Axel – A Command-Line File Download Accelerator for Linux

If you're a Linux user who often downloads files from the web, you might be familiar with slow download speeds that come with it. Fortunately, there's a tool called Axel that can help you accelerate your file downloads from command line. In this article, we'll discuss what Axel is, how it works, and how you can use it to speed up your downloads.

What is Axel?

Axel is a command-line tool that is used to accelerate file downloads in Linux. It is a lightweight and fast download accelerator that splits a single file into multiple parts and downloads them simultaneously. This approach enables Axel to achieve faster download speeds than other download managers.

How Axel Works

Axel works by dividing a file into several parts and downloading them simultaneously. By default, it splits a file into three parts, but you can change the number of parts according to your preferences. Once the download begins, Axel opens multiple connections to the server to download different parts of the file. As a result, the download speed is significantly increased.

Axel also has the ability to resume broken downloads, which means that if a download is interrupted, Axel can pick up where it left off without having to start from scratch. This feature is useful if you have a slow or unreliable internet connection.

Installing Axel

Axel is available in most Linux distributions' repositories, which means that you can install it using your distribution's package manager. For example, if you're using Ubuntu, you can install Axel by running the following command in the terminal

sudo apt-get install axel

For other distributions:

# CentOS/RHEL/Fedora
sudo yum install axel

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S axel

# openSUSE
sudo zypper install axel

Once the installation is complete, you can start using Axel to download files from the command line.

Basic Usage

Using Axel is straightforward. To download a file, simply open the terminal and type the following command

axel <file URL>

Replace <file URL> with the URL of the file you want to download. For example, if you want to download a Ubuntu ISO file, you can run the following command

axel https://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04.3/ubuntu-20.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso

Axel will start downloading the file, and you'll see the progress in the terminal. By default, Axel splits the file into three parts, but you can change this by using the -n option. For example, if you want to split the file into six parts, you can run the following command

axel -n 6 https://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04.3/ubuntu-20.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso

Resuming Downloads

You can also use Axel to resume broken downloads. If a download is interrupted, you can simply run the same command again, and Axel will resume the download from where it left off. For example, if you were downloading a Ubuntu ISO file and the download was interrupted, you can resume the download by running the following command

axel https://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04.3/ubuntu-20.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso

Axel will resume the download from where it left off, and you'll see the progress in the terminal.

Command Options

Axel comes with several options that you can use to customize your downloads. Here are some of the most useful options

Examples

Download with custom filename:

axel -o ubuntu.iso https://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04.3/ubuntu-20.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso

Download with speed limit (1 MB/s):

axel -s 1000000 https://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04.3/ubuntu-20.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso

Download with 8 connections and detailed progress:

axel -n 8 -a https://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04.3/ubuntu-20.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso

Advantages

• Speed improvement Multiple connections can significantly increase download speeds

• Resume capability Can continue interrupted downloads without restarting

• Lightweight Minimal system resource usage

• Customizable Various options for fine-tuning download behavior

• Command-line friendly Perfect for scripts and automation

Conclusion

Axel is a powerful and efficient download accelerator for Linux users who frequently download files. By splitting files into multiple parts and downloading them simultaneously, it can significantly improve download speeds compared to traditional single-connection downloads. With its resume capability, customizable options, and lightweight design, Axel is an essential tool for any Linux user's command-line toolkit.