The complete set of commands is listed below. Legal values are listed after the ‘=’. Simple Boolean values can be set or unset using ‘on’ and ‘off’ or ‘1’ and ‘0’.
Some commands take pseudo-arbitrary values. address values can be hostnames or dotted-quad IP addresses. n can be any positive integer, or ‘inf’ for infinity, where appropriate. string values can be any non-empty string.
Most of these commands have direct command-line equivalents. Also, any wgetrc command can be specified on the command line using the ‘--execute’ switch (see Basic Startup Options.)
accept/reject = string- Same as ‘-A’/‘-R’ (see Types of Files).
add_hostdir = on/off- Enable/disable host-prefixed file names. ‘-nH’ disables it.
ask_password = on/off- Prompt for a password for each connection established. Cannot be specified when ‘--password’ is being used, because they are mutually exclusive. Equivalent to ‘--ask-password’.
auth_no_challenge = on/off- If this option is given, Wget will send Basic HTTP authentication information (plaintext username and password) for all requests. See ‘--auth-no-challenge’.
background = on/off- Enable/disable going to background—the same as ‘-b’ (which enables it).
backup_converted = on/off- Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix ‘.orig’—the same as ‘-K’ (which enables it).
backups = number- Use up to number backups for a file. Backups are rotated by adding an incremental counter that starts at ‘1’. The default is ‘0’.
base = string- Consider relative URLs in input files (specified via the ‘input’ command or the ‘--input-file’/‘-i’ option, together with ‘force_html’ or ‘--force-html’) as being relative to string—the same as ‘--base=string’.
bind_address = address- Bind to address, like the ‘--bind-address=address’.
ca_certificate = file- Set the certificate authority bundle file to file. The same as ‘--ca-certificate=file’.
ca_directory = directory- Set the directory used for certificate authorities. The same as ‘--ca-directory=directory’.
cache = on/off- When set to off, disallow server-caching. See the ‘--no-cache’ option.
certificate = file- Set the client certificate file name to file. The same as ‘--certificate=file’.
certificate_type = string- Specify the type of the client certificate, legal values being ‘PEM’ (the default) and ‘DER’ (aka ASN1). The same as ‘--certificate-type=string’.
check_certificate = on/off- If this is set to off, the server certificate is not checked against the specified client authorities. The default is “on”. The same as ‘--check-certificate’.
connect_timeout = n- Set the connect timeout—the same as ‘--connect-timeout’.
content_disposition = on/off- Turn on recognition of the (non-standard) ‘Content-Disposition’ HTTP header—if set to ‘on’, the same as ‘--content-disposition’.
trust_server_names = on/off- If set to on, construct the local file name from redirection URLs rather than original URLs.
continue = on/off- If set to on, force continuation of preexistent partially retrieved files. See ‘-c’ before setting it.
convert_links = on/off- Convert non-relative links locally. The same as ‘-k’.
cookies = on/off- When set to off, disallow cookies. See the ‘--cookies’ option.
cut_dirs = n- Ignore n remote directory components. Equivalent to ‘--cut-dirs=n’.
debug = on/off- Debug mode, same as ‘-d’.
default_page = string- Default page name—the same as ‘--default-page=string’.
delete_after = on/off- Delete after download—the same as ‘--delete-after’.
dir_prefix = string- Top of directory tree—the same as ‘-P string’.
dirstruct = on/off- Turning dirstruct on or off—the same as ‘-x’ or ‘-nd’, respectively.
dns_cache = on/off- Turn DNS caching on/off. Since DNS caching is on by default, this option is normally used to turn it off and is equivalent to ‘--no-dns-cache’.
dns_timeout = n- Set the DNS timeout—the same as ‘--dns-timeout’.
domains = string- Same as ‘-D’ (see Spanning Hosts).
dot_bytes = n- Specify the number of bytes “contained” in a dot, as seen throughout the retrieval (1024 by default). You can postfix the value with ‘k’ or ‘m’, representing kilobytes and megabytes, respectively. With dot settings you can tailor the dot retrieval to suit your needs, or you can use the predefined styles (see Download Options).
dot_spacing = n- Specify the number of dots in a single cluster (10 by default).
dots_in_line = n- Specify the number of dots that will be printed in each line throughout the retrieval (50 by default).
egd_file = file- Use string as the EGD socket file name. The same as ‘--egd-file=file’.
exclude_directories = string- Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to exclude from download—the same as ‘-X string’ (see Directory-Based Limits).
exclude_domains = string- Same as ‘--exclude-domains=string’ (see Spanning Hosts).
follow_ftp = on/off- Follow FTP links from HTML documents—the same as ‘--follow-ftp’.
follow_tags = string- Only follow certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, just like ‘--follow-tags=string’.
force_html = on/off- If set to on, force the input filename to be regarded as an HTML document—the same as ‘-F’.
ftp_password = string- Set your FTP password to string. Without this setting, the password defaults to ‘-wget@’, which is a useful default for anonymous FTP access.
