Open Source offline browser

# Httrack Users Guide (3.10)

By Fred Cohen

## Background and Introduction

I started using httrack in mid-2000 and found it to be an excellent tool for imaging web sites. Various words are used to describe this process - from imaging to mirroring to snaking and so on. I will be using a variety of these words in my description.

I have used many such tools over the years, have performed many manual and semi-automatic operations of similar sorts, and written partial programs to do similar functions, but - at least for now - httrack seems to me to be the best option for this function.

The only problem I encountered when using httrack was that it is so rich with features that I could never really figure out precisely the right thing to do at any given point. I was using recepies rather than knowledge to get the job done - and I was pestering the authors for those recepies. After a few days of very helpful assistance from the authors I volunteered to write a users manual for httrack - and here it is. I hope it gets the job done.

## Basics

Httrack is a program that gets information from the Internet, looks for pointers to other information, gets that information, and so forth. If you ask it to, and have enough disk space, it will try to make a copy of the whole Internet on your computer. While this may be the answer to Dilbert's boss when he asks to get a printout of the Internet for some legal document, for most of us, we want to get copies of just the right part of the Internet, and have them nicely organized for our use. This is where httrack does a great job. Here's a simple example:

    httrack "http://www.all.net/" -O "/tmp/www.all.net" "+*.all.net/*" -v

In this example, we ask httrack to start the Universal Resource Locator (URL) http://www.all.net/ and store the results under the directory /tmp/www.all.net (the -O stands for "output to") while not going beyond the bounds of all the files in the www.all.net domain and printing out any error messages along the way (-v means verbose). This is the most common way that I use httrack. Please note that this particular command might take you a while - and run you out of disk space.

This sort of a mirror image is not an identical copy of the original web site - in some ways it's better such as for local use - while in other ways it may be problematic - such as for legal use. This default mirroring method changes the URLs within the web site so that the references are made relative to the location the copy is stored in. This makes it very useful for navigating through the web site on your local machine with a web browser since most things will work as you would expect them to work. In this example, URLs that point outside of the www.all.net domain space will still point there, and if you encounter one, the web browser will try to get the data from that location.

For each of the issues discussed here - and many more - httrack has options to allow you to make different choices and get different results. This is one of the great things about httrack - and one of the the real major problems with using it without the knowledge of all that it can do. If you want to know all the things httrack can do, you might try typing:

    httrack --help

Unfortunately, while this outputs a though list of options, it is somewhat less helpful it might be for those who don't know what the options all mean and haven't used them before. On the other hand, this is most useful for those who already know how to use the program but don't remember some obscure option that they haven't used for some time.

The rest of this manual is dedicated to detailing what you find in the help message and providing examples - lots and lots of examples... Here is what you get (page by page - use <enter> to move to the next page in the real program) if you type 'httrack --help':

    >httrack --help
     HTTrack version 3.03BETAo4 (compiled Jul  1 2001)
    	usage: ./httrack <URLs [-option] [+<FILTERs>] [-<FILTERs>]
    	with options listed below: (* is the default value)

    General options:
      O  path for mirror/logfiles+cache (-O path_mirror[,path_cache_and_logfiles]) (--path )
     %O  top path if no path defined (-O path_mirror[,path_cache_and_logfiles])

    Action options:
      w *mirror web sites (--mirror)
      W  mirror web sites, semi-automatic (asks questions) (--mirror-wizard)
      g  just get files (saved in the current directory) (--get-files)
      i  continue an interrupted mirror using the cache
      Y   mirror ALL links located in the first level pages (mirror links) (--mirrorlinks)

    Proxy options:
      P  proxy use (-P proxy:port or -P user:pass@proxy:port) (--proxy )
     %f *use proxy for ftp (f0 don't use) (--httpproxy-ftp[=N])

    Limits options:
      rN set the mirror depth to N (* r9999) (--depth[=N])
     %eN set the external links depth to N (* %e0) (--ext-depth[=N])
      mN maximum file length for a non-html file (--max-files[=N])
      mN,N'                  for non html (N) and html (N')
      MN maximum overall size that can be uploaded/scanned (--max-size[=N])
      EN maximum mirror time in seconds (60=1 minute, 3600=1 hour) (--max-time[=N])
      AN maximum transfer rate in bytes/seconds (1000=1kb/s max) (--max-rate[=N])
     %cN maximum number of connections/seconds (*%c10)
      GN pause transfer if N bytes reached, and wait until lock file is deleted (--max-pause[=N])

    Flow control:
      cN number of multiple connections (*c8) (--sockets[=N])
      TN timeout, number of seconds after a non-responding link is shutdown (--timeout)
      RN number of retries, in case of timeout or non-fatal errors (*R1) (--retries[=N])
      JN traffic jam control, minimum transfert rate (bytes/seconds) tolerated for a link (--min-rate[=N])
      HN host is abandonned if: 0=never, 1=timeout, 2=slow, 3=timeout or slow (--host-control[=N])

    Links options:
     %P *extended parsing, attempt to parse all links, even in unknown tags or Javascript (%P0 don't use) (--extended-parsing[=N])
      n  get non-html files 'near' an html file (ex: an image located outside) (--near)
      t  test all URLs (even forbidden ones) (--test)
     %L <file add all URL located in this text file (one URL per line) (--list )

    Build options:
      NN structure type (0 *original structure, 1+: see below) (--structure[=N])
         or user defined structure (-N "%h%p/%n%q.%t")
      LN long names (L1 *long names / L0 8-3 conversion) (--long-names[=N])
      KN keep original links (e.g. http://www.adr/link) (K0 *relative link, K absolute links, K3 absolute URI links) (--keep-links[=N])
      x  replace external html links by error pages (--replace-external)
     %x  do not include any password for external password protected websites (%x0 include) (--no-passwords)
     %q *include query string for local files (useless, for information purpose only) (%q0 don't include) (--include-query-string)
      o *generate output html file in case of error (404..) (o0 don't generate) (--generate-errors)
      X *purge old files after update (X0 keep delete) (--purge-old[=N])

    Spider options:
      bN accept cookies in cookies.txt (0=do not accept,* 1=accept) (--cookies[=N])
      u  check document type if unknown (cgi,asp..) (u0 don't check, * u1 check but /, u2 check always) (--check-type[=N])
      j *parse Java Classes (j0 don't parse) (--parse-java[=N])
      sN follow robots.txt and meta robots tags (0=never,1=sometimes,* 2=always) (--robots[=N])
     %h  force HTTP/1.0 requests (reduce update features, only for old servers or proxies) (--http-10)
     %B  tolerant requests (accept bogus responses on some servers, but not standard!) (--tolerant)
     %s  update hacks: various hacks to limit re-transfers when updating (identical size, bogus response..) (--updatehack)
     %A  assume that a type (cgi,asp..) is always linked with a mime type (-%A php3=text/html) (--assume )

    Browser ID:
      F  user-agent field (-F "user-agent name") (--user-agent )
     %F  footer string in Html code (-%F "Mirrored [from host %s [file %s [at %s]]]" (--footer )
     %l  preffered language (-%l "fr, en, jp, *" (--language )

    Log, index, cache
      C  create/use a cache for updates and retries (C0 no cache,C1 cache is prioritary,* C2 test update before) (--cache[=N])
      k  store all files in cache (not useful if files on disk) (--store-all-in-cache)
     %n  do not re-download locally erased files (--do-not-recatch)
     %v  display on screen filenames downloaded (in realtime) (--display)
      Q  no log - quiet mode (--do-not-log)
      q  no questions - quiet mode (--quiet)
      z  log - extra infos (--extra-log)
      Z  log - debug (--debug-log)
      v  log on screen (--verbose)
      f *log in files (--file-log)
      f2 one single log file (--single-log)
      I *make an index (I0 don't make) (--index)
     %I  make an searchable index for this mirror (* %I0 don't make) (--search-index)

    Expert options:
      pN priority mode: (* p3) (--priority[=N])
          0 just scan, don't save anything (for checking links)
          1 save only html files
          2 save only non html files
         *3 save all files
          7 get html files before, then treat other files
      S  stay on the same directory
      D *can only go down into subdirs
      U  can only go to upper directories
      B  can both go up&down into the directory structure
      a *stay on the same address
      d  stay on the same principal domain
      l  stay on the same TLD (eg: .com)
      e  go everywhere on the web
     %H  debug HTTP headers in logfile (--debug-headers)

    Guru options: (do NOT use)
     #0  Filter test (-#0 '*.gif' 'www.bar.com/foo.gif')
     #f  Always flush log files
     #FN Maximum number of filters
     #h  Version info
     #K  Scan stdin (debug)
     #L  Maximum number of links (-#L1000000)
     #p  Display ugly progress information
     #P  Catch URL
     #R  Old FTP routines (debug)
     #T  Generate transfer ops. log every minutes
     #u  Wait time
     #Z  Generate transfer rate statictics every minutes
     #!  Execute a shell command (-#! "echo hello")

    Command-line specific options:
      V execute system command after each files ($0 is the filename: -V "rm \$0") (--userdef-cmd )
     %U run the engine with another id when called as root (-%U smith) (--user )

