1LYNX(1) General Commands Manual LYNX(1)
2
6 lynx - a general purpose distributed information browser for the World
7 Wide Web
8
10 lynx [options] [optional paths or URLs]
11 lynx [options] [path or URL] -get_data
13 data
14 --
15 lynx [options] [path or URL] -post_data
17 data
18 --
19 Use “lynx -help” to display a complete list of current options.
21
23 Lynx is a fully-featured World Wide Web (WWW) client for users running
24 cursor-addressable, character-cell display devices (e.g., vt100
25 terminals, vt100 emulators running on Windows 95/NT/XP/7/8 or any POSIX
26 platform, or any other “curses-oriented” display). It will display
27 hypertext markup language (HTML) documents containing links to files
28 residing on the local system, as well as files residing on remote
29 systems running Gopher, HTTP, FTP, WAIS, and NNTP servers. Current
30 versions of Lynx run on Unix, VMS, Windows 95/NT/XP/7/8, DOS DJGPP and
31 OS/2.
32 Lynx can be used to access information on the World Wide Web, or to
34 build information systems intended primarily for local access. For
35 example, Lynx has been used to build several Campus Wide Information
36 Systems (CWIS). In addition, Lynx can be used to build systems
37 isolated within a single LAN.
38
40 At start up, Lynx will load any local file or remote URL specified at
41 the command line. For help with URLs, press “?” or “H” while running
42 Lynx. Then follow the link titled, “Help on URLs.”
43 If more than one local file or remote URL is listed on the command
45 line, Lynx will open only the last interactively. All of the names
46 (local files and remote URLs) are added to the G)oto history.
47 Lynx uses only long option names. Option names can begin with double
49 dash “--” as well, underscores and dashes can be intermixed in option
50 names (in the reference below, options are shown with one dash “-”
51 before them, and with underscores “_”).
52 Lynx provides many command-line options. Some options require a value
54 (string, number or keyword). These are noted in the reference below.
55 The other options set boolean values in the program. There are three
56 types of boolean options: set, unset and toggle. If no option value is
57 given, these have the obvious meaning: set (to true), unset (to false),
58 or toggle (between true/false). For any of these, an explicit value
59 can be given in different forms to allow for operating system
60 constraints, e.g.,
61 -center:off
63 -center=off
64 -center-
65 Lynx recognizes “1”, “+”, “on” and “true” for true values, and “0”,
67 “-”, “off” and “false” for false values. Other option-values are
68 ignored.
69 The default boolean, number and string option values that are compiled
71 into Lynx are displayed in the help-message provided by lynx -help.
72 Some of those may differ according to how Lynx was built; see the help
73 message itself for these values. The -help option is processed in the
74 third pass of options-processing, so any option which sets a value, as
75 well as runtime configuration values are reflected in the help-message.
76 - If the argument is only “-”, then Lynx expects to receive the
78 arguments from the standard input. This is to allow for the
79 potentially very long command line that can be associated with
80 the -get_data or -post_data arguments (see below). It can also
81 be used to avoid having sensitive information in the invoking
82 command line (which would be visible to other processes on most
83 systems), especially when the -auth or -pauth options are used.
84 -accept_all_cookies
86 accept all cookies.
87 -anonymous
89 apply restrictions for anonymous account, see also
90 -restrictions.
91 -assume_charset=MIMEname
93 charset for documents that do not specify it.
94 -assume_local_charset=MIMEname
96 charset assumed for local files, i.e., files which Lynx creates
97 such as internal pages for the options menu.
98 -assume_unrec_charset=MIMEname
100 use this instead of unrecognized charsets.
101 -auth=ID:PASSWD
103 set authorization ID and password for protected documents at
104 startup. Be sure to protect any script files which use this
105 switch.
106 -base prepend a request URL comment and BASE tag to text/html outputs
108 for -source dumps.
109 -bibhost=URL
111 specify a local bibp server (default http://bibhost/).
112 -blink forces high intensity background colors for color mode, if
114 available and supported by the terminal. This applies to the
115 slang library (for a few terminal emulators), or to OS/2 EMX
116 with ncurses.
117 -book use the bookmark page as the startfile. The default or command
119 line startfile is still set for the Main screen command, and
120 will be used if the bookmark page is unavailable or blank.
121 -buried_news
123 toggles scanning of news articles for buried references, and
124 converts them to news links. Not recommended because email
125 addresses enclosed in angle brackets will be converted to false
126 news links, and uuencoded messages can be trashed.
127 -cache=NUMBER
129 set the NUMBER of documents cached in memory. The default is
130 10.
131 -case enable case-sensitive string searching.
133 -center
135 toggles center alignment in HTML TABLE. Normally table cells
136 are centered on the table grid. Set this option “on” to disable
137 centering. The default is “off”.
138 -cfg=FILENAME
140 specifies a Lynx configuration file other than the default
141 lynx.cfg.
