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The curl-wget Venn diagram

daniel.haxx.se

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Re: The curl-wget Venn diagram

#41

Post by inopinatus »

OskarS wrote: post #19
vesinisa wrote: post #13

I would also add at least "sane default options", "continues downloads" and "retries on error" to the Wget column. I recently had to write a script that downloads a very large file over a somewhat unreliable connection. The common wisdom among the engineers is that you need to use Wget for this job. I tried using curl but out of the box it could not resume or retry the download. I would have to study the manual and s…

> I tried using curl but out of the box it could not resume or retry the download. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but curl has exactly that feature, it's the `-C` flag. If you want retries, there's `--retry`. I find curls defaults pretty sane, personally, I wouldn't want either of those by default for a tool like curl.

Strong agree. The only misbehaviour I believe curl displays out of the box is globbing, which has burned me enough times that I’ve come to believe it would’ve been better disabled by default and enabled with -g instead of vice versa.

Re: The curl-wget Venn diagram

#44

Post by malablaster »

throw0101a wrote: post #36
dwb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

curl -O https://curl.se/docs/manpage.html#-O

> curl -O Yes. But the GP said by default .

No, OP said…

> you would have to do `curl url://to/file.htm > file.htm` or some other, less ergonomical, incantation

… which begs the conclusion that OP is unaware of `-O`.

Re: The curl-wget Venn diagram

#45

Post by jiofj »

ducktective wrote: post #24

Daniel Stenberg is among those rare breed of developers who put their heart and soul into their creation, a fading trait in the modern world of big tech that shadowy developers seem to be replaceable cogs of a money-making machine. It's as if he treats curl as his mark on the world of IT.

Maybe if you work for a company you don't put your heart into your creation, but if you have a popular personal project that brings you a lot of cash I'm sure you'll be as dedicated as him.

Re: The curl-wget Venn diagram

#46

Post by globular-toast »

ducktective wrote: post #24

Daniel Stenberg is among those rare breed of developers who put their heart and soul into their creation, a fading trait in the modern world of big tech that shadowy developers seem to be replaceable cogs of a money-making machine. It's as if he treats curl as his mark on the world of IT.

Free software is full of people like this. That's why I use free software even if it's technically inferior. Of course, a lot of it is actually technically superior these days which makes it an even easier choice.

Re: The curl-wget Venn diagram

#47

Post by enriquto »

malablaster wrote: post #44
throw0101a wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> curl -O Yes. But the GP said by default .

No, OP said… > you would have to do `curl url://to/file.htm > file.htm` or some other, less ergonomical, incantation … which begs the conclusion that OP is unaware of `-O`.

I'm well aware of curl's -O (long form: --remote-name), but it has an unfortunate clash with an option of the same name from wget (long form: --output-document). These options have closely related yet very different meanings. Using these options without looking at the manpage fills me with a sense of dread that I prefer to avoid.

Re: The curl-wget Venn diagram

#48

Post by systems_glitch »

vesinisa wrote: post #13

I would also add at least "sane default options", "continues downloads" and "retries on error" to the Wget column. I recently had to write a script that downloads a very large file over a somewhat unreliable connection. The common wisdom among the engineers is that you need to use Wget for this job. I tried using curl but out of the box it could not resume or retry the download. I would have to study the manual and s…

Retry with `wget` was one of the most incredible Linux distro included features when I started running it at home. Pretty crucial thing on 56K dialup, and it worked better than the Windows tools I was aware of at the time.

Re: The curl-wget Venn diagram

#49

Post by renewiltord »

bdhcuidbebe wrote: post #26
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both tools have their use-cases. I think with the advent of LLMs like ChatGPT it has also become a lot easier to get the proper command line incantation for whatever tool you're using. Even if you've read the manual previously, it's easy to forget the exact flags you want to use, and validating the generated command line is usually less effort than having to build it up yourself from scratch by reading the manual. Wi…

I just look at my curl / wget note for some sane examples. i cant believe one needed chatgpt to be productive

Personally I use my memory. It's a bit disturbing that some people can't write code without reading the reference for basics.

Re: The curl-wget Venn diagram

#50

Post by flir »

bdhcuidbebe wrote: post #26
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both tools have their use-cases. I think with the advent of LLMs like ChatGPT it has also become a lot easier to get the proper command line incantation for whatever tool you're using. Even if you've read the manual previously, it's easy to forget the exact flags you want to use, and validating the generated command line is usually less effort than having to build it up yourself from scratch by reading the manual. Wi…

I just look at my curl / wget note for some sane examples. i cant believe one needed chatgpt to be productive

I just memorise the man page. I can't believe etc etc etc

(Seriously, there's a million nix flags, and only so many brain cells. ChatGPT's better than Google for simple "what's the magic incantation?" searches, and laziness is a virtue. If you don't want to be lazy that's fine, but I think you're missing out).

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