pwget - Perl Web URL fetch program

- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION

- Wget and this program
- Short introduction

- OPTIONS
- EXAMPLES
- CONFIGURATION FILE

- Comments
- Variables
- Include files
- Configuraton file example

- LIST OF DIRECTIVES IN CONFIGURATION FILE
- ERRORS
- BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
- ENVIRONMENT
- EXIT STATUS
- DEPENDENCIES
- SEE ALSO
- AUTHOR
- LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

# NAME

pwget - Perl Web URL fetch program

# SYNOPSIS

        pwget http://example.com/ [URL ...]
        pwget --config $HOME/config/pwget.conf --Tag linux --Tag emacs ..
        pwget --verbose --overwrite http://example.com/
        pwget --verbose --overwrite --Output ~/dir/ http://example.com/
        pwget --new --overwrite http://example.com/package-1.1.tar.gz

# DESCRIPTION

Automate periodic downloads of files and packages.

If you retrieve latest versions of certain program blocks periodically, this is the Perl script for you. Run from cron job or once a week to upload newest versions of files around the net. Note:

## Wget and this program

At this point you may wonder, where would you need this perl program when `wget(1)` C-program has been the standard for ages. Well, 1) Perl is cross platform and more easily extendable 2) You can record file download criterias to a configuration file and use perl regular epxressions to select downloads 3) the program can anlyze web-pages and "search" for the download only links as instructed 4) last but not least, it can track newest packages whose name has changed since last downlaod. There are heuristics to determine the newest file or package according to file name skeleton defined in configuration.

This program does not replace `pwget(1)` because it does not offer as many options as wget, like recursive downloads and date comparing. Use wget for ad hoc downloads and this utility for files that change (new releases of archives) or which you monitor periodically.

## Short introduction

This small utility makes it possible to keep a list of URLs in a configuration file and periodically retrieve those pages or files with simple commands. This utility is best suited for small batch jobs to download e.g. most recent versions of software files. If you use an URL that is already on disk, be sure to supply option --overwrite to allow overwriting existing files.

While you can run this program from command line to retrieve individual files, program has been designed to use separate configuration file via --config option. In the configuration file you can control the downloading with separate directives like `save:` which tells to save the file under different name. The simplest way to retreive the latest version of apackage from a FTP site is:

        pwget --new --overwite --verbose \
           http://www.example.com/package-1.00.tar.gz

Do not worry about the filename `package-1.00.tar.gz`. The latest version, say, `package-3.08.tar.gz` will be retrieved. The option --new instructs to find newer version than the provided URL.

If the URL ends to slash, then directory list at the remote machine is stored to file:

        !path!000root-file

The content of this file can be either index.html or the directory listing depending on the used http or ftp protocol.

# OPTIONS

-A, --regexp-content REGEXP

  Analyze the content of the file and match REGEXP. Only if the regexp matches the file content, then download file. This option will make downloads slow, because the file is read into memory as a single line and then a match is searched against the content.

  For example to download Emacs lisp file (.el) written by Mr. Foo in case insensitive manner:

          pwget -v -R '\.el$' -A "(?i)Author: Mr. Foo" \
            http://www.emacswiki.org/elisp/index.html

-C, --create-paths

  Create paths that do not exist in `lcd:` directives.

  By default, any LCD directive to non-existing directory will interrupt program. With this option, local directories are created as needed making it possible to re-create the exact structure as it is in configuration file.

-c, --config FILE

  This option can be given multiple times. All configurations are read.

  Read URLs from configuration file. If no configuration file is given, file pointed by environment variable is read. See ENVIRONMENT.

  The configuration file layout is envlained in section CONFIGURATION FILE

--chdir DIRECTORY

  Do a `chdir()` to DIRECTORY before any URL download starts. This is like doing:

          cd DIRECTORY
          pwget http://example.com/index.html

-d, --debug [LEVEL]

  Turn on debug with positive LEVEL number. Zero means no debug. This option turns on --verbose too.

-e, --extract

  Unpack any files after retrieving them. The command to unpack typical archive files are defined in a program. Make sure these programs are along path. Win32 users are encouraged to install the Cygwin utilities where these programs come standard. Refer to section SEE ALSO.