This command used to be named passwd prior to Wget 1.10.
ftp_proxy = string- Use string as FTP proxy, instead of the one specified in environment.
ftp_user = string- Set FTP user to string.
This command used to be named login prior to Wget 1.10.
glob = on/off- Turn globbing on/off—the same as ‘--glob’ and ‘--no-glob’.
header = string- Define a header for HTTP downloads, like using ‘--header=string’.
compression = string- Choose the compression type to be used. Legal values are ‘auto’ (the default), ‘gzip’, and ‘none’. The same as ‘--compression=string’.
adjust_extension = on/off- Add a ‘.html’ extension to ‘text/html’ or ‘application/xhtml+xml’ files that lack one, a ‘.css’ extension to ‘text/css’ files that lack one, and a ‘.br’, ‘.Z’, ‘.zlib’ or ‘.gz’ to compressed files like ‘-E’. Previously named ‘html_extension’ (still acceptable, but deprecated).
http_keep_alive = on/off- Turn the keep-alive feature on or off (defaults to on). Turning it off is equivalent to ‘--no-http-keep-alive’.
http_password = string- Set HTTP password, equivalent to ‘--http-password=string’.
http_proxy = string- Use string as HTTP proxy, instead of the one specified in environment.
http_user = string- Set HTTP user to string, equivalent to ‘--http-user=string’.
https_only = on/off- When in recursive mode, only HTTPS links are followed (defaults to off).
https_proxy = string- Use string as HTTPS proxy, instead of the one specified in environment.
ignore_case = on/off- When set to on, match files and directories case insensitively; the same as ‘--ignore-case’.
ignore_length = on/off- When set to on, ignore Content-Length header; the same as ‘--ignore-length’.
ignore_tags = string- Ignore certain HTML tags when doing a recursive retrieval, like ‘--ignore-tags=string’.
include_directories = string- Specify a comma-separated list of directories you wish to follow when downloading—the same as ‘-I string’.
iri = on/off- When set to on, enable internationalized URI (IRI) support; the same as ‘--iri’.
inet4_only = on/off- Force connecting to IPv4 addresses, off by default. You can put this in the global init file to disable Wget’s attempts to resolve and connect to IPv6 hosts. Available only if Wget was compiled with IPv6 support. The same as ‘--inet4-only’ or ‘-4’.
inet6_only = on/off- Force connecting to IPv6 addresses, off by default. Available only if Wget was compiled with IPv6 support. The same as ‘--inet6-only’ or ‘-6’.
input = file- Read the URLs from string, like ‘-i file’.
keep_session_cookies = on/off- When specified, causes ‘save_cookies = on’ to also save session cookies. See ‘--keep-session-cookies’.
limit_rate = rate- Limit the download speed to no more than rate bytes per second. The same as ‘--limit-rate=rate’.
load_cookies = file- Load cookies from file. See ‘--load-cookies file’.
local_encoding = encoding- Force Wget to use encoding as the default system encoding. See ‘--local-encoding’.
logfile = file- Set logfile to file, the same as ‘-o file’.
max_redirect = number- Specifies the maximum number of redirections to follow for a resource. See ‘--max-redirect=number’.
mirror = on/off- Turn mirroring on/off. The same as ‘-m’.
netrc = on/off- Turn reading netrc on or off.
no_clobber = on/off- Same as ‘-nc’.
no_parent = on/off- Disallow retrieving outside the directory hierarchy, like ‘--no-parent’ (see Directory-Based Limits).
no_proxy = string- Use string as the comma-separated list of domains to avoid in proxy loading, instead of the one specified in environment.
output_document = file- Set the output filename—the same as ‘-O file’.
page_requisites = on/off- Download all ancillary documents necessary for a single HTML page to display properly—the same as ‘-p’.
passive_ftp = on/off- Change setting of passive FTP, equivalent to the ‘--passive-ftp’ option.
password = string- Specify password string for both FTP and HTTP file retrieval. This command can be overridden using the ‘ftp_password’ and ‘http_password’ command for FTP and HTTP respectively.
post_data = string- Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send string in the request body. The same as ‘--post-data=string’.
post_file = file- Use POST as the method for all HTTP requests and send the contents of file in the request body. The same as ‘--post-file=file’.
