Reference Manual

NAME

httpget - fetch a file from an HTTP server

httpget url

Command httpget fetches the specified url and writes it to STDOUT.

Returned content can be rendered by redirecting STDOUT to the browser device.

The command uses Windows Socket functionality to send a minimal GET request of the following format:

GET file HTTP/1.0\r\nHost: host\r\nConnection: close\r\nUser-Agent: agent\r\n\r\n

Command httpget can be configured to fetch pages via a proxy. The proxy command can be used to configure the proxy settings to be used.

The httpget command warns of redirection attempts by displaying a page listing the actual URL and the URL to which that page is redirecting. The latter is displayed as a clickable link so that the user can decide whether or not to allow the redirection.

The command fetches all content directly and with only the minimal set of headers listed above. The browser type (User-Agent) is set to the string specified with the hstat command and defaults to:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)

In some cases, it may be advisable to use some other User-Agent string for increased security and functionality. A list of common user agents can be found here.

No referrer and no cookies are sent in the outgoing GET requests. No Windows Internet functionality (other than Winsock) is used.

Prudent users may wish to set their local browser to use the NAT32 HTTPD as their proxy. That way, traffic can easily be monitored and security enhanced. The open-source version of NAT32 allows the programmer to easily customise the behaviour of both the HTTPD and the httpget functions.

clipboard ftp httpd url web