        .tar => tar
        .tgz => tar + gzip
        .gz  => gzip
        .bz2 => bzip2
        .zip => unzip

-F, --firewall FIREWALL

  Use FIREWALL when accessing files via ftp:// protocol.

-h, --help

  Print help page in text.

--help-html

  Print help page in HTML.

--help-man

  Print help page in Unix manual page format. You want to feed this output to c<nroff -man> in order to read it.

  Print help page.

-m, --mirror SITE

  If URL points to Sourcefoge download area, use mirror SITE for downloading. Alternatively the full full URL can include the mirror information. And example:

          --mirror kent http://downloads.sourceforge.net/foo/foo-1.0.0.tar.gz

-n, --new

  Get newest file. This applies to datafiles, which do not have extension .asp or .html. When new releases are announced, the version number in filename usually tells which is the current one so getting harcoded file with:

          pwget -o -v http://example.com/dir/program-1.3.tar.gz

  is not usually practical from automation point of view. Adding --new option to the command line causes double pass: a) the whole http://example.com/dir/ is examined for all files and b) files matching approximately filename program-1.3.tar.gz are examined, heuristically sorted and file with latest version number is retrieved.

--no-lcd

  Ignore `lcd:` directives in configuration file.

  In the configuration file, any `lcd:` directives are obeyed as they are seen. But if you do want to retrieve URL to your current directory, be sure to supply this option. Otherwise the file will end to the directory pointer by `lcd:`.

--no-save

  Ignore `save:` directives in configuration file. If the URLs have `save:` options, they are ignored during fetch. You usually want to combine --no-lcd with --no-save

--no-extract

  Ignore `x:` directives in configuration file.

-O, --output DIR

  Before retrieving any files, chdir to DIR.

-o, --overwrite

  Allow overwriting existing files when retrieving URLs. Combine this with --skip-version if you periodically update files.

--proxy PROXY

  Use PROXY server for HTTP. (See --Firewall for FTP.). The port number is optional in the call:

          --proxy http://example.com.proxy.com
          --proxy example.com.proxy.com:8080

-p, --prefix PREFIX

  Add PREFIX to all retrieved files.

-P, --postfix POSTFIX

  Add POSTFIX to all retrieved files.

-D, --prefix-date

  Add iso8601 ":YYYY-MM-DD" prefix to all retrived files. This is added before possible --prefix-www or --prefix.

-W, --prefix-www

  Usually the files are stored with the same name as in the URL dir, but if you retrieve files that have identical names you can store each page separately so that the file name is prefixed by the site name.

          http://example.com/page.html    --> example.com::page.html
          http://example2.com/page.html   --> example2.com::page.html

-r, --regexp REGEXP

  Retrieve file matching at the destination URL site. This is like "Connect to the URL and get all files matching REGEXP". Here all gzip compressed files are found form HTTP server directory:

          pwget -v -R "\.gz" http://example.com/archive/

-R, --config-regexp REGEXP

  Retrieve URLs matching REGEXP from configuration file. This cancels --Tag options in the command line.

-s, --selftest

  Run some internal tests. For maintainer or developer only.

--sleep SECONDS

  Sleep SECONDS before next URL request. When using regexp based downlaods that may return many hits, some sites disallow successive requests in within short period of time. This options makes program sleep for number of SECONDS between retrievals to overcome 'Service unavailable'.

--stdout

  Retrieve URL and write to stdout.

--skip-version

  Do not download files that have version number and which already exists on disk. Suppose you have these files and you use option --skip-version:

          package.tar.gz
          file-1.1.tar.gz

  Only file.txt is retrieved, because file-1.1.tar.gz contains version number and the file has not changed since last retrieval. The idea is, that in every release the number in in distribution increases, but there may be distributions which do not contain version number. In regular intervals you may want to load those packages again, but skip versioned files. In short: This option does not make much sense without additional option --new

  If you want to reload versioned file again, add option --overwrite.

-t, --test, --dry-run

  Run in test mode.

