How To Use Wget Windows

What is wget?

Wget is a free GNU command-line utility tool used to download files from the internet. It retrieves files using HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP protocols.

It serves as a tool to sustain unstable and slow network connections. If a network problem occurs during a download, this helpful software can resume retrieving the files without starting from scratch.

Some other of import aspect is its capability of recursive downloads, with which it mirrors websites. It transfers parts of a website by post-obit links and directory structure, thus creating local versions of webpages.

The wget command is also highly flexible and can exist used in terminals, scripts, and cron jobs. During the download, the user does non have to be active nor logged in. As wget is not-interactive, it tin can independently run in the groundwork.

Read this article to learn how to utilize some of the almost common wget commands.

Tutorial on how to use wget commands with examples.

How to Check if wget is Installed?

Well-nigh likely, the wget package is already on your organisation every bit it at present comes pre-installed on most Linux distributions.

To check, open the terminal window and type in:

          wget

If y'all take the wget software, the output tells y'all that the wget command is missing a URL, as shown in the paradigm below:

wget Command Non Found

If the output displays wget control not plant you need to download and install the tool manually. Beneath yous will find the installation instructions for Ubuntu/Debian, CentOS, and Windows.

How to Install wget on Ubuntu/Debian?

To install wget on Ubuntu or Debian releases, utilize the command:

          sudo apt-get install wget

How to Install wget on CentOS/Fedora?

To install wget on CentOS or Fedora, type the post-obit command:

          sudo yum install wget

How to Install wget on Windows?

To install and configure wget for Windows:

Download wget for Windows and install the package.
Add the wget bin path to environment variables (optional). Configuring this removes the need for full paths, and makes information technology a lot easier to run wget from the command prompt:
- Open the Kickoff card and search for "surround."
- Select Edit the system environment variables.
- Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
- Select the Path variable under System Variables.
- Click Edit.
- In the Variable value field add the path to the wget bin directory preceded by a semicolon (;). If installed in the default path, add together C:Plan Files (x86)GnuWin32bin .
Open the command prompt (cmd.exe) and start running wget commands.

Introduction to wget Syntax

The wget syntax has the following pattern:

          wget [option][URL]

Each [pick] has its long and brusque course which are conveniently interchangeable. This aspect specifies what to do with the URL that follows.

[URL] is the accost of the file or directory y'all wish to download.

wget Control Examples

Download File from Web

To download a file from the web use:

          wget [URL]

For case, to install Tomcat 9, offset you demand to download the package with wget using the command:

          wget http://apache.cs.utah.edu/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.xx/bin/apache-tomcat-ix.0.20.tar.gz

Download File and Relieve Under Specific Name

To download a file and save it under a specified proper name run:

          wget -O [file_name] [URL]

The wget command allows you to rename files prior to downloading them on your figurer.

For case, you may desire to install Terraform. To download the packet and rename it terraform.zip utilize the post-obit command:

          wget -O terraform.zip https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/0.12.2/terraform_0.12.2_linux_amd64.cipher

Download File to Specific Directory

By default wget downloads a file in the directory the user is in. To save the file in a dissimilar location, add together the -P option:

          wget -P [wanted_directory] [URL]

For example, while installing Git on Ubuntu, y'all tin download the package in the /temp directory with the command:

          wget -P /temp https://github.com/git/git/archive/master.zip

Set up Download Speed

You can set the download speed when downloading a big file, so it does not apply the full available bandwidth. The download speed is defined in kilobytes (k) and megabytes (m). Use the control:

          wget --limit-rate [wanted_speed] [URL]

For case, if y'all are installing NVIDIA TESLA drivers on Linux and want to limit the download speed to 1 megabyte, would apply the control:

          wget --limit-charge per unit 1m http://us.download.nvidia.com/tesla/396.37/nvidia-diag-driver-local-repo-ubuntu1710-396.37_1.0-1_amd64.deb

