How to Download Files and Web Pages Using Wget in Python

For those who want an efficient method for downloading files using HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and Python, Wget is a solution. To help you learn how to use Wget by Python, we have developed this guide and straightforward tool to guide you. Using them properly, this process can streamline your efforts.

Table of Contents

What Is Wget and Why Use It?

You may know that Python Wget is a command line utility tool. This makes it a tool that is easy to use for various tasks. However, it offers more.

You can use Wget to download files from the web in most formats, including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, and other protocols. If you currently have a Unix-like operating system, Python Wget is already present. However, you can also obtain it for almost any other system, including Windows.

The Advantages of using Wget from Python

Though you can certainly use a Python Package Like request to accomplish a variety of the same tasks, there are some key reasons why you’ll want to take a closer look at Python Wget. Using it instead of other popular library requests can offer several key benefits to users.

If you are currently using requests to download files, you may find that Python Wget offers some really excellent benefits that make it a popular option for many people.

For example, it supports more protocols than requests (and in today’s framework, this has become more important than ever). Also notable is that you can resume aborted or otherwise interrupted downloads where they are, which is a huge time saver for many.

Other key advantages of using Wget Python for downloading files include:

• You can adjust the download speed, such as limiting the speed overall, to reduce the demand on your network bandwidth, enabling you to prioritize what gets the most support. Also notable is that you can leave it to work unattended in the background downloading operations.
• You can use it for filenames and network locations with wildcards.
• It supports HTTP/S as well as persistent HTTP connections.
• It also offers NLS-based message files to enable it to fit most languages.
• The tool will use local file timestamps to determine when and where to re-download whenever you are mirroring.
• It respects robot exclusion rules that are defined in robots.txt.

For all of those reasons, you’ll want to use Wget in Pycharm to download files. It is one of the best routes for numerous reasons. When you compare this to Python HTTP client library, you’ll note that Python Wget is more powerful. It is an excellent option for those writing scripts that need to download files and web pages from the web.

What You Need to Run Python Wget

You can use Python script to download files from a website, but you need to have the right setup in place. To run CLI commands in Python, you will need to meet some specific prerequisites. This will allow you to build the script that you can then run Wget commands from.

First steps

You need to have Wget Python on your system. If you have a Linux system, it is already preinstalled and ready to be used. If it isn’t for any reason, you need to install it using distro’s package manager.

If you have Windows, you can download Wget binary for Windows and then place it within a folder. You will then need to add the Wget binary path to your PATH environment variable.

Those using Mac will need to use Homebrew to install Python Wget.

In addition to this, you also need Python 3+ in place. If you do not have that or need to update, you can download the installer and follow the instructions. Also consider the benefit of using a Python IDE to help with this process.

Creating your Python project

Now that you have the background work done, you’re ready. Your first step is to create a Python Wget project within a virtual environment. To do that, use the following commands:

mkdir wget-python-demo

cd wget-python-demo

python -m venv env

This directory (wget-python-demo) will work as your project folder. You will then need to load it to Python IDE being used, create a script.py file, and then try it out using the following to initialize it:

print(‘Hello, World!’)

That means the sample script should show up and print “Hello, World!” within the terminal. To ensure there are no concerns, make sure the script works. To do that, press the “run” button on the IDE.

Once you do this, the terminal should display the contest:

Hello, World!

If you have reached this point, you have a Python project set up. At this point, you’ve created the framework with Wget in Python. The next process is to write a function to execute CLI commands using the subprocess module.

Creating a Function to Execute CLI Commands

The next step is to write a function that will execute CLI Commands utilizing the subprocess module.

The best way to do this (and generally speaking the easiest option( is to run CLI commands using a Python Script using the subprocess module. This library lets you spawn new processes, as well as connect to their input/output/error pipes. You can also obtain the return code. This gives users just about everything necessary to execute commands within the Python terminal.

What do you do?

Use the Popen() method to execute CLI commands (you will need to do this as WGET with Python is such a command).

All you need to do is to paste this script:

import subprocess

def execute_command(command):

“””

Execute a CLI command and return the output and error messages.

Parameters:

– command (str): The CLI command to execute.

Returns:

– output (str): The output generated by the command.

– error (str): The error message generated by the command, if any.

“””

try:

# execute the command and capture the output and error messages

process = subprocess.Popen(command, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)

output, error = process.communicate()

output = output.decode(“utf-8”)

error = error.decode(“utf-8”)

# return the output and error messages

return output, error

except Exception as e:

# if an exception occurs, return the exception message as an error

return None, str(e)

There are variations to this, but if you use this script in your script.py file, you will then be able to invoke a CLI command.

Using Wget with Python to Download a File

You’ve got the hard work done and now to use Wget in Python to download a file, there are several steps to follow.

The syntax of a Wget command is the following:

wget [options] [url]

In this setup:

• [options] refers to the list of options and flags that are supported by the CLI tool, which enables you to tell it what to do or customize the behavior
• [url] is the specific URL of the file you want to download. You can copy and paste a direct link to that file or you can use the webpage URL to do this – that second option allows you to capture a page that may have multiple files.

So, now give it a try!

All you have to do is copy and paste the URL of the file you want to download into the prompt following

Wget [URL]

When you do this in Python, you will see the following code:

Output, error = execute_command(“wget URL”)

This process enables the tool to resolve to the IP address of the URL you select. It then connects to the server using HTTP request to the resource you have listed, and then it provides an HTTP response status code aligned with the project. The files are then downloaded and stored in the current directory you are using.

Download a webpage

A secondary  option may be to use a Python Wget download for a webpage. The process is not much different and remains rather straightforward overall. The Wget command is the same, but the difference is that the URL you choose is going to point specifically to the web page.

When you do this, the project directory will contain an index.html file. Within that will be the HTML content from the webpage.

Why Should You Use Python Wget for This Task?

The subprocess module really makes a Python script to download files from a website easy to use. There are many options and features out there, including automatic retries and recursive downloads. You can also make a local copy of the site, and it only takes writing one line of code to do so. Other key benefits include the fact that it offers support for proxy integration and FTP support.

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