MirBSD manpage: lynx(1)
LYNX(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual LYNX(1)
lynx - a general purpose distributed information browser for
the World Wide Web
lynx [options] [path or URL]
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 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 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 with one dash before them and with underscores).
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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 don't 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.
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-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
Toggle center alignment in HTML TABLE.
-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.
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-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 .etc/lynxrc files.
Lynx tries the cfg-file setting first.
-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 .etc/lynxrc file
at startup has the same effect. A saved
show_color=never found in .etc/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 ~/.etc/cookies.txt
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.
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-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
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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.
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-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 '---'.
-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.
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-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.
-mime_header
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 .etc/lynxrc settings.
-noexec
disable local program execution. (DEFAULT)
-nofilereferer
disable transmissions of Referer headers for file
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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.
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-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.
-popup 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 '---'.
-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.
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-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.
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).
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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
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disallow saving options in .etc/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.
suspend
disallow Unix Control-Z suspends with escape to
shell.
telnet_port
disallow specifying a port in telnet G)oto.
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.
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-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.
-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
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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 HREFs 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.
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-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, .etc/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
-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_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.
-use_mouse
turn on mouse support, if available. Clicking the
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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.
o Use Up arrow and Down arrow to scroll through hypertext
links.
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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 commands.
o Type ``K'' for a complete list of the current key-stroke
command mappings.
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_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
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(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
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: URLs.
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
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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.
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.
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LYNX(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual LYNX(1)
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 platform). 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
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LYNX(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual LYNX(1)
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,
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LYNX(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual LYNX(1)
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 Lynx v2.8.7 Release; development is in progress
for 2.8.8.
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.
MirBSD #10-current Printed 2022-12-24 23
LYNX(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual LYNX(1)
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 to-
pic 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 to-
pic 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 environ-
ment. 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 con-
tributed to Lynx' development either directly (through
patches, comments or bug reports) or indirectly (through in-
spiration 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>
MirBSD #10-current Printed 2022-12-24 24
LYNX(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual LYNX(1)
Lynx won't write to a directory which others can modify.
MirBSD #10-current Printed 2022-12-24 25