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http_get(1)            DragonFly General Commands Manual           http_get(1)

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>.

                                 16 March 1999                     http_get(1)