wget is immensely useful tool to download files using ftp, http and https, especially as it allows recursive downloads and mirroring with some very nice options.
Mac OS X doesn’t come with wget, and curl – the alternative for wget – cannot do recursion, so you need wrapper scripts for that.
Basically there are two ways to get wget installed on Mac OS X:
- Compile it from the source, then install it like Install wget in Mac OS X Without Homebrew or MacPorts.
- Download a prebuilt version like wget – Prebuilt binary for Mac OSX Lion, Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion | Tech Tach.
For both ways you need to remember that they won’t automatically update. So: keep an eye on wget security vulnerabilities, and update as soon as new ones have been found.
The first way (build from source) needs you to download and install Xcode first. Since I’m a Mac OS X developer, I already have that.
Luckily Install wget in Mac OS X Without Homebrew or MacPorts had instructions for the most current version when writing this blog entry. The binary from Tech Tach was outdated.
That, and the my feel for greater influence on the built proces makes me like the first way more.
Below are the commands I used (thanks OSXDaily!).
Check http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/wget/ to make sure you downloaded the most current wget sourcecode. Read the rest of this entry »
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