wget

Updated at June 17th, 2025

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Download and Install wget Windows macOS Linux Syntax Path Types Options

Date: 11-11-2015

Use wget to download files from any location (internet, ftp, etc.) in a terminal window.

Download and Install `wget`

Download the executable file from https://eternallybored.org/misc/wget/. Choose the 32-bit or 64-bit version based on your system.

Copy the downloaded wget.exe file into the C:\Windows\System32 directory. This allows you to run wget from any command prompt.

Open a terminal window and run:

wget -V

to verify the installation.

If needed, install homebrew using the following command:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

To install wget run:

brew install wget

Run

wget -V

to verify the installation.

wget is often pre-installed on Linux systems.

To check if it is installed run

wget -V

If not installed use your distribution's package manager to install it:

Debian/Ubuntu:

apt-get install wget

Fedora/CentOS:

yum install wget

wget <path to file>

http://host[:port]/directory/file

https://host[:port]/directory/file

ftp://host[:port]/directory/file

-v	Shows progress and other verbose information
-nc	Prevents overwriting if same file exists in the current directory
-c	Auto-resumes download should it be interrupted
-w	Set number of seconds for download to wait before beginning (i.e. -w=30 will cause a 30 second wait before the download is tried)
-4	Uses IPv4 only
-6	Uses IPv6 only
--user	Allows a username to be included (useful for https and ftp connections)
--password	Allows the password to be included (note: passed plaintext)
--ask-password	Prompts for password after connection is established
-P	Allows you set a prefix on all directories created (i.e. -P Sub will cause all directories created by the download to start with Sub…) as well as allowing you to specify a download location (i.e. -P /tmp/ will cause the download to be placed in the /tmp directory)