HTTP Fetcher
Lyle Hanson (lhanson@users.sourceforge.net) (C) 2001, 2003, 2004 http://http-fetcher.sourceforge.net

ABOUT

HTTP Fetcher is a small library that downloads files via HTTP. I developed it for use within another project, and because I didn't find any pre-existing software that did exactly what I wanted without hassle. Hopefully you'll find it useful and avoid writing similar code yourself.

It supports the GET method. Anything further would involve more than fetching, now wouldn't it? If you need more than GET, there are other libaries out ther that would be better suited to your needs (try http-tiny, find it at freshmeat.net).

HTTP Fetcher is meant to be small, fast, and flexible at what it does. It's very robust, in my opinion. It's easy to use; using one function, it can download any kind of file via HTTP. It also offers further sophistication, allowing you control over what (if any) User-Agent or Referrer you wish to show to the web server. Which is neat stuff, depending on your use (testing and stealth/deception are two that come to mind).

DEPENDENCIES

HTTP Fetcher should run on most unices that support BSD-type sockets and have a network connection. Developed and tested on x86 machines running recent versions of RedHat.

INSTALLATION

Read the INSTALL file for info on building and installing the library

USAGE

Read the manpages in the docs directory, see the 'testfetch' example included, check out 'fetch' (http://fetch.sourceforge.net), a complete HTTP file download utility.

LICENCE

HTTP Fetcher is licenced under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2 or newer. See the LICENSE file for full info. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions/concerns over licensing issues.

FEEDBACK

If you use this library for anything, drop me a line (lhanson@users.sourceforge.net). I'd love to know that formally releasing this stuff was worth it. I'm open to any input (bad or good).

TODO: Further development is focused on the 2.x series of http-fetcher. Only bugfixes and minor improvements will be added to 1.x releases.
BUGS: This version introduces transparent redirects, but the 1.x series still does not allow the client program access to the HTTP return code. So while you can now follow redirects, your program won't know anything about it. You can, however, turn off or configure the number of redirects to follow.

A better interface is planned for 2.x.x.

CREDITS: Steve Augart (steve@augart.com) has been a huge contributor to the project. Thanks, Steve!