In which directory are you trying to use wget? Are you sure you have permission to write to that directory?
When I run wget ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast/db/nt*.gz (without the quotes) from the Terminal, it downloads several gigabytes just fine. The first item that will be saved, though, is a file called .listing, which contains all of the files in the source directory that you are downloading from. If you are trying to use wget from a directory where you do not have permission to save files. .listing will not be written and the wget command will fail with a .listing: Permission denied error.
As a test, try this:
- Open Terminal (if it's not already open) or connect to the machine that is going to use
wget via SSH (if not already connected)
- Make sure you're in the home directory for your account:
cd ~
- Create a directory for all this data:
mkdir nih
- Change to that directory:
cd nih
- Run the
wget command:
wget ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast/db/nt*.gz
You should see something like this:
--2022-10-24 06:57:07-- ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast/db/nt*.gz
=> ‘.listing’
Resolving ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)... 2607:f220:41f:250::229, 2607:f220:41f:250::230, 130.14.250.10, ...
Connecting to ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)|2607:f220:41f:250::229|:21... connected.
Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done. ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD (1) /blast/db ... done.
==> EPSV ... done. ==> LIST ... done.
.listing [ <=> ] 70.75K 42.3KB/s in 1.7s
2022-10-24 06:57:18 (42.3 KB/s) - ‘.listing’ saved [72451]
Removed ‘.listing’.
--2022-10-24 06:57:18-- ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast/db/nt.00.tar.gz
=> ‘nt.00.tar.gz’
==> CWD not required.
==> EPSV ... done. ==> RETR nt.00.tar.gz ... done.
Length: 4365255023 (4.1G)
nt.00.tar.gz 2%[> ] 96.27M 4.26MB/s eta 13m 39s