142 -child exit on left-arrow in startfile, and disable save to disk and
144 associated print/mail options.
145 -child_relaxed
147 exit on left-arrow in startfile, but allow save to disk and
148 associated print/mail options.
149 -cmd_log=FILENAME
151 write keystroke commands and related information to the
152 specified file.
153 -cmd_script=FILENAME
155 read keystroke commands from the specified file. You can use
156 the data written using the -cmd_log option. Lynx will ignore
157 other information which the command-logging may have written to
158 the logfile. Each line of the command script contains either a
159 comment beginning with “#”, or a keyword:
160 exit
162 causes the script to stop, and forces Lynx to exit
163 immediately.
164 key
166 the character value, in printable form. Cursor and other
167 special keys are given as names, e.g., “Down Arrow”.
168 Printable 7-bit ASCII codes are given as-is, and hexadecimal
169 values represent other 8-bit codes.
170 set
172 followed by a “name=value” allows one to override values set
173 in the lynx.cfg or .lynxrc files. Lynx tries the cfg-file
174 setting first.
175 -collapse_br_tags
177 toggles collapsing of BR tags.
178 -color forces color mode on, if available. Default color control
180 sequences which work for many terminal types are assumed if the
181 terminal capability description does not specify how to handle
182 color. Lynx needs to be compiled with the slang library for
183 this flag, it is equivalent to setting the COLORTERM environment
184 variable. (If color support is instead provided by a color-
185 capable curses library like ncurses, Lynx relies completely on
186 the terminal description to determine whether color mode is
187 possible, and this flag is not needed and thus unavailable.) A
188 saved show_color=always setting found in a .lynxrc file at
189 startup has the same effect. A saved show_color=never found in
190 .lynxrc on startup is overridden by this flag.
191 -connect_timeout=N
193 Sets the connection timeout, where N is given in seconds.
194 -cookie_file=FILENAME
196 specifies a file to use to read cookies. If none is specified,
197 the default value is ~/.lynx_cookies for most systems, but
198 ~/cookies for MS-DOS.
199 -cookie_save_file=FILENAME
201 specifies a file to use to store cookies. If none is specified,
202 the value given by -cookie_file is used.
203 -cookies
205 toggles handling of Set-Cookie headers.
206 -core toggles forced core dumps on fatal errors. Turn this option off
208 to ask Lynx to force a core dump if a fatal error occurs.
209 -crawl with -traversal, output each page to a file. with -dump, format
211 output as with -traversal, but to the standard output.
212 -curses_pads
214 toggles the use of curses “pad” feature which supports
215 left/right scrolling of the display. The feature is normally
216 available for curses configurations, but inactive. To activate
217 it, use the “|” character or the LINEWRAP_TOGGLE command.
218 Toggling this option makes the feature altogether unavailable.
219 -debug_partial
221 separate incremental display stages with MessageSecs delay
222 -default_colors
224 toggles the default-colors feature which is normally set in the
225 lynx.cfg file.
226 -delay add DebugSecs delay after each progress-message
228 -display=DISPLAY
230 set the display variable for X rexec-ed programs.
231 -display_charset=MIMEname
233 set the charset for the terminal output.
234 -dont_wrap_pre
236 inhibit wrapping of text when -dump'ing and -crawl'ing, mark
237 wrapped lines of <pre> in interactive session.
238 -dump dumps the formatted output of the default document or those
240 specified on the command line to standard output. Unlike
241 interactive mode, all documents are processed. This can be used
242 in the following way:
243 lynx -dump http://www.subir.com/lynx.html
245 Files specified on the command line are formatted as HTML if
247 their names end with one of the standard web suffixes such as
248 “.htm” or “.html”. Use the -force_html option to format files
249 whose names do not follow this convention.
250 -editor=EDITOR
252 enable external editing, using the specified EDITOR. (vi, ed,
253 emacs, etc.)
254 -emacskeys
256 enable emacs-like key movement.
257 -enable_scrollback
259 toggles compatibility with communication programs' scrollback
260 keys (may be incompatible with some curses packages).
261 -error_file=FILE
263 define a file where Lynx will report HTTP access codes.
264 -exec enable local program execution (normally not configured).
266 -fileversions
268 include all versions of files in local VMS directory listings.
269 -find_leaks
271 toggle memory leak-checking. Normally this is not compiled-into
272 your executable, but when it is, it can be disabled for a
273 session.
274 -force_empty_hrefless_a
276 force HREF-less “A” elements to be empty (close them as soon as
277 they are seen).
278 -force_html
280 forces the first document to be interpreted as HTML.
281 This is most useful when processing files specified on the
283 command line which have an unrecognized suffix (or the suffix is
284 associated with a non-HTML type, such as “.txt” for plain text
285 files).
