http_get(1)http_get(1)NAMEhttp_get - get the contents of an http URL
SYNOPSIShttp_get [-t timeout] [-r referrer] [-u user-agent] [-a username:pass‐
word] [-c cookie] [-a header value ] [-v] url
DESCRIPTIONhttp_get fetches an http URL and dumps the contents to stdout. It does
not do gopher, ftp, file, news, or any other type of URL, only http.
It can be configured to do https fetches as well.
The -t flag specifies a timeout in seconds. If that much time passes
with no activity, the fetch is aborted. The default is 60 seconds.
The -r flag specifies a referrer header to send. Some tightly-clenched
web admins like to jigger their server to only return files if the
proper referrer is given.
The -u flag specifies a User-Agent header to send. Some *really*
tightly-clenched web admins like to jigger their server to only return
files if a well-known User-Agent is given.
The -a flag lets you do Basic Authentication.
The -c flag lets you pass in a cookie.
The -h flag lets you pass in one extra header.
The -v flag is for debugging; it tells http_get to show the HTTP head‐
ers as well as the rest of the response.
EXIT STATUS
If the fetch is successful (HTTP status 200), the command's exit status
is 0. Otherwise the exit status is the HTTP status code. However,
since a Unix command exit status is only one byte, the HTTP codes show
up mod 256. Adding to the confusion, csh interprets the status byte as
signed, while in other shells it is unsigned. Anyway, here is a table
of some common status values:
HTTP sh csh
200 0 0
302 46 46
304 48 48
400 144 -112
401 145 -111
403 147 -109
404 148 -108
408 152 -104
500 244 -12
501 245 -11
503 247 -9
AUTHOR
Originally based on a simple version by Al Globus
<globus@nas.nasa.gov>. Debugged, prettified, and extended by Jef
Poskanzer <jef@mail.acme.com>.
16 March 1999 http_get(1)
