(wget = DM) != GUI

Wget the default download manager in *nix systems is a very versatile tool. I will be focusing on some of its very important features useful to a end user. So here we begin :

1. Simply downloading a file :

   $ wget <URL>

   Or better :

   $ wget -c <URL>

   -c or --continue lets you resume your incomplete download done using wget or a different program


2. Downloading a file silently (a very imp. feature in wget, to work in background) :

   $ wget -q <URL> &

3. Taking a log of all messages :

   $ wget <URL> -o filename

4. Downloading files from a Queue :

   $ wget -i filename

   Strore all download links in a file separated by Return key and link it with wget
5. Set your no. of retries and timeout seconds :

   $ wget -t <no. to tries> -T <duration> <URL>

6. Displaying the content of a file rather than saving it on Hard Disk :

   $ wget -O - <URL>

7. Retrieving all file with a particular extension from a web directory :

   $ wget -r -l1 -np -A.<extension> <directory>

   Example for http://www.abc.com/def/*.jpg

   $ wget -r -l1 -np -A.jpg http://www.abd.com/def/

8. Downloading an entire Web Site :

   $ wget -c -r -nc -p -D <domain> -k <URL>

   For this I have written a script for easy downloading :

   #!/bin/bash
   
   # Bash Script for Web Site downloading by GNUger
   # Syntax : $ sitesdwn [URL]
   
   command="wget -c -r -p -k"
   domain=$(echo $1 | cut -d/ -f3 | cut --complement -d. -f1)
   
   echo
   read -p "Download within $domain only (y/n) : " opinion
   if [[ $opinion == 'y' ]] ; then
    command="$command -D $domain"
   fi
   read -p "Disable overwriting existing files (y/n) : " opinion
   if [[ $opinion == 'y' ]] ; then
    command="$command -nc"
   fi
   read -p "Download outside the current directory (y/n) : " opinion
   if [[ $opinion == 'n' ]] ; then
         command="$command -np"
   fi
   read -p "Save as HTML extension (y/n) : " opinion
   if [[ $opinion == 'y' ]] ; then
         command="$command -E"
   fi
   read -p "Enable compatibility with Windows (y/n) : " opinion
   if [[ $opinion == 'y' ]] ; then
         command="$command --restrict-file-names=windows"
   fi
   echo "Downloading ... "
   echo
   $command $1
   echo
   echo "End"
   exit 1
   fi

   Or download the script from here. Syntax :

   ./sitedwn.sh <URL>

This is not it.. there's hell lot more but beyond the scope of this post. So just read the Manuals (worth reading specially the Examples part). There are GUI version for wget :

• GWget - For Gnome
• Kget - For KDE

But they does not provide you so many options and manual customizations as wget (CLI) does.

References : man pages of wget, Linux Journal