For a description of Lynx please read the README file.
Lynx Installation guide.
Last Updated February 1997
UNIX & VMS Step 1a.
Most of the variables that you are likely to change are in the
userdefs.h file. There are a few that you must change or verify,
and a few more that you will probably want to change. The variables
that must be changed are marked as such in the userdefs.h file.
Just edit it and the changes should be straight forward. You also
should check LYMessages_en.h for tailoring the Lynx statusline
prompts, messages and warnings to requirements of your site.
NOTE: Many of the variables in userdefs.h are now configurable in
the lynx.cfg file. Please read the lynx.cfg file as well.
Also see the example mime.types, mailcap and jumps files
in the samples subdirectory.
UNIX & VMS Step 1b. (optional)
Set up local printers and downloaders
in the lynx.cfg file. (see lynx.cfg for details)
UNIX & VMS Step 1c. (optional)
If your system requires the PASV FTP code instead of
the standard PORT FTP code (e.g., to deal with a
firewall) then edit WWW/Library/Implementation/HTFTP.c
and comment out line 43 like so:
/* #define LISTEN /* @@@@ Test LJM */
On Unix you can define NOPORT in the top Makefile instead
of changing HTFTP.c
UNIX Extra Step: !! CONFIGURATION !!
There now is a configure script which takes care of system-dependent
setting automatically. See the file README.configure for more details.
You may want to run "./configure --help" first to see what flags are
available.
Run configure, eg "./configure", and
wait while it figures out what software is on your
computer, what type of computer and operating system
you have, etc, and then finally uses makefile.in
to produce the makefile that will get used when
you finally (later on) say "make".
The rest of this file has not yet been updated for installation with
the configure script. The information in README.configure is newer
and should be consulted. In particular UNIX Steps 1f and 2 below should
not be necessary on most systems after "./configure" has been run
(running "make" is of course still required, but it does not reqire
specifying a system type). Other points mostly still apply. If you
need or want to make manual change in addition to the auto configuration,
note that "makefile" is now used instead of "Makefile".
UNIX Step 1d. (WAIS support is built into Lynx for VMS, skip to step 1e)
Adding Direct WAIS support.
Get the freeWAIS distribution from:
ftp://ftp.cnidr.org/pub/NIDR.tools/freewais
and compile it. The compile process will create some libraries, you will
need wais.a and client.a. Edit the Makefile in the top level directory
and add the library locations under the DIRECT WAIS ACCESS heading.
Edit the Makefile for the WWW Library in the
WWW/Library/Implementation/CommonMakefile to make the WAIS.c sources
in the library. If everything goes well you should
be able to make and have direct WAIS access.
UNIX & VMS Step 1e.
Adding NEWS support.
To set your site's NTTP server as the default host for news reading
and posting via Lynx, set the environment variable NNTPSERVER so that
it points to its Internet address (see Step 5).
For news posting ability to be enabled in Lynx, in userdefs.h (and
optionally in lynx.cfg) the NEWS_POSTING symbol must be defined to
TRUE. Also define LYNX_SIG_FILE in usersdefs.h or lynx.cfg so that
it points to users' signature files for appending to posted messages.
For the Organization: header in news postings, Lynx checks for an
ORGANIZATION or NEWS_ORGANIZATION environment variable. On Unix,
Lynx also checks for an /etc/organization file.
UNIX Step 1f. (Sun systems)
Sun resolv library.
On Sun systems you may need to define RESOLVLIB in the top Makefile
to enable access to remote hosts. See the comments in the Makefile
and PROBLEMS file for more information.
VMS Step 1f.
Downloading binary files.
Lynx must handle all IO as streams, and on VMS, output files are always
created with Stream_LF format via the C RTL's fopen(). The file headers
indicate Implied Carriage Control, even when the transfer was in binary
mode, which can confuse downloading software and cause corruption of
the file contents. To deal with this, you should define the symbol
USE_FIXED_RECORDS as TRUE in userdefs.h and/or lynx.cfg. This will
instruct Lynx to correct the header information to indicate FIXED 512
records, with No Implied Carriage Control. If Lynx fails to do the
conversion (because the file wasn't mapped to a binary MIME type) you can
execute FIXED512.COM externally to correct the header information. The
command file uses Joe Meadow's FILE utility, or the SET FILE/ATTRIBUTES
command on current versions of VMS, to modify the headers. See the
comments in FIXED512.COM, userdefs.h and lynx.cfg for more information.
UNIX Step 2.
VMS users skip to 'VMS step 2'
Check the top level Makefile for any site-specific definitions
you require or desire. Then, you should be ready to compile!
If you type "make" with no arguments you will see a list of
supported systems. If your system type IS listed you just
need to type "make SYSTEM_TYPE". For instance, if you are
running under IBM's RS/6000 AIX 3.2 you would just type
"make aix32". If you were running Ultrix you would type
"make ultrix".