286 Lynx recognizes these file suffixes as HTML:
288 “.ht3”,
290 “.htm”,
291 “.html3”,
292 “.html”,
293 “.htmlx”,
294 “.php3”,
295 “.php”,
296 “.phtml”,
297 “.sht”, and
298 “.shtml”.
299 -force_secure
301 toggles forcing of the secure flag for SSL cookies.
302 -forms_options
304 toggles whether the Options Menu is key-based or form-based.
305 -from toggles transmissions of From headers.
307 -ftp disable ftp access.
309 -get_data
311 properly formatted data for a get form are read in from the
312 standard input and passed to the form. Input is terminated by a
313 line that starts with “---”.
314 Lynx issues an HTTP GET, sending the form to the path or URL
316 given on the command-line and prints the response of the server.
317 If no path or URL is given, Lynx sends the form to the start-
318 page.
319 -head send a HEAD request for the mime headers.
321 -help print the Lynx command syntax usage message, and exit.
323 -hiddenlinks=[option]
325 control the display of hidden links.
326 merge
328 hidden links show up as bracketed numbers and are numbered
329 together with other links in the sequence of their occurrence
330 in the document.
331 listonly
333 hidden links are shown only on L)ist screens and listings
334 generated by -dump or from the P)rint menu, but appear
335 separately at the end of those lists. This is the default
336 behavior.
337 ignore
339 hidden links do not appear even in listings.
340 -historical
342 toggles use of “>” or “-->” as a terminator for comments.
343 -homepage=URL
345 set homepage separate from start page.
346 -image_links
348 toggles inclusion of links for all images.
349 -index=URL
351 set the default index file to the specified URL.
352 -ismap toggles inclusion of ISMAP links when client-side MAPs are
354 present.
355 -justify
357 do justification of text.
358 -link=NUMBER
360 starting count for lnk#.dat files produced by -crawl.
361 -list_decoded
363 for -dump, show URL-encoded links decoded.
364 -list_inline
366 for -dump, show the links inline with the text.
367 -listonly
369 for -dump, show only the list of links.
370 -localhost
372 disable URLs that point to remote hosts.
373 -locexec
375 enable local program execution from local files only (if Lynx
376 was compiled with local execution enabled).
377 -lss=FILENAME
379 specify filename containing color-style information. The
380 default is lynx.lss. If you give an empty filename, Lynx uses a
381 built-in monochrome scheme which imitates the non-color-style
382 configuration.
383 -mime_header
385 prints the MIME header of a fetched document along with its
386 source.
387 -minimal
389 toggles minimal versus valid comment parsing.
390 -nested_tables
392 toggles nested-tables logic (for debugging).
393 -newschunksize=NUMBER
395 number of articles in chunked news listings.
396 -newsmaxchunk=NUMBER
398 maximum news articles in listings before chunking.
399 -nobold
401 disable bold video-attribute.
402 -nobrowse
404 disable directory browsing.
405 -nocc disable Cc: prompts for self copies of mailings. Note that this
407 does not disable any CCs which are incorporated within a mailto
408 URL or form ACTION.
409 -nocolor
411 force color mode off, overriding terminal capabilities and any
412 -color flags, COLORTERM variable, and saved .lynxrc settings.
413 -noexec
415 disable local program execution. (DEFAULT)
416 -nofilereferer
418 disable transmissions of Referer headers for file URLs.
419 -nolist
421 disable the link list feature in dumps.
422 -nolog disable mailing of error messages to document owners.
424 -nomargins
426 disable left/right margins in the default style sheet.
427 -nomore
429 disable -more- string in statusline messages.
430 -nonrestarting_sigwinch
432 This flag is not available on all systems, Lynx needs to be
433 compiled with HAVE_SIGACTION defined. If available, this flag
434 may cause Lynx to react more immediately to window changes when
435 run within an xterm.
436 -nonumbers
438 disable link- and field-numbering. This overrides
439 -number_fields and -number_links.
440 -nopause
442 disable forced pauses for statusline messages.
443 -noprint
445 disable most print functions.
446 -noredir
448 prevents automatic redirection and prints a message with a link
449 to the new URL.
450 -noreferer
452 disable transmissions of Referer headers.
453 -noreverse
455 disable reverse video-attribute.
456 -nosocks
458 disable SOCKS proxy usage by a SOCKSified Lynx.
459 -nostatus
461 disable the retrieval status messages.
462 -notitle
464 disable title and blank line from top of page.
465 -nounderline
467 disable underline video-attribute.
468 -number_fields
470 force numbering of links as well as form input fields
471 -number_links
473 force numbering of links.
474 -partial
476 toggles display partial pages while loading.
477 -partial_thres=NUMBER
479 number of lines to render before repainting display with
480 partial-display logic
481 -passive_ftp
483 toggles passive ftp connections.
484 -pauth=ID:PASSWD
486 set authorization ID and password for a protected proxy server
487 at startup. Be sure to protect any script files which use this
488 switch.
