LYNX(1)LYNX(1)NAMElynx - a general purpose distributed information browser for the World
Wide Web
SYNOPSISlynx [options] [path or URL]
use "lynx -help" to display a complete list of current options.
DESCRIPTION
Lynx is a fully-featured World Wide Web (WWW) client for users running
cursor-addressable, character-cell display devices (e.g., vt100 termi‐
nals, vt100 emulators running on Windows 95/NT or Macintoshes, or any
other "curses-oriented" display). It will display hypertext markup
language (HTML) documents containing links to files residing on the
local system, as well as files residing on remote systems running
Gopher, HTTP, FTP, WAIS, and NNTP servers. Current versions of Lynx
run on Unix, VMS, Windows 95/NT, 386DOS and OS/2 EMX.
Lynx can be used to access information on the World Wide Web, or to
build information systems intended primarily for local access. For
example, Lynx has been used to build several Campus Wide Information
Systems (CWIS). In addition, Lynx can be used to build systems iso‐
lated within a single LAN.
OPTIONS
At start up, Lynx will load any local file or remote URL specified at
the command line. For help with URLs, press "?" or "H" while running
Lynx. Then follow the link titled, "Help on URLs."
- If the argument is only '-', then Lynx expects to receive the
arguments from stdin. This is to allow for the potentially very
long command line that can be associated with the -get_data or
-post_data arguments (see below).
-accept_all_cookies
accept all cookies.
-anonymous
used to specify the anonymous account.
-assume_charset=ID:MIMEname
charset for documents that don't specify it.
-assume_local_charset=ID:MIMEname
charset assumed for local files.
-assume_unrec_charset=MIMEname
use this instead of unrecognized charsets.
-auth=ID:PASSWD
set authorization ID and password for protected documents at
startup. Be sure to protect any script files which use this
switch.
-base prepend a request URL comment and BASE tag to text/html outputs
for -source dumps.
-blink forces high intensity bg colors for color mode, if available and
supported by the terminal. Lynx needs to be compiled with the
slang library for this flag.
-book use the bookmark page as the startfile. The default or command
line startfile is still set for the Main screen command, and
will be used if the bookmark page is unavailable or blank.
-buried_news
toggles scanning of news articles for buried references, and
converts them to news links. Not recommended because email
addresses enclosed in angle brackets will be converted to false
news links, and uuencoded messages can be trashed.
-cache=NUMBER
set the NUMBER of documents cached in memory. The default is
10.
-case enable case-sensitive string searching.
-cfg=FILENAME
specifies a Lynx configuration file other than the default
lynx.cfg.
-child exit on left-arrow in startfile, and disable save to disk.
-color forces color mode on, if available. Default color control
sequences which work for many terminal types are assumed if the
terminal capability description does not specify how to handle
color. Lynx needs to be compiled with the slang library for
this flag. A saved show_color=always setting found in a .lynxrc
file at startup has the same effect. A saved show_color=always
found in .lynxrc on startup is overridden by this flag.
-cookies
toggles handling of Set-Cookie headers.
-cookie_file=FILENAME
specifies a file to use to store cookies.
-core toggles forced core dumps on fatal errors.
-crawl with -traversal, output each page to a file. with -dump, format
output as with -traversal, but to stdout.
-debug_partial
incremental display stages with MessageSecs delay
-display=DISPLAY
set the display variable for X rexec-ed programs.
-dump dumps the formatted output of the default document or one speci‐
fied on the command line to standard out. This can be used in
the following way:
lynx-dump http://www.crl.com/~subir/lynx.html
-editor=EDITOR
enable edit mode using the specified EDITOR. (vi, ed, emacs,
etc.)
-emacskeys
enable emacs-like key movement.
-enable_scrollback
toggles compatibility with comm programs' scrollback keys (may
be incompatible with some curses packages).
-error_file=FILE
define a file where Lynx will report HTTP access codes.
-exec enable local program execution (normally not configured).
-fileversions
include all versions of files in local VMS directory listings.
-force_html
forces the first document to be interpreted as HTML.
-force_secure
toggles forcing of the secure flag for SSL cookies.
-forms_options
toggles the style of options (menu or forms).
-from toggles transmissions of From headers.
-ftp disable ftp access.
-get_data
send form data from stdin using GET method and dump results.
-head send a HEAD request for the mime headers.
-help print the Lynx command syntax usage message.
