Using wget to download a file

To download a file, the syntax below shows the minimum parameters required to achieve the desired outcome. For example, the code below downloads a file with the name 10MB. You may copy the code below and paste it into your PowerShell session to test. The demonstration below shows the expected result after running the code above in PowerShell.

As you can see, the file download was successful. How about if the source requires authentication before allowing access? For example, the code below downloads a file from a private website where users must log in. If authentication is required, you should add a credential to the request using the -Credential parameter.

As you can see, the Get-Credential cmdlet prompted a PowerShell credential request. This time, using the credential with Invoke-WebRequest resulted in a successful download. A crucial thing to remember when using Invoke-WebRequest in Windows PowerShell is that, by default, this cmdlet uses the Internet Explorer engine to parse data. The error below may happen when using Invoke-WebRequest on computers without the Internet Explorer in it. Specify the UseBasicParsing parameter and try again. Starting with PowerShell Core 6.

As such, the -UseBasicParsing parameter is no longer necessary. When it comes to downloading files straight from the web, Invoke-RestMethod is an excellent contender. Do not be deceived into thinking otherwise. There is not much difference between using Invoke-RestMethod and Invoke-WebRequest when used for downloading files from a direct web link. To download a file using Invoke-RestMethod , use the syntax below.

Perhaps you want to download a file from a specific URL. In that case, you only need the basic wget command syntax and specify the URL to download the file from. Below, you can see the basic syntax for running the wget command. Run the command below to download the wget. If so, then run the below command instead to specify the download location.

Downloading a file to your preferred directory with a single command is cool enough. If so, the -o flag is the answer! Below, run the basic wget command syntax to download the wget. So instead of wget. Perhaps you want to download a newer version of a file you previously downloaded. If so, adding the --timestamp option in your wget command will do the trick. Applications on a website tend to be updated over time, and the --timestamp option checks for the updated version of the file in the specified URL.

The wget command below checks --timestamp and downloads the newer version of the wget. If the file wget. Most websites require a user to be logged in to access or download some files and content. To make this possible, Wget offers the --user and --password options. With these options, Wget provides a username and password to authenticate your connection request when downloading from a website.

Find centralized, trusted content and collaborate around the technologies you use most. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. The download took less than 1 second, and it's a MB zip file. I'm confused as to why I can't download this zip file to my server via SSH, instead of downloading it to my computer, then re-uploading it to the server.

What you're doing when you're using wget to download that zip file is just downloading the html page that the zip file sits on. You can see this because if you redo the command to output to an html file like such:.

Once you finish it and click "Authorize Download" you'll have free reign to wget the file from the server. If all else fails, download it originally on your computer and use the scp command to transfer it over. Look at the contents of the 94kb file that you downloaded in something like vi. Odds are it's not a zip file, but a html file, telling you what went wrong, and what you need to do to download the file.

A browser would have known this the mime type would tell it that it is being served HTML, and it would display it to you rather than download it. It is likely that this is a measure by Mediafire to prevent automated downloads of their files. It's possible that spoofing the user-agent header might help, but unlikely. If you want to download into a folder use the -P flag:. Avoid downloading all of the index.

Learn how your comment data is processed. Read Also : How to Rename File While Downloading with Wget in Linux In this article, we will show how to download files to a specific directory without moving into that directory. If you liked this article, then do subscribe to email alerts for Linux tutorials. If you have any questions or doubts? Related Posts.

Got something to say?