If you are on a SUN workstation and do not have 'gcc' you
may change 'gcc' to '/usr/5bin/cc' in the Makefile
If you are on a system that is not listed in the makefile it may be
more difficult. The first thing you should try is just "make generic",
this will compile with the "fancy_curses" option, and will give a much
nicer screen display. If it doesn't compile or if the screen display
looks strange (real strange), try compiling with the "low_curses" option.
Edit the Makefile and remove the '-DFANCY_CURSES' definition under the
'generic:' entry. There may be some compatibility problems on some
systems, but we don't know what they might be at this point. If you
are running on a currently unsupported system please contact us via
the lynx-dev email list (see RELEASE_STATEMENT). If there are any
problems we will try to fix them as soon as possible.
VMS step 2.
Lynx uses the VMS port of gzip for uncompressing streams which have
Content-Encoding headers indicated compression with gzip or the
Unix compress. If you do not have gzip installed on your system
you can get it from ftp://ftp.wku.edu/ in the fileserv directory.
The command Lynx uses to uncompress on VMS is "gzip -d".
If you are using the SOCKETSHR library, read SOCKETSHR.announce and
make sure you have defined SOCKETSHR and SOCKETSHR_LIBRARY as explained
therein.
A "build.com" and "build-slang.com" script for building Lynx with curses
or slang is in the top level directory. All you have to do is type
"@build" or "@build-slang" and answer its prompt for your system's TCP-IP
software. Current choices are:
MULTINET (default)
UCX
WIN_TCP
CMU_TCP
SOCKETSHR_TCP
TCPWARE
It will autosense whether you have VAXC, DECC or GNUC on VAX or AXP
and build appropriately. If a WWWLib already exists for that TCP-IP
software, it will prompt you for whether you want to rebuild it. If
you want to build a WWWLib separately, you can type "@libmake.com"
with your default directory set to [.WWW.Library.vms] instead doing
it via "build.com" in the top directory. You may need to modify
"build-slang.com", as described in its header, so that it can find
slang.olb on your system. If you have both DECC and VAXC, it will
use DECC to benefit from the newer and more efficient memory management
functions.
(optional compilation method)
If you have and want to use MMS, read the header of descrip.mms
in the top directory and be sure you include the appropriate macro
definitions when you invoke it:
$ MMS /Macro = (MULTINET=1) for VAXC - MultiNet
$ MMS /Macro = (WIN_TCP=1) for VAXC - Wollongong TCP/IP
$ MMS /Macro = (UCX=1) for VAXC - UCX
$ MMS /Macro = (CMU_TCP=1) for VAXC - OpenCMU TCP/IP
$ MMS /Macro = (SOCKETSHR_TCP=1) for VAXC - SOCKETSHR/NETLIB
$ MMS /Macro = (TCPWARE=1) for VAXC - TCPWare TCP/IP
$ MMS /Macro = (MULTINET=1, DEC_C=1) for DECC - MultiNet
$ MMS /Macro = (WIN_TCP=1, DEC_C=1) for DECC - Wollongong TCP/IP
$ MMS /Macro = (UCX=1, DEC_C=1) for DECC - UCX
$ MMS /Macro = (CMU_TCP=1, DEC_C=1) for DECC - OpenCMU TCP/IP
$ MMS /Macro = (SOCKETSHR_TCP=1,DEC_C=1) for DECC - SOCKETSHR/NETLIB
$ MMS /Macro = (TCPWARE=1, DEC_C=1) for DECC - TCPWare TCP/IP
$ MMS /Macro = (MULTINET=1, GNU_C=1) for GNUC - MultiNet
$ MMS /Macro = (WIN_TCP=1, GNU_C=1) for GNUC - Wollongong TCP/IP
$ MMS /Macro = (UCX=1, GNU_C=1) for GNUC - UCX
$ MMS /Macro = (CMU_TCP=1, GNU_C=1) for GNUC - OpenCMU TCP/IP
$ MMS /Macro = (SOCKETSHR_TCP=1,GNU_C=1) for GNUC - SOCKETSHR/NETLIB
$ MMS /Macro = (TCPWARE=1, GNU_C=1) for GNUC - TCPWare TCP/IP
If you just type "MMS" it will default to the MULTINET and VAXC
configuration. MMS will build the WWW library and Lynx sources,
and link the executable. However, not all of the header dependencies
are specified. If you are not a developer, and need a clean build,
you should use build.com instead of the MMS utility.
If you want SOCKS support on VMS, you must add SOCKS as a compilation
definition, and the SOCKS library to the link command. However, instead
of SOCKSifying Lynx for use behind a firewall, you are better off if you
build Lynx normally, and set up Lynx to use a proxy server (see below).
You instead can SOCKSify the proxy server, and it will handle all clients,
not just Lynx.
UNIX Step 3.
Go ahead and test it out with the about_lynx/about_lynx.html file.
You shouldn't need to install Lynx to test it.
Once you are satisfied that it works, go ahead and install it.
VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!
If you are setting up an anonymous account with Lynx you
are strongly advised to use the -anonymous command line
option. If you do not use this option, users may be able
to gain access to all readable files on your machine.