489 -popup toggles handling of single-choice SELECT options via popup
491 windows or as lists of radio buttons.
492 -post_data
494 properly formatted data for a post form are read in from the
495 standard input and passed to the form. Input is terminated by a
496 line that starts with “---”.
497 Lynx issues an HTTP POST, sending the form to the path or URL
499 given on the command-line and prints the response of the server.
500 If no path or URL is given, Lynx sends the form to the start-
501 page.
502 -preparsed
504 show HTML source preparsed and reformatted when used with
505 -source or in source view.
506 -prettysrc
508 show HTML source view with lexical elements and tags in color.
509 -print enable print functions. (default)
511 -pseudo_inlines
513 toggles pseudo-ALTs for inline images with no ALT string.
514 -raw toggles default setting of 8-bit character translations or CJK
516 mode for the startup character set.
517 -realm restricts access to URLs in the starting realm.
519 -read_timeout=N
521 Sets the read-timeout, where N is given in seconds.
522 -reload
524 flushes the cache on a proxy server (only the first document
525 given on the command-line is affected).
526 -restrictions=[option][,option][,option]...
528 allows a list of services to be disabled selectively. Dashes
529 and underscores in option names can be intermixed. The
530 following list is printed if no options are specified.
531 all
533 restricts all options listed below.
534 bookmark
536 disallow changing the location of the bookmark file.
537 bookmark_exec
539 disallow execution links via the bookmark file.
540 change_exec_perms
542 disallow changing the eXecute permission on files (but still
543 allow it for directories) when local file management is
544 enabled.
545 default
547 same as command line option -anonymous. Disables default
548 services for anonymous users. Set to all restricted, except
549 for: inside_telnet, outside_telnet, inside_ftp, outside_ftp,
550 inside_rlogin, outside_rlogin, inside_news, outside_news,
551 telnet_port, jump, mail, print, exec, and goto. The settings
552 for these, as well as additional goto restrictions for
553 specific URL schemes that are also applied, are derived from
554 definitions within userdefs.h.
555 dired_support
557 disallow local file management.
558 disk_save
560 disallow saving to disk in the download and print menus.
561 dotfiles
563 disallow access to, or creation of, hidden (dot) files.
564 download
566 disallow some downloaders in the download menu (does not
567 imply disk_save restriction).
568 editor
570 disallow external editing.
571 exec
573 disable execution scripts.
574 exec_frozen
576 disallow the user from changing the local execution option.
577 externals
579 disallow some “EXTERNAL” configuration lines if support for
580 passing URLs to external applications (with the EXTERN
581 command) is compiled in.
582 file_url
584 disallow using G)oto, served links or bookmarks for file:
585 URLs.
586 goto
588 disable the “g” (goto) command.
589 inside_ftp
591 disallow ftps for people coming from inside your domain (utmp
592 required for selectivity).
593 inside_news
595 disallow USENET news posting for people coming from inside
596 your domain (utmp required for selectivity).
597 inside_rlogin
599 disallow rlogins for people coming from inside your domain
600 (utmp required for selectivity).
601 inside_telnet
603 disallow telnets for people coming from inside your domain
604 (utmp required for selectivity).
605 jump
607 disable the “j” (jump) command.
608 multibook
610 disallow multiple bookmarks.
611 mail
613 disallow mail.
614 news_post
616 disallow USENET News posting.
617 options_save
619 disallow saving options in .lynxrc.
620 outside_ftp
622 disallow ftps for people coming from outside your domain
623 (utmp required for selectivity).
624 outside_news
626 disallow USENET news reading and posting for people coming
627 from outside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).
628 This restriction applies to “news”, “nntp”, “newspost”, and
629 “newsreply” URLs, but not to “snews”, “snewspost”, or
630 “snewsreply” in case they are supported.
631 outside_rlogin
633 disallow rlogins for people coming from outside your domain
634 (utmp required for selectivity).
635 outside_telnet
637 disallow telnets for people coming from outside your domain
638 (utmp required for selectivity).
639 print
641 disallow most print options.
642 shell
644 disallow shell escapes and lynxexec or lynxprog G)oto's.
645 suspend
647 disallow Unix Control-Z suspends with escape to shell.
648 telnet_port
650 disallow specifying a port in telnet G)oto's.
651 useragent
653 disallow modifications of the User-Agent header.
654 -resubmit_posts
656 toggles forced resubmissions (no-cache) of forms with method
657 POST when the documents they returned are sought with the
658 PREV_DOC command or from the History List.
659 -rlogin
661 disable recognition of rlogin commands.
662 -scrollbar
664 toggles showing scrollbar.
665 -scrollbar_arrow
667 toggles showing arrows at ends of the scrollbar.
668 -selective
670 require .www_browsable files to browse directories.
671 -session=FILENAME
673 resumes from specified file on startup and saves session to that
674 file on exit.
