wget/README

                                                          -*- text -*-
GNU Wget
========              (Temporary) home: http://sunsite.dk/wget/

GNU Wget is a free network utility to retrieve files from the World
Wide Web using HTTP and FTP, the two most widely used Internet
protocols.  It works non-interactively, thus enabling work in the
background, after having logged off.

The recursive retrieval of HTML pages, as well as FTP sites is
supported -- you can use Wget to make mirrors of archives and home
pages, or traverse the web like a WWW robot (Wget understands
/robots.txt).

Wget works exceedingly well on slow or unstable connections, keeping
getting the document until it is fully retrieved.  Re-getting files
from where it left off works on servers (both HTTP and FTP) that
support it.  Matching of wildcards and recursive mirroring of
directories are available when retrieving via FTP.  Both HTTP and FTP
retrievals can be time-stamped, thus Wget can see if the remote file
has changed since last retrieval and automatically retrieve the new
version if it has.

Wget supports proxy servers, which can lighten the network load, speed
up retrieval and provide access behind firewalls.  If you are behind a
firewall that requires the use of a socks style gateway, you can get
the socks library and compile wget with support for socks.

Most of the features are configurable, either through command-line
options, or via initialization file .wgetrc.  Wget allows you to
install a global startup file (/usr/local/etc/wgetrc by default) for
site settings.

Wget works under almost all modern Unix variants and, unlike many
other similar utilities, is written entirely in C, thus requiring no
additional software (like perl).  As Wget uses the GNU Autoconf, it is
easily built on and ported to other Unix's. Installation procedure is
described in the INSTALL file.

Like all GNU utilities, the latest version of Wget can be found at the
master GNU archive site ftp.gnu.org, and its mirrors.  For example,
Wget 1.6 is at:

    <URL:ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/wget/wget-1.6.tar.gz>.

Please report bugs in Wget to <bug-wget@gnu.org>.

Wget has a mailing list at <wget@sunsite.dk>.  To subscribe, mail to
<wget-subscribe@sunsite.dk>.  Wget's home page is temporarily at
<URL:http://sunsite.dk/wget/>.  It will soon be moved to www.gnu.org.

Wget is free in all senses -- it is freely redistributable, and no
payment is required.  If you still wish to donate money to the
developers or fund the development for a specific purpose, please send
mail to the development mailing list at <wget@sunsite.dk>.


MAINTAINERS: Dan Harkless <wget@harkless.org>
             Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@arsdigita.com>

Wget was originally written by Hrvoje Niksic.


Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.