How Many Times Does wget Retry a Failed Connection?

This article provides a quick overview of the default retry behavior of the wget command-line utility when a network connection fails. It covers the specific default retry limit, explains how wget handles different types of network errors, and demonstrates how you can customize this behavior using command-line flags to suit your specific downloading needs.

The Default Retry Limit

When you initiate a download using wget and the connection encounters a failure, the utility is programmed to automatically attempt to re-establish the connection and resume the download. By default, wget will attempt to retry the connection 20 times before it finally gives up and reports a failure.

This high default number ensures that transient network hiccups, temporary server overloads, or brief connectivity drops do not completely ruin a long-running or automated download script.

How wget Handles Retries

wget distinguishes between different types of errors before deciding whether to use one of its 20 default retries:

• Transient Errors: For issues like connection timeouts, refused connections, or specific HTTP server errors (like 503 Service Unavailable), wget will log the error, wait a few seconds, and then attempt a retry.
• Fatal Errors: For errors that are clearly unrecoverable—such as a “404 Not Found” or “403 Forbidden” response from the server—wget will recognize that retrying is pointless and will stop immediately without using up its retry quota.

How to Change the Default Number of Retries

While 20 retries is the standard setting, you can easily modify this behavior using the -t or --tries option in your terminal command.

• Set a Specific Number of Retries: If you only want wget to try 5 times before failing, you can specify that number directly: wget -t 5 https://example.com/file.zip
• Infinite Retries: If you are on an unstable network and absolutely must download a file no matter how many disconnects occur, you can set the retries to infinite using 0 or inf: wget -t 0 https://example.com/file.zip