-T, --tag NAME [NAME] ...

  Search tag NAME from the config file and download only entries defined under that tag. Refer to --config FILE option description. You can give Multiple --Tag switches. Combining this option with --regexp does not make sense and the concequencies are undefined.

-v, --verbose [NUMBER]

  Print verbose messages.

-V, --version

  Print version information.

# EXAMPLES

Get files from site:

        pwget http://www.example.com/dir/package.tar.gz ..

Display copyright file for package GNU make from Debian pages:

        pwget --stdout --regexp 'copyright$' http://packages.debian.org/unstable/make

Get all mailing list archive files that match "gz":

        pwget --regexp gz  http://example.com/mailing-list/archive/download/

Read a directory and store it to filename YYYY-MM-DD::!dir!000root-file.

        pwget --prefix-date --overwrite --verbose http://www.example.com/dir/

To update newest version of the package, but only if there is none at disk already. The --new option instructs to find newer packages and the filename is only used as a skeleton for files to look for:

        pwget --overwrite --skip-version --new --verbose \
            ftp://ftp.example.com/dir/packet-1.23.tar.gz

To overwrite file and add a date prefix to the file name:

        pwget --prefix-date --overwrite --verbose \
           http://www.example.com/file.pl

        --> YYYY-MM-DD::file.pl

To add date and WWW site prefix to the filenames:

        pwget --prefix-date --prefix-www --overwrite --verbose \
           http://www.example.com/file.pl

        --> YYYY-MM-DD::www.example.com::file.pl

Get all updated files under cnfiguration file's tag updates:

        pwget --verbose --overwrite --skip-version --new --Tag updates
        pwget -v -o -s -n -T updates

Get files as they read in the configuration file to the current directory, ignoring any `lcd:` and `save:` directives:

        pwget --config $HOME/config/pwget.conf /
            --no-lcd --no-save --overwrite --verbose \
            http://www.example.com/file.pl

To check configuration file, run the program with non-matching regexp and it parses the file and checks the `lcd:` directives on the way:

        pwget -v -r dummy-regexp

        -->

        pwget.DirectiveLcd: LCD [$EUSR/directory ...]
        is not a directory at /users/foo/bin/pwget line 889.

# CONFIGURATION FILE

## Comments

The configuration file is NOT Perl code. Comments start with hash character (#).

## Variables

At this point, variable expansions happen only in lcd:. Do not try to use them anywhere else, like in URLs.

Path variables for lcd: are defined using following notation, spaces are not allowed in VALUE part (no directory names with spaces). Varaible names are case sensitive. Variables substitute environment variabales with the same name. Environment variables are immediately available.

        VARIABLE = /home/my/dir         # define variable
        VARIABLE = $dir/some/file       # Use previously defined variable
        FTP      = $HOME/ftp            # Use environment variable

The right hand can refer to previously defined variables or existing environment variables. Repeat, this is not Perl code although it may look like one, but just an allowed syntax in the configuration file. Notice that there is dollar to the right hand> when variable is referred, but no dollar to the left hand side when variable is defined. Here is example of a possible configuration file contant. The tags are hierarchically ordered without a limit.

Warning: remember to use different variables names in separate include files. All variables are global.

## Include files

It is possible to include more configuration files with statement

        INCLUDE <path-to-file-name>

Variable expansions are possible in the file name. There is no limit how many or how deep include structure is used. Every file is included only once, so it is safe to to have multiple includes to the same file. Every include is read, so put the most importat override includes last:

        INCLUDE <etc/pwget.conf>             # Global
        INCLUDE <$HOME/config/pwget.conf>    # HOME overrides it

A special `THIS` tag means relative path of the current include file, which makes it possible to include several files form the same directory where a initial include file resides

        # Start of config at /etc/pwget.conf

        # THIS = /etc, current location
        include <THIS/pwget-others.conf>

        # Refers to directory where current user is: the pwd
        include <pwget-others.conf>

        # end

## Configuraton file example

The configuration file can contain many <directoves:>, where each directive end to a colon. The usage of each directory is best explained by examining the configuration file below and reading the commentary near each directive.