    Details: Option N
      N0 Site-structure (default)
      N1 HTML in web/, images/other files in web/images/
      N2 HTML in web/HTML, images/other in web/images
      N3 HTML in web/,  images/other in web/
      N4 HTML in web/, images/other in web/xxx, where xxx is the file extension
    (all gif will be placed onto web/gif, for example)
      N5 Images/other in web/xxx and HTML in web/HTML
      N99 All files in web/, with random names (gadget !)
      N100 Site-structure, without www.domain.xxx/
      N101 Identical to N1 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N102 Identical to N2 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N103 Identical to N3 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N104 Identical to N4 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N105 Identical to N5 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N199 Identical to N99 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N1001 Identical to N1 exept that there is no "web" directory
      N1002 Identical to N2 exept that there is no "web" directory
      N1003 Identical to N3 exept that there is no "web" directory (option set for g option)
      N1004 Identical to N4 exept that there is no "web" directory
      N1005 Identical to N5 exept that there is no "web" directory
      N1099 Identical to N99 exept that there is no "web" directory
    Details: User-defined option N
      %n Name of file without file type (ex: image) (--do-not-recatch)
      %N Name of file, including file type (ex: image.gif)
      %t File type (ex: gif)
      %p Path [without ending /] (ex: /someimages)
      %h Host name (ex: www.someweb.com) (--http-10)
      %M URL MD5 (128 bits, 32 ascii bytes)
      %Q query string MD5 (128 bits, 32 ascii bytes)
      %q small query string MD5 (16 bits, 4 ascii bytes) (--include-query-string)
         %s? Short name version (ex: %sN)
      %[param] param variable in query string

    Shortcuts:
    --mirror      <URLs *make a mirror of site(s) (default)
    --get         <URLs  get the files indicated, do not seek other URLs (-qg)
    --list   <text file  add all URL located in this text file (-%L)
    --mirrorlinks <URLs  mirror all links in 1st level pages (-Y)
    --testlinks   <URLs  test links in pages (-r1p0C0I0t)
    --spider      <URLs  spider site(s), to test links: reports Errors & Warnings (-p0C0I0t)
    --testsite    <URLs  identical to --spider
    --skeleton    <URLs  make a mirror, but gets only html files (-p1)
    --update              update a mirror, without confirmation (-iC2)
    --continue            continue a mirror, without confirmation (-iC1)

    --catchurl            create a temporary proxy to capture an URL or a form post URL
    --clean               erase cache & log files

    --http10              force http/1.0 requests (-%h)

    example: httrack www.someweb.com/bob/
    means:   mirror site www.someweb.com/bob/ and only this site

    example: httrack www.someweb.com/bob/ www.anothertest.com/mike/ +*.com/*.jpg
    means:   mirror the two sites together (with shared links) and accept any .jpg files on .com sites

    example: httrack www.someweb.com/bob/bobby.html +* -r6
    means get all files starting from bobby.html, with 6 link-depth, and possibility of going everywhere on the web

    example: httrack www.someweb.com/bob/bobby.html --spider -P proxy.myhost.com:8080
    runs the spider on www.someweb.com/bob/bobby.html using a proxy

    example: httrack --update
    updates a mirror in the current folder

    example: httrack --continue
    continues a mirror in the current folder

    HTTrack version 3.03BETAo4 (compiled Jul  1 2001)
    Copyright (C) 1998-2013 Xavier Roche and other contributors
    [compiled: Linux linux 2.2.18 #9 SMP Sat Dec 30 09:51:39 CET 2000 i586 unknown]

For many of you, the manual is now complete, but for the rest of us, I will now go through this listing one item at a time with examples... I will be here a while...

## Syntax

    httrack <URLs> [-option] [+<FILTERs>] [-<FILTERs>]

The syntax of httrack is quite simple. You specify the URLs you wish to start the process from (<URLS>), any options you might want to add ([-option], any filters specifying places you should ([+<FILTERs>]) and should not ([-<FILTERs>]) go, and end the command line by pressing <enter>. Httrack then goes off and does your bidding. For example:

    httrack www.all.net/bob/

This will use the 'defaults' (those selections from the help page marked with '*' in the listing above) to image the web site. Specifically, the defauls are:

      w *mirror web sites
     %f *use proxy for ftp (f0 don't use)
      cN number of multiple connections (*c8)
      RN number of retries, in case of timeout or non-fatal errors (*R1)
     %P *extended parsing, attempt to parse all links, even in unknown tags or Javascript (%P0 don't use)
      NN  name conversion type (0 *original structure, 1+: see below)
      LN  long names (L1 *long names / L0 8-3 conversion)
      K   keep original links (e.g. http://www.adr/link) (K0 *relative link)
      o *generate output html file in case of error (404..) (o0 don't generate)
      X *purge old files after update (X0 keep delete)
      bN  accept cookies in cookies.txt (0=do not accept,* 1=accept)
      u check document type if unknown (cgi,asp..) (u0 don't check, * u1 check but /, u2 check always)
      j *parse Java Classes (j0 don't parse)
      sN  follow robots.txt and meta robots tags (0=never,1=sometimes,* 2=always)
      C  create/use a cache for updates and retries (C0 no cache,C1 cache is prioritary,* C2 test update before)
      f *log file mode
      I *make an index (I0 don't make)
      pN priority mode: (* p3)  *3 save all files
      D  *can only go down into subdirs
      a  *stay on the same address
      --mirror      <URLs> *make a mirror of site(s) (default)

Here's what all of that means:

      w *mirror web sites

Automatically go though each URL you download and look for links to other URLs inside it, dowloading them as well.

     %f *use proxy for ftp (f0 don't use)

If there are and links to ftp URLs (URLs using the file transfer protocol (FTP) rather than the hypertext transfer protocol HTTP), go through an ftp proxy server to get them.

      cN number of multiple connections (*c8)

Use up to 8 simultaneous downloads so that at any gioven time, up to 8 URLs may be underway.

      RN number of retries, in case of timeout or non-fatal errors (*R1)

Retry once if anything goes wrong with a download.

     %P *extended parsing, attempt to parse all links, even in unknown tags or Javascript (%P0 don't use)

Try to parse all URLs - even if they are in Javascript, Java, tags of unknown types, or anywhere else the program can find things.

      NN  name conversion type (0 *original structure, 1+: see below)

Use the original directory and file structure of the web site in your mirror image of the site.

      LN  long names (L1 *long names / L0 8-3 conversion)

If filenames do not follow the old DOS conventions, store them with the same names used on the web site.

      K   keep original links (e.g. http://www.adr/link) (K0 *relative link)

Use relative rather than the original links so that URLs within this web site are adjusted to point to the files in the mirror.

      o *generate output html file in case of error (404..) (o0 don't generate)

IF there are errors in downloading, create a file that indicates that the URL was not found. This makes browsing go a lot smoother.

      X *purge old files after update (X0 keep delete)

Files not found on the web site that were previously there get deleted so that you have an accurate snapshot of the site as it is today - losing historical data.

      bN  accept cookies in cookies.txt (0=do not accept,* 1=accept)

Accept all cokkies sent to you and return them if requested. This is required for many sites to function. These cookies are only kept relative to the specific site, so you don't have to worry about your browser retaining them.

      u check document type if unknown (cgi,asp..) (u0 don't check, * u1 check but /, u2 check always)

This causes different document types to be analyzed differently.

      j *parse Java Classes (j0 don't parse)

This causes Java class files to be parsed looking for URLs.

      sN  follow robots.txt and meta robots tags (0=never,1=sometimes,* 2=always)

This tells the program to follow the wishes of the site owner with respect to limiting where robots like this one search.

      C  create/use a cache for updates and retries (C0 no cache,C1 cache is prioritary,* C2 test update before)

If you are downloading a site you have a previous copy of, supplemental parameters are transmitted to the server, for example the 'If-Modified-Since:' field will be used to see if files are newer than the last copy you have. If they are newer, they will be downloaded, otherwise, they will not.

      f *log file mode

This retains a detailed log of any important events that took place.

      I *make an index (I0 don't make)

This makes a top-level index.html file so that if you image a set of sites, you can have one place to start reviewing the set of sites.

      pN priority mode: (* p3)  *3 save all files

This will cause all downloaded files to be saved.

      D  *can only go down into subdirs

This prevents the program from going to higher level directories than the initial subdirectory, but allows lower-level subdirectories of the starting directory to be investigated.

      a  *stay on the same address

This indicates that only the web site(s) where the search started are to be collected. Other sites they point to are not to be imaged.

      --mirror      <URLs> *make a mirror of site(s) (default)

This indicates that the program should try to make a copy of the site as well as it can.

Now that's a lot of options for the default - but of course there are a lot more options to go. For the most part, the rest of the options represent variations on these themes. For example, instead of saving all files, we might only want to save html files, or instead of 8 simultaneous sessions, we might want only 4.

If we wanted to make one of these changes, we would specify the option on the command line. For example:

    httrack www.all.net/bob/ -c4 -B

This would restrict httrack to only use 4 siumultaneous sessions but allow it to go up the directory structure (for example to www.all.net/joe/) as well as down it (for example to www.all.net/bob/deeper/).

You can add a lot of options to a command line!

## A Thorough Going Over

Now that you have an introduction, it's time for a more though coverage. This is where I go through each of the options and describe it in detail with examples... Actually, I won't quite do that. But I will get close.

Options tend to come in groups. Each group tends to be interrelated, so it's easier and more useful to go through them a group at a time with some baseline project in mind. In my case, the project is to collect all of the information on the Internet about some given subject. We will assume that, through a previous process, I have gotten a list of URLs of interest to me. Typically there will be hundreds of these URLs, and they will be a mixed bag of sites that are full of desired information, pages with lists of pointers to other sites, URLs of portions of a web site that are of interest (like Bob's home pages and subdirectories), and so forth. Let us say that for today we are looking for the definitive colleciton of Internet information on shoe sizes from around the world.

