lynx - a general purpose distributed information browser for the
World Wide Web
lynx [options] [optional paths or URLs]
lynx [options] [path or URL] -get_data
data
--
lynx [options] [path or URL] -post_data
data
--
Use “lynx -help” to display a complete list of
current options.
Lynx is a fully-featured World Wide Web (WWW) client for
users running cursor-addressable, character-cell display devices (e.g.,
vt100 terminals, vt100 emulators running on Windows 95/NT/XP/7/8 or any
POSIX platform, 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/XP/7/8, DOS DJGPP and
OS/2.
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 isolated within a single LAN.
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 more than one local file or remote URL is listed on the command
line, Lynx will open only the last interactively. All of the names
(local files and remote URLs) are added to the G)oto history.
Lynx uses only long option names. Option names can begin
with double dash “--” as well, underscores and dashes can be
intermixed in option names (in the reference below, options are shown with
one dash “-” before them, and with underscores
“_”).
Lynx provides many command-line options. Some options
require a value (string, number or keyword). These are noted in the
reference below. The other options set boolean values in the program. There
are three types of boolean options: set, unset and toggle. If no option
value is given, these have the obvious meaning: set (to true), unset (to
false), or toggle (between true/false). For any of these, an explicit value
can be given in different forms to allow for operating system constraints,
e.g.,
-center:off
-center=off
-center-
Lynx recognizes “1”, “+”,
“on” and “true” for true values, and
“0”, “-”, “off” and
“false” for false values. Other option-values are ignored.
The default boolean, number and string option values that are
compiled into Lynx are displayed in the help-message provided by
lynx -help. Some of those may differ according to how Lynx was
built; see the help message itself for these values. The -help option
is processed in the third pass of options-processing, so any option which
sets a value, as well as runtime configuration values are reflected in the
help-message.
- -
- If the argument is only “-”, then Lynx expects to
receive the arguments from the standard input. 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). It can also
be used to avoid having sensitive information in the invoking command line
(which would be visible to other processes on most systems), especially
when the -auth or -pauth options are used.
- -accept_all_cookies
- accept all cookies.
- -anonymous
- apply restrictions for anonymous account, see also
-restrictions.
- -assume_charset=MIMEname
- charset for documents that do not specify it.
- -assume_local_charset=MIMEname
- charset assumed for local files, i.e., files which Lynx creates
such as internal pages for the options menu.
- -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.
- -bibhost=URL
- specify a local bibp server (default http://bibhost/).
- -blink
- forces high intensity background colors for color mode, if available and
supported by the terminal. This applies to the slang library (for a
few terminal emulators), or to OS/2 EMX with ncurses.
- -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.
- -center
- toggles center alignment in HTML TABLE. Normally table cells are centered
on the table grid. Set this option “on” to disable
centering. The default is “off”.
- -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 and associated
print/mail options.
- -child_relaxed
- exit on left-arrow in startfile, but allow save to disk and associated
print/mail options.
- -cmd_log=FILENAME
- write keystroke commands and related information to the specified
file.
- -cmd_script=FILENAME
- read keystroke commands from the specified file. You can use the data
written using the -cmd_log option. Lynx will ignore other
information which the command-logging may have written to the logfile.
Each line of the command script contains either a comment beginning with
“#”, or a keyword:
- exit
- causes the script to stop, and forces Lynx to exit
immediately.
- key
- the character value, in printable form. Cursor and other special keys are
given as names, e.g., “Down Arrow”. Printable 7-bit ASCII
codes are given as-is, and hexadecimal values represent other 8-bit
codes.
- set
- followed by a “name=value” allows one to override values set
in the lynx.cfg or .lynxrc files. Lynx tries the cfg-file setting
first.
- -collapse_br_tags
- toggles collapsing of BR tags.
- -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, it is equivalent to
setting the COLORTERM environment variable. (If color support is
instead provided by a color-capable curses library like ncurses,
Lynx relies completely on the terminal description to determine
whether color mode is possible, and this flag is not needed and thus
unavailable.) A saved show_color=always setting found in a .lynxrc file at
startup has the same effect. A saved show_color=never found in .lynxrc on
startup is overridden by this flag.