prefer_family = none/IPv4/IPv6- When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses with specified address family first. The address order returned by DNS is used without change by default. The same as ‘--prefer-family’, which see for a detailed discussion of why this is useful.
private_key = file- Set the private key file to file. The same as ‘--private-key=file’.
private_key_type = string- Specify the type of the private key, legal values being ‘PEM’ (the default) and ‘DER’ (aka ASN1). The same as ‘--private-type=string’.
progress = string- Set the type of the progress indicator. Legal types are ‘dot’ and ‘bar’. Equivalent to ‘--progress=string’.
protocol_directories = on/off- When set, use the protocol name as a directory component of local file names. The same as ‘--protocol-directories’.
proxy_password = string- Set proxy authentication password to string, like ‘--proxy-password=string’.
proxy_user = string- Set proxy authentication user name to string, like ‘--proxy-user=string’.
quiet = on/off- Quiet mode—the same as ‘-q’.
quota = quota- Specify the download quota, which is useful to put in the global wgetrc. When download quota is specified, Wget will stop retrieving after the download sum has become greater than quota. The quota can be specified in bytes (default), kbytes ‘k’ appended) or mbytes (‘m’ appended). Thus ‘quota = 5m’ will set the quota to 5 megabytes. Note that the user’s startup file overrides system settings.
random_file = file- Use file as a source of randomness on systems lacking /dev/random.
random_wait = on/off- Turn random between-request wait times on or off. The same as ‘--random-wait’.
read_timeout = n- Set the read (and write) timeout—the same as ‘--read-timeout=n’.
reclevel = n- Recursion level (depth)—the same as ‘-l n’.
recursive = on/off- Recursive on/off—the same as ‘-r’.
referer = string- Set HTTP ‘Referer:’ header just like ‘--referer=string’. (Note that it was the folks who wrote the HTTP spec who got the spelling of “referrer” wrong.)
relative_only = on/off- Follow only relative links—the same as ‘-L’ (see Relative Links).
remote_encoding = encoding- Force Wget to use encoding as the default remote server encoding. See ‘--remote-encoding’.
remove_listing = on/off- If set to on, remove FTP listings downloaded by Wget. Setting it to off is the same as ‘--no-remove-listing’.
restrict_file_names = unix/windows- Restrict the file names generated by Wget from URLs. See ‘--restrict-file-names’ for a more detailed description.
retr_symlinks = on/off- When set to on, retrieve symbolic links as if they were plain files; the same as ‘--retr-symlinks’.
retry_connrefused = on/off- When set to on, consider “connection refused” a transient error—the same as ‘--retry-connrefused’.
robots = on/off- Specify whether the norobots convention is respected by Wget, “on” by default. This switch controls both the /robots.txt and the ‘nofollow’ aspect of the spec. See Robot Exclusion, for more details about this. Be sure you know what you are doing before turning this off.
save_cookies = file- Save cookies to file. The same as ‘--save-cookies file’.
save_headers = on/off- Same as ‘--save-headers’.
secure_protocol = string- Choose the secure protocol to be used. Legal values are ‘auto’ (the default), ‘SSLv2’, ‘SSLv3’, and ‘TLSv1’. The same as ‘--secure-protocol=string’.
server_response = on/off- Choose whether or not to print the HTTP and FTP server responses—the same as ‘-S’.
show_all_dns_entries = on/off- When a DNS name is resolved, show all the IP addresses, not just the first three.
span_hosts = on/off- Same as ‘-H’.
spider = on/off- Same as ‘--spider’.
strict_comments = on/off- Same as ‘--strict-comments’.
timeout = n- Set all applicable timeout values to n, the same as ‘-T n’.
timestamping = on/off- Turn timestamping on/off. The same as ‘-N’ (see Time-Stamping).
use_server_timestamps = on/off- If set to ‘off’, Wget won’t set the local file’s timestamp by the one on the server (same as ‘--no-use-server-timestamps’).
tries = n- Set number of retries per URL—the same as ‘-t n’.
use_proxy = on/off- When set to off, don’t use proxy even when proxy-related environment variables are set. In that case it is the same as using ‘--no-proxy’.
user = string- Specify username string for both FTP and HTTP file retrieval. This command can be overridden using the ‘ftp_user’ and ‘http_user’ command for FTP and HTTP respectively.
user_agent = string- User agent identification sent to the HTTP Server—the same as ‘--user-agent=string’.
verbose = on/off- Turn verbose on/off—the same as ‘-v’/‘-nv’.
wait = n- Wait n seconds between retrievals—the same as ‘-w n’.
wait_retry = n- Wait up to n seconds between retries of failed retrievals only—the same as ‘--waitretry=n’. Note that this is turned on by default in the global wgetrc.