### General Options

    General options:
      O  path for mirror/logfiles+cache (-O path_mirror[,path_cache_and_logfiles])

For this project, I will want to keep all of the information I gather in one place, so I will specify that output area of the project as /tmp/shoesizes by adding '-O /tmp/shoesizes' to every command line I use.. for example:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes

The action options tell httrack how to operate at the larger level.

### Action Options

    Action options:
      w *mirror web sites
      W  mirror web sites, semi-automatic (asks questions)
      g  just get files (saved in the current directory)
      i  continue an interrupted mirror using the cache
      Y   mirror ALL links located in the first level pages (mirror links)

If I want httrack to ask me questions - such as what options to use, what sites to mirror, etc. I can tell it to ask these questions as follows:

###

###

###

###

###

###

###

###

###

###

###

###

##

##

##

##

##

##

##

##

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -W

     I can also do:

    httrack
    OR
    httrack -W
    OR
    httrack -w

     The '-W' options asks whether the or not a site has to
    be mirrored, while the '-w' option does not ask this question but asks
    the remainder of the questions required to mirror the site.

     The -g option allows you to get the files exactly as
    they are and store them in the current directory.  This is handy for a
    relatively small collection of information where organization isn't
    important.  With this option, the html files will not even be parsed to
    look for other URLs.  This option is useful for getting isolated files
    (e.g., httrack -g www.mydrivers.com/drivers/windrv32.exe).

     If I start a collection process and it fails for one
    reason or another - such as me interrupting it because I am running out
    of disk space - or a network outage - then I can restart the process by
    using the -i option:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -i

     Finally, I can mirror all links in the first level
    pages of the URLs I specify.  A good example of where to use whis would
    be in a case where I have a page that points to a lot of other sites and
    I want to get the initial information on those sites before mirroring
    them:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/othersites.html -O /tmp/shoesizes -Y

    Proxy Options

     Many users use a proxy for many of their functions.
    This is a key component in many firewalls, but it is also commonly used
    for anonymizing access and for exploiting higher speed communications at
    a remote server.

    Proxy options:
      P  proxy use (-P proxy:port or -P user:pass@proxy:port)
     %f *use proxy for ftp (f0 don't use)

     If you are using a standard proxy that doesn't require
    a user ID and password, you would do something like this:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -P proxy.www.all.net:8080

     In this case, we have asusmed that proxy.www.all.net is
    the host that does the proxy service and that it uses port 8080 for this
    service.  In some cases you will have to ask your network or firewall
    administrator for these details, however, in most cases they should be
    the same as the options used in your web browser.

     In some cases, a user ID and password are required for
    the proxy server.  This is common in corporate environments where only
    authorized users may access the Internet.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -P fc:password@proxy.www.all.net:8080

     In this case, the user ID 'fc' and the password
    'password' are used on proxy.www.all.net port 8080.  Again, your network or
    firewall administrator can be most helpful in addressing the specifics
    for your environment.

     FTP normally operates through a proxy server, but for systems
    that have direct connections to the Internet, the following option should help:

    httrack ftp://ftp.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -%f0

    Limits Options

    Limits options:
      rN set the mirror depth to N
      mN maximum file length for a non-html file
      mN,N'                  for non html (N) and html (N')
      MN maximum overall size that can be uploaded/scanned
      EN maximum mirror time in seconds (60=1 minute, 3600=1 hour)
      AN maximum transfer rate in bytes/seconds (1000=1kb/s max)
      GN pause transfer if N bytes reached, and wait until lock file is deleted
      %eN set the external links depth to N (* %e0) (--ext-depth[=N])
      %cN maximum number of connections/seconds (*%c10)

     Setting limits provides the means by which you can
    avoid running out of disk space, CPU time, and so forth.  This may be
    particularly helpful for those who accidentally try to image the whole
    Internet.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -r50

     In this example, we limit the directlry depth to 50
    levels deep.  As a general rule, web sites don't go much deeper than 20
    levels or so, and if you think about it, if there are only 2
    subdirectories per directory level, a directory structure 50 deep would
    have about 10 trillion directories.  Of course many sites have a small
    number of files many levels deep in a directory structure for various
    reasons.  In some cases, a symbolic link will cause an infinite
    recursion of directory levels as well, so placing a limit may be
    advisable.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -m50000000

     This example sets the maximum file length for non-HTML
    files to 50 megabytes.  This is not an unusual length for things like
    tar files, and in some cases - for example when there are images of
    CD-ROMs to fetch from sites, you might want a limit more like 750
    megabytes.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -m50000000,100000

     In this example, we have set a limit for html files
    as well - at 100,000 bytes.  HTML files are rarely larger than this,
    however, in some cases larger sizes may be needed.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -M1000000000

     This option sets the maximum total size - in bytes -
    that can be uploaded from a site - in this case to 1 gigabyte.
    Depending on how much disk space you have, such an option may be
    worthwhile.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -E3600

     This sets the maximum runtime for the download
    process.  Of course depending on the speed of your connection it may
    take longer or shorter runtimes to get the same job done, and network
    traffic is also a factor.  3600 seconds corresponds to one hour.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes A100000000

     This option specifies the largest number of bytes per
    second that should be used for transfers.  For example, you might want
    to go slow for some servers that are heavily loaded in the middle of the
    day, or to download slowly so that the servers at the other end are less
    likely to identify you as mirroring their site.  The setting above
    limits my bandwidth to 100 million bytes per second - slow I know, but I
    wouldn't want to stress the rest of the Internet.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -G100000000

     In this case, the G option is used to 'pause' a
    download after the first gigabyte is downloaded pending manual removal
    of the lockfile.  This is handy of you want to download some portion of
    the data, move it to secondary storage, and then continue - or if you
    want to only download overnight and want to stop before daylight and
    continue the next evening.  You could even combine this option with a
    cron job to remove the lock file so that the job automatically restarts
    at 7PM every night and gets another gigabyte.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes %e5

     In this case, httrack will only go to depth 5 for external links,
    thus not imaging the entire web, but only yhose links within 5 links of these web pages.

     Also note that the interaction of these options may
    cause unintended consequences.  For example, limiting bandwidth and
    download time conspire to limit the total amount of data that can
    be downloaded.

    Flow Control Options

    Flow control:
      cN number of multiple connections (*c8)
      %cN maximum number of connections/seconds (*%c10)
      TN timeout, number of seconds after a non-responding link is shutdown
      RN number of retries, in case of timeout or non-fatal errors (*R1)
      JN traffic jam control, minimum transfert rate (bytes/seconds) tolerated for a link
      HN host is abandonned if: 0=never, 1=timeout, 2=slow, 3=timeout or slow

     This example allows up to 128 simultaneous downloads.
    Note that this is likely to crash remote web servers - or at least fail
    to download many of the files - because of limits on the number of
    simultaneous sessions at many sites.  At busy times of day, you might
    want to lower this to 1 or 2, especially at sites that limit the number
    of simultaneous users. Otherwise you will not get all of the downloads.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -c128

     Many operating systems have a limit of 64 file
    handles, including internet connections and all other files that can be
    opened.  Therefore, in many cases, more that 48 connections might cause
    a "socket error" because the OS can not handle that many sockets.  This
    is also true for many servers.  As an example, a test with 48 sockets on
    a cgi-based web server (Pentium 166,80Meg RAM) overloaded the machine
    and stopped other services from running correctly.  Some servers will
    ban users that try to brutally download the website.  8 sockets is
    generally good, but when I'm getting large files (e.g., from a a site
    with large graphical images) 1 or 2 sockets is a better selection.  Here
    are some other figures from one sample set of runs:

    Tests: on a 10/100Mbps network, 30MB website, 99 files (70 images (some are
    little, other are big (few MB)), 23 HTML)
    With 8 sockets: 1,24MB/s
    With 48 sockets: 1,30MB/s
    With 128 sockets: 0,93MB/s

     This limits the number of connections per second.  It
    is similar to the above option but allows the pace to be controlled
    rather than the simultanaety.  It is particulsrly useful for long-term
    pulls at low rates that allow little impact on remote infrastructure.
    The default is 10 connections per second.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -%c20

     The timeout option causes downloads to time out after
    a non-response from a download attempt.  30 seconds is pretty reasonable
    for many sites.  You might want to increase the number of retries as
    well so that you try again and again after such timeouts.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -T30

     This example increases the number of retries to 5.
    This means that if a download fails 5 times, httrack will give up on it.
    For relatively unreliable sites - or for busy times of day, this number
    should be higher.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -R5

     This is an interesting option.  It says that in a
    traffic jam - where downloads are excessively slow - we might decide to
    back off the download.  In this case, we have limited downloads to stop
    bothering once we reach 10 bytes per second.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -J10

     These three options will cause the download from a
    host to be abandoned if (respectively) (0) never, (1) a timeout is
    reached, (2) slow traffic is detected, (or) (3) a timeout is reached OR
    slow traffic is detected.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -H0
    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -H1
    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -H2
    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -H3

     Of course these options can be combined to provide a
    powerful set of criteria for when to continue a download and when to
    give it up, how hard to push other sites, and how much to stress
    infrastructures.

    Link Following Options

    Links options:
     %P *extended parsing, attempt to parse all links, even in unknown tags or Javascript (%P0 don't use)
      n   get non-html files 'near' an html file (ex: an image located outside)
      t   test all URLs (even forbidden ones)
     %L <file> add all URL located in this text file (one URL per line)

     The links options allow you to control what links are
    followed and what links are not as well as to provide long lists of
    links to investigate.  Any setting other than the default for this
    option forces the engine to use less reliable and more complex parsing.
    'Dirty' parsing means that links like 'xsgfd syaze="foo.gif"' will cause
    HTTrack to download foo.gif, even if HTTrack don't know what the "xsgfd
    syaze=" tag actually means! This option is powerful because some links
    might otherwise be missed, but it can cause errors in HTML or javascript.