        #   $HOME/config/pwget.conf F- Perl pwget configuration file

        ROOT   = $HOME                      # define variables
        CONF   = $HOME/config
        UPDATE = $ROOT/updates
        DOWNL  = $ROOT/download

        #   Include more configuration files. It is possible to
        #   split a huge file in pieces and have "linux",
        #   "win32", "debian", "emacs" configurations in separate
        #   and manageable files.

        INCLUDE <$CONF/pwget-other.conf>
        INCLUDE <$CONF/pwget-more.conf>

        tag1: local-copies tag1: local      # multiple names to this category

            lcd:  $UPDATE                   # chdir directive

            #  This is show to user with option --verbose
            print: Notice, this site moved YYYY-MM-DD, update your bookmarks

            file://absolute/dir/file-1.23.tar.gz

        tag1: external

          lcd:  $DOWNL

          tag2: external-http

            http://www.example.com/page.html
            http://www.example.com/page.html save:/dir/dir/page.html

          tag2: external-ftp

            ftp://ftp.com/dir/file.txt.gz save:xx-file.txt.gz login:foo pass:passwd x:

            lcd: $HOME/download/package

            ftp://ftp.com/dir/package-1.1.tar.gz new:

          tag2: package-x

            lcd: $DOWNL/package-x

            #  Person announces new files in his homepage, download all
            #  announced files. Unpack everything (x:) and remove any
            #  existing directories (xopt:rm)

            http://example.com/~foo pregexp:\.tar\.gz$ x: xopt:rm

        # End of configuration file pwget.conf

# LIST OF DIRECTIVES IN CONFIGURATION FILE

All the directives must in the same line where the URL is. The programs scans lines and determines all options given in line for the URL. Directives can be overridden by command line options.

cnv:CONVERSION

  Currently only conv:text is available.

  Convert downloaded page to text. This option always needs either save: or rename:, because only those directives change filename. Here is an example:

          http://example.com/dir/file.html cnv:text save:file.txt
          http://example.com/dir/ pregexp:\.html cnv:text rename:s/html/txt/

  A text: shorthand directive can be used instead of cnv:text.

cregexp:REGEXP

  Download file only if the content matches REGEXP. This is same as option --Regexp-content. In this example directory listing Emacs lisp packages (.el) are downloaded but only if their content indicates that the Author is Mr. Foo:

          http://example.com/index.html cregexp:(?i)author:.*Foo pregexp:\.el$

lcd:DIRECTORY

  Set local download directory to DIRECTORY (chdir to it). Any environment variables are substituted in path name. If this tag is found, it replaces setting of --Output. If path is not a directory, terminate with error. See also --Create-paths and --no-lcd.

login:LOGIN-NAME

  Ftp login name. Default value is "anonymous".

mirror:SITE

  This is relevant to Sourceforge only which does not allow direct downloads with links. Visit project's Sourceforge homepage and see which mirrors are available for downloading.

  An example:

        http://sourceforge.net/projects/austrumi/files/austrumi/austrumi-1.8.5/austrumi-1.8.5.iso/download new: mirror:kent

new:

  Get newest file. This variable is reset to the value of --new after the line has been processed. Newest means, that an `ls` command is run in the ftp, and something equivalent in HTTP "ftp directories", and any files that resemble the filename is examined, sorted and heurestically determined according to version number of file which one is the latest. For example files that have version information in YYYYMMDD format will most likely to be retrieved right.

  Time stamps of the files are not checked.

  The only requirement is that filename `must` follow the universal version numbering standard:

          FILE-VERSION.extension      # de facto VERSION is defined as [\d.]+

          file-19990101.tar.gz        # ok
          file-1999.0101.tar.gz       # ok
          file-1.2.3.5.tar.gz         # ok

          file1234.txt                # not recognized. Must have "-"
          file-0.23d.tar.gz           # warning, letters are problematic

  Files that have some alphabetic version indicator at the end of VERSION may not be handled correctly. Contact the developer and inform him about the de facto standard so that files can be retrieved more intelligently.

