w3m - a text based web browser and pager
w3m [OPTION]... [ file | URL ]...
w3m is a text based browser which can display local or
remote web pages as well as other documents. It is able to process HTML
tables and frames but it ignores JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets.
w3m can also serve as a pager for text files named as arguments or
passed on standard input, and as a general purpose directory browser.
w3m organizes its content in buffers or tabs, allowing easy
navigation between them. With the w3m-img extension installed, w3m
can display inline graphics in web pages. And whenever w3m's HTML
rendering capabilities do not meet your needs, the target URL can be handed
over to a graphical browser with a single command.
For help with runtime options, press “H” while
running w3m.
When given one or more command line arguments, w3m will
handle targets according to content type. For web, w3m gets this
information from HTTP headers; for relative or absolute file system paths,
it relies on filenames.
With no argument, w3m expects data from standard input and
assumes “text/plain” unless another MIME type is given by the
user.
If provided with no target and no fallback target (see for
instance option -v below), w3m will exit with usage
information.
Command line options are introduced with a single
“-” character and may take an argument.
- -B
- with no other target defined, use the bookmark page for startup
- -H
- use high-intensity colors
- -M
- monochrome display
- -no-mouse
- deactivate mouse support
- -num
- display each line's number
- -N
- distribute multiple command line arguments to tabs. By default, a stack of
buffers is used
- -ppc num
- width of num pixels per character. Range of 4.0 to 32.0, default
8.0. Larger values will make tables narrower. (Implementation not
verified)
- -ppl num
- height of num pixels per line. Range of 4.0 to 64.0.
(Implementation not verified)
- -title,
-title=TERM
- use the buffer name as terminal title string. With specified TERM, this
sets the title configuration style accordingly
- -v
- with no other target defined, welcome users with a built-in page
- -W
- toggle wrapping mode in searches
- -X
- do not initialize/deinitialize the terminal
- +num
- go to line num; only effective for num larger than the
number of lines in the terminal
- -cols
num
- with stdout as destination; HTML is rendered to lines of num
characters
- -cookie,
-no-cookie
- use stored cookies and accept new ones, or do neither
- -F
- render frames
- -graph,
-no-graph
- use or do not use graphic characters for drawing HTML table and frame
borders
- append string to the HTTP(S) request. Expected to match the header
syntax Variable: Value
- -m
- Render the body of Usenet messages according to the header
“Content-type”
- -no-proxy
- do not use proxy
- -post
file
- use POST method to upload data defined in file. The syntax to be
used is var1=value1[&var2=value2]...
- -4
- IPv4 only. Corresponds to dns_order=4 in configuration files
- -6
- IPv6 only. Corresponds to dns_order=6 in configuration files
- -insecure
- use insecure SSL config options, alias for -o
ssl_cipher=ALL:eNULL:@SECLEVEL=0 -o ssl_min_version=all
-o ssl_forbid_method= -o ssl_verify_server=0
- -l num
- number of lines preserved internally when receiving plain text from stdin
(default 10,000)
- -r
- use caret notation to display special escape characters (such as ANSI
escapes or nroff-style backspaces for bold and underlined characters)
instead of processing them
- -s
- squeeze multiple blank lines into one
- -t num
- set tab width to num columns. No effect on stdout
- -I charset
- user defined character encoding of input data
- -O charset
- user defined character encoding of output data
- -T type
- explicit characterization of input data by MIME type
- -dump
- dump rendered page into stdout. Set implicitly when output is directed to
a file or pipe
- -dump_source
- dump the page's source code into stdout
- -dump_head
- dump response of a HEAD request for a URL into stdout
- -dump_both
- dump HEAD, and source code for a URL into stdout
- dump HEAD, source code, and extra information for a URL into stdout
- -help
- show a summary of compiled-in features and command line options
- -show-option
- show all available configuration options
- -version
- show the version of w3m
- -bookmark
file
- use file instead of the default bookmark.html file
- -config
file
- use file instead of the default configuration file
- -o
option=value
- modify one configuration item with an explicitly given value; without
option=value, equivalent to -show-option
- -debug
- use debug mode (only for debugging)
- -reqlog
- log headers of HTTP communication in file
~/.w3m/request.log
w3m recognises the environment variable WWW_HOME as
defining a fallback target for use if it is invoked without one.
If the W3M_DIR environment variable is set to a directory
name, w3m will store its user files there instead of under the ~/.w3m
directory.
The default locations of some files are listed below. These
locations can be altered via the W3M_DIR environment variable.
- ~/.w3m/bookmark.html
- default bookmark file
- ~/.w3m/config
- user defined configuration file; overrides
/etc/w3m/config
- ~/.w3m/cookie
- cookie jar; written on exit, read on launch
- ~/.w3m/history
- browser history - visited files and URLs
- ~/.w3m/keymap
- user defined key bindings; overrides default key bindings
- ~/.w3m/mailcap
- external viewer configuration file
- ~/.w3m/menu
- user defined menu; overrides default menu
- ~/.w3m/mime.types
- MIME types file
- ~/.w3m/mouse
- user defined mouse settings
- ~/.w3m/passwd
- password and username file
- ~/.w3m/pre_form
- contains predefined values to fill recurrent HTML forms
README and example files are to be found in the doc directory of
your w3m installation. Recent information about w3m may be
found on the project's web
pages at
w3m has incorporated code from several sources. Users have
contributed patches and suggestions over time.