-hiddenlinks=[option]
control the display of hidden links.
merge hidden links show up as bracketed numbers and are numbered
together with other links in the sequence of their occurrence in
the document.
listonly hidden links are shown only on L)ist screens and list‐
ings generated by -dump or from the P)rint menu, but appear sep‐
arately at the end of those lists. This is the default behav‐
ior.
ignore hidden links do not appear even in listings.
-historical
toggles use of '>' or '-->' as a terminator for comments.
-homepage=URL
set homepage separate from start page.
-image_links
toggles inclusion of links for all images.
-index=URL
set the default index file to the specified URL.
-ismap toggles inclusion of ISMAP links when client-side MAPs are
present.
-link=NUMBER
starting count for lnk#.dat files produced by -crawl.
-localhost
disable URLs that point to remote hosts.
-locexec
enable local program execution from local files only (if Lynx
was compiled with local execution enabled).
-mime_header
prints the MIME header of a fetched document along with its
source.
-minimal
toggles minimal versus valid comment parsing.
-newschunksize=NUMBER
number of articles in chunked news listings.
-newsmaxchunk=NUMBER
maximum news articles in listings before chunking.
-nobrowse
disable directory browsing.
-nocc disable Cc: prompts for self copies of mailings. Note that this
does not disable any CCs which are incorporated within a mailto
URL or form ACTION.
-nocolor
force color mode off, overriding terminal capabilities and any
-color flags, COLORTERM variable, and saved .lynxrc settings.
-noexec
disable local program execution. (DEFAULT)
-nofilereferer
disable transmissions of Referer headers for file URLs.
-nolist
disable the link list feature in dumps.
-nolog disable mailing of error messages to document owners.
-nopause
disable forced pauses for statusline messages.
-noprint
disable print functions.
-noredir
prevents automatic redirection and prints a message with a link
to the new URL.
-noreferer
disable transmissions of Referer headers.
-nosocks
disable SOCKS proxy usage by a SOCKSified Lynx.
-nostatus
disable the retrieval status messages.
-number_links
force numbering of links.
-partial
display partial pages while downloading.
partial_thres=NUMBER
number of lines to render before repainting display with par‐
tial-display logic
-pauth=ID:PASSWD
set authorization ID and password for a protected proxy server
at startup. Be sure to protect any script files which use this
switch.
-popup toggles handling of single-choice SELECT options via popup win‐
dows or as lists of radio buttons.
-post_data
send form data from stdin using POST method and dump results.
-preparsed
show HTML source preparsed and reformatted when used with
-source or in source view.
-prettysrc
show HTML source view with lexical elements and tags in color.
-print enable print functions. (default)
-pseudo_inlines
toggles pseudo-ALTs for inlines with no ALT string.
-raw toggles default setting of 8-bit character translations or CJK
mode for the startup character set.
-realm restricts access to URLs in the starting realm.
-reload
flushes the cache on a proxy server (only the first document
affected).
-restrictions=[option][,option][,option]...
allows a list of services to be disabled selectively. The fol‐
lowing list is printed if no options are specified.
all - restricts all options.
bookmark - disallow changing the location of the bookmark file.
bookmark_exec - disallow execution links via the bookmark file.
change_exec_perms - disallow changing the eXecute permission on
files (but still allow it for directories) when local file man‐
agement is enabled.
default - same as command line option -anonymous. Disables
default services for anonymous users. Currently set to all
restricted except for: inside_telnet, outside_telnet,
inside_news, inside_ftp, outside_ftp, inside_rlogin, out‐
side_rlogin, jump, mail and goto. Defaults are setable within
userdefs.h.
dired_support - disallow local file management.
disk_save - disallow saving to disk in the download and print
menus.
download - disallow downloaders in the download menu.
editor - disallow editing.
exec - disable execution scripts.
exec_frozen - disallow the user from changing the local execu‐
tion option.
file_url - disallow using G)oto, served links or bookmarks for
file: URLs.
goto - disable the 'g' (goto) command.
inside_ftp - disallow ftps for people coming from inside your
domain (utmp required for selectivity).
inside_news - disallow USENET news posting for people coming
from inside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).
inside_rlogin - disallow rlogins for people coming from inside
your domain (utmp required for selectivity).
inside_telnet - disallow telnets for people coming from inside
your domain (utmp required for selectivity).
