I am trying to sort something out in my head. If I want a local mirror of some directory, I usually do not want the lead-in. Take, for example my local slackware (and everything) mirror, which is

ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/mirrors/slac...re64-<version>

I would get a directory starting ftp.heanet.ie/ with an unpredictable number of unwanted branches. What I would like is one directory slackware64-<version> with it's files.

can I get that from wget?

The answer is "kinda yes", but there may be better tools for that job.

Is it that you want to replicate that tree ONCE, or keep a copy in sync? What is your real purpose or goal here?

And, naturally, did you bother to read the MAN page on wget? I have, and it looks to me as if some of the clearly documented options would help you.

Thanks for the reply.

I read the first 20 screenfuls of the man page and glazed over. I imagine rsync would do it. No, I don't want a synced copy, I just want a download. wget is not into syncing copies, and it's research, not porn, so I didn't was the encrypt --> decrypt that goes on with some copy schemes, because it slows matters.

Well, if the information was right in front of you but "made your eyes glaze over" we may not be of much help.
But
I get the impression that a clone of the path is not what you want.
What it appears that you want will be a cone (snapshot) of the folder that is your source. You do NOT want "sync" so your original word choice may have been misleading.
Rsync is surprisingly good at that, and encryption is not what slows you down on modern processors. Lftp is also good, and both have specific options that make them excellent tools for this purpose. Also, there are excellent tutorials that describe options for almost exactly your use case!

To use ANY tool properly you will have to learn to read the documentation and understand at least some of how it works. If you want to make wget work for this, you can. You are going to have to find some of the options that might work, run some test transfers, and find your solution. Once you actually make a start, let us know what you did and what happened so we can advise you.

i created a .lftprc file in home dir which contained the following:

open user: password@mysite.com (no spaces)
set ssl:verify-certificate no
cd
lcd ~/local/path/to/dir/
cd remote/path/to/dir
mput * (or) mget *
bye

You're right, lftp would be a superior was to go. It's not always the same site.

I certainly don't want a clone of a website, more a mirror of one particular small branch (sometimes with subdirs, sometimes not). Browsers are also effective at it. I got used to operating under fierce stress and pressure - now gone - and I find my threshold for bilge has deteriorated. If you lit a fire under my backside, I suppose I could assimilate and process bilge as well as formerly; It's rarely you hear someone complain about a lack of pressure :-P.

Wget is good if you have to use http, like on web sites that don't intend to be mirrored by the general public. Rsync is probably the best, if the site permits rsync.

Wget has a switch to save the download in whatever directory name you want, not necessarily the domain name. But rsync can exclude whatever you want with the --exclude switch.