wget

Run a basic download.

wget URL

Save with a specific filename.

wget -O output-filename URL

Specify a destination directory.

wget -P target-directory URL

Download in the background.

wget -b URL

Recursively download (mirror an entire site).

wget -r URL

Run in quiet mode (no progress output).

wget -q URL

Option	Description
-O file	Specifies the filename to save the download as.
-P directory	Specifies the directory to save the downloaded file in.
-q	Runs in quiet (silent) mode — suppresses progress and messages.
-v	Shows verbose output (default behavior).
-b	Runs the download in the background.
-c	Resumes an interrupted download.
-r	Downloads recursively.
-l depth	Sets the recursion depth for recursive downloads (use with -r).
-np	Prevents ascending to the parent directory during recursive downloads (use with -r).
-A extension	Filters downloads by file extension.
--limit-rate=rate	Limits the download speed (e.g., 1m for 1 MB/s).
--tries=count	Sets the number of retry attempts on failure.
--timeout=seconds	Sets the connection timeout in seconds.
-i file	Reads a list of URLs from a text file and downloads them all.
--user-agent=string	Specifies the User-Agent string to use.

Download a file. By default, wget shows detailed progress output.

wget https://example.com/file.txt
--2026-03-06 12:00:00--  https://example.com/file.txt
Resolving example.com... 93.184.216.34
Connecting to example.com|93.184.216.34|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 1024 (1.0K) [text/plain]
Saving to: 'file.txt'

file.txt            100%[===================>]   1.00K  --.-KB/s    in 0s

2026-03-06 12:00:01 (10.0 MB/s) - 'file.txt' saved [1024/1024]

Save the downloaded file under a specific name.

wget -O /tmp/archive.tar.gz https://example.com/release-1.0.tar.gz

Download a file into a specific directory.

wget -P /opt/downloads https://example.com/file.zip

Download in the background with a speed limit.

wget -b --limit-rate=500k https://example.com/large-file.iso
Continuing in background, pid 12345.
Output will be written to 'wget-log'.

If a download was interrupted, use -c to resume from where it left off.

wget -c https://example.com/large-file.iso

Read a list of URLs from a file and download them all at once.

cat urls.txt
https://example.com/file1.txt
https://example.com/file2.txt
https://example.com/file3.txt
wget -i urls.txt -P downloads/

Recursively download only images from a site, up to 2 levels deep.

wget -r -l 2 -A jpg,png -np https://example.com/gallery/

When using wget in a script, add -q (quiet) to suppress output and check the exit code for error handling.

download.sh

wget -q -O /tmp/data.json https://api.example.com/data
echo "Exit code: $?"

bash download.sh
Exit code: 0

wget excels at resuming interrupted downloads with the -c option, making it well-suited for large file downloads. Combining -r (recursive) with -A (extension filter) lets you batch-download only specific file types from a site.

When embedding wget in scripts, use -q (quiet) to suppress log output and check the exit code ($?) to detect errors. If you need fine-grained control over HTTP requests, consider using curl instead.