- -connect_timeout=N
- Sets the connection timeout, where N is given in seconds.
- -cookie_file=FILENAME
- specifies a file to use to read cookies. If none is specified, the default
value is ~/.lynx_cookies for most systems, but ~/cookies for MS-DOS.
- -cookie_save_file=FILENAME
- specifies a file to use to store cookies. If none is specified, the value
given by -cookie_file is used.
- -cookies
- toggles handling of Set-Cookie headers.
- -core
- toggles forced core dumps on fatal errors. Turn this option off to ask
Lynx to force a core dump if a fatal error occurs.
- -crawl
- with -traversal, output each page to a file. with -dump,
format output as with -traversal, but to the standard output.
- -curses_pads
- toggles the use of curses “pad” feature which supports
left/right scrolling of the display. The feature is normally available for
curses configurations, but inactive. To activate it, use the
“|” character or the LINEWRAP_TOGGLE command. Toggling this
option makes the feature altogether unavailable.
- -debug_partial
- separate incremental display stages with MessageSecs delay
- -default_colors
- toggles the default-colors feature which is normally set in the lynx.cfg
file.
- -delay
- add DebugSecs delay after each progress-message
- -display=DISPLAY
- set the display variable for X rexec-ed programs.
- -display_charset=MIMEname
- set the charset for the terminal output.
- -dont_wrap_pre
- inhibit wrapping of text when -dump'ing and -crawl'ing, mark
wrapped lines of <pre> in interactive session.
- -dump
- dumps the formatted output of the default document or those specified on
the command line to standard output. Unlike interactive mode, all
documents are processed. This can be used in the following way:
lynx -dump http://www.subir.com/lynx.html
- Files specified on the command line are formatted as HTML if their names
end with one of the standard web suffixes such as “.htm” or
“.html”. Use the -force_html option to format files
whose names do not follow this convention.
- -editor=EDITOR
- enable external editing, using the specified EDITOR. (vi, ed, emacs,
etc.)
- -emacskeys
- enable emacs-like key movement.
- -enable_scrollback
- toggles compatibility with communication 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.
- -find_leaks
- toggle memory leak-checking. Normally this is not compiled-into your
executable, but when it is, it can be disabled for a session.
- -force_empty_hrefless_a
- force HREF-less “A” elements to be empty (close them as soon
as they are seen).
- -force_html
- forces the first document to be interpreted as HTML.
- This is most useful when processing files specified on the command line
which have an unrecognized suffix (or the suffix is associated with a
non-HTML type, such as “.txt” for plain text files).
- Lynx recognizes these file suffixes as HTML:
“.ht3”,
“.htm”,
“.html3”,
“.html”,
“.htmlx”,
“.php3”,
“.php”,
“.phtml”,
“.sht”, and
“.shtml”.
- -force_secure
- toggles forcing of the secure flag for SSL cookies.
- -forms_options
- toggles whether the Options Menu is key-based or form-based.
- -from
- toggles transmissions of From headers.
- -ftp
- disable ftp access.
- -get_data
- properly formatted data for a get form are read in from the
standard input and passed to the form. Input is terminated by a line that
starts with “---”.
- Lynx issues an HTTP GET, sending the form to the path or URL
given on the command-line and prints the response of the server. If no
path or URL is given, Lynx sends the form to the start-page.
- -head
- send a HEAD request for the mime headers.
- -help
- print the Lynx command syntax usage message, and exit.
- -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 listings generated
by -dump or from the P)rint menu, but appear separately at
the end of those lists. This is the default behavior.
- 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.
- -justify
- do justification of text.
- -link=NUMBER
- starting count for lnk#.dat files produced by -crawl.
- -list_decoded
- for -dump, show URL-encoded links decoded.
- -list_inline
- for -dump, show the links inline with the text.
- -listonly
- for -dump, show only the list of links.
- -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).
- -lss=FILENAME
- specify filename containing color-style information. The default is
lynx.lss. If you give an empty filename, Lynx uses a built-in
monochrome scheme which imitates the non-color-style configuration.
- prints the MIME header of a fetched document along with its source.
- -minimal
- toggles minimal versus valid comment parsing.
