Wget creates output file even when page does not exist

Question

Is is possible to prevent Wget from making an output file when there is an error like 404.

When I run

wget -O my.html http://sdfsdfdsf.sdfds

http://sdfsdfdsf.sdfds does not exist but Wget still creates my.html

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I am making a bash script and want to make sure it stops if wget can't get a valid file.

Answer 1

wget returns a non-zero response for non-200 replies (it seems).

This sample code worked for me with GNU wget:

#!/bin/sh

wget -O my.html http://sdfsdfdsf.sdfds

if [ "$?" -ne "0" ]; then
    echo "ERROR"
fi

Here's more info about $? from here.

$? the exit status of the last command executed is given as a decimal string. When a command completes successfully, it returns the exit status of 0 (zero), otherwise it returns a non-zero exit status.

Answer 2

You could perhaps use curl(1) instead:

curl -s -f -o my.html http://sdfsdfdsf.sdfds