aria2c Command: Tutorial & Examples

Download files using different protocols

aria2c is a free and open-source command-line download utility that supports downloading files from various protocols, including HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, BitTorrent, and Metalink. It is available for Linux, macOS, Windows, and Android.

Using aria2c, you can download files in parallel from multiple sources, which can significantly increase your download speed. Additionally, aria2c supports resuming downloads that have been interrupted, which can be helpful if you have a slow or unreliable internet connection.

Here are some examples of how to use aria2 with command-line parameters:

Download a file using HTTP/HTTPS:

aria2c https://example.com/myfile.zip

Download a file using FTP:

aria2c ftp://example.com/myfile.zip

Download a file using BitTorrent:

aria2c myfile.torrent

Download a file using Metalink:

aria2c myfile.metalink

Download a file in multiple parts (up to 16 parts by default):

aria2c -s16 http://example.com/myfile.zip

Set a download speed limit (in this example, 1MB/s):

aria2c --max-download-limit=1M http://example.com/myfile.zip

Save the downloaded file to a specific directory:

aria2c -d /path/to/directory http://example.com/myfile.zip

Use a proxy to download the file:

aria2c --http-proxy=http://proxy.example.com:8080 http://example.com/myfile.zip

Resume a previously interrupted download:

aria2c -c http://example.com/myfile.zip

Speed up file allocation, limit upload rate and stop seeding after download has finished:

aria2c --file-allocation=trunc --max-upload-limit=100K --seed-time=0 myfile.torrent

Sometimes you may want to download just a few files from a torrent link. First you need to find the index of the files using this command:

aria2c -S myfile.torrent

After that, you can select the files you need like this:

aria2c --select-file=6-8,10 myfile.torrent

These are just a few examples of the many options available with aria2c. To see a full list of command-line parameters, you can run aria2c --help.