- -nested_tables
- toggles nested-tables logic (for debugging).
- -newschunksize=NUMBER
- number of articles in chunked news listings.
- -newsmaxchunk=NUMBER
- maximum news articles in listings before chunking.
- -nobold
- disable bold video-attribute.
- -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.
- -nomargins
- disable left/right margins in the default style sheet.
- -nomore
- disable -more- string in statusline messages.
- -nonrestarting_sigwinch
- This flag is not available on all systems, Lynx needs to be
compiled with HAVE_SIGACTION defined. If available, this flag may
cause Lynx to react more immediately to window changes when run
within an xterm.
- -nonumbers
- disable link- and field-numbering. This overrides -number_fields
and -number_links.
- -nopause
- disable forced pauses for statusline messages.
- -noprint
- disable most print functions.
- -noredir
- prevents automatic redirection and prints a message with a link to the new
URL.
- -noreferer
- disable transmissions of Referer headers.
- -noreverse
- disable reverse video-attribute.
- -nosocks
- disable SOCKS proxy usage by a SOCKSified Lynx.
- -nostatus
- disable the retrieval status messages.
- -notitle
- disable title and blank line from top of page.
- -nounderline
- disable underline video-attribute.
- -number_fields
- force numbering of links as well as form input fields
- -number_links
- force numbering of links.
- -partial
- toggles display partial pages while loading.
- -partial_thres=NUMBER
- number of lines to render before repainting display with partial-display
logic
- -passive_ftp
- toggles passive ftp connections.
- -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.
- toggles handling of single-choice SELECT options via popup windows or as
lists of radio buttons.
- -post_data
- properly formatted data for a post form are read in from the
standard input and passed to the form. Input is terminated by a line that
starts with “---”.
- Lynx issues an HTTP POST, sending the form to the path or
URL given on the command-line and prints the response of the server. If no
path or URL is given, Lynx sends the form to the start-page.
- -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 inline images 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.
- -read_timeout=N
- Sets the read-timeout, where N is given in seconds.
- -reload
- flushes the cache on a proxy server (only the first document given on the
command-line is affected).
- -restrictions=[option][,option][,option]...
- allows a list of services to be disabled selectively. Dashes and
underscores in option names can be intermixed. The following list is
printed if no options are specified.
- all
- restricts all options listed below.
- 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 management is enabled.
- default
- same as command line option -anonymous. Disables default services
for anonymous users. Set to all restricted, except for: inside_telnet,
outside_telnet, inside_ftp, outside_ftp, inside_rlogin, outside_rlogin,
inside_news, outside_news, telnet_port, jump, mail, print, exec, and goto.
The settings for these, as well as additional goto restrictions for
specific URL schemes that are also applied, are derived from definitions
within userdefs.h.
- dired_support
- disallow local file management.
- disk_save
- disallow saving to disk in the download and print menus.
- dotfiles
- disallow access to, or creation of, hidden (dot) files.
- download
- disallow some downloaders in the download menu (does not imply disk_save
restriction).
- editor
- disallow external editing.
- exec
- disable execution scripts.
- exec_frozen
- disallow the user from changing the local execution option.
- externals
- disallow some “EXTERNAL” configuration lines if support for
passing URLs to external applications (with the EXTERN command) is
compiled in.
- 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 reading and posting for people coming from outside
your domain (utmp required for selectivity). This restriction applies to
“news”, “nntp”, “newspost”, and
“newsreply” URLs, but not to “snews”,
“snewspost”, or “snewsreply” in case they are
supported.
- 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.
- -scrollbar
- toggles showing scrollbar.
- -scrollbar_arrow
- toggles showing arrows at ends of the scrollbar.
- -selective
- require .www_browsable files to browse directories.
- -session=FILENAME
- resumes from specified file on startup and saves session to that file on
exit.
- -sessionin=FILENAME
- resumes session from specified file.
- -sessionout=FILENAME
- saves session to specified file.
- -short_url
- show very long URLs in the status line with “...” to
represent the portion which cannot be displayed. The beginning and end of
the URL are displayed, rather than suppressing the end.
- -show_cfg
- Print the configuration settings, e.g., as read from
“lynx.cfg”, and exit.
