LWP-DOWNLOAD(1p)

💖 lwp-download — fetch large files from the web 💖

okay bestie, welcome to lwp-download from the User Contributed Perl Documentation family — this is the little tool that goes and gets big files off the internet for you. no cap. let's get into it 🦋

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

lwp-download [-a] [-s] <url> [<local path>]

and the options, lil list of them:

-a   save the file in ASCII mode
-s   use HTTP headers to guess output filename

---

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so basically, the lwp-download program will save the file at url to a local file. simple as that, queen. 💅

If local path is not specified, then the current directory is assumed. like, it just drops the file right where you're standing.

If local path is a directory, then the last segment of the path of the url is appended to form a local filename. and if the url path ends with a slash, the name index is used. (yeah, index, iconic of it honestly.)

With the -s option, you pick up the last segment of the filename from server provided sources like the Content-Disposition header or any redirect URLs. A file extension to match the server reported Content-Type might also be appended. lowkey clever of it.

Now — important part, don't skip this — if a file with the produced filename already exists, then lwp-download will prompt before it overwrites, and it will fail if its standard input is not a terminal. 😭 also this form of invocation will fail if no acceptable filename can be derived from the sources mentioned above. so like, if it can't figure out a name, it's not gonna just make one up. it gives up. valid behavior tbh.

If local path is not a directory, then it is simply used as the path to save into. If the file already exists, it's overwritten. no asking, no warning, just gone. 🙈

The lwp-download program is implemented using the libwww-perl library. It is better suited to download big files than the lwp-request program because it does not store the file in memory. 👑 that part matters a lot, bestie — memory stays free, the file goes straight to disk. Another benefit is that it will keep you updated about its progress (so you get to watch the numbers go up, obsessed) and that you don't have much options to worry about. minimal stress, maximum vibes. 🌈

Use the -a option to save the file in text (ASCII) mode. Might make a difference on DOSish systems. 🍓

---

💜 EXAMPLE 💜

Fetch the newest and greatest perl version:

$ lwp-download http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/latest.tar.gz
Saving to 'latest.tar.gz'...
11.4 MB received in 8 seconds (1.43 MB/sec)

look at her go. 11.4 MB in 8 seconds, that's 1.43 MB/sec of pure main character energy. 🔥

---

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Gisle Aas <gisle@aas.no>

---

and that's the whole page, bestie — this was LWP-DOWNLOAD(1p), perl v5.40.1, dated 2026-05-14. periodt. 💖✨🦋