LYNX(1) Lynx - the text web browser LYNX(1) NAME lynx - a general purpose distributed information browser for the World Wide Web SYNOPSIS 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. DESCRIPTION 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 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. Lynx has been ported to many systems, including all variants of Unix, Win- dows (since Windows 95), DOS DJGPP and OS/2, as well as VMS and OS/390. 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. 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 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 (be- tween 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 it- self 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 argu- ments 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 hav- ing 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 without prompting if Set-Cookie handling is on. The default is "off". -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. The default is "off". -buried_news toggles scanning of news articles for buried references, and con- verts 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. The default is "on". -cache=NUMBER set the NUMBER of documents cached in memory. The default is 10. -case enable case-sensitive string searching. The default is "off". -center toggles center alignment in HTML TABLE. Normally table cells are centered on the table grid. Set this option "on" to disable center- ing. 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 asso- ciated print/mail options. The default is "off". -child_relaxed exit on left-arrow in startfile, but allow save to disk and associ- ated print/mail options. The default is "off". -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 in- formation 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. The default is "off". -color forces color mode on, if available. Default color control sequences which work for many terminal types are assumed if the terminal capa- bility description does not specify how to handle color. Lynx ac- cepts this flag only when built with the slang library. It is equivalent to setting the COLORTERM environment variable. If color support is provided by a color-capable curses library such as 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. The de- fault is 300. -convert_to=PARAM convert input, setting output format in MIME type notation (e.g., www/present, www/source), and optionally setting the current charac- ter set (i.e., adding ";" followed by charset=VALUE). -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. The default is "on". -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. The default is "off". -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 default is "on". The feature is normally available for curses configurations, but in- active. To activate it, use the "|" character or the LINEWRAP_TOG- GLE command. Toggling this option makes the feature altogether un- available. -debug_partial separate incremental display stages with MessageSecs delay The de- fault is "off". -default_colors toggles the default-colors feature which is normally set in the lynx.cfg file. The default is "on". -delay add DebugSecs delay after each progress-message. The default is 0. -display=DISPLAY set the $DISPLAY variable for X exec-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 
 in interactive session.  The default is "off".

     -dump  dumps  the	formatted output of the default document or those speci-
	    fied on the command line to	 standard  output.   Unlike  interactive
	    mode,  all documents are processed.	 This can be used in the follow-
	    ing way:

		lynx -dump https://lynx.invisible-island.net/

	    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.  The default is "off".

     -enable_scrollback
	    toggles compatibility with communication programs'	scrollback  keys
	    (may  be  incompatible  with  some curses packages).  The default is
	    "off".

     -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.

     -fail_on_alert
	    exit  with	an  error code if any alert message is written.	 The de-
	    fault is "off".

     -force_empty_hrefless_a
	    force HREF-less "A" elements to be empty (close them as soon as they
	    are seen).	The default is "off".

     -force_html
	    forces the first document to be interpreted as HTML.  The default is
	    "off".

	    This option is most useful when processing files  specified	 on  the
	    command line which have an unrecognized suffix (or the suffix is as-
	    sociated 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.  The default is
	    "off".

     -forms_options
	    toggles whether the Options Menu is key-based  or  form-based.   The
	    default is "on".

     -from  toggles transmissions of From headers.  The default is "on".

     -ftp   disable ftp access.	 The default is "off".

     -get_data
	    properly  formatted	 data  for a get form are read 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.  The default is "off".

     -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 to-
	       gether with other links in the sequence of  their  occurrence  in
	       the document.

	    listonly
	       hidden  links are shown only on L)ist screens and listings gener-
	       ated 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.	 The de-
	    fault is "off".

     -homepage=URL
	    set homepage separate from start page.

     -html5_charset
	    toggles use of HTML5  charset  replacements.   HTML5  pretends  that
	    CP1252 is the same as ISO-8859-1.  The default is "off".

     -image_links
	    toggles inclusion of links for all images.	The default is "off".

     -index=URL
	    set the default index file to the specified URL.

     -ismap
	    toggles  inclusion of ISMAP links when client-side MAPs are present.
	    The default is "off".

     -justify
	    do justification of text.  The default is "off".

     -link=NUMBER
	    starting count for lnk#.dat files produced by -crawl.   The	 default
	    is 0.

     -list_decoded
	    for -dump, show URL-encoded links decoded.	The default is "on".

	    Lynx accepts URL-encoded links on the command line, and decodes them
	    for internal use.  When printing URLs, it shows them in encoded form
	    by default.	 Use this option to disable that printed encoding.

     -list_inline
	    for	 -dump,	 show  the  links  inline with the text.  The default is
	    "off".

     -listonly
	    for -dump, show only the list of links.  The default is "off".

     -localhost
	    disable URLs that point to remote hosts.  The default is "off".

     -locexec
	    enable local program execution from local files only  (if  Lynx  was
	    compiled with local execution enabled).  The default is "off".