675 -sessionin=FILENAME
677 resumes session from specified file.
678 -sessionout=FILENAME
680 saves session to specified file.
681 -short_url
683 show very long URLs in the status line with “...” to represent
684 the portion which cannot be displayed. The beginning and end of
685 the URL are displayed, rather than suppressing the end.
686 -show_cfg
688 Print the configuration settings, e.g., as read from “lynx.cfg”,
689 and exit.
690 -show_cursor
692 If enabled the cursor will not be hidden in the right hand
693 corner but will instead be positioned at the start of the
694 currently selected link. Show cursor is the default for systems
695 without FANCY_CURSES capabilities. The default configuration
696 can be changed in userdefs.h or lynx.cfg. The command line
697 switch toggles the default.
698 -show_rate
700 If enabled the transfer rate is shown in bytes/second. If
701 disabled, no transfer rate is shown. Use lynx.cfg or the
702 options menu to select KB/second and/or ETA.
703 -socks5_proxy=URL
705 (Via which) SOCKS5 proxy to connect: any network traffic,
706 including all DNS resolutions but the one for URL itself, will
707 be redirected through the SOCKS5 proxy. URL may be given as
708 “proxy.example.com”, “proxy.example.com:1080”, “192.168.0.1”, or
709 “192.168.0.1:1080” (and IPv6 notation if so supported). A
710 SOCKS5 proxy may also be specified via the environment variable
711 SOCKS5_PROXY. This option controls the builtin SOCKS5 support,
712 which is unrelated to the option -nosocks.
713 -soft_dquotes
715 toggles emulation of the old Netscape and Mosaic bug which
716 treated “>” as a co-terminator for double-quotes and tags.
717 -source
719 works the same as dump but outputs HTML source instead of
720 formatted text. For example
721 lynx -source . >foo.html
723 generates HTML source listing the files in the current
725 directory. Each file is marked by an HREF relative to the
726 parent directory. Add a trailing slash to make the HREF's
727 relative to the current directory:
728 lynx -source ./ >foo.html
730 -stack_dump
732 disable SIGINT cleanup handler
733 -startfile_ok
735 allow non-http startfile and homepage with -validate.
736 -stderr
738 When dumping a document using -dump or -source, Lynx normally
739 does not display alert (error) messages that you see on the
740 screen in the status line. Use the -stderr option to tell Lynx
741 to write these messages to the standard error.
742 -stdin read the startfile from standard input (UNIX only).
744 -syslog=text
746 information for syslog call.
747 -syslog_urls
749 log requested URLs with syslog.
750 -tagsoup
752 initialize parser, using Tag Soup DTD rather than SortaSGML.
753 -telnet
755 disable recognition of telnet commands.
756 -term=TERM
758 tell Lynx what terminal type to assume it is talking to. (This
759 may be useful for remote execution, when, for example, Lynx
760 connects to a remote TCP/IP port that starts a script that, in
761 turn, starts another Lynx process.)
762 -timeout=N
764 For win32, sets the network read-timeout, where N is given in
765 seconds.
766 -tlog toggles between using a Lynx Trace Log and stderr for trace
768 output from the session.
769 -tna turns on “Textfields Need Activation” mode.
771 -trace turns on Lynx trace mode. Destination of trace output depends
773 on -tlog.
774 -trace_mask=value
776 turn on optional traces, which may result in very large trace
777 files. Logically OR the values to combine options:
778 1 SGML character parsing states
780 2 color-style
782 4 TRST (table layout)
784 8 configuration (lynx.cfg, .lynxrc, .lynx-keymaps, mime.types
786 and mailcap contents)
787 16 binary string copy/append, used in form data construction.
789 32 cookies
791 64 character sets
793 128
795 GridText parsing
796 256
798 timing
799 512
801 detailed URL parsing
802 -traversal
804 traverse all http links derived from startfile. When used with
805 -crawl, each link that begins with the same string as startfile
806 is output to a file, intended for indexing.
807 See CRAWL.announce for more information.
809 -trim_blank_lines
811 toggles trimming of trailing blank lines as well as the related
812 trimming of blank lines while collapsing BR tags.
813 -trim_input_fields
815 trim input text/textarea fields in forms.
816 -underline_links
818 toggles use of underline/bold attribute for links.
819 -underscore
821 toggles use of _underline_ format in dumps.
822 -unique_urls
824 check for duplicate link numbers in each page and corresponding
825 lists, and reuse the original link number.
826 -update_term_title
828 enables updating the title in terminal emulators. Use only if
829 your terminal emulator supports that escape code. Has no effect
830 when used with -notitle.
831 -use_mouse
833 turn on mouse support, if available. Clicking the left mouse
834 button on a link traverses it. Clicking the right mouse button
835 pops back. Click on the top line to scroll up. Click on the
836 bottom line to scroll down. The first few positions in the top
837 and bottom line may invoke additional functions. Lynx must be
838 compiled with ncurses or slang to support this feature. If
839 ncurses is used, clicking the middle mouse button pops up a
840 simple menu. Mouse clicks may only work reliably while Lynx is
841 idle waiting for input.
