Skip to main content
`Ctrl`+`K`

# download_file

astropy.utils.data.download_file(remote_url, cache=False, show_progress=True, timeout=None, sources=None, pkgname='astropy', http_headers=None, ssl_context=None, allow_insecure=False)

  Downloads a URL and optionally caches the result.

  It returns the filename of a file containing the URL’s contents. If `cache=True` and the file is present in the cache, just returns the filename; if the file had to be downloaded, add it to the cache. If `cache="update"` always download and add it to the cache.

  The cache is effectively a dictionary mapping URLs to files; by default the file contains the contents of the URL that is its key, but in practice these can be obtained from a mirror (using `sources`) or imported from the local filesystem (using `import_file_to_cache` or `import_download_cache`). Regardless, each file is regarded as representing the contents of a particular URL, and this URL should be used to look them up or otherwise manipulate them.

  The files in the cache directory are named according to a cryptographic hash of their URLs (currently MD5, so hackers can cause collisions). The modification times on these files normally indicate when they were last downloaded from the Internet.

  Parameters:
    remote_url `python:str`

      The URL of the file to download

    cache bool or “update”, optional

      Whether to cache the contents of remote URLs. If “update”, always download the remote URL in case there is a new version and store the result in the cache.

    show_progress bool, optional

      Whether to display a progress bar during the download (default is `True`). Regardless of this setting, the progress bar is only displayed when outputting to a terminal.

    timeout `python:float`, optional

      Timeout for remote requests in seconds (default is the configurable `astropy.utils.data.Conf.remote_timeout`).

    sources `python:list` of `python:str`, optional

      If provided, a list of URLs to try to obtain the file from. The result will be stored under the original URL. The original URL will not be tried unless it is in this list; this is to prevent long waits for a primary server that is known to be inaccessible at the moment. If an empty list is passed, then `download_file` will not attempt to connect to the Internet, that is, if the file is not in the cache a KeyError will be raised.

    pkgname `str`, optional

      The package name to use to locate the download cache. i.e. for `pkgname='astropy'` the default cache location is `~/.cache/astropy`.

    http_headers `python:dict` or `python:None`

      HTTP request headers to pass into `urlopen` if needed. (These headers are ignored if the protocol for the `name_or_obj`/`sources` entry is not a remote HTTP URL.) In the default case (None), the headers are `User-Agent: some_value` and `Accept: */*`, where `some_value` is set by `astropy.utils.data.conf.default_http_user_agent`.

    ssl_context `python:dict`, optional

      Keyword arguments to pass to `ssl.create_default_context` when downloading from HTTPS or TLS+FTP sources. This can be used provide alternative paths to root CA certificates. Additionally, if the key `'certfile'` and optionally `'keyfile'` and `'password'` are included, they are passed to `ssl.SSLContext.load_cert_chain`. This can be used for performing SSL/TLS client certificate authentication for servers that require it.

    allow_insecure bool, optional

      Allow downloading files over a TLS/SSL connection even when the server certificate verification failed. When set to `True` the potentially insecure download is allowed to proceed, but an `AstropyWarning` is issued. If you are frequently getting certificate verification warnings, consider installing or upgrading certifi package, which provides frequently updated certificates for common root CAs (i.e., a set similar to those used by web browsers). If installed, Astropy will use it automatically.

  Returns:
    local_path `python:str`

      Returns the local path that the file was download to.

  Raises:
    `urllib.error.URLError`

      Whenever there’s a problem getting the remote file.

    `KeyError`

      When a file was requested from the cache but is missing and no sources were provided to obtain it from the Internet.

  Notes

  Because this function returns a filename, another process could run `clear_download_cache` before you actually open the file, leaving you with a filename that no longer points to a usable file.