Wget: Is there a way to pass username and password from a file?

Question

Is there a way to pass the username and password from a file instead of the command line via --user and --password?

Background: I want to run wget via cron and don't want the username/password show up in process view

score 24 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 26 '15 at 10:34

24

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the .netrc file. First create the file if it doesn't exists and set safe permissions:

touch ~/.netrc
chmod 600 ~/.netrc

Then you can add the hostname, username and password all on one line:

echo 'machine example.com login casper password CasperPassword' >> ~/.netrc

Then when you do wget https://example.com and the server responds with 401 Authorization Required, wget will retry with the username and password from the ~/.netrc file.

When using this from cron make sure you have the right HOME directory. Often cron sets HOME=/ (in that case you would have to create the file as /.netrc, but it's better to set a proper HOME at the beginning of your script, like export HOME=/root).

You can specify multiple hosts in ~/.netrc, one per line. More info in man netrc.

answered Feb 26 '15 at 10:34

Paul Tobias

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For the syntax of `.netrc`, see its [manual](https://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/manual/html_node/The-_002enetrc-file.html), or the related [curl doc](https://ec.haxx.se/usingcurl-netrc.html). – ryenus Feb 06 '17 at 13:32
At first I'm too careless to see the `man netrc` in the OP, wondering WHY this works, then @ryenus your comment saves me, thanks~ Manual is always welcome :P Then I know it's a rc file used by `ftp`, that is, it may not work for http. I'll try it on http later. – Weekend Apr 29 '19 at 13:13
Quick update: _.netrc_ does work with wget and HTTP (at least on Ubuntu 18.04). Also related cURL doc was moved [here](https://everything.curl.dev/usingcurl/netrc). – Konrad Botor Mar 02 '22 at 09:47

score 13 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 25 '16 at 02:04

13

Use a .wgetrc file (GNU manual) in which you can set username and passwords for either or both ftp and http.

To use the same credentials for both specify

user=casper
password=CasperPassword

or individually

ftp_user=casperftp
ftp_password=casperftppass
http_user=casperhttp
http_password=casperhttppass

edited Feb 25 '16 at 02:04

sfuqua

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answered May 08 '11 at 13:08

Mike Renfro

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The GNU [wget manual](http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/manual/wget.html#Security-Considerations) also suggests using the `-i` option and feeding the username and password in from standard input. – Richard May 08 '11 at 15:08
Does `.wgetrc` provide the flexibility to work with more than one server? If not, `.netrc` is a better solution, see [the other answer](http://serverfault.com/a/671578/91715) from tobias.pal – ryenus Feb 06 '17 at 13:26
I obviously missed wget using a `.netrc` file, but [it's documented](https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/manual/html_node/Startup-File.html). – Mike Renfro Feb 06 '17 at 18:13

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered May 08 '11 at 15:40

2

In many regards curl can be a better choice. Wget became a bit stale over time.

curl's -n switch can be used for this task: http://curl.haxx.se/docs/manpage.html#-n

answered May 08 '11 at 15:40

cstamas

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Wget: Is there a way to pass username and password from a file?

3 Answers3