How to Use Wget with Basic Authentication on Ubuntu

This guide explains how to download files using the wget command on Ubuntu when the server requires basic authentication. You will learn the specific command syntax to include your username and password to access protected resources directly from the terminal without needing a browser.

Standard Command Syntax

To download a file from a server that requires basic authentication, you need to pass your credentials using the --user and --password flags. The basic structure of the command is as follows:

wget --user=YOUR_USERNAME --password=YOUR_PASSWORD https://example.com/file.zip

Replace YOUR_USERNAME and YOUR_PASSWORD with your actual credentials and update the URL to point to the file you wish to download.

Using the Ask Password Option

For better security, you can avoid typing your password directly into the terminal command line. This prevents your password from being saved in your bash history. Use the --ask-password flag instead of specifying the password inline:

wget --user=YOUR_USERNAME --ask-password https://example.com/file.zip

When you run this command, wget will prompt you to enter the password securely without displaying it on the screen.

Handling Special Characters

If your username or password contains special characters (such as @, #, or $), you may need to URL encode them or wrap them in quotes to prevent shell interpretation errors. For example:

wget --user="[email protected]" --password="p@ssw0rd!" https://example.com/file.zip

Verifying the Download

Once the command executes, wget will attempt to connect to the server using the provided credentials. If the authentication is successful, the file will begin downloading to your current directory. If authentication fails, wget will return a 401 Unauthorized error indicating the credentials were incorrect.