download files with user name and password using axel downloader not accepting special characters like ; : < >

Question

When I download files with user name and password using axel downloader it will download.

Working Example

axel.exe  http://mathanraj:[email protected]/xxx.zip  (no probleam)

but the problem is if password has special characters like ;, :, <, or > axel downloader is not accepting it.

Not Working Example

axel.exe  http://mathanraj:78tyu;;@xxxx.com/xxx.zip (here only probleam)

How can I use special characters like ;, :, <, or > in password for download using axel downloader.

Answer 1

I had the similar problem and mine resolved using \ before any special character. However there is another way of doing this which I prefer. You can use the Header option to add HTTP Authorization header which helps you not to express your username and password in plain text.

For this first you need to convert your credentials into base64, it's like this on Unix-like sytems:

echo -n "username:password" | openssl base64

Don't forget the -n option to not to print the trailing newline character. You also need to use \ like before for the special characters.

Then you can use axel in this way:

axel -H "Authorization: Basic base64HashValue" "yourURL"

Hope it solves your problem. ;)