WEBGRAB(1) WEBGRAB(1)
NAME
webgrab - fetch web page content as files
SYNOPSIS
webgrab [ -r ] [ -v ] [ -o stem ] url
DESCRIPTION
Webgrab connects to the web server named in the url. It
fetches the content of the web page also determined by the
url, and stores it locally in a file. If the page is writ-
ten in HTML, webgrab reads it to build a list of sub-
component pages (eg, frames) and images. It fetches those,
saving the content in separate files. It adds a comment to
the end of each HTML file giving the time, and the file's
origin. It automatically follows redirections offered by
the server.
The stem of the names of the output files is normally
derived from a component of the url. If the url contains a
path name, the stem is the component of that path, less any
dot-separated suffix and prefix. For example, given
http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/old.index.html
the stem would be index. If there is no path name, but the
url contains a domain name, the stem is the penultimate com-
ponent of the domain name (eg, excluding trailing .com, and
initial www, etc). For example, given
www.innerhost.vitanuova.com
the stem would be vitanuova. If all else fails, webgrab
uses the stem webgrab.
Given a stem, the initial page is stored in stem.suffix
where suffix is the suffix (eg, .html) of the name of the
original page. Subordinate pages are saved in a similar way
in files named stem_1.suffix1, stem_2.suffix2, ... .
The options are:
-r do not fetch subcomponents (just the `raw' source of
url itself)
-v print a progress report
-vv print a chatty progress report
-o stem
use the stem as given
Page 1 Plan 9 (printed 12/21/24)
WEBGRAB(1) WEBGRAB(1)
Webgrab reads the configuration file /services/webget/config
(if it exists), to look for the address of an optional HTTP
proxy (in the `httpproxy' entry), and list of domains for
which a proxy should not be used (in the noproxy or
noproxydoms entry).
FILES
/services/webget/config
SOURCE
/appl/cmd/webgrab.b
BUGS
It should read the proxy name from the charon(1) configura-
tion file and not the webget configuration file.
It cannot do `secure' transfers (https).
Its HTML parsing is naive, but on the other hand, it is less
likely to trip over HTML novelties.
Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 12/21/24)