842 -useragent=Name
844 set alternate Lynx User-Agent header.
845 -validate
847 accept only http URLs (for validation). Complete security
848 restrictions also are implemented.
849 -verbose
851 toggle [LINK], [IMAGE] and [INLINE] comments with filenames of
852 these images.
853 -version
855 print version information, and exit.
856 -vikeys
858 enable vi-like key movement.
859 -wdebug
861 enable Waterloo tcp/ip packet debug (print to watt debugfile).
862 This applies only to DOS versions compiled with WATTCP or
863 WATT-32.
864 -width=NUMBER
866 number of columns for formatting of dumps, default is 80. This
867 is limited by the number of columns that Lynx could display,
868 typically 1024 (the MAX_LINE symbol).
869 -with_backspaces
871 emit backspaces in output if -dump'ing or -crawl'ing (like man
872 does)
873 -xhtml_parsing
875 tells Lynx that it can ignore certain tags which have no content
876 in an XHTML 1.0 document. For example “<p/>” will be discarded.
877
879 More than one key can be mapped to a given command. Here are some of
880 the most useful:
881 • Use Up arrow and Down arrow to scroll through hypertext links.
883 • Right arrow or Return will follow a highlighted hypertext link.
885 • Left Arrow or “u” will retreat from a link.
887 • Type “H”, “?”, or F1 for online help and descriptions of key-stroke
889 commands.
890 • Type “k” or “K” for a list of the current key-stroke command
892 mappings.
893 If the same command is mapped to the same letter differing only by
895 upper/lowercase only the lowercase mapping is shown.
896 • Type Delete to view history list.
898
900 In addition to various “standard” environment variables such as HOME,
901 PATH, USER, DISPLAY, TMPDIR, etc, Lynx utilizes several Lynx-specific
902 environment variables, if they exist.
903 Others may be created or modified by Lynx to pass data to an external
905 program, or for other reasons. These are listed separately below.
906 See also the sections on SIMULATED CGI SUPPORT and NATIVE LANGUAGE
908 SUPPORT, below.
909 Note: Not all environment variables apply to all types of platforms
911 supported by Lynx, though most do. Feedback on platform dependencies
912 is solicited.
913 Environment Variables Used By Lynx:
915 COLORTERM If set, color capability for the terminal is forced
917 on at startup time. The actual value assigned to
918 the variable is ignored. This variable is only
919 meaningful if Lynx was built using the slang
920 screen-handling library.
921 LYNX_CFG This variable, if set, will override the default
923 location and name of the global configuration file
924 (normally, lynx.cfg) that was defined by the
925 LYNX_CFG_FILE constant in the userdefs.h file,
926 during installation.
927 See the userdefs.h file for more information.
929 LYNX_CFG_PATH If set, this variable overrides the compiled-in
931 search-list of directories used to find the
932 configuration files, e.g., lynx.cfg and lynx.lss.
933 The list is delimited with ":" (or ";" for Windows)
934 like the PATH environment variable.
935 LYNX_HELPFILE If set, this variable overrides the compiled-in URL
937 and configuration file URL for the Lynx help file.
938 LYNX_LOCALEDIR If set, this variable overrides the compiled-in
940 location of the locale directory which contains
941 native language (NLS) message text.
942 LYNX_LSS This variable, if set, specifies the location of
944 the default Lynx character style sheet file.
945 [Currently only meaningful if Lynx was built using
946 curses color style support.]
947 LYNX_SAVE_SPACE This variable, if set, will override the default
949 path prefix for files saved to disk that is defined
950 in the lynx.cfg SAVE_SPACE: statement.
951 See the lynx.cfg file for more information.
953 LYNX_TEMP_SPACE This variable, if set, will override the default
955 path prefix for temporary files that was defined
956 during installation, as well as any value that may
957 be assigned to the TMPDIR variable.
958 MAIL This variable specifies the default inbox Lynx will
960 check for new mail, if such checking is enabled in
961 the lynx.cfg file.
962 NEWS_ORGANIZATION This variable, if set, provides the string used in
964 the Organization: header of USENET news postings.
965 It will override the setting of the ORGANIZATION
966 environment variable, if it is also set (and, on
967 UNIX, the contents of an /etc/organization file, if
968 present).
969 NNTPSERVER If set, this variable specifies the default NNTP
971 server that will be used for USENET news reading
972 and posting with Lynx, via news: URL's.
973 ORGANIZATION This variable, if set, provides the string used in
975 the Organization: header of USENET news postings.
976 On UNIX, it will override the contents of an
977 /etc/organization file, if present.
