I have been using wget for ages without ever questioning it. Today I had to install FC18 on a dedicated server, so I found the link over at http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora-options#formats . The url for FC18 is http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso. The FQDN download.fedoraproject.org is a CNAME pointing wildcard.fedoraproject.org which in turns resolved to other random IPs. Sometimes the IP you will get is not always the best possible connection, so your download speeds will vary. We can help fix this issue with axel using more download threads.
wget vs. axel
1
2
wget http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso
0% [ ] 4,243,464 1.24MB/s eta 58m 39
axel - Downloads ~40MB/s with 10 connections (-n 10 )
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
axel -n10 http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso
Initializing download: http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso
File size: 4573888512 bytes
Opening output file Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso
Starting download
[ 0%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [14556.7KB/s]
...
...
[ 99%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [42171.2KB/s]
[100%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [42160.6KB/s]
[100%] .......... .......... .......... ........
Downloaded 4362.0 megabytes in 1:45 seconds. (42157.83 KB/s)
Is 40 MB/s maybe too fast? Then limit it!
You can limit your speeds with -s (in bytes). I am not sure why they used bytes instead of something a little easier to short hand, but it works.
Axel - Limited to 10MB/s (10485760 bytes)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
axel -n10 -s 10485760 http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso
Initializing download: http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso
File size: 4573888512 bytes
Opening output file Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso
Starting download
[ 0%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [10766.6KB/s]
...
...
[ 2%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [9870.2KB/s]
[ 2%] .......... ........^C.. .......... .......... .......... [9808.5KB/s]
[ 2%] .......... ........
Downloaded 71.0 megabytes in 7 seconds. (9808.50 KB/s)
You will notice above, I killed the download with crtl-c , but that’s OK, we can easily resume it!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
axel -n10 -s 10485760 http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso
Initializing download: http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso
File size: 4573888512 bytes
Opening output file Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso.0
State file found: 108204478 bytes downloaded, 4465684034 to go.
Starting download
,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,.. .......... .......... .......... [ 498.3KB/s]
[ 2%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [ 995.1KB/s]
[ 2%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [1490.6KB/s]
[ 2%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [1984.9KB/s]
[ 2%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [2478.4KB/s]
[ 2%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [2970.3KB/s]
[ 2%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [10382.6KB/s]
[ 2%] .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [10278.5KB/s]
There is also an alternate -a if you don’t like how verbose the output is normally.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
axel -a -n10 http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso -s 10485760
Initializing download: http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso
File size: 4573888512 bytes
Opening output file Fedora-18-x86_64-DVD.iso.0
State file found: 114071526 bytes downloaded, 4459816986 to go.
Starting download
[ 4%] [0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ] [ 9.9MB/s] [06:58]^C
Downloaded 84.7 megabytes in 8 seconds. (10174.90 KB/s)
installing?
apt-get install axel
yum install axel
brew install axel
Source