     This will direct the program to NOT search Javascript
    for unknown tag fields (e.g., it will find things like
    foo.location="bar.html"; but will not find things like bar="foo.gif";).
    While I have never had a reason to use this, some users may decide that
    they want to be more conservative in their searches.  As a note,
    javascript imported files (.js) are not currently searched for URLs.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes '%P0'

     Now here is a classic bit of cleverness that 'does
    the right thing' for some cases.  In this instance, we are asking
    httrack to get images - like gif and jpeg files that are used by a web
    page in its display, even though we would not normally get them.  For
    example, if we were only getting a portion of a web site (e.g.,
    everything under the 'bob directory') we might want to get graphics from
    the rest of the web sote - or the rest of the web - that are used in
    those pages as well so that our mirror will look right.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -n

     Here, we limit the collection to bob's area of the
    server - except that we get images and other such things that are used
    by bob in his area of the server.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -n

     This option 'tests' all links - even those forbidden
    (by the robot exclusion protocol) - by using the 'HEAD' protocol to test
    for the presence of a file.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -t

     In this case, we use a file to list the URLs we wish
    to mirror.  This is particularly useful when we have a lot to do and
    don't want to tirelessly type in URLs on command line after command line.
    It's also useful - for example - if you update a set of mirrored sites
    evey evening.  You can set up a command like this to run automatically
    from your cron file.

    httrack -%L linkfile -O /tmp/shoesizes

     This will update the mirror of your list of sites
    whenever it is run.

    httrack -%L linkfile -O /tmp/shoesizes -B --update

     The link file is also useful for things like this
    example where, after a binary image of a hard disk was analyzed (image)
    URLs found on that disk were collected by httrack:

    strings image | grep "http://" > list;
    httrack -%L list -O /tmp/shoesizes

    Mirror Build Options

    Build options:
      NN  name conversion type (0 *original structure, 1+: see below)
      N   user defined structure (-N "%h%p/%n%q.%t")
      LN  long names (L1 *long names / L0 8-3 conversion)
      K   keep original links (e.g. http://www.adr/link) (K0 *relative link)
      x   replace external html links by error pages
      o *generate output html file in case of error (404..) (o0 don't generate)
      X *purge old files after update (X0 keep delete)
      %x  do not include any password for external password protected websites (%x0 include) (--no-passwords)
      %q *include query string for local files (information only) (%q0 don't include) (--include-query-string)

     The user can define naming conventions for building
    the mirror of a site by using these options.  For example, to retain the
    original structure, the default is used.  This only modifies the
    structure to the extent that select characters (e.g., ~, :, <, >, \, and
    @) are replaced by _ in all pathnames.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -N0

     OR

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes

     In either case, the mirror will build with the same
    directory hierarchy and name structure as the original site.  For cases
    when you want to define your own structure, you use a string like this:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -N "%h%p/%n.%t"

     In this case, %h, %p, $n, and %t stand for the href
    element (e.g., http://www.shoesizes.com or ftp://ftp.shoesizes.com), %p
    stands for the pathname (e.g., /bob/), %n stands for the name of the
    file, and %t stands for type (file extension).  The full list of these
    options follows:

    %n      Name of file without file type (ex: image)
    %N      Name of file, including file type (ex: image.gif)
    %t      File type (ex: gif)
    %p      Path [without ending /] (ex: /someimages)
    %h      Host name (ex: www.all.net)
    %M      URL MD5 (128 bits, 32 ascii bytes)
    %Q      query string MD5 (128 bits, 32 ascii bytes)
    %q      small query string MD5 (16 bits, 4 ascii bytes)
    %s?     Short name version (ex: %sN)

     Other 'N' options include:

    Details: Option N
      N0 Site-structure (default)
      N1 HTML in web/, images/other files in web/images/
      N2 HTML in web/HTML, images/other in web/images
      N3 HTML in web/,  images/other in web/
      N4 HTML in web/, images/other in web/xxx, where xxx is the file extension
    (all gif will be placed onto web/gif, for example)
      N5 Images/other in web/xxx and HTML in web/HTML
      N99 All files in web/, with random names (gadget !)
      N100 Site-structure, without www.domain.xxx/
      N101 Identical to N1 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N102 Identical to N2 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N103 Identical to N3 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N104 Identical to N4 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N105 Identical to N5 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N199 Identical to N99 exept that "web" is replaced by the site's name
      N1001 Identical to N1 exept that there is no "web" directory
      N1002 Identical to N2 exept that there is no "web" directory
      N1003 Identical to N3 exept that there is no "web" directory (option set for g option)
      N1004 Identical to N4 exept that there is no "web" directory
      N1005 Identical to N5 exept that there is no "web" directory
      N1099 Identical to N99 exept that there is no "web" directory

     Long names are normally used (the -L0
    option) but if you are imaging to a DOS file system or want
    accessibility from older versions of DOS and Windows, you can use the
    -L1 option to generate these filename sizes.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -L1

     With the 'K' option, you can keep the original links
    in files.  While this is less useful in being able to view a web site
    froim the mirrored copy, it is vitally important if you want an accurate
    copy of exactly what was on the web site in the first place.  In a
    forensic image, for example, you might want to use this option to
    prevent the program from modifying the data as it is collected.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -K

     In this case, instead of leaving external links (URLs
    that point to sites not being mirrored) in the pages, these links are
    replaced by pages that leave messages indicating that they could not be
    found.  This is useful for local mirrors not on the Internet or mirrors
    that are on the Internet but that are not supposed to lead users to
    external sites.  A really good use for this is that 'bugging' devices
    placed in web pages to track who is using them and from where will be
    deactivated byt his process.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -x

     This option prevents the generation of '404' error
    files to replace files that were not found even though there were URLs
    pointing to them.  It is useful for saving space as well as eliminating
    unnecessary files in operations where a working web site is not the
    desired result.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -o0

     This option prevents the authoatic purging of files
    from the mirror site that were not found in the original web site after
    an 'update' is done.  If you want to retain old data and old names for
    files that were renamed, this option should be used.  If you want an
    up-to-date reflection of the current web site, you should not use this option.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -X0

     These options can be combined as desired to produce a
    wide range of different arrangements, from collections of only graphical
    files stored in a graphics area, to files identified by their MD5
    checksums only, all stored in the same directory.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes %x0 include

     This will not include passwords for web sites.  If you
    mirror http://smith_john:foobar@www.privatefoo.com/smith/, and exclude
    using filters some links, these links will be by default rewritten with
    password data.  For example, "bar.html" will be renamed into
    http://smith_john:foobar@www.privatefoo.com/smith/bar.html This can be a
    problem if you don't want to disclose the username/password! The %x
    option tell the engine not to include username/password data in
    rewritten URLs.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes %q

     This option is not very useful, because parameters are
    useless, as pages are not dynamic anymore when mirrored.  But some
    javascript code may use the query string, and it can give useful
    information.  For example: catalog4FB8.html?page=computer-science is
    clearer than catalog4FB8.html Therefore, this option is activated by
    default.

    Spider Options

     These options provide for automation with regard to
    the remote server.  For example, some sites require that cookies be
    accepted and sent back in order to allow access.

    Spider options:
     bN  accept cookies in cookies.txt (0=do not accept,* 1=accept)
     u   check document type if unknown (cgi,asp..) (u0 don't check, * u1 check but /, u2 check always)
     j   *parse Java Classes (j0 don't parse)
     sN  follow robots.txt and meta robots tags (0=never,1=sometimes,* 2=always)
     %h  force HTTP/1.0 requests (reduce update features, only for old servers or proxies)
     %B  tolerant requests (accept bogus responses on some servers, but not standard!)
     %s  update hacks: various hacks to limit re-transfers when updating
     %A  assume that a type (cgi,asp..) is always linked with a mime type (-%A php3=text/html) (--assume )

     By default, cookies are universally accepted and
    returned.  This makes for more effective collection of data, but allows
    the site to be identified with its collection of data more easily. To
    disable cookies, use this option:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -b0

     Some documents have known extension types (e.g.,
    html), while others have unknown types (e.g., iuh87Zs) and others may
    have misleading types (e.g., an html file with a 'gif' file extension.
    These options provide for (0) not checking file types, (1) checking all
    file types except directories, and (2) checking all file types including
    directories. Choose from these options:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -u0
    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -u1
    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -u2

     Meta tags or 'robots.txt' files on a web site are used
    to indicate what files should and should not be visited by automatic
    programs when collectiong data.  The polite and prudent move for normal
    data collection (and the default) is to follow this indication:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -s2

     This follows the robots protocol and meta-tags EXCEPT
    in cases where the filters disagree with the robots protocols or
    meta-tags.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -s1

     In this next case, we ignore meta-tags and robots.txt
    files completely and just take whatever we can get from the site.  The
    danger of this includes the fact that automated programs - like games or
    search engines may generate an unlimited number of nearly identical or
    identical outputs that will put us in an infinite loop collecting
    useless data under different names.  The benefit is that we will get all
    the data there is to get.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -s0

     This next option uses strict HTTP/1.0 protocol.  This
    means the program will use HTTP/1.0 headers (as in RFC1945.TXT) and NOT
    extended 1.1 features described in RFC2616.TXT.  For example, reget
    (complete a partially downloaded file) is a HTTP/1.1 feature.  The Etag
    feature is also a HTTP/1.1 feature (Etag is a special identifier that
    allow to easily detect file changes).

