aria2c-for-wget-curl

Stubs of wget and curl for aria2c to download large files using Debian alternatives subsystem instead of changing the shell scripts. aria2c is better when compareed to wget/curl because it tries to utilize your maximum download bandwidth. Since, changing shell scripts from wget/curl to equivalent aria2c cli takes time, this stub translates the wget/curl command to equivalent aria2c command and executes it. If not possible to do so, it executes the original command.

Instructions for setup

• Install aria2c
• Install wget and(or) curl

Wget

• Copy original wget to wget-orig

$ sudo cp /usr/bin/wget /usr/bin/wget-orig

• Install the aria2stub package.

$ pip3 install aria2stub

Now wget command runs the stub as default for the current user.

(BELOW STEPS ARE OPTIONAL) Make all users execute the stub by default.

• Move the installed binary(default=/usr/local/bin/) to /usr/bin/.

$ sudo mv /usr/local/bin/wget /usr/bin/wget-stub

• Use update-alternatives to set default binary.

$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/wget wget /usr/bin/wget-orig 30
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/wget-orig to provide /usr/bin/wget (wget) in auto mode
$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/wget wget /usr/bin/wget-stub 40
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/wget-stub to provide /usr/bin/wget (wget) in auto mode

• Verify that wget-stub is default

$ sudo update-alternatives --config wget
There are 2 choices for the alternative wget (providing /usr/bin/wget).

   Selection Path Priority Status

 ------------------------------------------------------------

 * 0 /usr/bin/wget-stub 40 auto mode

   1 /usr/bin/wget-orig 30 manual mode

   2 /usr/bin/wget-stub 40 manual mode
Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

• The setup is ready, try using wget now.

Curl

• Copy original curl to curl-orig

$ sudo cp /usr/bin/curl /usr/bin/curl-orig

• Install the aria2stub package.

$ pip3 install aria2stub

Now curl command runs the stub as default for the current user.

(BELOW STEPS ARE OPTIONAL) Make all users to execute the stub by default.

• Move the installed binary(default=/usr/local/bin/) to /usr/bin/.

$ sudo cp /usr/local/bin/curl /usr/bin/curl-stub

• Use update-alternatives to set default binary

$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/curl curl /usr/bin/curl-orig 30
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/curl-orig to provide /usr/bin/curl (curl) in auto mode
$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/curl curl /usr/bin/curl-stub 40
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/curl-stub to provide /usr/bin/curl (curl) in auto mode

• Verify that curl-stub is default

$ sudo update-alternatives --config curl
There are 2 choices for the alternative curl (providing /usr/bin/curl).

   Selection Path Priority Status

 ------------------------------------------------------------

 * 0 /usr/bin/curl-stub 40 auto mode

   1 /usr/bin/curl-orig 30 manual mode

   2 /usr/bin/curl-stub 40 manual mode
Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

• The setup is ready, try using curl now.

Note

• If command cannot be translated to aria2c equivalent, then it falls back to the corresponding program.
• Use --orig flag to use the original program.
• .curlrc is not supported as of now
• To revert back to using the original command(if followed optional approach), run the following command for wget(similarly for curl):

$ sudo update-alternatives --config wget

Curl

• only files are supported for --cookie flag

Screenshots