- -show_cursor
- If enabled the cursor will not be hidden in the right hand corner 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 toggles the default.
- -show_rate
- If enabled the transfer rate is shown in bytes/second. If disabled, no
transfer rate is shown. Use lynx.cfg or the options menu to select
KB/second and/or ETA.
- -socks5_proxy=URL
- (Via which) SOCKS5 proxy to connect: any network traffic, including all
DNS resolutions but the one for URL itself, will be redirected through the
SOCKS5 proxy. URL may be given as “proxy.example.com”,
“proxy.example.com:1080”, “192.168.0.1”, or
“192.168.0.1:1080” (and IPv6 notation if so supported). A
SOCKS5 proxy may also be specified via the environment variable
SOCKS5_PROXY. This option controls the builtin SOCKS5 support,
which is unrelated to the option -nosocks.
- -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 formatted text.
For example
lynx -source . >foo.html
- generates HTML source listing the files in the current directory. Each
file is marked by an HREF relative to the parent directory. Add a trailing
slash to make the HREF's relative to the current directory:
lynx -source ./ >foo.html
- -stack_dump
- disable SIGINT cleanup handler
- -startfile_ok
- allow non-http startfile and homepage with -validate.
- -stderr
- When dumping a document using -dump or -source, Lynx
normally does not display alert (error) messages that you see on the
screen in the status line. Use the -stderr option to tell
Lynx to write these messages to the standard error.
- -stdin
- read the startfile from standard input (UNIX only).
- -syslog=text
- information for syslog call.
- -syslog_urls
- log requested URLs with syslog.
- -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 it is talking to. (This may
be useful for remote execution, when, for example, Lynx connects to
a remote TCP/IP port that starts a script that, in turn, starts another
Lynx process.)
- -timeout=N
- For win32, sets the network read-timeout, where N is given in
seconds.
- -tlog
- toggles between using a Lynx Trace Log and stderr for trace output
from the session.
- -tna
- turns on “Textfields Need Activation” mode.
- -trace
- turns on Lynx trace mode. Destination of trace output depends on
-tlog.
- -trace_mask=value
- turn on optional traces, which may result in very large trace files.
Logically OR the values to combine options:
- 1
- SGML character parsing states
- 2
- color-style
- 4
- TRST (table layout)
- 8
- configuration (lynx.cfg, .lynxrc, .lynx-keymaps, mime.types and mailcap
contents)
- 16
- binary string copy/append, used in form data construction.
- 32
- cookies
- 64
- character sets
- 128
- GridText parsing
- 256
- timing
- 512
- detailed URL parsing
- -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.
- -trim_blank_lines
- toggles trimming of trailing blank lines as well as the related trimming
of blank lines while collapsing BR tags.
- -trim_input_fields
- trim input text/textarea fields in forms.
- -underline_links
- toggles use of underline/bold attribute for links.
- -underscore
- toggles use of _underline_ format in dumps.
- -unique_urls
- check for duplicate link numbers in each page and corresponding lists, and
reuse the original link number.
- -update_term_title
- enables updating the title in terminal emulators. Use only if your
terminal emulator supports that escape code. Has no effect when used with
-notitle.
- -use_mouse
- turn on mouse support, if available. Clicking the left mouse button on a
link traverses it. Clicking the right mouse button pops back. Click on the
top line to scroll up. Click on the bottom line to scroll down. The first
few positions in the top and bottom line may invoke additional functions.
Lynx must be compiled with ncurses or slang to
support this feature. If ncurses is used, clicking the middle mouse
button pops up a simple menu. Mouse clicks may only work reliably while
Lynx is idle waiting for input.
- -useragent=Name
- set alternate Lynx User-Agent header.
- -validate
- accept only http URLs (for validation). Complete security restrictions
also are implemented.
- -verbose
- toggle [LINK], [IMAGE] and [INLINE] comments with filenames of these
images.
- -version
- print version information, and exit.
- -vikeys
- enable vi-like key movement.
- -wdebug
- enable Waterloo tcp/ip packet debug (print to watt debugfile). This
applies only to DOS versions compiled with WATTCP or WATT-32.
