How to download a file from a website via terminal?

Question

Suppose that we have a full URL of desired file e.g.

http://domain.com/directory/4?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=file.tgz

I would like to go without installing a new software. Is it possible?

Command

 cp  'http://example.com/directory/4?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=file.tgz' hooray

doesn't work ;)

`wget` is perhaps the simplest way but you can also use `curl`. [Read this](http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2012/07/wget-curl/) — dearN, Oct 27 '12 at 17:50
Use `wget -O hooray "http://domain.com/directory/4?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=file.tgz"`. You can add `-c` option to resume download if connection was lost while downloading file. — Sergey, Oct 27 '12 at 18:04

score 502 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 12 '18 at 14:46

502

Open terminal and type

wget "http://domain.com/directory/4?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=file.tgz"

to download the file to the current directory.

wget  -P /home/omio/Desktop/ "http://thecanadiantestbox.x10.mx/CC.zip"

will download the file to /home/omio/Desktop

wget  -O /home/omio/Desktop/NewFileName "http://thecanadiantestbox.x10.mx/CC.zip"

will download the file to /home/omio/Desktop and give it your NewFileName name.

edited Jan 12 '18 at 14:46

David Foerster

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answered Oct 27 '12 at 17:45

devav2

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Beat me to the punch. Dang. But yeah, it's `wget [whatever web address]`. If you want to choose the location, type `cd [local location on your computer.]` **EXAMPLE:** `cd /home/omio/Desktop/` | `wget http://thecanadiantestbox.x10.mx/CC.zip` – Omio Oct 27 '12 at 17:49
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@Omio There is no need to run `cd`. You can just specify output file via `-O` option. For example: `wget -O /home/omio/Desktop/file.tgz "http://domain.com/directory/4?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=file.tgz"` – Sergey Oct 27 '12 at 17:59
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Your examples will not work. You MUST use quotes when URL contains ampersands. – Sergey Oct 27 '12 at 18:01
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@Sergey Thanks for the clarification. I haven't had to use wget yet, but I would have to, in the future. – Omio Oct 27 '12 at 18:05
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? and & are interpreted by your shell. You need to quote or escape it. Generally, you have a shortcut to paste a quoted or escaped version of the string in the clipboard in your terminal. Be very careful when pasting stuffs inside a terminal. – alecail Oct 27 '12 at 19:10
That's a simple answer. :) – theapache64 Dec 13 '15 at 10:30
wget -P /home/omio/Desktop/ "http://thecanadiantestbox.x10.mx/CC.zip" because /home/omio/Desktop/ is a folder – Del Pedro Jan 05 '17 at 14:52

score 49 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 25 '16 at 03:59

49

you can do it by using curl .

curl -O http://domain.com/directory/4?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=file.tgz

The -O saves the file with the same name as in the url rather than dumping the output to stdout

For more information

edited Oct 25 '16 at 03:59

user2540327

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answered Oct 27 '12 at 18:43

Raja G

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I can never remember if it's a zero or O – Alexander Mills May 14 '19 at 05:32
-O is the alphabetical letter and must be capital, else a log will be generated – Kareem Elsayed Sep 01 '19 at 18:34

score 22 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 11 '17 at 19:03

22

I use axel and wget for downloading from terminal, axel is download accelerator

syntax

axel

axel www.example.com/example.zip

wget

wget -c www.example.com/example.zip

for more details type man axel, man wget in terminal

edited Mar 11 '17 at 19:03

Community

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answered Oct 27 '12 at 18:53

Tachyons

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how is `axel` different from `wget`? – heinrich5991 Oct 27 '12 at 23:58
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@heinrich5991 wget is more advanced than axel! – Pranit Bauva Nov 01 '12 at 07:52

score 9 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Just to add more flavor to this question, I'd also recommend that you take a look at this:

history -d $((HISTCMD-1)) && echo '[PASSWORD]' | sudo -S shutdown now

You could use this to shutdown your computer after your wget command with a ; perhaps or in a bash script file.

This would mean you don't have to stay awake at night and monitor until your download as (un)successfully run.

Read this answer as well

Michael Tunnell · Answer 5 · 2018-01-12T15:17:32.950

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the lack of Aria2 mention is just a disservice so with that said, check out Aria2. https://aria2.github.io/

Install it by simply typing in terminal:

sudo apt install aria2

Then simply type this to download the file:

aria2c http://example.com/directory/4?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=file.tgz

You can find more help with aria2 by its man page.

edited Jan 12 '18 at 15:17

answered Feb 01 '14 at 02:09

Michael Tunnell

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What is the benefit to Aria2? Your answer could be improved by briefly explaining why it is worth installing another tool instead of just using `curl` or `wget`. – Paul Wintz Nov 10 '22 at 19:03

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 24 '17 at 09:28

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I did these steps From Oh-my-zsh,

brew install wget
wget https://github.com/sencha-extjs-examples/QuickStart/archive/master.zip

answered Jun 24 '17 at 09:28

Vy Do

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How to download a file from a website via terminal?

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