  NOTE: In order the new: directive to know what kind of files to look for, it needs a file tamplate. You can use a direct link to some filename. Here the location "http://www.example.com/downloads" is examined and the filename template used is took as "file-1.1.tar.gz" to search for files that might be newer, like "file-9.1.10.tar.gz":

        http://www.example.com/downloads/file-1.1.tar.gz new:

  If the filename appeard in a named page, use directive file: for template. In this case the "download.html" page is examined for files looking like "file.*tar.gz" and the latest is searched:

        http://www.example.com/project/download.html file:file-1.1.tar.gz new:

overwrite: o:

  Same as turning on --overwrite

page:

  Read web page and apply commands to it. An example: contact the root page and save it:

         http://example.com/~foo page: save:foo-homepage.html

  In order to find the correct information from the page, other directives are usually supplied to guide the searching.

  1) Adding directive `pregexp:ARCHIVE-REGEXP` matches the A HREF links in the page.

  2) Adding directive new: instructs to find newer VERSIONS of the file.

  3) Adding directive `file:DOWNLOAD-FILE` tells what template to use to construct the downloadable file name. This is needed for the `new:` directive.

  4) A directive `vregexp:VERSION-REGEXP` matches the exact location in the page from where the version information is extracted. The default regexp looks for line that says "The latest version ... is ... N.N". The regexp must return submatch 2 for the version number.

  AN EXAMPLE

  Search for newer files from a HTTP directory listing. Examine page http://www.example.com/download/dir for model `package-1.1.tar.gz` and find a newer file. E.g. `package-4.7.tar.gz` would be downloaded.

          http://www.example.com/download/dir/package-1.1.tar.gz new:

  AN EXAMPLE

  Search for newer files from the content of the page. The directive file: acts as a model for filenames to pay attention to.

          http://www.example.com/project/download.html new: pregexp:tar.gz file:package-1.1.tar.gz

  AN EXAMPLE

  Use directive rename: to change the filename before soring it on disk. Here, the version number is attached to the actila filename:

          file.txt-1.1
          file.txt-1.2

  The directived needed would be as follows; entries have been broken to separate lines for legibility:

          http://example.com/files/
          pregexp:\.el-\d
          vregexp:(file.el-([\d.]+))
          file:file.el-1.1
          new:
          rename:s/-[\d.]+//

  This effectively reads: "See if there is new version of something that looks like file.el-1.1 and save it under name file.el by deleting the extra version number at the end of original filename".

  AN EXAMPLE

  Contact absolute page: at http://www.example.com/package.html and search A HREF urls in the page that match pregexp:. In addition, do another scan and search the version number in the page from thw position that match vregexp: (submatch 2).

  After all the pieces have been found, use template file: to make the retrievable file using the version number found from vregexp:. The actual download location is combination of page: and A HREF pregexp: location.

  The directived needed would be as follows; entries have been broken to separate lines for legibility:

          http://www.example.com/~foo/package.html
          page:
          pregexp: package.tar.gz
          vregexp: ((?i)latest.*?version.*?\b([\d][\d.]+).*)
          file: package-1.3.tar.gz
          new:
          x:

  An example of web page where the above would apply:

          <HTML>
          <BODY>

          The latest version of package is <B>2.4.1</B> It can be
          downloaded in several forms:

              <A HREF="download/files/package.tar.gz">Tar file</A>
              <A HREF="download/files/package.zip">ZIP file

          </BODY>
          </HTML>

  For this example, assume that `package.tar.gz` is a symbolic link pointing to the latest release file `package-2.4.1.tar.gz`. Thus the actual download location would have been `http://www.example.com/~foo/download/files/package-2.4.1.tar.gz`.

  Why not simply download `package.tar.gz`? Because then the program can't decide if the version at the page is newer than one stored on disk from the previous download. With version numbers in the file names, the comparison is possible.

page:find

  FIXME: This opton is obsolete. do not use.

  THIS IS FOR HTTP only. Use Use directive regexp: for FTP protocls.

  This is a more general instruction than the page: and vregexp: explained above.

