GNU Wget File Downloader

GNU Wget is a free and open-source command-line utility for retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP protocols. Originally developed by Hrvoje Niksic in 1996 as a rewrite of the earlier 'geturl' script, Wget has been a GNU project since 1996 and is maintained by the Free Software Foundation. It is one of the most widely used download tools on Unix-like systems. Key features: recursive download: Wget can follow links in HTML pages and download entire websites, creating a local mirror. The recursive download supports depth limits (recursive level), domain filtering (span hosts, domains), and conversion of links for local viewing (convert-links). Resumption: Wget can resume interrupted downloads via HTTP Range headers or FTP REST commands, making it ideal for unreliable network connections or large file downloads. The -c (continue) flag resumes a partially downloaded file. Non-interactive: designed for background operation, Wget can run without user interaction, making it ideal for cron jobs, scripts, and automated downloads. It can also read URLs from a file for batch downloading. Mirroring: the -m (mirror) option enables timestamping, infinite recursion, and FTP directory preservation for website mirroring. Authentication: supports HTTP Basic and Digest authentication, FTP user/password authentication, and proxy authentication. SSL/TLS: supports HTTPS with configurable certificate verification, CA bundles, and client certificates. Bandwidth limiting: the --limit-rate option throttles download speed to avoid saturating the network. FTP support: full FTP protocol support including passive and active modes. IPv6 support. Robots.txt compliance (configurable). Warc (Web ARChive) output for web archiving. Written in C using libwget. Cross-platform: Linux, macOS, Windows. GPLv3.