1# safari-webarchiver
2
3This tool creates [Safari webarchive files](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webarchive) on the command line.
4This gives you an offline archive of web pages, which can be stored and backed up independently of any cloud services.
5
6```console
7$ save_safari_webarchive "https://example.com" "example.webarchive"
8```
9
10These archives are the same as those created by the `File > Save As…` menu item, but now you can create them programatically and in bulk.
11
12## How it works
13
14It opens the given URL in a `WKWebView`, calls `createWebArchiveData` to create a webarchive file, and saves it to disk.
15That's the core workflow, and then there's a bunch of error handling around that.
16
17For a more detailed explanation of this code, see <https://alexwlchan.net/2024/creating-a-safari-webarchive/>
18
19## Installation
20
21### Install from source
22
231.  Install the Xcode Command Line Tools
242.  Download the `save_safari_webarchive.swift` script from this repo
253.  Compile the script into a binary:
26
27    ```console
28    $ swiftc save_safari_webarchive.swift
29    ```
30
314.  Copy the compiled binary `save_safari_webarchive` to somewhere in your PATH.
32
33### Install a compiled binary
34
351.  Find the latest [GitHub release](https://github.com/alexwlchan/safari-webarchiver/releases)
362.  Download the zip file which is appropriate for your system (Intel = `x86_64`, Apple Silion = `aarch64`)
373.  Open the zip file, and add the `save_safari_webarchive` app to your PATH
38
39The app is just a compiled version of the Swift script.
40It isn't notarised, so when you run it, you may get a warning that this app is from an unidentified developer.
41You can get around this by right-clicking the app icon in Finder, and choosing `Open` from the shortcut menu.
42
43## Usage
44
45Run the script passing two arguments: the URL you want to archive, and the path where you want to save the webarchive file.
46
47For example, this command will save the URL to this GitHub repo to `safari-webarchiver.webarchive`:
48
49```console
50$ save_safari_webarchive "https://github.com/alexwlchan/safari-webarchiver" "safari-webarchiver.webarchive"
51```
52
53## Acknowledgements
54
55This is partially inspired by [a similar script](https://github.com/newzealandpaul/webarchiver) written in 2008 by newzealandpaul.