uget

Minimal HTTP download utility for constrained embedded Linux environments such as HiSilicon-based IP cameras. Works as a lightweight curl/wget replacement when binary size matters.

Two variants are provided:

Variant	Size	Description
uget	~4.7 KB	C version — portable, easy to modify
uget-asm	~2.6 KB	ARM32 assembly — smallest possible, uses raw syscalls

Both are functionally identical. The assembly version eliminates CRT startup overhead and uses Linux syscalls directly, keeping only gethostbyname and mkstemp from libc.

Pre-built binaries for all supported platforms are available on the Releases page.

Features

• HTTP-only (no HTTPS, no redirects) to keep the binary small
• Download to stdout, just like curl
• Download-and-execute mode (uget run <url>) for ad-hoc binary deployment
• Companion bin2sh tool to transfer binaries over telnet via copy-paste
• Exit codes derived from HTTP status (e.g., 404 -> exit 44)

Usage

Download a file to stdout:

uget ifconfig.me

Download and run a binary from an S3 bucket:

uget run openipc.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/ipc_chip_info

Transferring to device via telnet

The bin2sh tool converts a binary into a shell script of printf commands that can be copy-pasted over a telnet session:

# On your workstation
./bin2sh uget > uget.sh

# Log in to the device via telnet, then paste the contents of uget.sh.
# The binary will be reconstructed in /tmp.

# If the target system does not support printf:
./bin2sh -echo uget > uget.sh

Building from source

Requires a HiSilicon cross-compiler and upx. See the toolchains repo for available cross-compilers.

# Cross-compile both variants (default: arm-hisiv510-linux-)
make

# Cross-compile with a different toolchain
make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-hisiv500-linux-uclibcgnueabi-

# Build only the C version
make uget

# Build only the assembly version
make uget-asm

# Build bin2sh only (native, no cross-compiler needed)
make bin2sh

Error codes

Code	Description
0	Success
1	General error
2	Socket creation error
3	DNS resolution error
4	Connection error
5	Send error
6	Invalid command-line options

HTTP response codes other than 2xx are compressed from three digits to two: the first and last digit are kept (e.g., 404 -> exit 44, 502 -> exit 52).