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I want to download a file from the Linux command line. Basically I'm using ssh and I'm trying to download a file to my file system on my laptop. How can I do that from the command line?

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Mar 23 '11 at 2:31

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3 Answers

up vote 17 down vote

wget and curl are commonly used for web URLs. For remote files, use scp for individual files and consider rsync for directories.

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or scp -r for directories – MattBianco Mar 23 '11 at 9:38
IME rsync is better for both files and directories - if available - apart from anything else it can cope with resumes efficiently. – cbz Mar 23 '11 at 9:59
Agreed; scp -r mostly aggravates me when I make the mistake of trying to use it. – geekosaur Mar 23 '11 at 10:01
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up vote 9 down vote

If the file is publicly available, then:

wget http://example.com/file.tar
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This article explains how to use different options available for wget . Sengar +1 for you ;) – Shakehar Mar 23 '11 at 10:35
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up vote 1 down vote

I upvoted zengr's answer, but would like to mention (since your question is a bit vague) lynx or links web browsers as well, if you don't remember the full URL to the file to download.

scp with public key authentication is your friend if you copy between your own machines.

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