aria2
aria2 is a utility for downloading files. The supported protocols are HTTP(S), FTP, BitTorrent, and Metalink. It has a powerful segmented downloading ability, downloading a file from multiple sources and multiple protocols and utilizing your download bandwidth to the maximum. It supports downloading a file from HTTP(S)/FTP and BitTorrent at the same time, while the data downloaded from HTTP(S)/FTP is uploaded to the BitTorrent swarm. Using Metalink's chunk checksums, aria2 automatically validates chunks of data while downloading a file like BitTorrent.
| Tags | Communications File Sharing Internet Web FTP Bittorrent |
|---|---|
| Licenses | GPL |
| Operating Systems | POSIX Linux Mac OS X Windows Windows Cygwin BSD FreeBSD |
| Implementation | C++ |
| Translations | French Japanese German Russian Brazilian Portuguese Bulgarian Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Danish Dutch English Finnish Greek Hebrew Hungarian Indonesian Italian Norwegian Polish Serbian Spanish Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese |
Recent releases
- 07 Jun 2009 15:53
Changes: This release fixes the compile error which occurred without the development package of c-ares library installed. The compile error under MinGW was fixed. The aria2.tellStatus XML-RPC method now returns "uploadLength" and "numSeeders". The Ukrainian translation was updated.
- 31 May 2009 16:11
Changes: This release adds an XML-RPC interface, the ability to run a command when a download is started/stopped, and the ability to save cookies. The current XML-RPC API allows users to add HTTP(S)/FTP/torrent/Metalink download and change options dynamically. The APIs such as reporting download progress, file paths, URIs, and peer information are also available. The console readout was slightly updated and now includes the number of seeders the client has connected to. A Slovak translation was added. Ukrainian and Brazilian Portuguese translation were updated.
- 08 May 2009 12:08
Changes: This release fixes the bug in which the --check-integrity option doesn't work properly if a file including the last piece is missing. The internal receive buffer was increased for FTP in order to receive big banners. The Ukrainian, Russian, and Simplified Chinese translations were updated.
- 28 Apr 2009 17:15
Changes: This release fixes the bug that prevents certain BitTorrent downloads from finishing, a possible segmentation fault when gzip decoding is involved, and an infinite loop bug if the last "0" chunk-size marker is not received in chunked encoding transfer. aria2 now supports Web seeding (HTTP seeding) for a single file torrent. The Ukrainian translation was updated.
- 12 Apr 2009 23:47
Changes: This release fixes a bug where aria2 incorrectly determined that the specified share ratio was reached because of miscalculation of upload bytes, and the bug where the upload limit exceeded the value specified in the --seed-ratio option depending on the timing of the execution of SeedCheckCommand.
- All comments
Recent commentsRe: anti-social software
> Segmented downloads use multiple (2, 4,
> sometimes a hundred) requests tot he
> same server.
I think what your talking about is more accurately termed "download accelerators".
Segmented downloads does not imply the same server, bittorrent for example could be considered segmented download.
The whole point of metalink is to desribe multiple sites that contain the whole file, if there are multiple servers then it makes no sense for a client to load lots of requests on just one server.
Re: anti-social software
% Fragmented downloading leads to a
The description and my comment both clearly talk about segmented downloads. Segmented downloads use multiple (2, 4, sometimes a hundred) requests tot he same server.
Using them of course reduces bandwidth for everybody due to the excessive overhead due to multiple tcp connections and requests, and there is no load balancing, the only effect is that it results more or less in a denial-of-service attack to some servers that cnanot cope with hundreds of requests.
> This type of downloading is a beneficial
> evolution of these old protocols.
Segmented downloads (as opposed to what you are tlaking about) is what aria2 claims to implement, and those are neither beneficial nor anything new. Its anti-social, as I said before. Supporting sofwtare thta supports it is anti-social, too.
Re: anti-social software
> when using this software, keep in mind
> that segmented downloads increase the
> load on the server and the network and
> actually increases bandwith at the cost
> of others. in the end, when most people
> use this horrible hack, everybody will
> have slower download rates as a result.
>
> best do not support this kind of
> software.
Any bandwidth increases would be due to more requests per downloaded byte, and would only be a fraction of a percent.
Fragmented downloading leads to a natural load balancing as data ends up being downloaded from servers with the most capacity rather than overloading the primary site.
This type of downloading is a beneficial evolution of these old protocols.
anti-social software
when using this software, keep in mind that segmented downloads increase the load on the server and the network and actually increases bandwith at the cost of others. in the end, when most people use this horrible hack, everybody will have slower download rates as a result.
best do not support this kind of software.