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Installation

wget

Date: 11-11-2015

Use wget to download files from any location (internet, ftp, etc.) in a terminal window.

Download and Install wget

Windows

Download the executable file from https://eternallybored.org/misc/wget/. Choose the 32-bit or 64-bit version based on your system. 

Copy the downloaded wget.exe file into the C:\Windows\System32 directory. This allows you to run wget from any command prompt.

Open a terminal window and run:

wget -V 

to verify the installation.

macOS

If needed, install homebrew using the following command:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

To install wget run:

brew install wget

Run 

wget -V 

to verify the installation.

Linux

wget is often pre-installed on Linux systems.

To check if it is installed run 

wget -V

If not installed use your distribution's package manager to install it:

Debian/Ubuntu:

apt-get install wget 

Fedora/CentOS:

yum install wget 

Syntax

wget  

Path Types

http://host[:port]/directory/file 
https://host[:port]/directory/file 
ftp://host[:port]/directory/file 

Options

-v Shows progress and other verbose information 
-nc Prevents overwriting if same file exists in the current directory 
-c Auto-resumes download should it be interrupted
-w Set number of seconds for download to wait before beginning (i.e. -w=30 will cause a 30 second wait before the download is tried) 
-4 Uses IPv4 only
-6 Uses IPv6 only 
--user Allows a username to be included (useful for https and ftp connections) 
--password Allows the password to be included (note: passed plaintext)
--ask-password Prompts for password after connection is established 
-P Allows you set a prefix on all directories created (i.e. -P Sub will cause all directories created by the download to start with Sub…) as well as allowing you to specify a download location (i.e. -P /tmp/ will cause the download to be placed in the /tmp directory)