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -%h

     Some servers give responses not strictly within the
    requirements of the official http protocol.  These 'Bogus' responses can
    be accepted by using this option.  For example, when requesting foo.gif
    (5132 bytes), the server can, optionally, add:

    Content-length: 5132

     This helps the client by allowing it to reserve a
    block of memory, instead of collecting each byte and re-reserving memory
    each time data is being received.  But some servers are bogus, and send
    a wrong filesize.  When HTtrack detects the end of file (connection
    broken), there are three cases:

     1- The connection has been closed by the server, and we
    have received all data (we have received the number of bytes incicated
    by the server).  This is fine because we have successfully received the
    file.

     2- The connection has been closed by the server, BUT
    the filesize received is different from the server's headers: the
    connection has been suddenly closed, due to network problems, so we
    reget the file

     3- The connetion has been closed by the server, the
    filesize received is different from the server's headers, BUT the file
    is complete, because the server gave us a WRONG information!  In this
    case, we use the bogus server option:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -%B

     These options can be combined for the particular needs
    of the situaiton and are often adapted as a result of site-specific
    experiences.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -%s

     This is a collection of "tricks" which are not really
    "RFC compliant" but which can save bandwidth by trying not to retransfer
    data in several cases.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -%A asp=text/html

     The most important new feature for some people, maybe.
    This option tells the engine that if a link is en countered, with a
    specific type (.cgi, .asp, or .php3 for example), it MUST assume that
    this link has always the same MIME type, for example the "text/html"
    MIME type.  This is VERY important to speed up many mirrors.

     We have done tests on big HTML files (approx.  150 MB,
    150,000,000 bytes!) with 100,000 links inside.  Such files are being
    parsed in approx.  20 seconds on my own PC by the latest optimized
    releases of HTTra ck.  But these tests have been done with links of
    known types, that is, html, gif, and so on..  If you have, say, 10,000
    links of unknown type, such as ".asp", this will cause the engine to
    test ALL t hese files, and this will SLOOOOW down the parser.  In this
    example, the parser will take hours, instead of 20 seconds! In this
    case, it would be great to tell HTTrack: ".asp pages are in fact HTML
    pages" This is possible, using: -%A asp=text/html

     The -%A option can be replaced by the alias --assume
    asp=text/html which is MUCH more clear.  You can use multiple
    definitions, separated by ",", or use multiple options.  Therefore, these
    two lines are identical:

    --assume asp=text/html --assume php3=text/html --assume cgi=image/gif
    --assume asp=text/html,php3=text/html,cgi=image/gif

     The MIME type is the standard well known "MIME" type.
    Here are the most important ones:

    text/html       Html files, parsed by HTTrack
    image/gif       GIF files
    image/jpeg      Jpeg files
    image/png       PNG files

     There is also a collection of "non standard" MIME types. Example:

    application/x-foo       Files with "foo" type

     Therefore, you can give to all files terminated by
    ".mp3" the MIME type: application/x-mp3

     This allow you to rename files on a mirror.  If you
    KNOW that all "dat" files are in fact "zip" files ren amed into "dat",
    you can tell httrack:

    --assume dat=application/x-zip

     You can also "name" a file type, with its original
    MIME type, if this type is not known by HTTrack.  This will avoid a test
    when the link will be reached:

    --assume foo=application/foobar

     In this case, HTTrack won't check the type, because it
    has learned that "foo" is a known type, or MIME type
    "application/foobar".  Therefore, it will let untouched the "foo" type.

     A last remark, you can use complex definitions like:

    --assume asp=text/html,php3=text/html,cgi=image/gif,dat=application/x-zip,mpg=application/x-mp3,application/foobar

     ..and save it on your .httrackrc file:

    set assume asp=text/html,php3=text/html,cgi=image/gif,dat=application/x-zip,mpg=application/x-mp3,application/foobar

    Browser Options

     Browsers commonly leave footprints in web servers - as
    web servers leave footprints in the browser.

    Browser ID:
      F  user-agent field (-F "user-agent name")
     %F  footer string in Html code (-%F "Mirrored [from host %s [file %s [at %s]]]"
     %l  preffered language (-%l "fr, en, jp, *" (--language )

     The user-agent field is used by browsers to determine
    what kind of browser you are using as well as other information - such
    as your system type and operating system version.  The 'User Agent'
    field can be set to indicate whatever is desired to the server.  In this
    case, we are claiming to be a netscape browser (version 1.0) running a
    non-exitent Solaris operating system version on a Sun Sparcstation.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -F "Mozilla 1.0, Sparc, Solaris 23.54.34"

     On the other side, we may wish to mark each page
    collected with footer information so that we can see from the page where
    it was collected from, when, and under what name it was stored.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -%F "Mirrored [from host %s [file %s [at %s]]]"

     This makes a modified copy of the file that may be
    useful in future identification.  While it is not 'pure' in some senses,
    it may (or may not) be considered siilar to a camera that adds time and
    date stamps from a legal perspective.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -%l "fr, en, jp, *"

     "I prefer to have pages with french language, then
    english, then japanese, then any other language"

    Log, Cache, and Index Options

     A lot of options are available for log files, indexing
    of sites, and cached results:

    Log, index, cache
      C  create/use a cache for updates and retries (C0 no cache,C1 cache is prioritary,* C2 test update before)
      k  store all files in cache (not useful if files on disk)
     %n  do not re-download locally erased files
      Q  log quiet mode (no log)
      q  quiet mode (no questions)
      z  extra infos log
      Z  debug log
      v  verbose screen mode
      %v display on screen filenames downloaded (in realtime) (--display)
      f  log file mode
      f2 one single log file (--single-log)
      I  *make an index (I0 don't make)
      %I make an searchable index for this mirror (* %I0 don't make) (--search-index)

     A cache memory area is used for updates and retries to
    make the process far more efficient than it would otherwise be.  You can
    choose to (0) go without a cache, (1) do not check remotly if the file
    has been updated or not, just load the cache content, or (2) see what
    works best and use it (the default).  Here is the no cache example.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -C0

     The cache can be used to store all files - if desired
    - but if files are being stored on disk anyway (the normal process for a
    mirroring operation), this is not helpful.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -k

     In some cases, a file from a mirror site is erased
    locally.  For example, if a file contains inappropriate content, it may
    be erased from the mirror site but remain on the remote site.  This
    option allows you to leave deleted files permanently deleted when you
    do a site update.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -update '%n'

     If no log is desired, the following option should be
    added.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -Q

     If no questions should be asked of the user (in a mode
    that would otherwise ask questions), the following option should be
    added.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -q

     By adding these options, you get (-z) extra log
    information or (-Z) debugging information, and (-v) verbose screen
    output.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -z -Z -v

     Multiple log files can be created, but by default,
    this option is used to put all logs into a single log file.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -f2

     Finally, an index is normally made of the sites
    mirrored (a pointer to the first page found from each specified URL) in
    an index.html file in the project directory.  This can be prevented
    through the use of this option:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -I0

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes %v

     Animated information when using console-based version,
    example:

    17/95: localhost/manual/handler.html (6387 bytes) - OK

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes f2

     Do not split error and information log (hts-log.txt
    and hts-err.txt) - use only one file (hts-log.txt)

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -%I linux.localdomain

     Still in testing, this option asks the engine to
    generate an index.txt, useable by third-party programs or scripts, to
    index all words contained in html files. The above example will produce
    index.txt:

    ..
    abridged
            1 linux/manual/misc/API.html
            =1
            (0)
    absence
            3 linux/manual/mod/core.html
            2 linux/manual/mod/mod_imap.html
            1 linux/manual/misc/nopgp.html
            1 linux/manual/mod/mod_proxy.html
            1 linux/manual/new_features_1_3.html
            =8
            (0)
    absolute
            3 linux/manual/mod/mod_auth_digest.html
            1 linux/manual/mod/mod_so.html
            =4
            (0)
    ..

    Expert User Options

     For expert users, the following options provide further
    options.

    Expert options:
      pN priority mode: (* p3)
          0 just scan, don't save anything (for checking links)
          1 save only html files
          2 save only non html files
         *3 save all files
          7 get html files before, then treat other files
      S   stay on the same directory
      D  *can only go down into subdirs
      U   can only go to upper directories
      B   can both go up&down into the directory structure
      a  *stay on the same address
      d   stay on the same principal domain
      l   stay on the same location (.com, etc.)
      e   go everywhere on the web
     %H  debug HTTP headers in logfile

     One interesting application allows the mirror utility
    to check for valid and invalid links on a site.  This is commonly used
    in site tests to look for missing pages or other html errors.  I often
    run such programs against my web sites to verify that nothing is missing.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -p0

     To check for valid links outside of a site, the '-t'
    option can be used:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com -O /tmp/shoesizes -t

     These options can be combined, for example, to provide
    a service that checks sites for validity of links and reports back a
    list of missing files and statistics.

     Other options allow the retention of select files -
    for example - (1) only html files, (2) only non-html files, (3) all
    files, and (7) get all html files first, then get other files.  This
    last option provides a fast way to get the web pointers so that, for
    example, a time limited collection process will tend to get the most
    important content first.

