JeevesBond — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:48:30 +0000

Here's the outout of [incode]wget --help[/incode], items that should be of interest to you are highlighted in red:

GNU Wget 1.10.2, a non-interactive network retriever.
Usage: wget [OPTION]... [URL]...

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

Startup:
  -V,  --version           display the version of Wget and exit.
  -h,  --help              print this help.
  -b,  --background        go to background after startup.
  -e,  --execute=COMMAND   execute a `.wgetrc'-style command.

Logging and input file:
  -o,  --output-file=FILE    log messages to FILE.
  -a,  --append-output=FILE  append messages to FILE.
  -d,  --debug               print lots of debugging information.
  -q,  --quiet               quiet (no output).
  -v,  --verbose             be verbose (this is the default).
  -nv, --no-verbose          turn off verboseness, without being quiet.
  -i,  --input-file=FILE     download URLs found in FILE.
  -F,  --force-html          treat input file as HTML.
  -B,  --base=URL            prefixs URL to relative links in -F -i file.

Download:
  -t,  --tries=NUMBER            set number of retries to NUMBER (0 unlimits).
       --retry-connrefused       retry even if connection is refused.
  -O,  --output-document=FILE    write documents to FILE.
  -nc, --no-clobber              skip downloads that would download to
                                 existing files.
  -c,  --continue                resume getting a partially-downloaded file.
       --progress=TYPE           select progress gauge type.
  -N,  --timestamping            don't re-retrieve files unless newer than
                                 local.
  -S,  --server-response         print server response.
       --spider                  don't download anything.
  -T,  --timeout=SECONDS         set all timeout values to SECONDS.
       --dns-timeout=SECS        set the DNS lookup timeout to SECS.
       --connect-timeout=SECS    set the connect timeout to SECS.
       --read-timeout=SECS       set the read timeout to SECS.
  -w,  --wait=SECONDS            wait SECONDS between retrievals.
       --waitretry=SECONDS       wait 1..SECONDS between retries of a retrieval.
       --random-wait             wait from 0...2*WAIT secs between retrievals.
  -Y,  --proxy                   explicitly turn on proxy.
       --no-proxy                explicitly turn off proxy.
<strong>  -Q,  --quota=NUMBER            set retrieval quota to NUMBER.</strong>
       --bind-address=ADDRESS    bind to ADDRESS (hostname or IP) on local host.
       --limit-rate=RATE         limit download rate to RATE.
       --no-dns-cache            disable caching DNS lookups.
       --restrict-file-names=OS  restrict chars in file names to ones OS allows.
  -4,  --inet4-only              connect only to IPv4 addresses.
  -6,  --inet6-only              connect only to IPv6 addresses.
       --prefer-family=FAMILY    connect first to addresses of specified family,
                                 one of IPv6, IPv4, or none.
       --user=USER               set both ftp and http user to USER.
       --password=PASS           set both ftp and http password to PASS.

Directories:
  -nd, --no-directories           don't create directories.
  -x,  --force-directories        force creation of directories.
  -nH, --no-host-directories      don't create host directories.
       --protocol-directories     use protocol name in directories.
  -P,  --directory-prefix=PREFIX  save files to PREFIX/...
       --cut-dirs=NUMBER          ignore NUMBER remote directory components.

HTTP options:
       --http-user=USER        set http user to USER.
       --http-password=PASS    set http password to PASS.
       --no-cache              disallow server-cached data.
  -E,  --html-extension        save HTML documents with `.html' extension.
       --ignore-length         ignore `Content-Length' header field.
       --header=STRING         insert STRING among the headers.
       --proxy-user=USER       set USER as proxy username.
       --proxy-password=PASS   set PASS as proxy password.
       --referer=URL           include `Referer: URL' header in HTTP request.
       --save-headers          save the HTTP headers to file.
  -U,  --user-agent=AGENT      identify as AGENT instead of Wget/VERSION.
       --no-http-keep-alive    disable HTTP keep-alive (persistent connections).
       --no-cookies            don't use cookies.
       --load-cookies=FILE     load cookies from FILE before session.
       --save-cookies=FILE     save cookies to FILE after session.
       --keep-session-cookies  load and save session (non-permanent) cookies.
       --post-data=STRING      use the POST method; send STRING as the data.
       --post-file=FILE        use the POST method; send contents of FILE.

