24

How can I download a file unattended using wget (for example, I want to download a large ISO file in the background)?

Unheilig
  • 16,196
  • 193
  • 68
  • 98
subZero
  • 5,056
  • 6
  • 31
  • 51

2 Answers2

48
wget -bqc http://path.com/url.iso

where:

-b: Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is specified via the -o, output is redirected to wget-log.

-q: Turn off Wget's output (saves some disk space)

-c: Resume broken download i.e. continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or by another program.

Alternative method:

Use nohup like this:

nohup wget http://example.com/dvd.iso &
exit

nixCraft

Stephen Ostermiller
  • 23,933
  • 14
  • 88
  • 109
subZero
  • 5,056
  • 6
  • 31
  • 51
  • 1
    nohup wget http://domain.com/dvd.iso > /dev/null 2>&1 & similar question here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4797050/how-to-run-process-as-background-and-never-die – David Okwii Dec 09 '14 at 20:38
  • 1
    To see if the process is indeed running after exiting from shell and logging again, type `top` or `htop` command. `jobs -l` does not list the process once exited from the shell and logging again. – CKM Mar 01 '17 at 04:59
0

I would go with

wget http://path.com/url.iso &> wget.log &
MeadowMuffins
  • 507
  • 1
  • 5
  • 20