Wget creates output file even when page does not exist.

Question

Hi,

Is is possible to prevent Wget from making an output file when there is an error like 404.

When I run

wget -O my.html http://sdfsdfdsf.sdfds

http://sdfsdfdsf.sdfds does not exist but Wget still creates my.html

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I am making a bash script and want to make sure it stops if wget can't get a valid file.

Answer 1

wget returns a non-zero response for non-200 replies (it seems).

This sample code worked for me with GNU wget:

#!/bin/sh

wget -O my.html http://sdfsdfdsf.sdfds

if [ "$?" -ne "0" ]; then
    echo "ERROR"
fi

Here's more info about $? from here.

$? the exit status of the last command executed is given as a decimal string. When a command completes successfully, it returns the exit status of 0 (zero), otherwise it returns a non-zero exit status.

Answer 2

You could perhaps use curl(1) instead:

curl -s -f -o my.html http://sdfsdfdsf.sdfds