     In many cases, we only want the files froma given
    directory.  In this case, we specify this option:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -S

     This option allows the mirror to go only into
    subdirectories of the initial directory on the remote host.  You might
    want to combine it with the  -n  option to get all
    non-html files linked from the pages you find.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -D -n

     If you only want to work your way up the directory
    structure from the specified URL (don't ask me why you might want to do
    this), the following command line is for you:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -U

     If you want to go both up and down the directory
    structure (i.e., anywhere on on this site that the requested page leads
    you to), this option will be best:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -B

     The default is to remain on the same IP address - or
    host name.  This option specifes this explicitly:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -a

     If you want to restrict yourself only to the same
    principal domain (e.g., include sites liks ftp.shoesizes.com), you would
    use this option.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -d

     To restrict yourself to the same major portion of the
    Internet (e.g., .com, .net, .edu, etc.) try this option:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -l

     Finally, if you want to mirror the whole Internet - at
    least every place on the internet that is ever led to - either directly
    or indirectly - from the starting point, use this one...  Please note
    that this will almost always run you out of resources unless you use
    other options - like limiting the depth of search.

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -e

     Last but not least, you can include debugging
    informaiton on all headers from a collection process by using this
    option:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -'%H'

     The options S, D, U, B, a, d, l, and e can be replaces
    with filter options approximately as follows:

    S     -www.foo.com/* +www.foo.com/bar/*[file]
    D     (default)
    U     +www.foo.com/bar/* -www.foo.com/*[name]/*
    B     +www.foo.com/bar/*
    a     (default)
    d     +*[name].foo.com/*
    l     +*[name].com/*
    e     +* (this is crazy unless a depth limit is used!)

    Guru Options - DO NOT USE!!!

     This is a new section, for all "not very well
    documented options".  You can use them, in fact, do not believe what is
    written above!

     #0  Filter test (-#0 '*.gif' 'www.bar.com/foo.gif')

      To test the filter system. Example:

    $ httrack -#0 'www.*.com/*foo*bar.gif' 'www.mysite.com/test/foo4bar.gif'
    www.mysite.com/test/foo4bar.gif does match www.*.com/*foo*bar.gif

     #f  Always flush log files

     Useful if you want the hts-log.txt file to be flushed
    regularly (not buffered)

     #FN Maximum number of filters

     Use if if you want to use more than the maximum
    default number of filters, that is, 500 filters: -#F2000 for 2,000 filters

     #h  Version info

     Informations on the version number

     #K  Scan stdin (debug)

     Not useful (debug only)

     #L  Maximum number of links (-#L1000000)

     Use if if you want to use more than the maximum
    default number of links, that is, 100,000 links: -#L2000000 for 2,000,000 links

     #p  Display ugly progress information

      Self-explanatory :) I will have to improve this one

     #P  Catch URL

     "Catch URL" feature, allows to setup a temporary proxy
    to capture complex URLs, often linked with POST action (when using form
    based authentication)

     #R  Old FTP routines (debug)

     Debug..

     #T  Generate transfer ops. log every minutes

     Generate a log file with transfer statistics

     #u  Wait time

     "On hold" option, in seconds

     #Z  Generate transfer rate statictics every minutes

     Generate a log file with transfer statistics

     #!  Execute a shell command (-#! "echo hello")

     Debug..

    Command-line Specific Options

    Command-line specific options:
      V execute system command after each files ($0 is the filename: -V "rm \$0") (--userdef-cmd )

     This option is very nice for a wide array of actions
    that might be based on file details.  For example, a simple log of all
    files collected could be generated by using:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes -V "/bin/echo \$0"

     %U run the engine with another id when called as root (-%U smith) (--user )

     Change the UID of the owner when running as r00t

      Details: User-defined option N
        %[param] param variable in query string

    This new option is important: you can include query-string content when forming the destination filename!

    Example: you are mirroring a huge website, with many pages named as:
    www.foo.com/catalog.php3?page=engineering
    www.foo.com/catalog.php3?page=biology
    www.foo.com/catalog.php3?page=computing
    ..

     Then you can use the -N option:

    httrack www.foo.com -N "%h%p/%n%[page].%t"

     If found, the "page" parameter will be included after
    the filename, and the URLs above will be saved as:

    /home/mywebsites/foo/www.foo.com/catalogengineering.php3
    /home/mywebsites/foo/www.foo.com/catalogbiology.php3
    /home/mywebsites/foo/www.foo.com/catalogcomputing.php3
    ...

    Shortcuts

     These options provide shortcust to combinations
    of other options that are commonly used.

    Shortcuts:
    --mirror      <URLs> *make a mirror of site(s) (default)
    --get         <URLs>  get the files indicated, do not seek other URLs (-qg)
    --list   <text file>  add all URL located in this text file (-%L)
    --mirrorlinks <URLs>  mirror all links in 1st level pages (-Y)
    --testlinks   <URLs>  test links in pages (-r1p0C0I0t)
    --spider      <URLs>  spider site(s), to test links: reports Errors & Warnings (-p0C0I0t)
    --testsite    <URLs>  identical to --spider
    --skeleton    <URLs>  make a mirror, but gets only html files (-p1)
    --update              update a mirror, without confirmation (-iC2)
    --continue            continue a mirror, without confirmation (-iC1)
    --catchurl            create a temporary proxy to capture an URL or a form post URL
    --clean               erase cache & log files
    --http10              force http/1.0 requests (-%h)

     Mirror is the default behavior.  It is detailed
    earlier.

     get simply gets the files specified on the command
    line.

     The list option is useful for including a list of
    sites to collect data from.

     The mirrorlinks option is ideal for using the result
    of a previous search (like a list of pages found in a web search or
    somebody's URL collection) to guide the collection of data.  With
    additional options (such as depth 1) it can be used to collect all of
    the pages linked to a given page without going further.  Here is an example:

    httrack http://www.shoesizes.com/bob/ -O /tmp/shoesizes --mirrorlinks -e -r1

     Testing links in pages is useful for automating the
    verification that a link from a file is not pointing to a non-existent
    page.

     The spider option does a site test automatically and
    returns errors for broken links.

     The skeleton option makes a mirror of html files only.

     The update option updates a site to match a remote
    mirror.

     The continue option continues a previously terminated
    mirroring activity. This is useful for all sorts of mirror failures.

     The catchurl option is a small application designed to
    catch difficult pages, like sites protected via formulas.  You can see
    at http://httrack.free.fr/HelpHtml/addurl.html a Windows description of
    this application.  The purpose is to create a temporary proxy, that will
    catch the user request to a page, and then store this request to
    continue the mirror. For example,

    1. browse www.foo.com/bar/ until you have a page with a form
    2. fill this form to enter the site BUT do not click "submit"
    3. start the --catchurl application
    4. change your browser proxy settings according to the --catchurl application
    5. click on "submit" on your browser
    6. HTTrack has now captured this click and has stored it
    7. restore your proxy settings
    8. (click back in your browser)

     The clean option erases cache and log files.

     The http10 option forces http/1.0 requests (the same
    as -%h).

     Filters

     Filters are normally placed at the end of the command
    line, but can be intermixed with other command line options if desired,
    except that if they are placed between (for example) the '-O' and the
    pathname, your results may be different than you might otherwise
    predict.  There are two sorts of filters, filters that indicate what to
    include (+) and filters that indicate what to exclude (-).

     Starting with the initially specified URLs, the
    default operation mode is to mirror starting from these URLs downward
    into the directory structure of the host (i.e.  if one of your starting
    pages was www.all.net/test/a.html, all links starting with www.all.net/test/
    will be collected but links in www.all.net/anything-else will not be
    collected, because they are in a higher directory strcuture level.  This
    prevents HTTrack from mirroring the whole site.  If you may want to
    download files are in other parts of the site or pf particular types -
    or to not download files in a particular part of the site or of a
    particular type, you can use filters to specify more precisely what to
    collect and what not to collect.

     The syntax for filters is similar to Unix regular
    expressions.  A simple filter can be made by using characters from the
    URL with '*' as a wildcard for 0 or more characters - with the last
    filter rule having the highest precendence.  An initial '+' indicates
    URLs to include and an initial '-' indicated URLs to not include.  For
    example:

    '-*' '+*jpg'

     would only get files ending in the 'jpg' extension,
    while:

    '-*jpg'

     would not get any files ending in the jpg extension.
    You can add more filter lines to restrict or expand the scope as
    desired.  The last rule is checked first, and so on - so that the rules
    are in reverse priority order.  Here's an example:

        +*.gif -image*.gif

        Will accept all gif files BUT image1.gif,imageblue.gif,imagery.gif and so on

        -image*.gif +*.gif

        Will accept all gif files, because the second pattern is prioritary (because it is defined AFTER the first one)

     The full syntax for filters follows:

            *
            any characters (the most commonly used)

            *[file] or *[name]
            any filename or name, e.g. not /,? and ; characters

            *[path]
            any path (and filename), e.g. not ? and ; characters

            *[a,z,e,r,t,y]
            any letters among a,z,e,r,t,y

            *[a-z]
            any letters

            *[0-9,a,z,e,r,t,y]
            any characters among 0..9 and a,z,e,r,t,y

            *[]
            no characters must be present after

    		  <filter>*[< NN]
    		 size less than NN Kbytes

    		  <filter>*[> PP]
    		 size more than PP Kbytes

    		  <filter>*[< NN > PP]
    		 size less than NN Kbytes and more than PP Kbytes

     Here are some examples of filters: (that can be
    generated automatically using the interface)

            -www.all.net*
            This will refuse/accept this web site (all links located in it will be rejected)

            +*.com/*
            This will accept all links that contains .com in them

            -*cgi-bin*
            This will refuse all links that contains cgi-bin in them

            +*.com/*[path].zip
            This will accept all zip files in .com addresses

            -*someweb*/*.tar*
            This will refuse all tar (or tar.gz etc.) files in hosts containing someweb

            +*/*somepage*
            This will accept all links containing somepage (but not in the address)

            -*.html
            This will refuse all html files from anywhere in the world.

