fget(1) University of Illinois fget(1)
FTP Utilities FTP Utilities
Jan 2001
NAME
fget - commandline FTP client
SYNOPSIS
fget [options] URL ...
fget [options] -l URL ...
fget [options] -e URL ...
VERSION
This man page documents version 1.0 of fget.
DESCRIPTION
fget is a commandline FTP utility. It allows simple mirroring of data
from remote FTP servers.
OPTIONS
Options which turn on or off features act as toggles. Specifying them
twice will return to the default behavior.
-c Chase symbolic links. The link itself will be downloaded, as
well as the file or directory it points to. This option has no
effect when -D is specified.
-C dir
Save files to local directory dir instead of the current
directory.
-d Increment debug level. Higher debug levels produce more output
from the FTP connection.
-D Dereference symbolic links. Instead of downloading the a symlink
from the FTP server, fget will download the file that the link
points to.
-e Estimate mode. fget will estimate the total size of the
requested files, rather than downloading them.
-E extendfs_command
If the filesystem fills up while fget is downloading files, it
will run this command to gain more space on the filesystem.
(This is primarily intended for systems like AIX where
filesystems can be grown on the fly, but the command could also
be a script which deletes old files to free up space.)
-F Fix symbolic links. Symlinks which point to an absolute path
will be converted to point to a relative path before being
mirrored. This option has no effect when -D is specified.
-H Use host directories. Normally, if you download ftp://ftp-
- 1 - Formatted: December 25, 2025
fget(1) University of Illinois fget(1)
FTP Utilities FTP Utilities
Jan 2001
dev.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/fget/, the files are saved in the
subdirectory fget. However, if you specify the -H option, the
files are saved in the subdirectory ftp-
dev.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/fget.
-l List mode. fget will list files at the specified FTP location,
rather than downloading them. Specifying -l will also disable
recursive operation (see -R).
-N Only replace local files if the copy on the server has a newer
date. (This is the default.)
-p Passive FTP mode. -P Attempt to preserve ownership and
permissions of remote files. Note that this may not be possible,
since the same user or group may not exist on the local host.
-q Quiet mode. fget displays no output unless an error occurs.
-r Remove local files which do not exist on the server. (This is
the default.)
-R Recursive operation. (This option is on by default, except in
list mode.)
-v Increase verbosity. This option can be specified multiple times.
-V Print fget's version and compile-time defaults.
BUGS
Probably quite a few. Reports are welcome.
SEE ALSO
The fget Homepage (http://www-dev.cso.uiuc.edu/fget/)
AUTHOR
Mark D. Roth <roth@uiuc.edu>
- 2 - Formatted: December 25, 2025