HTTPS (SSL/TLS) options:
       --secure-protocol=PR     choose secure protocol, one of auto, SSLv2,
                                SSLv3, and TLSv1.
       --no-check-certificate   don't validate the server's certificate.
       --certificate=FILE       client certificate file.
       --certificate-type=TYPE  client certificate type, PEM or DER.
       --private-key=FILE       private key file.
       --private-key-type=TYPE  private key type, PEM or DER.
       --ca-certificate=FILE    file with the bundle of CA's.
       --ca-directory=DIR       directory where hash list of CA's is stored.
       --random-file=FILE       file with random data for seeding the SSL PRNG.
       --egd-file=FILE          file naming the EGD socket with random data.

FTP options:
       --ftp-user=USER         set ftp user to USER.
       --ftp-password=PASS     set ftp password to PASS.
       --no-remove-listing     don't remove `.listing' files.
       --no-glob               turn off FTP file name globbing.
       --no-passive-ftp        disable the "passive" transfer mode.
       --retr-symlinks         when recursing, get linked-to files (not dir).
       --preserve-permissions  preserve remote file permissions.

Recursive download:
  -r,  --recursive          specify recursive download.
<strong>  -l,  --level=NUMBER       maximum recursion depth (inf or 0 for infinite).</strong>
       --delete-after       delete files locally after downloading them.
<strong>  -k,  --convert-links      make links in downloaded HTML point to local files.</strong>
  -K,  --backup-converted   before converting file X, back up as X.orig.
  -m,  --mirror             shortcut for -N -r -l inf --no-remove-listing.
  -p,  --page-requisites    get all images, etc. needed to display HTML page.
       --strict-comments    turn on strict (SGML) handling of HTML comments.

Recursive accept/reject:
  -A,  --accept=LIST               comma-separated list of accepted extensions.
  -R,  --reject=LIST               comma-separated list of rejected extensions.
  -D,  --domains=LIST              comma-separated list of accepted domains.
       --exclude-domains=LIST      comma-separated list of rejected domains.
       --follow-ftp                follow FTP links from HTML documents.
       --follow-tags=LIST          comma-separated list of followed HTML tags.
       --ignore-tags=LIST          comma-separated list of ignored HTML tags.
<strong>  -H,  --span-hosts                go to foreign hosts when recursive.</strong>
  -L,  --relative                  follow relative links only.
  -I,  --include-directories=LIST  list of allowed directories.
  -X,  --exclude-directories=LIST  list of excluded directories.
  -np, --no-parent                 don't ascend to the parent directory.

Mail bug reports and suggestions to <bug-wget@gnu.org>.

Note: I've never used the 'quota' option, but am assuming it will stop after downloading a certain number of files.

benf wrote: The shell wget - yes i have used this on linux using ssh to download .tar files to install. Now, do i simply use it in the same way - through putty or any other shell command application or can i call it through php?

You can do this through a *nix command line or with PHP (or even Perl, Python Ruby etc.). There's a section on the PHP website with the different methods for invoking commands. Also, if you're going to running commands based on any user input there are security issues to think of.

A simple example of how to invoke wget using PHP is:
exec('wget -rk -w2 http://www.webmaster-forums.net');'

There, that should get you started!

Just a little check

benf — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:11:52 +0000

Ok, thanks for the detailed reply. Just need to check some things then before i go messing around with something i have no idea about.

The shell wget - yes i have used this on linux using ssh to download .tar files to install. Now, do i simply use it in the same way - through putty or any other shell command application or can i call it through php?

There must be a way to set a limit on the amount of stuff i download?

JeevesBond — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 04:38:00 +0000

There's no out of the box solution (as far as I'm aware) that will do this. I would start out with a simple shell script that runs wget (which can automatically go through a web site, following links and downloading pages). Then go through those pages, adding the required information to either MySQL or--easier for scripting purposes--SQLite.

To get you started, here's a call to wget that will make it work through webmaster-forums.net and download every page:
wget -r -w2 http://www.webmaster-forums.net'

Important note: the [incode]-w2[/incode] parameter is very important, it makes the script wait two seconds between downloading pages. If you don't include this wait it is very likely webmasters will ban you from their site. Unless you're offering something useful in return, you need to be very careful about using peoples bandwidth.

Also, there is no reason why you couldn't include this as a system call from Ruby, PHP etc. I don't think getting your own search results is the easiest path, using Google's will be easier (but less interesting). Whilst never having used Google's search API, there are plenty of sites around that use Google as their 'in-site' search engine, e.g. W3C. Not sure how they managed to do it, and you'd have to include their branding.

Did a search and found this: http://www.dankarran.com/googleapi-phpsitesearch/ that uses their API (but has globals in *yuck*). Could be a good starting point.

EDIT: and please don't destroy TWF with that script.