Continue Download After Interruption

Instead of having to first from scratch, wget tin resume downloading where it stopped before the interruption. This is a useful characteristic if at that place is a lost of connexion while downloading a file.

          wget -c [URL]

For instance, you may want to install a Grumble Server on Linux and suddenly lose internet connection while downloading the installation file. To continue downloading, type in the command:

          wget -c https://github.com/mumble-voip/mumble/releases/download/1.2.xix/murmur-static_x86-i.two.19.tar.bz2

Download Multiple Files

wget allows downloading multiple files at the same fourth dimension using the command:

          wget -i [file_name]

To do so, follow the steps outlined beneath:

ane. Showtime, create and open a file nether the name MultipleDownloads.txt (or a name of your choice), using a text editor. In this instance, nosotros used Nano:

          nano MultipleDownloads.txt

2. One time in the editor, add together the URLs of the packages you want to download, one per line.

3. Save and go out the file.

4. Run the post-obit wget command in the terminal window:

          wget -i MultipleDownloads.txt

This prompts wget to download from each URL in the text file.

Download Spider web page (Mirror Web page)

With wget you lot can download an entire website from the cyberspace, using the -yard pick. It prompts wget to create a mirror of the specified webpage. The basic command for doing so is:

          wget -m [URL]

For example:

          wget -m <a href="https://phoenixnap.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://phoenixnap.com</a>

Download via FTP

To download via FTP, type in the username and password of the FTP server, followed past the ftp address:

          wget --ftp-user=[ftp_username] --ftp-password=[ftp_password] ftp://...

For instance:

          wget --ftp-user=sofiftp --ftp-countersign=TopSecretPassword ftp://123.456.7890

Download in Background

You lot can download in the background, a practical characteristic when dealing with a large file:

          wget -b [URL]

You can cheque the status of the download with the command:

          tail -f wget -log

To download the RPM packet manager in the background, blazon:

          wget -b http://some_website/sample_file.rpm

Increase Retry Attempts

You tin set how many times wget attempts to download a file afterward existence interrupted by a bad network with:

          wget --tries=[number_of_tries] [URL]

By default, the number of retry attempts is set to twenty.

You tin can also gear up the number to infinity with the values 0 or inf, as in the following instance:

          wget --tries=inf http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/rhel/virtualbox.repo

Skip Certificate Check

By default, wget checks whether the server has a valid SSL/TLS document. If it does not identify an authentic certificate, it refuses to download.

The --no-check-certificate pick is used to avoid certificate government checking for a server certificate. However, utilize it only if you are sure of the website's brownie or are not worried almost security issues it may cause.

          wget --no-check-certificate [URL]

If http://enteratonerisk.com has an untrusted document, merely will not harm the arrangement, y'all tin download it with:

          wget --no-check-certificate http://enteratonerisk.com

Change User Agent

When downloading a webpage, wget essentially emulates a browser. In some cases, the output might say you don't have permission to admission the server, or that the connection is forbidden. This may be due to a website blocking client browsers that have a specific "User-Amanuensis."

"User-Agent" is a header field that the browser sends to the server information technology wants to access. Therefore, to download from a server that is refusing to connect, try to modify the user agent.

Find a database of all user agents online, search for the 1 yous need and run the command:

          wget --user-agent="User Amanuensis Here" "[URL]"

          wget -U "User Agent Hither" "[URL]"

For example, to emulate Chrome (version 74), you would modify the user agent with the command:

          wget --user-agent=" Mozilla/v.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/74.0.3729.169 Safari/537.36" "https://phoenixnap.com"

Note: Make certain you always download from a trusted source because wget can instruct a download of a script from a malicious source. We outline this and many other dangerous commands in our article 14 Unsafe Linux Terminal Commands.

Conclusion

This article sums up why wget is such a powerful tool for downloading files over the internet. It also serves as a skilful reference for beginners with its list of 12 essential wget commands and examples.

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