macOS
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brew install wwwofflelocal Homebrew formula metadata
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Install wwwoffle with Homebrew
Better browsing for computers with intermittent connections. Version 2.9j via Homebrew; verified from local package data.
install
Additional install commands
overview
Package summary
Better browsing for computers with intermittent connections
Project links
Commands and aliases
- wwwoffle
- wwwoffle-fsck
- wwwoffle-gunzip
- wwwoffle-gzip
- wwwoffle-hash
- wwwoffle-ls
- wwwoffle-mv
- wwwoffle-read
- wwwoffle-rm
- wwwoffle-tools
- wwwoffle-write
- wwwoffled
history
Project history and usage
WWWOFFLE, the World Wide Web Offline Explorer, is a proxy server for intermittent Internet links. It belongs to the dial-up and metered-connectivity era: users browse through a local proxy, keep cached pages, queue missing pages while offline, and fetch them when online.
Project history
Andrew M. Bishop's official site documents WWWOFFLE from beta 0.9 in January 1997 through the long-lived 2.9 series. The program was designed around a local proxy daemon, wwwoffled, with command-line and browser-based controls for switching online, offline, and autodial status.
By version 2.9j in 2016, maintenance focused on bug fixes, TLS-related improvements, gzip/chunked-transfer compatibility, certificate changes, and documentation updates. The official release policy notes that announcement and user mailing lists were discontinued at the end of 2012 because releases had become infrequent.
Adoption history
WWWOFFLE was useful when Internet access was slow, unreliable, expensive, or not always on. Its official feature list reads like a history of early web constraints: HTTP, FTP, and finger caching; scheduled and recursive retrieval; monitoring pages for changes; proxy authentication; censoring headers; and offline indexes of pages waiting to be fetched.
Although the need for offline web proxies declined as broadband became normal, WWWOFFLE remained packaged because it filled a precise Unix niche: a transparent, scriptable cache for controlled browsing environments, disconnected systems, and users who wanted explicit ownership of web retrieval.
How it is used
A typical setup runs wwwoffled as a local proxy, configures the browser to use it, and then toggles the daemon between online and offline modes. While online, pages can be cached or conditionally refreshed; while offline, unavailable URLs can be queued for the next connection.
Administrators can drive the tool from the command line or through its proxy management pages. The same configuration controls access restrictions, cache policy, recursive fetch behavior, proxy chaining, authentication handling, and maintenance of the cache indexes.
Why package nerds care
WWWOFFLE is package-nerd significant because it preserves a whole style of network computing that modern always-online software mostly forgot. It is not just a cache; it is a deliberate offline-first web workflow exposed as a Unix daemon plus small maintenance tools.
Timeline
- 1997-01-11: Beta version 0.9 released.
- 1997-01-25: Version 1.0 released.
- 2000-11-18: Version 2.6 released.
- 2006-04-02: Version 2.9 released.
- 2012: Announcement and user mailing lists discontinued at year end.
- 2016-03-23: Version 2.9j released.
- 2014 onward: Direct Subversion repository access used to reduce the need for intermediate releases.
Related projects
- WWWOFFLE is related to web proxy caches, recursive web fetchers, dial-on-demand networking setups, and Unix proxy daemons used to make browser access predictable under intermittent connectivity.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: green
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
Risk classifier
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Why
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
Signals
- metadata:no-higher-risk-signals
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
local files
Configuration and credential file locations
These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.
Configuration files
Config paths the tool may read or write during local use.
- Unix
/etc/wwwoffle/wwwoffle.conf
Credential files
Credential-bearing paths to review before unattended agent runs.
- Unix
/etc/wwwoffle/wwwoffle.conf
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
wwwoffle | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wwwoffle-fsck | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wwwoffle-gunzip | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wwwoffle-gzip | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wwwoffle-hash | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wwwoffle-ls | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wwwoffle-mv | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wwwoffle-read | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wwwoffle-rm | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wwwoffle-tools | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wwwoffle-write | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wwwoffled | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version2.9j
manager updated
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:wwwoffle |
|---|---|
| Version | 2.9j |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://www.gedanken.org.uk/software/wwwoffle/ |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- cross-ecosystem install command graph
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkg.so package database
- pkgdb category and tag curation