Tool Wget

tool-wget

When To Use

• Retrieve files reliably in non-interactive scripts.
• Resume large downloads and handle retries cleanly.
• Check URL reachability without full payload download.

Trusted Commands

wget -O output.bin https://example.com/file.bin
wget -c https://example.com/large-file.iso
wget --spider https://example.com/health
wget --tries=3 --timeout=20 https://example.com/archive.tgz
wget -qO- https://example.com/version.txt

Safe Defaults

• Use -O for deterministic output paths.
• Use -c for resumable transfers.
• Use --spider when only availability checks are needed.

Common Pitfalls

• Destination files can be overwritten unexpectedly.
• Redirect and auth behavior may differ from curl/xh assumptions.
• Recursive options can cause excessive downloads if scope is not constrained.

Output Interpretation

• --spider exit status indicates URL reachability.
• Progress lines show throughput and transfer completion.

Why It Matters For Agents

• Reliable unattended download behavior is critical in setup automation.
• Resume and retry controls reduce flaky install workflows.

Repo Conventions

• Prefer idempotent download steps in setup scripts.
• Keep destination paths portable and user-agnostic.

Trigger Examples

• Should trigger: "Fetch this release tarball with resume support."
• Should trigger: "Verify a URL is reachable in CI without downloading it."
• Should not trigger: "Pretty-print this JSON document."