jump - disable the 'j' (jump) command.
multibook - disallow multiple bookmarks.
mail - disallow mail.
news_post - disallow USENET News posting.
options_save - disallow saving options in .lynxrc.
outside_ftp - disallow ftps for people coming from outside your
domain (utmp required for selectivity).
outside_news - disallow USENET news posting for people coming
from outside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).
outside_rlogin - disallow rlogins for people coming from outside
your domain (utmp required for selectivity).
outside_telnet - disallow telnets for people coming from outside
your domain (utmp required for selectivity).
print - disallow most print options.
shell - disallow shell escapes and lynxexec or lynxprog G)oto's.
suspend - disallow Unix Control-Z suspends with escape to shell.
telnet_port - disallow specifying a port in telnet G)oto's.
useragent - disallow modifications of the User-Agent header.
-resubmit_posts
toggles forced resubmissions (no-cache) of forms with method
POST when the documents they returned are sought with the
PREV_DOC command or from the History List.
-rlogin
disable recognition of rlogin commands.
-selective
require .www_browsable files to browse directories.
-show_cursor
If enabled the cursor will not be hidden in the right hand cor‐
ner but will instead be positioned at the start of the currently
selected link. Show cursor is the default for systems without
FANCY_CURSES capabilities. The default configuration can be
changed in userdefs.h or lynx.cfg. The command line switch tog‐
gles the default.
-soft_dquotes
toggles emulation of the old Netscape and Mosaic bug which
treated '>' as a co-terminator for double-quotes and tags.
-source
works the same as dump but outputs HTML source instead of for‐
matted text.
-stack_dump
disable SIGINT cleanup handler
-startfile_ok
allow non-http startfile and homepage with -validate.
-tagsoup
initialize parser, using Tag Soup DTD rather than SortaSGML.
-telnet
disable recognition of telnet commands.
-term=TERM
tell Lynx what terminal type to assume its talking to. (This
may be useful for remote execution, when, for example, Lynx con‐
nects to a remote TCP/IP port that starts a script that, in
turn, starts another Lynx process.)
-tlog toggles use of a Lynx Trace Log for the current session.
-trace turns on WWW trace mode.
-traversal
traverse all http links derived from startfile. When used with
-crawl, each link that begins with the same string as startfile
is output to a file, intended for indexing. See CRAWL.announce
for more information.
-underscore
toggles use of _underline_ format in dumps.
-use_mouse
turn on xterm mouse support. Clicking the left mouse button on
a link traverses it. Clicking the right mouse button pops back.
Click in the first line of a page to scroll up. Click in the
last line of a page to scroll down. Lynx must be compiled with
ncurses or slang to support this feature.
-useragent=Name
set alternate Lynx User-Agent header.
-validate
accept only http URLs (for validation). Complete security
restrictions also are implemented.
-verbose
taggles [LINK], [IMAGE] and [INLINE] comments with filenames of
these images.
-version
print version information.
-vikeys
enable vi-like key movement.
-width=NUMBER
number of columns for formatting of dumps, default is 80.
COMMANDS
o Use Up arrow and Down arrow to scroll through hypertext links.
o Right arrow or Return will follow a highlighted hypertext link.
o Left Arrow will retreat from a link.
o Type "H" or "?" for online help and descriptions of key-stroke com‐
mands.
o Type "K" for a complete list of the current key-stroke command map‐
pings.
ENVIRONMENT
In addition to various "standard" environment variables such as HOME,
PATH, USER, DISPLAY, TMPDIR, etc, Lynx utilizes several Lynx-specific
environment variables, if they exist.
Others may be created or modified by Lynx to pass data to an external
program, or for other reasons. These are listed separately below.
See also the sections on SIMULATED CGI SUPPORT and NATIVE LANGUAGE SUP‐
PORT, below.
Note: Not all environment variables apply to all types of platforms
supported by Lynx, though most do. Feedback on platform dependencies
is solicited.
Environment Variables Used By Lynx:
COLORTERM If set, color capability for the terminal is forced
on at startup time. The actual value assigned to
the variable is ignored. This variable is only
meaningful if Lynx was built using the slang
screen-handling library.
LYNX_CFG This variable, if set, will override the default
location and name of the global configuration file
(normally, lynx.cfg) that was defined by the
LYNX_CFG_FILE constant in the userdefs.h file, dur‐
ing installation. See the userdefs.h file for more
information.
