Can Wget Use a Dot Progress Bar?

This article provides a quick overview of how to change the default progress bar in the wget command-line utility to a dot-based indicator. While wget traditionally displays a solid progress bar for file downloads, it includes built-in configuration options that allow users to switch to a simplified dot style. Below, you will find the exact commands, customization flags, and methods to make this change permanent for your terminal sessions.

Changing the Wget Progress Indicator

By default, wget uses a large, graphical-style progress bar to show download completion percentages and speeds. However, if you are running scripts, saving logs to a file, or working in a restricted terminal environment, this default bar can clutter your screen. You can easily switch to a dot progress indicator using the --progress flag.

To force wget to use dots instead of the bar, append the option followed by dot:

wget --progress=dot http://example.com/largefile.zip

When you use this command, wget will output rows of dots to signify the progress of the download, where each dot represents a specific amount of retrieved data.

Customizing the Dot Style

The dot progress indicator can be further customized to fit different screen sizes and logging requirements. wget offers a few variations of the dot style:

• default: Each dot represents 1KB of data. A single cluster contains 10 dots, and a full line represents 50KB.
• binary: This style has a more compact meaning. Each dot represents 8KB, a cluster represents 128KB, and a full line represents 3.2MB. This is ideal for downloading medium-sized files.
• mega: Designed for very large files. Each dot represents 64KB, a cluster represents 1MB, and a full line represents 24.5MB.

To implement these specific variations, you append the style name to the dot flag with a colon:

wget --progress=dot:mega http://example.com/verylargefile.iso

Making the Dot Progress Bar Permanent

If you prefer the dot progress indicator over the default bar for all future downloads, you can save this preference in your wget configuration file (.wgetrc). This prevents you from having to type the flag every time you execute a command.

1. Open your ~/.wgetrc file in a text editor (create it if it does not exist).
2. Add the following line to the file:

progress = dot

3. Save and close the file.

If you want to use a specific variation globally, such as the mega style, change the line to progress = dot:mega. Once saved, wget will automatically default to your chosen dot format for every download.