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(wget.info)Types of Files

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Types of Files
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   When downloading material from the web, you will often want to
restrict the retrieval to only certain file types.  For example, if you
are interested in downloading GIFs, you will not be overjoyed to get
loads of PostScript documents, and vice versa.

   Wget offers two options to deal with this problem.  Each option
description lists a short name, a long name, and the equivalent command
in `.wgetrc'.

`-A ACCLIST'
`--accept ACCLIST'
`accept = ACCLIST'
     The argument to `--accept' option is a list of file suffixes or
     patterns that Wget will download during recursive retrieval.  A
     suffix is the ending part of a file, and consists of "normal"
     letters, e.g. `gif' or `.jpg'.  A matching pattern contains
     shell-like wildcards, e.g. `books*' or `zelazny*196[0-9]*'.

     So, specifying `wget -A gif,jpg' will make Wget download only the
     files ending with `gif' or `jpg', i.e. GIFs and JPEGs.  On the
     other hand, `wget -A "zelazny*196[0-9]*"' will download only files
     beginning with `zelazny' and containing numbers from 1960 to 1969
     anywhere within.  Look up the manual of your shell for a
     description of how pattern matching works.

     Of course, any number of suffixes and patterns can be combined
     into a comma-separated list, and given as an argument to `-A'.

`-R REJLIST'
`--reject REJLIST'
`reject = REJLIST'
     The `--reject' option works the same way as `--accept', only its
     logic is the reverse; Wget will download all files _except_ the
     ones matching the suffixes (or patterns) in the list.

     So, if you want to download a whole page except for the cumbersome
     MPEGs and .AU files, you can use `wget -R mpg,mpeg,au'.
     Analogously, to download all files except the ones beginning with
     `bjork', use `wget -R "bjork*"'.  The quotes are to prevent
     expansion by the shell.

   The `-A' and `-R' options may be combined to achieve even better
fine-tuning of which files to retrieve.  E.g. `wget -A "*zelazny*" -R
.ps' will download all the files having `zelazny' as a part of their
name, but _not_ the PostScript files.

   Note that these two options do not affect the downloading of HTML
files; Wget must load all the HTMLs to know where to go at
all--recursive retrieval would make no sense otherwise.