LYNX_LSS This variable, if set, specifies the location of
the default Lynx character style sheet file. [Cur‐
rently only meaningful if Lynx was built using
experimental color style support.]
LYNX_SAVE_SPACE This variable, if set, will override the default
path prefix for files saved to disk that is defined
in the lynx.cfg SAVE_SPACE: statement. See the
lynx.cfg file for more information.
LYNX_TEMP_SPACE This variable, if set, will override the default
path prefix for temporary files that was defined
during installation, as well as any value that may
be assigned to the TMPDIR variable.
MAIL This variable specifies the default inbox Lynx will
check for new mail, if such checking is enabled in
the lynx.cfg file.
NEWS_ORGANIZATION This variable, if set, provides the string used in
the Organization: header of USENET news postings.
It will override the setting of the ORGANIZATION
environment variable, if it is also set (and, on
UNIX, the contents of an /etc/organization file, if
present).
NNTPSERVER If set, this variable specifies the default NNTP
server that will be used for USENET news reading
and posting with Lynx, via news: URL's.
ORGANIZATION This variable, if set, provides the string used in
the Organization: header of USENET news postings.
On UNIX, it will override the contents of an
/etc/organization file, if present.
PROTOCOL_proxy Lynx supports the use of proxy servers that can act
as firewall gateways and caching servers. They are
preferable to the older gateway servers (see
WWW_access_GATEWAY, below). Each protocol used by
Lynx, (http, ftp, gopher, etc), can be mapped sepa‐
rately by setting environment variables of the form
PROTOCOL_proxy (literally: http_proxy, ftp_proxy,
gopher_proxy, etc), to
"http://some.server.dom:port/". See Lynx Users
Guide for additional details and examples.
WWW_access_GATEWAY Lynx still supports use of gateway servers, with
the servers specified via "WWW_access_GATEWAY"
variables (where "access" is lower case and can be
"http", "ftp", "gopher" or "wais"), however most
gateway servers have been discontinued. Note that
you do not include a terminal '/' for gateways, but
do for proxies specified by PROTOCOL_proxy environ‐
ment variables. See Lynx Users Guide for details.
WWW_HOME This variable, if set, will override the default
startup URL specified in any of the Lynx configura‐
tion files.
Environment Variables Set or Modified By Lynx:
LYNX_PRINT_DATE This variable is set by the Lynx p(rint) function,
to the Date: string seen in the document's "Infor‐
mation about" page (= cmd), if any. It is created
for use by an external program, as defined in a
lynx.cfg PRINTER: definition statement. If the
field does not exist for the document, the variable
is set to a null string under UNIX, or "No Date"
under VMS.
LYNX_PRINT_LASTMOD This variable is set by the Lynx p(rint) function,
to the Last Mod: string seen in the document's
"Information about" page (= cmd), if any. It is
created for use by an external program, as defined
in a lynx.cfg PRINTER: definition statement. If
the field does not exist for the document, the
variable is set to a null string under UNIX, or "No
LastMod" under VMS.
LYNX_PRINT_TITLE This variable is set by the Lynx p(rint) function,
to the Linkname: string seen in the document's
"Information about" page (= cmd), if any. It is
created for use by an external program, as defined
in a lynx.cfg PRINTER: definition statement. If
the field does not exist for the document, the
variable is set to a null string under UNIX, or "No
Title" under VMS.
LYNX_PRINT_URL This variable is set by the Lynx p(rint) function,
to the URL: string seen in the document's "Informa‐
tion about" page (= cmd), if any. It is created
for use by an external program, as defined in a
lynx.cfg PRINTER: definition statement. If the
field does not exist for the document, the variable
is set to a null string under UNIX, or "No URL"
under VMS.
LYNX_VERSION This variable is always set by Lynx, and may be
used by an external program to determine if it was
invoked by Lynx. See also the comments in the dis‐
tribution's sample mailcap file, for notes on usage
in such a file.
TERM Normally, this variable is used by Lynx to deter‐
mine the terminal type being used to invoke Lynx.
If, however, it is unset at startup time (or has
the value "unknown"), or if the -term command-line
option is used (see OPTIONS section above), Lynx
will set or modify its value to the user specified
terminal type (for the Lynx execution environment).
Note: If set/modified by Lynx, the values of the
LINES and/or COLUMNS environment variables may also
be changed.