978 PROTOCOL_proxy Lynx supports the use of proxy servers that can act
980 as firewall gateways and caching servers. They are
981 preferable to the older gateway servers (see
982 WWW_access_GATEWAY, below).
983 Each protocol used by Lynx, (http, ftp, gopher,
985 etc), can be mapped separately by setting
986 environment variables of the form PROTOCOL_proxy.
987 Protocols are indicated in a URI by the name before
988 “:”, e.g., “http” in “http://some.server.dom:port/”
989 for HTML.
990 Depending on your system configuration and
992 supported protocols, the environment variables
993 recognized by lynx may include
994 cso_proxy
996 finger_proxy
997 ftp_proxy
998 gopher_proxy
999 https_proxy
1000 http_proxy
1001 newspost_proxy
1002 newsreply_proxy
1003 news_proxy
1004 nntp_proxy
1005 no_proxy
1006 snewspost_proxy
1007 snewsreply_proxy
1008 snews_proxy
1009 wais_proxy
1010 See Lynx Users Guide for additional details and
1012 examples.
1013 SOCKS5_PROXY Is inspected if -socks5_proxy has not been used
1015 (for the same content).
1016 SSL_CERT_DIR Set to the directory containing trusted
1018 certificates.
1019 SSL_CERT_FILE Set to the full path and filename for your file of
1021 trusted certificates.
1022 WWW_access_GATEWAY Lynx still supports use of gateway servers, with
1024 the servers specified via “WWW_access_GATEWAY”
1025 variables (where “access” is lower case and can be
1026 “http”, “ftp”, “gopher” or “wais”). However most
1027 gateway servers have been discontinued. Note that
1028 you do not include a terminal “/” for gateways, but
1029 do for proxies specified by PROTOCOL_proxy
1030 environment variables.
1031 See Lynx Users Guide for details.
1033 WWW_HOME This variable, if set, will override the default
1035 startup URL specified in any of the Lynx
1036 configuration files.
1037 Environment Variables Set or Modified By Lynx:
1039 LYNX_PRINT_DATE This variable is set by the Lynx p(rint) function,
1041 to the Date: string seen in the document's
1042 “Information about” page (= cmd), if any. It is
1043 created for use by an external program, as defined
1044 in a lynx.cfg PRINTER: definition statement. If
1045 the field does not exist for the document, the
1046 variable is set to a null string under UNIX, or “No
1047 Date” under VMS.
1048 LYNX_PRINT_LASTMOD This variable is set by the Lynx p(rint) function,
1050 to the Last Mod: string seen in the document's
1051 “Information about” page (= cmd), if any. It is
1052 created for use by an external program, as defined
1053 in a lynx.cfg PRINTER: definition statement. If
1054 the field does not exist for the document, the
1055 variable is set to a null string under UNIX, or “No
1056 LastMod” under VMS.
1057 LYNX_PRINT_TITLE This variable is set by the Lynx p(rint) function,
1059 to the Linkname: string seen in the document's
1060 “Information about” page (= cmd), if any. It is
1061 created for use by an external program, as defined
1062 in a lynx.cfg PRINTER: definition statement. If
1063 the field does not exist for the document, the
1064 variable is set to a null string under UNIX, or “No
1065 Title” under VMS.
1066 LYNX_PRINT_URL This variable is set by the Lynx p(rint) function,
1068 to the URL: string seen in the document's
1069 “Information about” page (= cmd), if any. It is
1070 created for use by an external program, as defined
1071 in a lynx.cfg PRINTER: definition statement. If
1072 the field does not exist for the document, the
1073 variable is set to a null string under UNIX, or “No
1074 URL” under VMS.
1075 LYNX_TRACE If set, causes Lynx to write a trace file as if the
1077 -trace option were supplied.
1078 LYNX_TRACE_FILE If set, overrides the compiled-in name of the trace
1080 file, which is either Lynx.trace or LY-TRACE.LOG
1081 (the latter on the DOS/Windows platforms). The
1082 trace file is in either case relative to the home
1083 directory.
1084 LYNX_VERSION This variable is always set by Lynx, and may be
1086 used by an external program to determine if it was
1087 invoked by Lynx.
1088 See also the comments in the distribution's sample
1090 mailcap file, for notes on usage in such a file.
1091 TERM Normally, this variable is used by Lynx to
1093 determine the terminal type being used to invoke
1094 Lynx. If, however, it is unset at startup time (or
1095 has the value “unknown”), or if the -term command-
1096 line option is used (see OPTIONS section above),
1097 Lynx will set or modify its value to the user
1098 specified terminal type (for the Lynx execution
1099 environment). Note: If set/modified by Lynx, the
1100 values of the LINES and/or COLUMNS environment
1101 variables may also be changed.
1102
1104 If built with the cgi-links option enabled, Lynx allows access to a cgi
1105 script directly without the need for an http daemon.
