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pget

Parallel file download and optional tar extraction using the pget CLI

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Pget

Overview

Use pget for fast, parallel downloads and optional in‑memory tar extraction. Prefer it over curl/wget for large files or batch downloads.

Quick start

  • Single file: pget <url> <dest>
  • Extract tar after download: pget <url> <dest> -x
  • Multi-file manifest: pget multifile <manifest-path> (or - for stdin)

Tasks

1) Download a single large file quickly

  1. Choose destination path.
  2. Run:
    pget <url> <dest>
    
  3. Tune if needed:
    • --concurrency <n> to change chunk parallelism
    • --chunk-size 125M (or other size)
    • --retries <n>
    • --force to overwrite

2) Download and extract a tar archive

Use when the URL points to a .tar, .tar.gz, or similar.

pget <url> <dest> -x

This extracts in‑memory without writing the tar to disk first.

3) Download many files with a manifest

  1. Create a manifest with URL + space + DEST per line.
  2. Run:
    pget multifile /path/to/manifest.txt
    # or
    cat manifest.txt | pget multifile -
    
  3. Tune:
    • --max-concurrent-files <n>
    • --max-conn-per-host <n>

Notes & pitfalls

  • Use --force if the destination exists and you need overwrite.
  • --connect-timeout accepts duration (e.g., 10s).
  • --log-level debug or --verbose for troubleshooting.

References

  • Load references/pget.md for full option list and examples.