     -lss=FILENAME
	    specify filename containing color-style information.  The default is
	    lynx.lss.  If you give an empty filename, Lynx uses a built-in mono-
	    chrome 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.  The default is "on".

     -nested_tables
	    toggles nested-tables logic (for debugging).  The default is "on".

     -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.  The default is "on".

     -nofilereferer
	    disable transmissions of Referer headers for file URLs.  The default
	    is "on".

     -nolist
	    disable the link list feature in dumps.  The default is "off".

     -nolog
	    disable mailing of error messages to document owners.   The	 default
	    is "on".

     -nomargins
	    disable  left/right margins in the default style sheet.  The default
	    is "off".

     -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.  The default is "off".

     -nonumbers
	    disable  link-  and	 field-numbering.  This overrides -number_fields
	    and -number_links.	The default is "off".

     -nopause
	    disable forced pauses  for	statusline  messages.	The  default  is
	    "off".

     -noprint
	    disable most print functions.  The default is "off".

     -noredir
	    prevents  automatic	 redirection and prints a message with a link to
	    the new URL.  The default is "off".

     -noreferer
	    disable transmissions of Referer headers.  The default is "off".

     -noreverse
	    disable reverse video-attribute.

     -nosocks
	    disable SOCKS proxy usage by a SOCKSified Lynx.

     -nostatus
	    disable the retrieval status messages.  The default is "off".

     -notitle
	    disable title and blank line from  top  of	page.	The  default  is
	    "off".

     -nounderline
	    disable underline video-attribute.

     -nozap=DURATION
	    disables  checks for "z" key initially if DURATION is "initially" or
	    completely otherwise.

     -number_fields
	    force numbering of links as well as form input fields The default is
	    "off".

     -number_links
	    force numbering of links.  The default is "off".

     -partial
	    toggles display partial pages while loading.  The default is "on".

     -partial_thres=NUMBER
	    number of lines to render before repainting	 display  with	partial-
	    display logic

     -passive_ftp
	    toggles passive ftp connections.  The default is "on".

     -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.  The default is "off".

     -post_data
	    properly  formatted	 data for a post form are read in from the stan-
	    dard 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 to visualize how lynx behaves with invalid HTML.  The
	    default is "off".

     -prettysrc
	    show  HTML source view with lexical elements and tags in color.  The
	    default is "off".

     -print
	    enable print functions.  (default) This is the opposite of -noprint.
	    The default is "on".

     -pseudo_inlines
	    toggles pseudo-ALTs for inline images with no ALT string.	The  de-
	    fault is "on".

     -raw   toggles  default setting of 8-bit character translations or CJK mode
	    for the startup character set.  The default is "off".

     -realm
	    restricts access to URLs in the  starting  realm.	The  default  is
	    "off".

     -read_timeout=N
	    Sets  the read-timeout, where N is given in seconds.  The default is
	    18000.

     -reload
	    flushes the cache on a proxy server (only the first	 document  given
	    on the command-line is affected).  The default is "off".

     -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 al-
	       low it for directories) when local file management is enabled.

	    default
	       same as command line option -anonymous.	 Disables  default  ser-
	       vices 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 pass-
	       ing 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 re-
	       quired 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  re-
	       striction  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  com-
	    mand or from the History List.  The default is "off".

     -rlogin
	    disable recognition of rlogin commands.  The default is "off".

     -scrollbar
	    toggles showing scrollbar.	The default is "off".

     -scrollbar_arrow
	    toggles  showing  arrows  at  ends of the scrollbar.  The default is
	    "on".

     -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.	The  default  is
	    "off".

     -show_cfg
	    Print the configuration settings, e.g., as read from "lynx.cfg", and
	    exit.  The default is "off".

     -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  se-
	    lected  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  de-
	    fault.  The default is "on".

     -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 se-
	    lect KB/second and/or ETA.	The default is "on".

     -socks5_proxy=URL
	    Tells lynx which SOCKS5 proxy to use for connections.   Any	 network
	    traffic,  including	 all  DNS resolutions except the one for URL it-
	    self, will be redirected through the SOCKS5 proxy.

	    The 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  op-
	    tion -nosocks.

     -soft_dquotes
	    toggles  emulation	of the old Netscape and Mosaic bug which treated
	    ">" as a co-terminator for double-quotes and tags.	The  default  is
	    "off".

     -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  di-
	    rectory:

		lynx -source ./ >foo.html

     -stack_dump
	    disable SIGINT cleanup handler The default is "off".

     -startfile_ok
	    allow  non-http  startfile and homepage with -validate.  The default
	    is "off".

     -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.  The default is "off".

     -stdin
	    read the startfile from standard input (UNIX only).	 The default  is
	    "off".

     -syslog=text
	    information for syslog call.

     -syslog_urls
	    log requested URLs with syslog.  The default is "off".

     -tagsoup
	    initialize	parser,	 using	Tag Soup DTD rather than SortaSGML.  The
	    default is "off".

