How do I download a file over HTTP using Python?

Question

I have a small utility that I use to download a MP3 from a website on a schedule and then builds/updates a podcast XML file which I've obviously added to iTunes.The text processing that creates/updates the XML file is written in Python. I use wget inside a Windows `.bat` file to download the actual MP3 however. I would prefer to have the entire utility written in Python though.I struggled though to find a way to actually down load the file in Python, thus why I resorted to `wget`.So, how do I download the file using Python?

Answer 1

Like most general purpose tasks in Python, this is very straightforward.

Research the urllib.request module.

See example code and script output below:

### START OF SCRIPT

import urllib.request

## down URL --> File Target

def download(url, file):

print("starting download: %s ==> %s" % (url, file))

urllib.request.urlretrieve(url, file) ### this is the key line of code ...

## return number of bytes in a names file ...

def sizeof(file):

fd = open(file, 'rb')

return len(fd.read())

source = "http://louisiacona.com/LouisIaconaResume.pdf"

target = "C:\\tmp\\resume.pdf"

download(source, target)

## show that we actually downloaded something

print("sizeof: %s = %d" % (target, sizeof(target) ) )

### END OF SCRIPT

## execution output

$ python download.py

starting download: http://louisiacona.com/LouisIaconaResume.pdf ==> C:\tmp\resume.pdf

sizeof: C:\tmp\resume.pdf = 94009

PS - this was tested using Python 3