SIMULATED CGI SUPPORT
If built with the cgi-links option enabled, Lynx allows access to a cgi
script directly without the need for an http daemon.
When executing such "lynxcgi scripts" (if enabled), the following vari‐
ables may be set for simulating a CGI environment:
CONTENT_LENGTH
CONTENT_TYPE
DOCUMENT_ROOT
HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE
HTTP_USER_AGENT
PATH_INFO
PATH_TRANSLATED
QUERY_STRING
REMOTE_ADDR
REMOTE_HOST
REQUEST_METHOD
SERVER_SOFTWARE
Other environment variables are not inherited by the script, unless
they are provided via a LYNXCGI_ENVIRONMENT statement in the configura‐
tion file. See the lynx.cfg file, and the (draft) CGI 1.1 Specifica‐
tion <http://Web.Golux.Com/coar/cgi/draft-coar-cgi-v11-00.txt> for the
definition and usage of these variables.
The CGI Specification, and other associated documentation, should be
consulted for general information on CGI script programming.
NATIVE LANGUAGE SUPPORT
If configured and installed with Native Language Support, Lynx will
display status and other messages in your local language. See the file
ABOUT_NLS in the source distribution, or at your local GNU site, for
more information about internationalization.
The following environment variables may be used to alter default set‐
tings:
LANG This variable, if set, will override the default
message language. It is an ISO 639 two-letter code
identifying the language. Language codes are NOT
the same as the country codes given in ISO 3166.
LANGUAGE This variable, if set, will override the default
message language. This is a GNU extension that has
higher priority for setting the message catalog
than LANG or LC_ALL.
LC_ALL and
LC_MESSAGES These variables, if set, specify the notion of
native language formatting style. They are POSIXly
correct.
LINGUAS This variable, if set prior to configuration, lim‐
its the installed languages to specific values. It
is a space-separated list of two-letter codes.
Currently, it is hard-coded to a wish list.
NLSPATH This variable, if set, is used as the path prefix
for message catalogs.
NOTES
This is the Lynx v2.8.2 Release
If you wish to contribute to the further development of Lynx, subscribe
to our mailing list. Send email to <majordomo@sig.net> with "subscribe
lynx-dev" as the only line in the body of your message.
Send bug reports, comments, suggestions to <lynx-dev@sig.net> after
subscribing.
Unsubscribe by sending email to <majordomo@sig.net> with "unsubscribe
lynx-dev" as the only line in the body of your message. Do not send
the unsubscribe message to the lynx-dev list, itself.
SEE ALSOcatgets(3), curses(3), environ(7), execve(2), ftp(1), gettext(GNU),
localeconv(3), ncurses(3), setlocale(3), slang(?), termcap(5),
terminfo(5), wget(GNU)
Note that man page availability and section numbering is somewhat plat‐
form dependent, and may vary from the above references.
A section shown as (GNU), is intended to denote that the topic may be
available via an info page, instead of a man page (ie, try "info sub‐
ject", rather than "man subject").
A section shown as (?) denotes that documentation on the topic exists,
but is not part of an established documentation retrieval system (see
the distribution files associated with the topic, or contact your Sys‐
tem Administrator for further information).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Lynx has incorporated code from a variety of sources along the way.
The earliest versions of Lynx included code from Earl Fogel of Comput‐
ing Services at the University of Saskatchewan, who implemented HYPER‐
REZ in the Unix environment. HYPERREZ was developed by Niel Larson of
Think.com and served as the model for the early versions of Lynx.
Those versions also incorporated libraries from the Unix Gopher clients
developed at the University of Minnesota, and the later versions of
Lynx rely on the WWW client library code developed by Tim Berners-Lee
and the WWW community. Also a special thanks to Foteos Macrides who
ported much of Lynx to VMS and did or organized most of its development
since the departures of Lou Montulli and Garrett Blythe from the Uni‐
versity of Kansas in the summer of 1994 through the release of v2.7.2,
and to everyone on the net who has contributed to Lynx's development
either directly (through patches, comments or bug reports) or indirect‐
ly (through inspiration and development of other systems).
AUTHORS
Lou Montulli, Garrett Blythe, Craig Lavender, Michael Grobe, Charles
Rezac
Academic Computing Services
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas 66047
Foteos Macrides
Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 01545
4th Berkeley Distribution Local LYNX(1)
