `.wgetrc'
      ( 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 ( Copying).
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