[SOLVED] wget insists on saving a file

danielbmartin · 01-03-2014, 10:58 AM

My bash script includes this:

Code:

echo; echo "#5"
wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/precise/MD5SUMS

I expected the contents of the referenced file to be displayed on the screen. That's not what happened. Instead, this is displayed:

Code:

#5
--2014-01-03 11:47:18--  http://releases.ubuntu.com/precise/MD5SUMS
Resolving releases.ubuntu.com... 91.189.92.163, 2001:7b8:3:37:213:136:29:219, 2001:67c:1360:8c01::14, ...
Connecting to releases.ubuntu.com|91.189.92.163|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 577 [text/plain]
Saving to: `MD5SUMS'

100%[======================================>] 577         --.-K/s   in 0s      

2014-01-03 11:47:19 (41.0 MB/s) - `MD5SUMS' saved [577/577]

Sure enough, the file /home/daniel/MD5SUMS was created and it contains the desired information.

Is there a command option which should have been used?

Daniel B. Martin

ntubski · 01-03-2014, 11:12 AM

From the manpage:

Code:

       -O file
       --output-document=file
           The documents will not be written to the appropriate files,
           but all will be concatenated together and written to file.
           If - is used as file, documents will be printed to standard
           output, disabling link conversion.  (Use ./- to print to a
           file literally named -.)

           ...

If you want to keep the screen clear, you may also need

Code:

       -o logfile
       --output-file=logfile
           Log all messages to logfile.  The messages are normally
           reported to standard error.

suicidaleggroll · 01-03-2014, 12:38 PM

Yes, wget is intended to get a file. I'm very glad the default operation doesn't dump the contents of the file you grabbed to the screen, that would make no sense for 99% of wget's use-cases, such as downloading files, which is what you are doing.

If you want to dump the contents of the file to the screen, then use "-O -". You can even put this straight into a variable with:

Code:

md5=$(wget -O - http://releases.ubuntu.com/precise/MD5SUMS)

danielbmartin · 01-03-2014, 02:29 PM

Thank you, ntubski and suicidaleggroll, for your prompt and informative responses.
This thread is marked SOLVED!

Daniel B. Martin