     -telnet
	    disable recognition of telnet commands.  The default is "off".

     -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  an-
	    other Lynx process.)

     -timeout=N
	    For	 win32,	 sets the network read-timeout, where N is given in sec-
	    onds.

     -tlog  toggles between using a Lynx Trace Log and stderr for  trace  output
	    from the session.  The default is "on".

     -tna   turns on "Textfields Need Activation" mode.	 The default is "off".

     -trace
	    turns  on  Lynx  trace mode.  Destination of trace output depends on
	    -tlog.  The default is "off".

     -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

	    The default is 0.

     -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.	The  default  is
	    "on".

     -trim_input_fields
	    trim input text/textarea fields in forms.  The default is "off".

     -underline_links
	    toggles  use  of underline/bold attribute for links.  The default is
	    "off".

     -underscore
	    toggles use of _underline_ format in dumps.	 The default is "off".

     -unique_urls
	    check for duplicate link numbers  in  each	page  and  corresponding
	    lists, and reuse the original link number.	The default is "off".

     -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.	 The default is "off".

     -use_mouse
	    turn on mouse support, if available.  The default is "off".

	    *	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  sim-
	    ple	 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	restric-
	    tions also are implemented.

     -verbose
	    toggle [LINK], [IMAGE] and [INLINE] comments with filenames of these
	    images.  The default is "off".

     -version
	    print version information, and exit.

     -vikeys
	    enable vi-like key movement.  The default is "off".

     -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).  The default is "off".

     -xhtml_parsing
	    tells Lynx that it can ignore certain tags which have no content  in
	    an	XHTML  1.0 document.  For example "
" will be discarded.  The
	    default is "off".

COMMANDS
     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  up-
	 per/lowercase only the lowercase mapping is shown.

     *	 Type Delete to view history list.

ENVIRONMENT
     In	 addition  to  various "standard" environment variables such as DISPLAY,
     HOME, PATH, SHELL, TMPDIR, USER, 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 pro-
     gram, 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  sup-
     ported  by	 Lynx, though most do.	Feedback on platform dependencies is so-
     licited.

     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 li-
			 brary.

     LYNX_CFG		 This variable, if set, will override the default  loca-
			 tion  and  name  of the global configuration file (nor-
			 mally, 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 delim-
			 ited with ":" (or ";" for Windows) like the PATH  envi-
			 ronment 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 loca-
			 tion of the locale directory which contains native lan-
			 guage (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  in-
			 stallation,  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_ac-
			 cess_GATEWAY, below).

			 Each  protocol	 used by Lynx, (http, ftp, gopher, etc),
			 can be mapped separately by setting  environment  vari-
			 ables	of the form PROTOCOL_proxy.  Protocols are indi-
			 cated 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
			     http_proxy
			     https_proxy
			     news_proxy
			     newspost_proxy
			     newsreply_proxy
			     nntp_proxy
			     no_proxy
			     rlogin_proxy
			     snews_proxy
			     snewspost_proxy
			     snewsreply_proxy
			     telnet_proxy
			     tn3270_proxy
			     wais_proxy

			 See Lynx Users Guide for additional details  and  exam-
			 ples.

     RL_CLCOPY_CMD	 Pipe  the  contents of the current link using this com-
			 mand as the target.

     RL_PASTE_CMD	 Open a pipe to read from this command, pasting it  into
			 the current editable-field or command-prompt.

     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 ter-
			 minal "/" 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  un-
			 der 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  "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 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  "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 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  un-
			 der 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,  how-
			 ever,	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 environ-
			 ment 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 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
     	for  the defini-
     tion and usage of these variables.

     The CGI Specification, and other associated documentation, should	be  con-
     sulted 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 settings:

     LANG		 This variable, if set, will override the  default  mes-
			 sage  language.  It is an ISO 639 two-letter code iden-
			 tifying 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 mes-
			 sage 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.

NOTES
   Mailing Lists
     If you wish to contribute to the further development of Lynx, subscribe  to
     our  mailing  list.  Send email to  with "sub-
     scribe lynx-dev" as the only line in the body of your message.

     Send bug reports, comments, suggestions to  after sub-
     scribing.

     Unsubscribe by sending email to  with	 "unsub-
     scribe lynx-dev" as the only line in the body of your message.  Do not send
     the unsubscribe message to the lynx-dev list, itself.

   Acknowledgments
     Lynx  has	incorporated  code from a variety of sources along the way.  The
     earliest versions of Lynx included code from Earl Fogel of	 Computing  Ser-
     vices  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  Uni-
     versity 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 re-
     ports) or indirectly (through inspiration and  development	 of  other  sys-
     tems).

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

     Thomas E. Dickey
     

SEE ALSO
     catgets(3),  curses(3),  environ(7),  ftp(1),  gettext(GNU), localeconv(3),
     ncurses(3), setlocale(3), termcap(5), terminfo(5)

Lynx 2.9.3			   2026-05-26				 LYNX(1)