            +*.html*[]
            Accept *.html, but the link must not have any supplemental characters
            at the end
    (e.g., links with parameters, like www.all.net/index.html?page=10
    	will not match this filter)

    		  -*.gif*[> 5] -*.zip +*.zip*[< 10]
    		 refuse all gif files smaller than 5KB, exlude all zip files, EXCEPT zip files smaller than 10KB

     User Authentication Protocols

     Smoe servers require user ID and password information
    in order to gain access.  In this example, the user ID smith with
    password foobar is accessing www.all.net/private/index.html

    httrack smith:foobar@www.all.net/private/index.html

     For more advanced forms of authentication, such as
    those involving forms and cookies of various sorts, an emerging
    capability is being provided through th URL capture features
    (--catchurl).  This feature don't work all of the time.

     .httrackrc

     A file called '.httrackrc' can be placed in the
    current directory, or if not found there, in the home directory, to
    include command line options.  These options are included whenever
    httrack is run. A sample .httrack follows:

     set sockets 8
     set retries 4
     index on
     set useragent "Mozilla [en] (foo)"
     set proxy proxy:8080

     But the syntax is not strict, you can use any of
    these:

     set sockets 8
     set sockets=8
     sockets=8
     sockets 8

     .httrackrc is sought in the following sequence with
    the first occurence used:

     in the dirctory indicated by -O option (.httrackrc)
     in the current directory (.httrackrc)
     in the user's home directory (.httrackrc)
     in /etc/httrack.conf (named httrack.conf to be "standard")

     An example .httrackrc looks like:

    set sockets=8
    set index on
    retries=2
    allow *.gif
    deny ad.doubleclick.net/*

     Each line is composed of an option name and a
    parameter.  The "set" token can be used, but is not mandatory (it is
    ignored, in fact).  The "=" is also optionnal, and is replaced by a
    space internally.  The "on" and "off" are the same as "1" and "0"
    respectively.  Therefore, the example .httrackrc above is equivalent to:

    sockets=8
    index=1
    retries=2
    allow=*.gif
    deny=ad.doubleclick.net/*

     Because the "=" seems to (wrongly) imply a variable
    assignment (the option can be defined more than once to define more than
    one filter) the following .httrackrc:

    allow *.gif
    allow *.jpg

     looks better for a human than:

    allow=*.gif
    allow=*.jpg

     Here's a example run with the example .httrackrc file:

    $ httrack ghost
    $ cat hts-cache/doit.log
    -c8 -C1 -R2 +*.gif -ad.doubleclick.net/* ghost

     The "-c8 -C1 -R2 +*.gif -ad.doubleclick.net/*" was
    added by the .httrackrc

     Release Notes

     Some things change between releases.  Here are some
    recent changes in httrack that may affect some of these options:

     Options S,D,U,B, and a,d,l,e are default behaviours of
    HTTrack.  they were the only options in old versions (1.0).  With the
    introduction of filters, their roles are now limited, because filters
    can override them.

     Note for the -N option: "%h%p/%n%q.%t" will be now be
    used if possible.  In normal cases, when a file does not have any
    parameters (www.foo.com/bar.gif) the %q option does not add anything, so
    there are no differences in file names.  But when parameters are present
    (for example, www.foo.com/bar.cgi?FileCollection=133.gif), the
    additionnal query string (in this case, FileCollection=133.gif) will be
    "hashed" and added to the filename.  For example:

    'www.all.net/bar.cgi?FileCollection=133.gif'
     will be named
    '/tmp/mysite/bar4F2E.gif'

     The additionnal 4 letters/digits are VERY useful in
    cases where there are a substantial number of identical files:

    www.all.net/bar.cgi?FileCollection=133.gif
    www.all.net/bar.cgi?FileCollection=rose.gif
    www.all.net/bar.cgi?FileCollection=plant4.gif
    www.all.net/bar.cgi?FileCollection=silver.gif
    and so on...

     In these cases, there is a small probability of a hash
    collision for large numbers of files.

     Some More Examples

     Here are some examples of special purpose httrack
    command lines that might be useful for your situation.

     This is a 'forensic' dump of a web site - intended to
    collect all URLs reachable from the initial point and at that particular
    site.  It is intended to make no changes whatsoever to the image.  It
    also prints out an MD5 checksum of each file imaged so that the image
    can be verified later to detect and changes after imaging.  It uses 5
    retries to be more certain than normal of getting the files, never
    abandons its efforts, keeps original links, does not generate error
    files, ignores site restrictions for robots, logs as much as it can,
    stays in the principal domain, places debugging headers in the log file,

    httrack "www.website.com/" -O "/tmp/www.website.com" -R5H0Ko0s0zZd %H -V "md5 \$0" "+*.website.com/*"

     Here's an example of a site where I pulled a set of
    data related to some subject.  In this case, I only wanted the
    relevant subdirectory, all external links were to remain the same, a
    verbose listing of URLs was to be printed, and I wanted files near (n)
    and below (D) the original directory.  Five retries just makes sure I
    don't miss anything.

    httrack "http://www.somesite.com/~library/thing/thingmain.htm" -O /tmp/thing -R5s0zZvDn

     This listing is, of course, rather verbose.  To reduce the noise,
    you might want to do something more like this:

    httrack "http://www.somesite.com/~library/thing/thingmain.htm" -O /tmp/thing -R5s0zvDn

     A still quieter version - without any debugging
    information but with a list of files loaded looks like this:

    httrack "http://www.somesite.com/~library/thing/thingmain.htm" -O /tmp/thing -R5s0vDn

     For the strong silent type, this might be still better:

    httrack "http://www.somesite.com/~library/thing/thingmain.htm" -O /tmp/thing -R5s0qDn

    General questions:

    Q:  The install is not working on NT without administrator rights!

     A: That's right.  You can, however, install WinHTTrack
    on your own machine, and then copy your WinHTTrack folder from
    your Program Files folder to another machine, in a temporary
    directory (e.g.  C:\temp\)

    Q:  Where can I find French/other languages documentation?

     A: Windows interface is available on several
    languages, but not yet the documentation!

    Q:  Is HTTrack working on NT/2000?

     A: Yes, it should

    Q:  What's the difference between HTTrack and WinHTTrack?

     A: WinHTTrack is the Windows release of HTTrack (with
    a graphic shell)

    Q: Is HTTrack Mac compatible?

     A: No, because of a lack of time.  But sources are
    available

    Q:  Can HTTrack be compiled on all Un*x?

     A: It should.  The Makefile may be modified in
    some cases, however

    Q: I use HTTrack for professional purpose.  What
    about restrictions/license fee?

     A: There is no restrictions using HTTrack for
    professional purpose, except if you want to sell a product including
    HTTrack components (parts of the source, or any other component).  See
    the license.txt file for more informations

    Q: Is a DLL/library version available?

     A: Not yet.  But, again, sources are available (see
    license.txt for distribution infos)

    Q: Is there a X11/KDE shell available for Linux and
    Un*x?

     A: No.  Unfortunately, we do not have enough time for
    that - if you want to help us, please write one!

     Troubleshooting:

    Q: Only the first page is caught.  What's wrong?
     A: First, check the hts-err.txt error log file - this can
    give you precious informations.

     The problem can be a website that redirects you to
    another site (for example, www.all.net to public.www.all.net) : in
    this case, use filters to accept this site

     This can be, also, a problem in the HTTrack options
    (link depth too low, for example)

    Q: With WinHTTrack, sometimes the minimize in system
    tray causes a crash!

     A: This bug sometimes appears in the shell on some
    systems.  If you encounter this problem, avoid minimizing the window!

    Q: URLs with https:// are not working!
    A: HTTrack does not support https (secure socket layer protocol), only
    http protocol

    Q: Files are created with strange names, like
    '-1.html'!

     A: Check the build options (you may have selected
    user-defined structure with wrong parameters!)

    Q: When capturing real audio links (.ra), I only get
    a shortcut!

     A: Yes.  The audio/video realtime streaming capture is
    not yet supported

    Q:  Using user:password@address is not working!

     A: Again, first check the hts-err.txt error log
    file - this can give you precious informations

     The site may have a different authentication scheme
    (form based authentication, for example)

    Q: When I use HTTrack, nothing is mirrored (no
    files) What's happening?

     A: First, be sure that the URL typed is correct.
    Then, check if you need to use a proxy server (see proxy options in
    WinHTTrack or the -P proxy:port option in the command line
    program).  The site you want to mirror may only accept certain browsers.
    You can change your "browser identity" with the Browser ID
    option in the OPTION box.  Finally, you can have a look at the
    hts-err.txt (and hts-log.txt) file to see what happened.

    Q: There are missing files! What's happening?

     A: You may want to capture files that are in a
    different folder, or in another web site.  In this case, HTTrack does not
    capture them automatically, you have to ask it to do.  For that, use the
    filters.

     Example: You are downloading
    http://www.all.net/foo/ and can not get .jpg images located in
    http://www.all.net/bar/ (for example, http://www.all.net/bar/blue.jpg)

     Then, add the filter rule +www.all.net/bar/*.jpg to
    accept all .jpg files from this location

     You can, also, accept all files from the /bar folder
    with +www.all.net/bar/*, or only html files with
    +www.all.net/bar/*.html and so on..

    Q: I'm downloading too many files! What can I do?

     A: This is often the case when you use too large
    filters, for example +*.html, which asks the engine to catch all
    .html pages (even ones on other sites!).  In this case, try to use more
    specific filters, like +www.all.net/specificfolder/*.html

     If you still have too many files, use filters to avoid
    somes files.  For example, if you have too many files from www.all.net/big/,
    use -www.all.net/big/* to avoid all files from this folder.

