wget: "following links" vs. "retrieving directory tree"

[andrew732]

(Sorry for the xxx below, newbs are not allowed to post certain banned strings.)

I want to mirror a website using wget -r, but even after reading the wget manual, I'm still a little unclear on how it works. With a command like:

wget -r --level=inf hxxp://xxx.foo.com/bar

will wget automatically follow all html links and recreate the entire directory tree under the bar/ directory? What if I don't want to follow any html links but still want to recreate the entire directory tree under the bar/ directory? What if I want the opposite: I don't need the directory tree but just want to follow all links in bar/index.html, up to say, N links away from index.html? I don't see how these operations could be distinguished using wget's recursive retrieval capabilities. Thanks for any input!

[HROAdmin26]

man wget

--mirror
           Turn on options suitable for mirroring.  This option turns on recursion and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and
           keeps FTP directory listings.  It is currently equivalent to -r -N -l inf --no-remove-listing.

Wget doesn't know about a "directory tree" under /bar unless there is an http link to the folder. If you want a backup independent of the webserver (folders, files, etc.) then you're better off using something like rsync.

[andrew732]

Ok that would explain my confusion. So wget really can only follow links; those "mirroring options" don't guarantee anything about recreating the complete directory tree?

man wget

--mirror
           Turn on options suitable for mirroring.  This option turns on recursion and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth and
           keeps FTP directory listings.  It is currently equivalent to -r -N -l inf --no-remove-listing.

Wget doesn't know about a "directory tree" under /bar unless there is an http link to the folder. If you want a backup independent of the webserver (folders, files, etc.) then you're better off using something like rsync.