  Instruct to download every URL on HTML page matching pregexp:RE. In typical situation the page maintainer lists his software in the development page. This example would download every tar.gz file in the page. Note, that the REGEXP is matched against the A HREF link content, not the actual text that is displayed on the page:

          http://www.example.com/index.html page:find pregexp:\.tar.gz$

  You can also use additional regexp-no: directive if you want to exclude files after the pregexp: has matched a link.

          http://www.example.com/index.html page:find pregexp:\.tar.gz$ regexp-no:desktop

pass:PASSWORD

  For FTP logins. Default value is `nobody@example.com`.

pregexp:RE

  Search A HREF links in page matching a regular expression. The regular expression must be a single word with no whitespace. This is incorrect:

          pregexp:(this regexp )

  It must be written as:

          pregexp:(this\s+regexp\s)

print:MESSAGE

  Print associated message to user requesting matching tag name. This directive must in separate line inside tag.

          tag1: linux

            print: this download site moved 2002-02-02, check your bookmarks.
            http://new.site.com/dir/file-1.1.tar.gz new:

  The `print:` directive for tag is shown only if user turns on --verbose mode:

          pwget -v -T linux

rename:PERL-CODE

  Rename each file using PERL-CODE. The PERL-CODE must be full perl program with no spaces anywhere. Following variables are available during the `eval()` of code:

          $ARG = current file name
          $url = complete url for the file
          The code must return $ARG which is used for file name

  For example, if page contains links to .html files that are in fact text files, following statement would change the file extensions:

          http://example.com/dir/ page:find pregexp:\.html rename:s/html/txt/

  You can also call function `MonthToNumber($string)` if the filename contains written month name, like <2005-February.mbox>.The function will convert the name into number. Many mailing list archives can be donwloaded cleanly this way.

          #  This will download SA-Exim Mailing list archives:
          http://lists.merlins.org/archives/sa-exim/ pregexp:\.txt$ rename:$ARG=MonthToNumber($ARG)

  Here is a more complicated example:

          http://www.contactor.se/~dast/svnusers/mbox.cgi pregexp:mbox.*\d$ rename:my($y,$m)=($url=~/year=(\d+).*month=(\d+)/);$ARG="$y-$m.mbox"

  Let's break that one apart. You may spend some time with this example since the possiblilities are limitless.

          1. Connect to page
             http://www.contactor.se/~dast/svnusers/mbox.cgi

          2. Search page for URLs matching regexp 'mbox.*\d$'. A
             found link could match hrefs like this:
             http://svn.haxx.se/users/mbox.cgi?year=2004&month=12

          3. The found link is put to $ARG (same as $_), which can be used
             to extract suitable mailbox name with a perl code that is
             evaluated. The resulting name must apear in $ARG. Thus the code
             effectively extract two items from the link to form a mailbox
             name:

              my ($y, $m) = ( $url =~ /year=(\d+).*month=(\d+)/ )
              $ARG = "$y-$m.mbox"

              => 2004-12.mbox

  Just remember, that the perl code that follows `rename:` directive must must not contain any spaces. It all must be readable as one string.

regexp:REGEXP

  Get all files in ftp directory matching regexp. Directive save: is ignored.

regexp-no:REGEXP

  After the `regexp:` directive has matched, exclude files that match directive regexp-no:

Regexp:REGEXP

  This option is for interactive use. Retrieve all files from HTTP or FTP site which match REGEXP.

save:LOCAL-FILE-NAME

  Save file under this name to local disk.

tagN:NAME

  Downloads can be grouped under `tagN` so that e.g. option --Tag1 would start downloading files from that point on until next `tag1` is found. There are currently unlimited number of tag levels: tag1, tag2 and tag3, so that you can arrange your downlods hierarchially in the configuration file. For example to download all Linux files rhat you monitor, you would give option --Tag linux. To download only the NT Emacs latest binary, you would give option --Tag emacs-nt. Notice that you do not give the `level` in the option, program will find it out from the configuration file after the tag name matches.

