Mastering curl vs wget: When to Use Each for Efficient File Downloads

curl and wget share many basic functions such as downloading files.

If we must point out a difference, curl is better at simulating web requests because its parameters are highly customizable, while wget excels at file downloading thanks to FTP support and recursive capabilities. In analogy, curl is like a browser and wget is like a download manager.

1. Download a file

curl -O http://man.linuxde.net/text.iso   # -O uppercase, without -O it only prints content

wget http://www.linuxde.net/text.iso   # no parameters needed, directly downloads the file

2. Download and rename

curl -o rename.iso http://man.linuxde.net/text.iso   # -o lowercase

wget -O rename.zip http://www.linuxde.net/text.iso   # -O uppercase

3. Resume interrupted download

curl -O -C - http://man.linuxde.net/text.iso   # -O uppercase, -C uppercase

wget -c http://www.linuxde.net/text.iso   # -c lowercase

4. Limit download speed

curl --limit-rate 50k -O http://man.linuxde.net/text.iso

wget --limit-rate=50k http://www.linuxde.net/text.iso

5. Show response headers

curl -I http://man.linuxde.net/text.iso

wget --server-response http://www.linuxde.net/test.iso

6. wget powerful feature – mirror an entire website

wget --mirror -p --convert-links -P /var/www/html http://man.linuxde.net/

References:

http://man.linuxde.net/curl

http://man.linuxde.net/wget

https://www.zhihu.com/question/19598302

Source: https://www.cnblogs.com/lsdb/p/7171779.html