1SURFRAW(1) General Commands Manual SURFRAW(1)
2
6 surfraw - a fast unix command line interface to WWW services
7
9 surfraw elviname [options] search words ...
10 sr elviname [options] search words ...
11 sr -elvi
12 sr bookmark
13
16 Surfraw provides a fast unix command line interface to a variety of
17 popular WWW search engines and other artifacts of power. It reclaims
18 google, altavista, dejanews, freshmeat, research index, slashdot and
19 many others from the false‐prophet, pox‐infested heathen lands of html‐
20 forms, placing these wonders where they belong, deep in unix heartland,
21 as god loving extensions to the shell.
22 Surfraw consists of a collection of elvi, each of which knows how to
25 search a specific web site. To see the list of elvi type:
26 surfraw -elvi
28 Note that sr is an alias for surfraw, so that could equally be
30 sr -elvi
32 To search using an elvis use:
34 sr elviname [options] search terms..
36 For example, to search google for information on Debian ports, using
38 the "I'm feeling lucky" option:
39 sr google -l debian ports
41 Adding the elvi to your path
44 If you are a regular user of surfraw, you will probably get sick of
45 typing sr or surfraw each time. You can regain the old behaviour of
46 running the elvi directly by adding the elvi directory (‐
47 /usr/libexec/surfraw) to your path, either manually or using
48 surfraw-update-path(1).
49 Bookmarks
52 Surfraw supports bookmarks. To add a bookmark, add it to
53 /etc/xdg/surfraw/bookmarks or $HOME/.config/surfraw/bookmarks
54 The format of the bookmarks file is simple, each bookmark is on a sepa‐
56 rate line, with the bookmark and URL separated by whitespace, eg:
57 ntk http://www.ntk.net/
59 To invoke a bookmark, use "surfraw bookmark" or "sr bookmark", and if
61 an elvis of that name doesn't exist, it searches for a bookmark of that
62 name instead.
63 There are some example bookmarks in /etc/xdg/surfraw/bookmarks
65
68 Use sr elviname -local-help for elvi‐specific options.
69 The following options work with all elvi.
71 -help Show summary of options (including elvi‐specific options).
74 -local-help
77 Show elvi‐specific options.
78 -version
81 Show version of program.
82 -browser=EXECUTABLE
85 Set browser (default: sensible-browser).
86 -elvi Display a list of other Surfraw mechanisms for conquering evil.
89 -escape-url-args=yes|no
92 Apply url escaping to arguments (default: yes)
93 -q|-quote
96 Bracket all arguments with " characters (default: no). Note
97 that putting quotes round arguments works now, so you can do,
98 for example:
99 sr google foo "bar baz" bam
101 and the quoting is passed on to the search engine
103
106 $ sr ask why is jeeves gay?
107 $ surfraw google -results=100 RMS, GNU, which is sinner, which is sin?
108 $ sr austlii -method=phrase dog like
109 $ /usr/libexec/surfraw/rhyme -method=perfect Julian
110
113 Surfraw uses the XDG basedir spec (http://standards.freedesk‐
114 top.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-0.6.html) to locate config files. The
115 default locations are shown below, but can be modified by setting the
116 environment variables $XDG_CONFIG_HOME and $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS. See the
117 spec for more details.
118 Surfraw gets its configuration from three sources, in order:
120 1. Environment variables
123 2. /etc/xdg/surfraw/conf
125 3. $HOME/.config/surfraw/conf
127 /etc/xdg/surfraw.conf and $HOME/.config/surfraw/conf are both fragments
130 of bourne‐shell style shell script.
131 /etc/xdg/surfraw.conf should use def and defyn to define variables.
133 These functions set variables unless they are already set by the envi‐
134 ronment. defyn is used for boolean configuration variables, def for
135 all others. For instance:
136 def SURFRAW_text_browser /usr/bin/lynx
138 defyn SURFRAW_graphical no
139 $HOME/.config/surfraw/conf should use sh‐style entries, eg:
141 SURFRAW_text_browser=/usr/bin/lynx
143 SURFRAW_graphical=no
144 This is because you want them to override environment variables uncon‐
146 ditionally.
