I am looking for a Win32 command-line (console) utility, suitable for
being driven from a BAT script, which accepts as input a URL and then
downloads the referenced web page (or other file) to my local disk.

The effect that I want to produce is exactly that I would get by right-
clicking on a link in a web browser and choosing from the popup menu
"save link target as..." except this one would be driven entirely from
the command line, without graphics, popups, or point-and-click.

I began to write my own, but it's harder than it looks; it involves
parsing the URL from the command line, to get the host name, issuing a
DNS query to get its IP address, opening a socket and speaking HTTP
to request the file, then interpreting the HTTP reply to reconstruct
the file and save it locally.

Might be easier if someone else has already done it.

Any suggestions?

- Rich

On Thu, 03 May 2007 01:05:22 -0400, Rich Pasco <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I am looking for a Win32 command-line (console) utility, suitable for
>being driven from a BAT script, which accepts as input a URL and then
>downloads the referenced web page (or other file) to my local disk.

WGET

foxidrive wrote:

> On Thu, 03 May 2007 01:05:22 -0400, Rich Pasco <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>
>>I am looking for a Win32 command-line (console) utility, suitable for
>>being driven from a BAT script, which accepts as input a URL and then
>>downloads the referenced web page (or other file) to my local disk.
>
>
> WGET


Download: http://UnxUtils.sourceforge.net

--
Olof Lagerkvist
ICQ: 724451
Web: http://here.is/olof

foxidrive wrote:

> On Thu, 03 May 2007 01:05:22 -0400, Rich Pasco <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>>I am looking for a Win32 command-line (console) utility, suitable for
>>being driven from a BAT script, which accepts as input a URL and then
>>downloads the referenced web page (or other file) to my local disk.
>
> WGET

Thank you! I found it at http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html

- Rich

"Rich Pasco" <(E-Mail Removed)> schrieb:

> I am looking for a Win32 command-line (console) utility, suitable for
> being driven from a BAT script, which accepts as input a URL and then
> downloads the referenced web page (or other file) to my local disk.

Microsoft's BITSAdmin.exe controls the built-in BITS, but is restricted
to http.
If you want a more versatile utility, then get cURL http://curl.haxx.se/;
it's "better" than WGET.

Stefan

In microsoft.public.win2000.cmdprompt.admin, Rich Pasco wrote:

> foxidrive wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 03 May 2007 01:05:22 -0400, Rich Pasco
>> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>>>I am looking for a Win32 command-line (console) utility,
>>>suitable for being driven from a BAT script, which accepts as
>>>input a URL and then downloads the referenced web page (or
>>>other file) to my local disk.
>>
>> WGET
>
> Thank you! I found it at
> http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html


Here are two more links to round it out.

http://xoomer.alice.it/hherold/

http://users.ugent.be/~bpuype/wget/ (win32 only)

Stefan Kanthak wrote:

> Microsoft's BITSAdmin.exe controls the built-in BITS, but is restricted
> to http.

I found information about it here:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa362813.aspx

> If you want a more versatile utility, then get cURL http://curl.haxx.se/;
> it's "better" than WGET.

In what way is it "better"? WGET is already working perfectly in my script.

- Rich

Rich Pasco <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

> Stefan Kanthak wrote:
>
>> If you want a more versatile utility, then get cURL
>> http://curl.haxx.se/; it's "better" than WGET.
>
> In what way is it "better"? WGET is already working perfectly in my
> script.

There's a feature comparison of several command-line downloading tools
including cURL and wget at
http://curl.haxx.se/docs/comparison-table.html

Mark Blain wrote:
> There's a feature comparison of several command-line downloading tools
> including cURL and wget at
> http://curl.haxx.se/docs/comparison-table.html

The lack of recursive downloading is a pretty significant hit against
curl. FWIW, the comparison table also barely scratches the features of
wget.

It appears the main advantage of curl is support for a small handful of
additional protocols. IMO to issue a blanket statement that it is carte
blanch better than wget is pretty bold. That said, curl is a pretty
great choice.

Maybe more important is the related curl library for programming projects

It also might be worth taking a look at the ncftp package. In addition
to the interactive commandline ftp client, there is also the scriptable
ncftpput and ncftpget included (of course it is ftp only).

Good luck in all automated file transfer projects...

~Jason

Jason Gurtz <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote (in part):

> It appears the main advantage of curl is support for a small handful
> of additional protocols. IMO to issue a blanket statement that it is
> carte blanch better than wget is pretty bold...

For the record Stefan said that, not me. You're correct that the
comparison table I suggested is incomplete, but it's a good place to start.