NAME¶
axel - light command line download accelerator
SYNOPSIS¶
axel [OPTIONS] url1 [url2] [url...]
DESCRIPTION¶
Axel is a program that downloads a file from a FTP or HTTP server through
multiple connection. Each connection downloads its own part of the file.
Unlike most other programs, Axel downloads all the data directly to the
destination file, using one single thread. It just saves some time at the end
because the program does not have to concatenate all the downloaded parts.
Axel supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS protocols.
OPTIONS¶
One argument is required, the URL to the file you want to download. When
downloading from FTP, the filename may contain wildcards and the program will
try to resolve the full filename. Multiple mirror URLs to an identical file
can be specified as well and the program will use all those URLs for the
download.
Please note that the program does not check whether the files are equal.
Other options:
- --max-speed=x, -s x
- Specify a speed (bytes per second) to try to keep the average speed around
this speed. This is useful if you do not want the program to suck up all
of your bandwidth.
- --num-connections=x, -n x
- Specify an alternative number of connections.
- --output=x, -o x
- Downloaded data will be put in a local file with the same name, unless you
specify a different name using this option. You can specify a directory as
well, the program will append the filename.
- --search[=x], -S[x]
- Axel can do a search for mirrors using the filesearching.com search
engine. This search will be done if you use this option. You can specify
how many different mirrors should be used for the download as well. The
search for mirrors can be time-consuming because the program tests every
server's speed, and it checks whether the file's still available.
- --no-proxy, -N
- Do not use any proxy server to download the file. Not possible when a
transparent proxy is active somewhere, of course.
- --insecure, -k
- Do not verify the SSL certificate. Only use this if you are getting
certificate errors and you are sure of the sites authenticity.
- --verbose, -v
- Show more status messages. Use it more than once to see more details.
- --quiet, -q
- No output to stdout.
- --alternate, -a
- This will show an alternate progress indicator. A bar displays the
progress and status of the different threads, along with current speed and
an estimate for the remaining download time.
- --header=x, -H x
- Add an additional HTTP header. This option should be in the form
"Header: Value". See RFC 2616 section 4.2 and 14 for details on
the format and standardized headers.
- --user-agent=x, -U x
- Set the HTTP user agent to use. Some websites serve different content
based upon this parameter. The default value will include
"Axel", its version and the platform.
- --help, -h
- A brief summary of all the options.
- --version, -V
- Get version information.
NOTE¶
Long (double dash) options are supported only if your platform knows about the
getopt_long call. If it does not (like *BSD), only the short options can be
used.
RETURN VALUE¶
The program returns 0 when the download was successful, 1 if something really
went wrong and 2 if the download was interrupted. If something else comes
back, it must be a bug.
EXAMPLES¶
The trivial usage to download a file is similar to:
$ axel http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/8.4.0/amd64/iso-cd/debian-8.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso
$ axel ftp://ftp.nl.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.2/linux-2.2.20.tar.bz2
This will use the Belgian, Dutch, English and German kernel.org mirrors to
download a Linux 2.4.17 kernel image.
$ axel ftp://ftp.{be,nl,uk,de}.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/linux-2.4.17.tar.bz2
This will do a search for the linux-2.4.17.tar.bz2 file on filesearching.com and
it'll use the four (if possible) fastest mirrors for the download (possibly
including ftp.kernel.org). Of course, the commands are a single line, but
they're too long to fit on one line in this page.
$ axel -S4 ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/linux-2.4.17.tar.bz2
FILES¶
- /etc/axelrc
- System-wide configuration file.
- ~/.axelrc
- Personal configuration file.
These files are not documented in a manpage, but the example file which comes
with the program contains enough information. The position of the system-wide
configuration file might be different. In source code this example file is at
doc/ directory. On Debian systems, it is at /usr/share/doc/
axel/examples/ directory.
COPYRIGHT¶
Axel was originally written by Wilmer van der Gaast and other authors over time.
Please, see the AUTHORS and CREDITS files.
The current Axel homepage (since 2015) is
https://github.com/eribertomota/
axel
HELP THIS PROJECT¶
If you intent to help, please, read the CONTRIBUTING.md file. On Debian systems,
this file will be available at /usr/share/doc/
axel/ directory.