147
150 SURFRAW_global_conf
151 Location of global configuration file.
152 Default:
154 def SURFRAW_global_conf /etc/xdg/surfraw/conf
156 SURFRAW_conf
159 Location of per‐user configuration file.
160 Default:
162 def SURFRAW_conf $HOME/.config/surfraw/conf
164 SURFRAW_graphical
167 Whether to use a graphical browser.
168 Default:
170 defyn SURFRAW_graphical no
172 SURFRAW_text_browser
175 Name/path of text browser executable. e.g. links, lynx, w3m
176 Default:
178 def SURFRAW_text_browser sensible-browser
180 SURFRAW_graphical_browser
183 Name/path of graphical browser executable. e.g mozilla, net‐
184 scape etc.
185 Default:
187 def SURFRAW_graphical_browser sensible-browser
189 SURFRAW_text_browser_args
192 Text browser arguments, or "none".
193 Default:
195 def SURFRAW_text_browser_args none
197 SURFRAW_graphical_browser_args
200 Graphical browser arguments, or "none".
201 Default:
203 def SURFRAW_graphical_browser_args none
205 SURFRAW_graphical_remote
208 Whether to use "-remote openURL" for graphical browser.
209 Default:
211 defyn SURFRAW_graphical_remote yes
213 SURFRAW_new_window
216 When using SURFRAW_graphical_remote, open a new window?
217 Default:
219 defyn SURFRAW_new_window no
221 SURFRAW_screen
224 Name of screen command to run.
226 Default:
228 def SURFRAW_screen screen
230 SURFRAW_new_screen
233 If surfraw is running under screen(1), start a new screen for
234 each text browser invocation?
235 Default:
237 defyn SURFRAW_new_screen no
239 SURFRAW_screen_args
242 Arguments to pass to the SURFRAW_screen command
243 Default:
245 def SURFRAW_screen_args ""
247 SURFRAW_quote_args
250 Whether to "quote" all the arguments.
251 Default:
253 defyn SURFRAW_quote_args no
255 SURFRAW_quote_ifs
258 Whether to re‐quote arguments if they have spaces in, ie so:
259 sr google foo "bar baz" bam
260 works as expected.
261 Default:
263 defyn SURFRAW_quote_ifs yes
265 SURFRAW_results
268 Default number of results to return (not supported by all elvi).
269 Default:
271 def SURFRAW_results 30
273 SURFRAW_escape_url_args
276 Whether to escape [% "$%&+,/:;<=>?@[{|}~'] characters in command
277 line arguments subsequently used to construct a url.
278 Default:
280 defyn SURFRAW_escape_url_args yes
282
285 /usr/libexec/surfraw
286 Location of the elvi.
287 ${HOME}/.config/surfraw/elvi
290 Per‐user elvi.
291 /etc/xdg/surfraw/conf
294 Default system wide configuration file.
295 $HOME/.config/surfraw/conf
298 Default per‐user config file
299 /etc/xdg/surfraw/bookmarks
302 System wide bookmarks file.
303 $HOME/.config/surfraw/bookmarks
306 Per‐user bookmarks file.
307
310 Please report any bugs found (or any web sites in need of surfrawizing)
311 either via the debian bug tracking system (http://bugs.debian.org/) or
312 to the surfraw-devel list (surfraw-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org).
313
316 http://alioth.debian.org/projects/surfraw/
317
320 Oh Baybe
321 I need some
322 Deep Linking
323 Let us go
324 Surfin' in the raw!
325 Read HACKING. Surfrawize the soul of your favourite internet wonder.
327 Join the Shell Users' Revolutionary Front Against the WWW by submitting
328 code. Reclaim heathen lands. Bear witness to the truth. Its love
329 will set you free.
330 Join us on surfraw-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
332
335 Originally written by Julian Assange.
336 Now maintained by the surfraw-devel team <‐
338 surfraw-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>.
339 See the file AUTHORS for the full list of contributors.
341 Man page by Ian Beckwith, based on the original README and an earlier
343 man page by Christian Surchi.
344
347 Copyright (c) 2003-2008 The Surfraw-Devel Team
348 <surfraw-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>
349 Copyright (c) 2000-2001 Julian Assange <proff@iq.org>
350 Copyright (c) 2001 Australian Institute for Collaborative Research
351 Copyright (c) 2000 Melbourne Institute for Advanced Study
352 The copyright holders listed above assert no rights on this release of
354 the software ``surfraw'' and thereby explicity place this release into
355 the into the public domain. Do what you will.
356 Feb 03, 2004 SURFRAW(1)