  The downloading stops at next tag of the `same level`. That is, tag2 stops only at next tag2, or when upper level tag is found (tag1) or or until end of file.

          tag1: linux             # All Linux downlods under this category

              tag2: sunsite    tag2: another-name-for-this-spot

              #   List of files to download from here

              tag2: ftp.funet.fi

              #   List of files to download from here

          tag1: emacs-binary

              tag2: emacs-nt

              tag2: xemacs-nt

              tag2: emacs

              tag2: xemacs

x:

  Extract (unpack) file after download. See also option --unpack and --no-extract The archive file, say .tar.gz will be extracted the file in current download location. (see directive lcd:)

  The unpack procedure checks the contents of the archive to see if the package is correctly formed. The de facto archive format is

          package-N.NN.tar.gz

  In the archive, all files are supposed to be stored under the proper subdirectory with version information:

          package-N.NN/doc/README
          package-N.NN/doc/INSTALL
          package-N.NN/src/Makefile
          package-N.NN/src/some-code.java

  `IMPORTANT:` If the archive does not have a subdirectory for all files, a subdirectory is created and all items are unpacked under it. The defualt subdirectory name in constructed from the archive name with currect date stamp in format:

          package-YYYY.MMDD

  If the archive name contains something that looks like a version number, the created directory will be constructed from it, instead of current date.

          package-1.43.tar.gz    =>  package-1.43

xx:

  Like directive x: but extract the archive `as is`, without checking content of the archive. If you know that it is ok for the archive not to include any subdirectories, use this option to suppress creation of an artificial root package-YYYY.MMDD.

xopt:rm

  This options tells to remove any previous unpack directory.

  Sometimes the files in the archive are all read-only and unpacking the archive second time, after some period of time, would display

          tar: package-3.9.5/.cvsignore: Could not create file:
          Permission denied

          tar: package-3.9.5/BUGS: Could not create file:
          Permission denied

  This is not a serious error, because the archive was already on disk and tar did not overwrite previous files. It might be good to inform the archive maintainer, that the files have wrong permissions. It is customary to expect that distributed packages have writable flag set for all files.

# ERRORS

Here is list of possible error messages and how to deal with them. Turning on --debug will help to understand how program has interpreted the configuration file or command line options. Pay close attention to the generated output, because it may reveal that a regexp for a site is too lose or too tight.

ERROR {URL-HERE} Bad file descriptor

  This is "file not found error". You have written the filename incorrectly. Double check the configuration file's line.

# BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

`Sourceforge note`: To download archive files from Sourceforge requires some trickery because of the redirections and load balancers the site uses. The Sourceforge page have also undergone many changes during their existence. Due to these changes there exists an ugly hack in the program to use `wget(1)` to get certain infomation from the site. This could have been implemented in pure Perl, but as of now the developer hasn't had time to remove the `wget(1)` dependency. No doubt, this is an ironic situation to use `wget(1)`. You you have Perl skills, go ahead and look at `UrlHttGet()`. `UrlHttGetWget()` and sen patches.

The program was initially designed to read options from one line. It is unfortunately not possible to change the program to read configuration file directives from multiple lines, e.g. by using backslashes (\) to indicate contuatinued line.

# ENVIRONMENT

Variable `PWGET_CFG` can point to the root configuration file. The configuration file is read at startup if it exists.

        export PWGET_CFG=$HOME/conf/pwget.conf     # /bin/hash syntax
        setenv PWGET_CFG $HOME/conf/pwget.conf     # /bin/csh syntax

# EXIT STATUS

Not defined.

# DEPENDENCIES

External utilities:

        wget(1)   only needed for Sourceforge.net downloads
                  see BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

Non-core Perl modules from CPAN:

        LWP::UserAgent
        Net::FTP

The following modules are loaded in run-time only if directive cnv:text is used. Otherwise these modules are not loaded:

        HTML::Parse
        HTML::TextFormat
        HTML::FormatText

This module is loaded in run-time only if HTTPS scheme is used:

        Crypt::SSLeay

# SEE ALSO

lwp-download(1) lwp-mirror(1) lwp-request(1) lwp-rget(1) `wget(1)`

# AUTHOR

Jari Aalto

# LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 1996-2010 Jari Aalto

This program is free software; you can redistribute and/or modify program under the terms of GNU General Public license either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.