NAME

http_get - get the contents of an http URL

SYNOPSIS

http_get [-t timeout] [-r referrer] [-u user-agent] [-a username:password] [-c cookie] [-a header value ] [-v] url

DESCRIPTION

http_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 headers 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>.