How to install Httrack on Ubuntu

Httrack is a free offline browser that was initially released in 1998 by Xavier Roche.

Httrack allows users to download websites from the world wide web for offline use. Think of it as having the website’s server on your PC. Httrack downloads all the website files including the HTML, images, CSS, and scripts.

After the download, the website files are arranged in the file system relative to the online structure, and to access the website all you have to do is open the index.hmtl file.

So if there’s a website you’d want to access as if it were a pdf on your computer, Httrack will play the role. To see this working let’s dive into how to install and use Httrack Ubuntu using the terminal.

How to install Httrack using Ubuntu terminal

Step 1

Make sure the computer is connected to an active internet connection. The faster the internet, the faster the results.

Step 2

Open the terminal by either searching through the applications list or using a keyboard shortcut ( Ctrl + Alt + T ). The shortcut works best for me.

Step 3

Enter the following command in the terminal and press the Enter button.

sudo apt-get update

The above command downloads the packages lists from repositories to get information about the newest packages and their dependencies.

This helps the system to figure out which software to install when given the command we shall see in the next step.

Step 4

Enter the command below and press the Enter button to install Httrack.

sudo apt-get install httrack

The installation will take a while depending on the internet speed.

How to use Httrack to download a website on Ubuntu

Downloading a website with Httrack is actually very simple.

For example, if you want to download https://35.195.75.175. The following command will do the work.

httrack "https://35.195.75.175"

Press the Enter button after typing the command and the download will be started.

The website will be downloaded and saved in the home directory inside a folder with the website name.

You can access it by opening the Home folder from the file explorer and then locating the website folder. Open the index.html file to view the website.

For incomplete downloads, the same command will be able to resume the downloads even after a complete reboot. The command will also be able to update the website in case new information is added to the online website.

How to uninstall Httrack from Ubuntu

If for some reason Httrack has brought you problems or if you just want to get rid of it, then it’s very easy to uninstall it from your computer.

Enter the following command and press the Enter button to remove Httrack.

sudo apt-get remove httrack

You can also uninstall Httrack together with its configurations and data files with the command below.

sudo apt-get purge httrack

Conclusion

Httrack is obviously a very useful program especially in the case of sites with study material.

You should however note that some of the websites are bulky in terms of MegaBytes, so I would suggest downloading from an unmetered connection.