wget command to download a file and save as a different filename

631
votes

I am downloading a file using the wget command. But when it downloads to my local machine, I want it to be saved as a different filename.

For example: I am downloading a file from www.examplesite.com/textfile.txt

I want to use wget to save the file textfile.txt on my local directory as newfile.txt. I am using the wget command as follows:

wget www.examplesite.com/textfile.txt
5
downloadwget
It's wget -O newfile.txt. – Mechanical snail
but wget -o will simply give you the progress of downloading as a logfile. I tried wget -o. – noobcoder
wget -o will output log information to a file. wget -O will output the downloaded content. man wget will tell you all of this and more. – Andy Ross
What @AndyRoss said: mind the capitalisation; it's commonly MEANINGFUL in unix/linux land. – tink
This does not answer the question at all. The OUTPUT of the command will be saved to -o file, but the file itself will be downloaded with the same name and not "saved as". – John Mikic

5 Answers

956
votes

Use the -O file option.

E.g.

wget google.com
...
16:07:52 (538.47 MB/s) - `index.html' saved [10728]

vs.

wget -O foo.html google.com
...
16:08:00 (1.57 MB/s) - `foo.html' saved [10728]
119
votes

Also notice the order of parameters on the command line. At least on some systems (e.g. CentOS 6):

wget -O FILE URL

works. But:

wget URL -O FILE

does not work.

30
votes

You would use the command Mechanical snail listed. Notice the uppercase O. Full command line to use could be:

wget www.examplesite.com/textfile.txt --output-document=newfile.txt

or

wget www.examplesite.com/textfile.txt -O newfile.txt

Hope that helps.

9
votes

Using CentOS Linux I found that the easiest syntax would be:

wget "link" -O file.ext

where "link" is the web address you want to save and "file.ext" is the filename and extension of your choice.

7
votes
wget -O yourfilename.zip remote-storage.url/theirfilename.zip

will do the trick for you.

Note:

a) its a capital O.

b) wget -O filename url will only work. Putting -O last will not.