    Q: File types are sometimes changed! Why?

     A: By default, HTTrack tries to know the type of
    remote files.  This is useful when links like
    http://www.all.net/foo.cgi?id=1 can be either HTML pages, images or
    anything else.  Locally, foo.cgi will not be recognized as an html page,
    or as an image, by your browser.  HTTrack has to rename the file as
    foo.html or foo.gif so that it can be viewed.

     Sometimes, however, some data files are seen by the
    remote server as html files, or images : in this case HTTrack is being
    fooled..  and rename the file.  You can avoid this by disabling the type
    checking in the option panel.

    Q: I can not access to several pages (access
    forbidden, or redirect to another location), but I can with my browser,
    what's going on?

     A: You may need cookies! Cookies are specific datas
    (for example, your username or password) that are sent to your browser
    once you have logged in certain sites so that you only have to log-in
    once.  For example, after having entered your username in a website, you
    can view pages and articles, and the next time you will go to this site,
    you will not have to re-enter your username/password.

     To "merge" your personnal cookies to an HTTrack
    project, just copy the cookies.txt file from your Netscape folder (or
    the cookies located into the Temporary Internet Files folder for IE)
    into your project folder (or even the HTTrack folder)

    Q: Some pages can't be seen, or are displayed
    with errors!

     A: Some pages may include javascript or java files
    that are not recognized.  For example, generated filenames.  There may
    be transfer problems, too (broken pipe, etc.).  But most mirrors do
    work.  We still are working to improve the mirror quality of HTTrack.

    Q: Some Java applets do not work properly!

     A: Java applets may not work in some cases, for
    example if HTTrack failed to detect all included classes or files called
    within the class file.  Sometimes, Java applets need to be online,
    because remote files are directly caught.  Finally, the site structure
    can be incompatible with the class (always try to keep the original site
    structure when you want to get Java classes)

     If there is no way to make some classes work properly,
    you can exclude them with the filters.  They will be available, but only
    online.

    Q: HTTrack is being idle for a long time without
    transfering.  What's happening?

     A: Maybe you try to reach some very slow sites.  Try a
    lower TimeOut value (see options, or -Txx option in the command
    line program).  Note that you will abandon the entire site (except if
    the option is unchecked) if a timeout happen You can, with the Shell
    version, skip some slow files, too.

    Q: I want to update a site, but it's taking too much
    time! What's happening?

     A: First, HTTrack always tries to minimize the
    download flow by interrogating the server about the file changes.  But,
    because HTTrack has to rescan all files from the begining to rebuild the
    local site structure, it can takes some time.  Besides, some servers are
    not very smart and always consider that they get newer files, forcing
    HTTrack to reload them, even if no changes have been made!

    Q: I am behind a firewall.  What can I do?

     A: You need to use a proxy, too.  Ask your
    administrator to know the proxy server's name/port.  Then, use the proxy
    field in HTTrack or use the -P proxy:port option in the command
    line program.

    Q: HTTrack has crashed during a mirror, what's
    happening?

     A: We are trying to avoid bugs and problems so that
    the program can be as reliable as possible.  But we can not be
    infallible.  If you occurs a bug, please check if you have the latest
    release of HTTrack, and send us an email with a detailed description of
    your problem (OS type, addresses concerned, crash description, and
    everything you deem to be necessary).  This may help the other users
    too.

    Q: I want to update a mirrored project, but HTTrack
    is retransfering all pages.  What's going on?

     A: First, HTTrack always rescan all local pages to
    reconstitute the website structure, and it can take some time.  Then, it
    asks the server if the files that are stored locally are up-to-date.  On
    most sites, pages are not updated frequently, and the update process is
    fast.  But some sites have dynamically-generated pages that are
    considered as "newer" than the local ones..  even if there are
    identical! Unfortunately, there is no possibility to avoid this problem,
    which is strongly linked with the server abilities.

      Questions concerning a mirror:

     Q: I want to mirror a Web site,
    but there are some files outside the domain, too.  How to retrieve them?

     A: If you just want to retrieve files that can be
    reached through links, just activate the 'get file near links' option.
    But if you want to retrieve html pages too, you can both use wildcards
    or explicit addresses ; e.g.  add www.all.net/* to accept all
    files and pages from www.all.net.

    Q: I have forgotten some URLs of files during a long
    mirror..  Should I redo all?

     A: No, if you have kept the 'cache' files (in
    hts-cache), cached files will not be retransferred.

    Q: I just want to retrieve all ZIP files or other
    files in a web site/in a page.  How do I do it?

     A: You can use different methods.  You can use the
    'get files near a link' option if files are in a foreign domain.  You
    can use, too, a filter adress: adding +*.zip in the URL list (or
    in the filter list) will accept all ZIP files, even if these files are
    outside the address.

     Example : httrack www.all.net/someaddress.html
    +*.zip will allow you to retrieve all zip files that are linked on
    the site.

    Q: There are ZIP files in a page, but I don't want
    to transfer them.  How do I do it?

     A: Just filter them: add -*.zip in the filter
    list.

    Q: I don't want to load gif files..  but what may
    happen if I watch the page?

     A: If you have filtered gif files (-*.gif),
    links to gif files will be rebuild so that your browser can find them on
    the server.

    Q: I get all types of files on a web site, but I
    didn't select them on filters!

     A: By default, HTTrack retrieves all types of files on
    authorized links.  To avoid that, define filters like

    -* +<website>/*.html +<website>/*.htm
    +<website>/ +*.<type wanted>

     Example: httrack www.all.net/index.html -*
    +www.all.net/*.htm* +www.all.net/*.gif +www.all.net/*.jpg

    Q: When I use filters, I get too many files!

     A: You are using too large a filter, for example
    *.html will get ALL html files identified.  If you want to get
    all files on an address, use www.<address>/*.html.  There
    are lots of possibilities using filters.

     Example:httrack www.all.net +*.www.all.net/*.htm*

    Q: When I use filters, I can't access another
    domain, but I have filtered it!

     A: You may have done a mistake declaring filters, for
    example +www.all.net/* -*all*  will not work, because
    -*all* has an upper priority (because it has been declared after
    +www.all.net)

    Q: Must I add a  '+' or '-' in the filter list
    when I want to use filters?

     A: YES.  '+' is for accepting links and '-' to avoid
    them.  If you forget it, HTTrack will consider that you want to accept a
    filter if there is a wild card in the syntax - e.g.  +<filter> if
    identical to <filter> if <filter> contains a wild card (*)
    (else it will be considered as a normal link to mirror)

    Q: I want to find file(s) in a web-site.  How do I do it?

     A: You can use the filters: forbid all files (add a
    -* in the filter list) and accept only html files and the file(s)
    you want to retrieve (BUT do not forget to add
    +<website>*.html in the filter list, or pages will not be
    scanned! Add the name of files you want with a */ before ; i.e.
    if you want to retrieve file.zip, add */file.zip)

     Example:httrack www.all.net +www.all.net/*.htm*
    +thefileiwant.zip

    Q: I want to download ftp files/ftp site.  How to
    do?

     A: First, HTTrack is not the best tool to download
    many ftp files.  Its ftp engine is basic (even if reget are possible)
    and if your purpose is to download a complete site, use a specific
    client.

     You can download ftp files just by typing the URL,
    such as ftp://ftp.www.all.net/pub/files/file010.zip and list ftp
    directories like ftp://ftp.www.all.net/pub/files/ .

     Note: For the filters, use something like
    +ftp://ftp.www.all.net/*

    Q: How can I retrieve .asp or .cgi sources instead
    of .html result?

     A: You can't! For security reasons, web servers do not
    allow that.

    Q: How can I remove these annoying <!--
    Mirrored from...  --> from html files?

     A: Use the footer option (-&F, or see the WinHTTrack
    options)

    Q: Do I have to select between ascii/binary transfer
    mode?

     A: No, http files are always transferred as binary
    files.  Ftp files, too (even if ascii mode could be selected)

    Q: Can HTTrack perform form-based authentication?

     A: Yes.  See the URL capture abilities (--catchurl for
    command-line release, or in the WinHTTrack interface)

    Q: Can I redirect downloads to tar/zip archive?

     A: Yes.  See the shell system command option (-V
    option for command-line release)

    Q: Can I use username/password authentication on a
    site?

     A: Yes.  Use user:password@your_url (example:
    http://foo:bar@www.all.net/private/mybox.html)

    Q: Can I use username/password authentication for a
    proxy?

     A: Yes.  Use user:password@your_proxy_name as your
    proxy name (example: smith:foo@proxy.mycorp.com)

    Q: Can HTTrack generates HP-UX or ISO9660 compatible
    files?

     A: Yes.  See the build options (-N, or see the
    WinHTTrack options)

    Q: If there any SOCKS support?

     A: Not yet!

    Q: What's this hts-cache directory? Can I remove it?

     A: NO if you want to update the site, because this
    directory is used by HTTrack for this purpose.  If you remove it,
    options and URLs will not be available for updating the site

    Q: Can I start a mirror from my bookmarks?

     A: Yes.  Drag&Drop your bookmark.html file to the
    WinHTTrack window (or use file://filename for command-line release) and
    select bookmark mirroring (mirror all links in pages, -Y) or bookmark
    testing (--testlinks)

    Q: I am getting a "pipe broken" error and the mirror
    stops, what should I do?

     A: Chances are this is a result of downloading too
    many pages at a time.  Remote servers may not allow or be able to handle
    too many sessions, or your system may be unable to provide the necessary
    resources.  Try redusing this number - for example using the -c2 options
    for only 2 simultaneous sesions.