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In theory, wget -N should check if the local copy of the file is newer than that on the server, and in this case it should not repeat the download. I'm finding that for a Dropbox link this doesn't happen. The file is always downloaded.

For example, try to do multiple times

wget -N https://www.dropbox.com/s/pilu0oufcvrz452/ciaociao

and you'll see that, despite the -N switch, the file keeps being downloaded. Do you know why is that? Is there a way to test if the file is older on the server before downloading it? Simple shell scripting or python would be better, if possible. I'm using this command in a Python installation script (through a os.system call) to download supplementary data.

Thanks in advance for your help.

EDIT: Note: Any solution to the problem would be appreciated. Is there a way to do that using the Dropbox API?

matteo
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1 Answers1

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When I try this, I see this message in the wget output:

Last-modified header missing -- time-stamps turned off.

So, it seems these Dropbox links just don't return the header necessary for this time-stamping option on wget.

Greg
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