Is there a way to pass the username and password from a file instead of the command line via --user and --password?
Background: I want to run wget via cron and don't want the username/password show up in process view
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3 Answers
Use a .wgetrc file (GNU manual) in which you can set username and passwords for either or both ftp and http.
To use the same credentials for both specify
user=casper password=CasperPassword or individually
ftp_user=casperftp ftp_password=casperftppass http_user=casperhttp http_password=casperhttppass 
- 2The GNU wget manual also suggests using the
-ioption and feeding the username and password in from standard input.Richard– Richard2011-05-08 15:08:43 +00:00Commented May 8, 2011 at 15:08 - 1Does
.wgetrcprovide the flexibility to work with more than one server? If not,.netrcis a better solution, see the other answer from tobias.palryenus– ryenus2017-02-06 13:26:50 +00:00Commented Feb 6, 2017 at 13:26 - I obviously missed wget using a
.netrcfile, but it's documented.Mike Renfro– Mike Renfro2017-02-06 18:13:00 +00:00Commented Feb 6, 2017 at 18:13
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the .netrc file. Create the file if it doesn't exists and set safe permissions:
touch ~/.netrc chmod 600 ~/.netrc Subsequently add the hostname, username and password with the machine login and password keywords:
echo 'machine example.com login casper password CasperPassword' >> ~/.netrc If you then run wget https://example.com and the server responds with 401 Authorization Required, wget will retry using the username and password from the ~/.netrc file.
With curl it's needed to add the --netrc (or --netrc-optional or --netrc-file) parameter, because curl will not read the .netrc file without that.
When using this from cron, ensure that the correct HOME environment variable is set. Cron often defaults to HOME=/ (in that case you would have to create the file as /.netrc, yet a better solution would be to set an appropriate HOME at the script's start, like export HOME=/root).
The ~/.netrc file can be used for multiple hosts. More info about .netrc at inetutils manual and curl manual.
- 2
- At first I'm too careless to see the
man netrcin the OP, wondering WHY this works, then @ryenus your comment saves me, thanks~ Manual is always welcome :P Then I know it's a rc file used byftp, that is, it may not work for http. I'll try it on http later.Weekend– Weekend2019-04-29 13:13:35 +00:00Commented Apr 29, 2019 at 13:13 - Quick update: .netrc does work with wget and HTTP (at least on Ubuntu 18.04). Also related cURL doc was moved here.Konrad Botor– Konrad Botor2022-03-02 09:47:47 +00:00Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 9:47
In many regards curl can be a better choice. Wget became a bit stale over time.
curl's -n switch can be used for this task: http://curl.haxx.se/docs/manpage.html#-n
