How to Compare cURL to wGet
CURL and wGet are almost the same program. The same protocol is used for both wGet and cURL and they both essentially do the same thing, but there are some subtle differences. Read on to learn more about the cURL advantages over wGet.
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Instructions
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Learn about what wGet does. Basically, wGet is used for non-interactive downloading from an HTTP, HTTPS or FTP protocol. This is good for grabbing lots of content from a website without having to click "Save as..." over and over or for mirroring a site. It has a command-line interface and can be used to grab entire directories at once.
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Learn about what cURL does. Know that cURL does all the things that wGet does, but more. Read on to understand some of the advantages of cURL over wGet.
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Know about the protocols. While wGet works with HTTP, HTTPS and FTP protocols, cURL works with much more--HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, GOPHER, DICT, TELNET and LDAP.
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Understand cURL's programming capabilities. Because cURL is also a programming library, this means it can be implemented into other applications. It has bindings in many languages and it can also support multiple networking protocols. It can be developed cross-platform as well.
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Understand cURL's web developing features. Know that cURL has the ability to upload, HTTP Put and Post and handle cookies, and it can also be used for password-protected sites as it has the capability to handle authentication and proxies.
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Use all of cURL's features. There are many other advanced features that cURL offers that take quite a bit of computer literacy to fully utilize. That is cURL's main strength over wGet--it is a bit more difficult to use, but is ultimately more powerful.
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Tips & Warnings
Generally, cURL comes built-in with Linux and Mac OS. You can open up the terminal in OS X and begin using cURL commands from there.
If you have problems with command line interfaces, you can download a frontend. This adds a graphical user interface for easier functionality (see Resources).
Remember that cURL is significantly more difficult to use than wGet. If you do not have a need for lots of extra features, you may be better off using wGet.