- -width=NUMBER
- number of columns for formatting of dumps, default is 80. This is limited
by the number of columns that Lynx could display, typically 1024
(the MAX_LINE symbol).
- -with_backspaces
- emit backspaces in output if -dump'ing or -crawl'ing (like
man does)
- -xhtml_parsing
- tells Lynx that it can ignore certain tags which have no content in
an XHTML 1.0 document. For example “<p/>” will be
discarded.
More than one key can be mapped to a given command. Here are some
of the most useful:
- Use Up arrow and Down arrow to scroll through hypertext
links.
- Right arrow or Return will follow a highlighted hypertext
link.
- Left Arrow or “u” will retreat from a
link.
- Type “H”, “?”, or F1 for
online help and descriptions of key-stroke commands.
- Type “k” or “K” for a list of
the current key-stroke command mappings.
- If the same command is mapped to the same letter differing only by
upper/lowercase only the lowercase mapping is shown.
- •
- Type Delete to view history list.
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 SUPPORT, 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, during
installation.
- See the userdefs.h file for more information.
- LYNX_CFG_PATH
- If set, this variable overrides the compiled-in search-list of directories
used to find the configuration files, e.g., lynx.cfg and
lynx.lss. The list is delimited with ":" (or
";" for Windows) like the PATH environment variable.
- LYNX_HELPFILE
- If set, this variable overrides the compiled-in URL and configuration file
URL for the Lynx help file.
- LYNX_LOCALEDIR
- If set, this variable overrides the compiled-in location of the locale
directory which contains native language (NLS) message text.
- LYNX_LSS
- This variable, if set, specifies the location of the default Lynx
character style sheet file. [Currently only meaningful if Lynx was
built using curses 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
separately by setting environment variables of the form
PROTOCOL_proxy. Protocols are indicated in a URI by the name before
“:”, e.g., “http” in
“http://some.server.dom:port/” for HTML.
- Depending on your system configuration and supported protocols, the
environment variables recognized by lynx may include
cso_proxy
finger_proxy
ftp_proxy
gopher_proxy
https_proxy
http_proxy
newspost_proxy
newsreply_proxy
news_proxy
nntp_proxy
no_proxy
snewspost_proxy
snewsreply_proxy
snews_proxy
wais_proxy
- See Lynx Users Guide for additional details and examples.
- SOCKS5_PROXY
- Is inspected if -socks5_proxy has not been used (for the same
content).
- SSL_CERT_DIR
- Set to the directory containing trusted certificates.
- SSL_CERT_FILE
- Set to the full path and filename for your file of trusted
certificates.
- 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
environment 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 configuration 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 “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 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 “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 URL” under
VMS.
- LYNX_TRACE
- If set, causes Lynx to write a trace file as if the -trace
option were supplied.
- LYNX_TRACE_FILE
- If set, overrides the compiled-in name of the trace file, which is either
Lynx.trace or LY-TRACE.LOG (the latter on the DOS/Windows
platforms). The trace file is in either case relative to the home
directory.
- 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 distribution's sample mailcap file,
for notes on usage in such a file.
- TERM
- Normally, this variable is used by Lynx to determine 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.
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 variables 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
configuration file. See the lynx.cfg file, and the (draft) CGI 1.1
Specification
<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.
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
settings:
- 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, limits 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.
This is the manual for Lynx v2.9.0dev.5; development is in
progress for 2.9.0.
If you wish to contribute to the further development of
Lynx, subscribe to our mailing list. Send email to
<lynx-dev-request@nongnu.org> with “subscribe lynx-dev”
as the only line in the body of your message.
Send bug reports, comments, suggestions to
<lynx-dev@nongnu.org> after subscribing.
Unsubscribe by sending email to
<lynx-dev-request@nongnu.org> 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.
catgets(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
platform 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 (i.e., try “info
subject”, 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 System Administrator for further information).
Lynx has incorporated code from a variety of sources along
the way. The earliest versions of Lynx included code from Earl Fogel
of Computing Services at the University of Saskatchewan, who implemented
HYPERREZ 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 University
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 indirectly (through
inspiration and development of other systems).
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
Thomas E. Dickey
<dickey@invisible-island.net>