1106 When executing such “lynxcgi scripts” (if enabled), the following
1108 variables may be set for simulating a CGI environment:
1109 CONTENT_LENGTH
1111 CONTENT_TYPE
1113 DOCUMENT_ROOT
1115 HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET
1117 HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE
1119 HTTP_USER_AGENT
1121 PATH_INFO
1123 PATH_TRANSLATED
1125 QUERY_STRING
1127 REMOTE_ADDR
1129 REMOTE_HOST
1131 REQUEST_METHOD
1133 SERVER_SOFTWARE
1135 Other environment variables are not inherited by the script, unless
1137 they are provided via a LYNXCGI_ENVIRONMENT statement in the
1138 configuration file. See the lynx.cfg file, and the (draft) CGI 1.1
1139 Specification <http://Web.Golux.Com/coar/cgi/draft-coar-cgi-v11-00.txt>
1140 for the definition and usage of these variables.
1141 The CGI Specification, and other associated documentation, should be
1143 consulted for general information on CGI script programming.
1144
1146 If configured and installed with Native Language Support, Lynx will
1147 display status and other messages in your local language. See the file
1148 ABOUT_NLS in the source distribution, or at your local GNU site, for
1149 more information about internationalization.
1150 The following environment variables may be used to alter default
1152 settings:
1153 LANG This variable, if set, will override the default
1155 message language. It is an ISO 639 two-letter code
1156 identifying the language. Language codes are NOT
1157 the same as the country codes given in ISO 3166.
1158 LANGUAGE This variable, if set, will override the default
1160 message language. This is a GNU extension that has
1161 higher priority for setting the message catalog
1162 than LANG or LC_ALL.
1163 LC_ALL and
1165 LC_MESSAGES These variables, if set, specify the notion of
1167 native language formatting style. They are POSIXly
1168 correct.
1169 LINGUAS This variable, if set prior to configuration,
1171 limits the installed languages to specific values.
1172 It is a space-separated list of two-letter codes.
1173 Currently, it is hard-coded to a wish list.
1174 NLSPATH This variable, if set, is used as the path prefix
1176 for message catalogs.
1177
1179 This is the manual for Lynx v2.9.0dev.5; development is in progress for
1180 2.9.0.
1181 If you wish to contribute to the further development of Lynx, subscribe
1183 to our mailing list. Send email to <lynx-dev-request@nongnu.org> with
1184 “subscribe lynx-dev” as the only line in the body of your message.
1185 Send bug reports, comments, suggestions to <lynx-dev@nongnu.org> after
1187 subscribing.
1188 Unsubscribe by sending email to <lynx-dev-request@nongnu.org> with
1190 “unsubscribe lynx-dev” as the only line in the body of your message.
1191 Do not send the unsubscribe message to the lynx-dev list, itself.
1192
1194 catgets(3), curses(3), environ(7), execve(2), ftp(1), gettext(GNU),
1195 localeconv(3), ncurses(3), setlocale(3), slang(?), termcap(5),
1196 terminfo(5), wget(GNU)
1197 Note that man page availability and section numbering is somewhat plat‐
1199 form dependent, and may vary from the above references.
1200 A section shown as (GNU), is intended to denote that the topic may be
1202 available via an info page, instead of a man page (i.e., try “info sub‐
1203 ject”, rather than “man subject”).
1204 A section shown as (?) denotes that documentation on the topic exists,
1206 but is not part of an established documentation retrieval system (see
1207 the distribution files associated with the topic, or contact your Sys‐
1208 tem Administrator for further information).
1209
1211 Lynx has incorporated code from a variety of sources along the way.
1212 The earliest versions of Lynx included code from Earl Fogel of Comput‐
1213 ing Services at the University of Saskatchewan, who implemented HYPER‐
1214 REZ in the Unix environment. HYPERREZ was developed by Niel Larson of
1215 Think.com and served as the model for the early versions of Lynx.
1216 Those versions also incorporated libraries from the Unix Gopher clients
1217 developed at the University of Minnesota, and the later versions of
1218 Lynx rely on the WWW client library code developed by Tim Berners-Lee
1219 and the WWW community. Also a special thanks to Foteos Macrides who
1220 ported much of Lynx to VMS and did or organized most of its development
1221 since the departures of Lou Montulli and Garrett Blythe from the Uni‐
1222 versity of Kansas in the summer of 1994 through the release of v2.7.2,
1223 and to everyone on the net who has contributed to Lynx's development
1224 either directly (through patches, comments or bug reports) or indirect‐
1225 ly (through inspiration and development of other systems).
1226
1228 Lou Montulli, Garrett Blythe, Craig Lavender, Michael Grobe, Charles
1229 Rezac
1230 Academic Computing Services
1231 University of Kansas
1232 Lawrence, Kansas 66047
1233 Foteos Macrides
1235 Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
1236 Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 01545
1237 Thomas E. Dickey
1239 <dickey@invisible-island.net>
1240 LYNX(1)