LYNX(l) manual page

For information on downloading lynx, check the software page.

NAME

lynx - a general purpose distributed information browser for the World Wide Web

SYNOPSIS

Lynx [options] [path or URL]

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 PCs or Macs, 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 and VMS.

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 the only argument is '-', then Lynx expects to receive the arguments from stdin. This is to allow for the potentially very long command line that can be associated with the -get_data or -post_data arguments (see below).
-anonymous: used to specify the anonymous account.
-auth=ID:PASSWD: set authorization ID and password for protected documents at startup.
-base: prepend a request URL comment and BASE tag to text/html outputs for -source or -mime_header dumps.
-book: use the bookmark page as the startfile. The default or command line startfile is still set for the Main screen command, and will be used if the bookmark page is unavailable or blank.
-buried_news: toggles scanning of news articles for buried references, and converts them to news links. Not recommended because email addresses enclosed in angle brackets will be converted to false news links, and uuencoded messages can be trashed.
-cache=NUMBER: set the NUMBER of documents cached in memory. The default is 10.
-case: enable case-sensitive string searching.
-cfg=FILENAME: specifies a Lynx configuration file other than the default lynx.cfg.
-child: exit on left-arrow in startfile, and disable save to disk.
-cookies: toggles handling of Set-Cookie headers.
-crawl: with -traversal, output each page to a file. with -dump, format output as with -traversal, but to stdout.
-display=DISPLAY: set the display variable for X rexec-ed programs.
-dump: dumps the formatted output of the default document or one specified on the command line to standard out. This can be used in the following way: lynx -dump http://www.crl.com/~subir/lynx.html.
-editor=EDITOR: enable edit mode using the specified EDITOR. (vi, ed, emacs, etc.)
-emacskeys: enable emacs-like key movement.
-enable_scrollback: toggles compatibility with comm programs' scrollback keys (may be incompatible with some curses packages).
-error_file=FILE: define a file where Lynx will report HTTP access codes.
-fileversions: include all versions of files in local VMS directory listings.
-force_html: forces the first document to be interpreted as HTML.
-from: toggle transmissions of From headers.
-ftp: disable ftp access.
-get_data: send form data from stdin using GET method and dump results.
-head: send a HEAD request for the mime headers.
-help: print this Lynx command syntax usage message.
-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.
-link=UMBER: starting count for lnk#.dat files produced by -crawl.
-localhost: disable URLs that point to remote hosts.
-locexec: enable local program execution from local files only (if Lynx was compiled with local execution enabled).
-mime_header: prints the MIME header of a fetched document along with its source.
-minimal: toggles minimal versus valid comment parsing.
-newschunksize=UMBER: number of articles in chunked news listings.
-newsmaxchunk=UMBER: maximum news articles in listings before chunking.
-nobrowse: disable directory browsing.
-noexec: disable local program execution. (DEFAULT)
-nofilereferer: disable transmissions of Referer headers for file URLs.
-nolist: disable the link list feature in dumps.
-nolog: disable mailing of error messages to document owners.
-nopause: disable forced pauses for statusline messages.
-noprint: disable print functions.
-noredir: prevents automatic redirection and prints a message with a link to the new URL.
-noreferer: disable transmissions of Referer headers.
-nosocks: disable SOCKS proxy usage by a SOCKSified Lynx.
-nostatus: disable the retrieval status messages.
-number_links: force numbering of links.
-popup: toggles handling of single-choice SELECT options via popup windows or as lists of radio buttons.
-post_data: send form data from stdin using POST method and dump results.
-print: enable print functions. (default)
-pseudo_inlines: toggles pseudo-ALTs for inlines with no ALT string.
-raw: toggles default setting of 8-bit character translations or CJK mode for the startup character set.
-realm: restricts access to URLs in the starting realm.
-reload: flushes the cache on a proxy server (only the first document affected).
-restrictions=[option][,option][,option]...: allows a list of services to be disabled selectively. The following list is printed if no options are specified.

