400

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 ;)

4
  • 8
    wget is your friend here :)
    – cauon
    Oct 27, 2012 at 17:47
  • 10
    wget is perhaps the simplest way but you can also use curl. Read this
    – dearN
    Oct 27, 2012 at 17:50
  • 18
    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, 2012 at 18:04
  • "hooray" cracked me up LOL Jan 31, 2019 at 16:11

6 Answers 6

509

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.

7
  • 2
    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, 2012 at 17:49
  • 5
    @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, 2012 at 17:59
  • 2
    Your examples will not work. You MUST use quotes when URL contains ampersands.
    – Sergey
    Oct 27, 2012 at 18:01
  • 1
    @Sergey Thanks for the clarification. I haven't had to use wget yet, but I would have to, in the future.
    – Omio
    Oct 27, 2012 at 18:05
  • 2
    ? 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, 2012 at 19:10
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

2
  • 1
    I can never remember if it's a zero or O May 14, 2019 at 5:32
  • -O is the alphabetical letter and must be capital, else a log will be generated Sep 1, 2019 at 18:34
22

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

syntax

axel

Install via the software center

axel www.example.com/example.zip

wget

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

for more details type man axel, man wget in terminal

2
  • 7
    how is axel different from wget? Oct 27, 2012 at 23:58
  • 4
    @heinrich5991 wget is more advanced than axel! Nov 1, 2012 at 7:52
9

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

7

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.

1
  • 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, 2022 at 19:03
3

I did these steps From Oh-my-zsh,

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

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