[Documentation] Supported operating systems and relation to wget

[rubyFeedback]

Recently I read this here:

https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=20041

Ubuntu replaces wget with wcurl. I did not know wcurl.

So it seems as if wcurl is functionally equivalent to wget. I think many other people don't know about this
so this is my first request: the README here, or some other linked-to document, should briefly mention wget, e. g. if wcurl is a full replacement or not. And if not, which parts may not work (different syntax is fine, I am just curious about the functionality equivalency).

The second question I have is: which operating systems are supported?

I assume wcurl may work where curl works so the question more has to do with windows. Perhaps a table could be used; or at the least a statement as to whether wcurl works on windows.

On my Linux box here I have no issues, but it would be nice if wcurl also works on windows. In fact, that may make it more poopular on windows than wget, because we may get more features due to curl itself (on windows). For instance, I have a simple commandline game, a textbook, and I download remote images in the terminal and display it too. Right now I use wget. If wcurl works on windows I could probably replace it there.

[bagder]

wcurl is a shell script. It should work fine on all systems that can run bash.

wcurl is a tool that makes it easy to download URLs without any additional command-line options - and that it shares with wget. In many other ways they are not at all similar.

[sergiodj]

Allow me to expand on @bagder's reply.

So it seems as if wcurl is functionally equivalent to wget. I think many other people don't know about this so this is my first request: the README here, or some other linked-to document, should briefly mention wget, e. g. if wcurl is a full replacement or not. And if not, which parts may not work (different syntax is fine, I am just curious about the functionality equivalency).

wcurl is not functionally equivalent to wget nor it aims to be a drop-in replacement of wget. The purpose of the tool is to basically provide a curl wrapper for people to download stuff via the command-line (without having to remember the various options you have to pass curl to do that). In that regard, wcurl and wget are similar. But that's about it.

You can leverage curl's power by using wcurl's --curl-options parameters, and it is possible to make wcurl do more advanced things, but ultimately we cannot and should not say that wcurl entirely replaces wget.

The second question I have is: which operating systems are supported?

As @bagder said, wcurl is a shell script. We deliberately wrote it in POSIX shell, which means you can run it with basically any shell out there. GNU/Linux distros usually come with bash, but wcurl should work with dash, zsh, plain sh, and any other POSIX-compliant shell.

I assume wcurl may work where curl works so the question more has to do with windows. Perhaps a table could be used; or at the least a statement as to whether wcurl works on windows.

I don't use Windows nor do I know if wcurl works there, but we would be more than happy to review a PR adding such information to our documentation.

On my Linux box here I have no issues, but it would be nice if wcurl also works on windows. In fact, that may make it more poopular on windows than wget, because we may get more features due to curl itself (on windows). For instance, I have a simple commandline game, a textbook, and I download remote images in the terminal and display it too. Right now I use wget. If wcurl works on windows I could probably replace it there.

If you can run POSIX-compliant shell scripts on Windows, then wcurl should work there.