all - restricts all options.

bookmark - disallow changing the location of the bookmark file.

bookmark_exec - disallow execution links via the bookmark file.

change_exec_perms - disallow changing the eXecute permission on files (but still allow it for directories) when local file management is enabled.

default - same as command line option -anonymous. Disables default services for anonymous users. Currently set to all restricted except for: inside_telnet, outside_telnet, inside_news, inside_ftp, outside_ftp, inside_rlogin, outside_rlogin, jump, mail and goto. Defaults are setable within userdefs.h.

dired_support - disallow local file management.

disk_save - disallow saving binary files to disk in the download menu.

download - disallow downloaders in the download menu.

editor - disallow editing.

exec - disable execution scripts.

exec_frozen - disallow the user from changing the local execution option.

file_url - disallow using G)oto, served links or bookmarks for file: URLs.

goto - disable the 'g' (goto) command.

inside_ftp - disallow ftps for people coming from inside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

inside_news - disallow USENET news posting for people coming from inside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

inside_rlogin - disallow rlogins for people coming from inside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

inside_telnet - disallow telnets for people coming from inside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

jump - disable the 'j' (jump) command.

multibook - disallow multiple bookmarks.

mail - disallow mail.

news_post - disallow USENET News posting.

options_save - disallow saving options in .lynxrc.

outside_ftp - disallow ftps for people coming from outside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

outside_news - disallow USENET news posting for people coming from outside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

outside_rlogin - disallow rlogins for people coming from outside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

outside_telnet - disallow telnets for people coming from outside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

print - disallow most print options.

shell - disallow shell escapes and lynxexec or lynxprog G)oto's.

suspend - disallow Unix Control-Z suspends with escape to shell.

telnet_port - disallow specifying a port in telnet G)oto's.

useragent - disallow modifications of the User-Agent header.

-resubmit_posts: toggles forced resubmissions (no-cache) of forms with method POST when the documents they returned are sought with the PREV_DOC command or from the History List.
-rlogin: disable recognition of rlogin commands.
-selective: require .www_browsable files to browse directories.
-show_cursor: If enabled the cursor will not be hidden in the right hand 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.
-source: works the same as dump but outputs HTML source instead of formatted text.
-startfile_ok: allow non-http startfile and homepage with -validate.
-telnet: disable recognition of telnet commands.
-term=TERM: tell Lynx what terminal type to assume its talking to. (This may be useful for remote execution, when, for example, Lynx connects to a remote TCP/IP port that starts a script that, in turn, starts another Lynx process.)
-trace: turns on WWW trace mode.
-traversal: traverse all http links derived from startfile. When used with -crawl, each link that begins with the same string as startfile is output to a file, intended for indexing. See CRAWL.announce for more information.
-underscore: toggles use of _underline_ format in dumps.
-validate: accept only http URLs (for validation). Complete security restrictions also are implemented.
-version: print version information.
-vikeys: enable vi-like key movement.

COMMANDS

o Use Up arrow and Down arrow to scroll through hypertext links.
o Right arrow or Return will follow a highlighted hypertext link.
o Left Arrow will retreat from a link.
o Type "h" or "?" for online help and descriptions of key-stroke commands.
o Type "k" for a complete list of the current key-stroke command mappings.

NOTES

This is the Lynx v2.7 Release for Unix/VMS

If you wish to contribute to the further development of Lynx, subscribe to our mailing list. Send email to <majordomo@sig.net> with "subscribe lynx-dev" as the only line in the body of your message.

Send bug reports, comments, suggestions to <lynx-dev@sig.net> after subscribing.

Unsubscribe by sending email to <majordomo@sig.net> with "unsubscribe lynx-dev" as the only line in the body of your message. Do not send the unsubscribe message to the lynx-dev list, itself.

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 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 current release of v2.7, 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).

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

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