diff --git a/doc/ChangeLog b/doc/ChangeLog index f17694d9..123d30ec 100644 --- a/doc/ChangeLog +++ b/doc/ChangeLog @@ -1,3 +1,8 @@ +2001-04-01 Hrvoje Niksic + + * wget.texi (Recursive Retrieval Options): Document more + accurately what --convert-links does. + 2001-03-27 Dan Harkless * Makefile.in: Moved top_builddir out of "User configuration diff --git a/doc/wget.texi b/doc/wget.texi index 11c501fd..ff741543 100644 --- a/doc/wget.texi +++ b/doc/wget.texi @@ -1026,13 +1026,44 @@ created in the first place. @cindex link conversion @item -k @itemx --convert-links -Convert the non-relative links to relative ones locally. Only the -references to the documents actually downloaded will be converted; the -rest will be left unchanged. +After the download is complete, convert the links in the document to +make them suitable for local viewing. This affects not only the visible +hyperlinks, but any part of the document that links to external content, +such as embedded images, links to style sheets, hyperlinks to non-HTML +content, etc. + +Each link will be changed in one of the two ways: + +@itemize @bullet +@item +The links to files that have been downloaded by Wget will be changed to +refer to the file they point to as a relative link. + +Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to +@file{/bar/img.gif}, also downloaded, then the link in @file{doc.html} +will be modified to point to @samp{../bar/img.gif}. This kind of +transformation works reliably for arbitrary combinations of directories. + +@item +The links to files that have not been downloaded by Wget will be changed +to include host name and absolute path of the location they point to. + +Example: if the downloaded file @file{/foo/doc.html} links to +@file{/bar/img.gif} (or to @file{../bar/img.gif}), then the link in +@file{doc.html} will be modified to point to +@file{http://@var{hostname}/bar/img.gif}. +@end itemize + +Because of this, local browsing works reliably: if a linked file was +downloaded, the link will refer to its local name; if it was not +downloaded, the link will refer to its full Internet address rather than +presenting a broken link. The fact that the former links are converted +to relative links ensures that you can move the downloaded hierarchy to +another directory. Note that only at the end of the download can Wget know which links have -been downloaded. Because of that, much of the work done by @samp{-k} -will be performed at the end of the downloads. +been downloaded. Because of that, the work done by @samp{-k} will be +performed at the end of all the downloads. @cindex backing up converted files @item -K