ALSO NOTE that many implementations of telnetd allow passing
of environment variables, which might be used by unscrupulous
people to modify the environment in anonymous accounts. When
making Lynx and Web access publicly available via anonymous
accounts intended to run Lynx captively, be sure the wrapper
uses the -cfg switch and specifies the startfile, rather than
relying on the LYNX_CFG, LYNX_CFG_FILE, or WWW_HOME variables.
VMS Step 3.
Go ahead and test it out with the [.about_lynx]about_lynx.html file.
You shouldn't need to install Lynx to test it.
Once you are satisfied that it works, go ahead and install it.
VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!
If you are setting up an anonymous account with Lynx you
are strongly advised to use the -anonymous command line
option. If you do not use this option, users will be able
to gain access to all readable files on your machine.
ALSO NOTE that some implementations of telnet allow passing
of environment variables, which might be used by unscrupulous
people to modify the environment in anonymous accounts. When
making Lynx and Web access publicly available via anonymous
accounts intended to run Lynx captively, be sure the wrapper
uses the -cfg switch and specifies the startfile, rather than
relying on the LYNX_CFG, LYNX_CFG_FILE, or WWW_HOME variables.
UNIX Step 4. (Installation)
Lynx is very easy to install, if you want Lynx installed anywhere
besides "/usr/local/bin", with the man files in "/usr/man/man1", you
need to edit the Makefile and change the "exec" and "doc" defines.
Otherwise just "su" to root and type "make install" and make will
copy "lynx", "lynx.cfg" and "lynx.1" to the specified directories.
Those are the only two files necessary to run Lynx.
lynx.1 isn't really necessary, but it should be available.
lynx.cfg isn't absolutely necessary either but is the only way
to configure printers and downloaders (and uploaders if DIRED_SUPPORT
is implemented), so it is highly recommended.
Also check out the mailcaps, mime.types and jumps file samples in the
samples directory.
VMS Step 4.
You need to have the executable in a public place, make it accessible,
define it as a foreign command, and copy lynx.cfg to "Lynx_Dir". Look
at lynx.com in the samples directory as a model for installing Lynx.
Also check out the mailcaps, mime.types and jumps file samples in the
samples directory. To include lynx.hlp in the system HELP library,
use the command:
$ library/replace sys$help:helplib.hlb lynx.hlp
UNIX and VMS Step 5.
Lynx uses some environment variables to regulate it's behavior.
The variable "NNTPSERVER" is used to specify the host which will
be used as the default for news URLs.
UNIX
setenv NNTPSERVER "news.server.dom"
VMS
define/system NNTPSERVER "news.server.dom"
The environment variables "ORGANIZATION" or "NEWS_ORGANIZATION", if set,
will be used for the Organization: header in news postings.
The environment variable "LYNX_CFG", if set, will override the default
location and name of the global configuration file (lynx.cfg) that was
defined via the constant "LYNX_CFG_FILE" in userdefs.h. See userdefs.h
for more information.
The environment variable "LYNX_TEMP_SPACE", if set, will override the
default path prefix for temporary files that was defined via the constant
"TEMP_SPACE" in userdefs.h. See userdefs.h for more information.
The environment variable "LYNX_SAVE_SPACE", if set, will override the
default path prefix for files saved to disk that was defined via the
constant "SAVE_SPACE" in lynx.cfg. See lynx.cfg for more information.
The variable "WWW_HOME", if set, will override the default startup
URL specified in any of the configuration files.
Lynx still supports use of gateway servers, with the servers specified
via the variables "WWW_access_GATEWAY", where "access" is lower case
and can be "http", "ftp", "gopher" or "wais". Most of the gateway
servers have been discontinued, but "http://www.w3.org:8001" is
available for wais searches (note that you do not include a terminal
'/' for gateways, but do for proxies; see below).
Lynx version 2.2 and beyond supports the use of proxy servers that can
act as firewall gateways and caching servers. They are preferable to
the older gateway servers. Each protocol used by Lynx can be mapped
separately using PROTOCOL_proxy environment variables of the form:
UNIX
setenv http_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv https_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv ftp_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv gopher_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv news_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv newspost_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv newsreply_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv snews_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv snewspost_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv snewsreply_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv nntp_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv wais_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv finger_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
setenv cso_proxy "http://some.server.dom:port/"
VMS
define "http_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "https_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "ftp_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "gopher_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "news_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "newspost_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "newsreply_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "snews_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "snewspost_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "snewsreply_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "nntp_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "wais_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "finger_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
define "cso_proxy" "http://some.server.dom:port/"
(Encase *BOTH* strings in double-quotes to maintain
lower case for the PROTOCOL_proxy variable and for
the http access type; include /system if you want
proxying for all clients on your system.)
If you wish to override the use of a proxy server for specific hosts or
entire domains you may use the "no_proxy" environment variable. Here is
an example use of "no_proxy":
UNIX
setenv no_proxy "host.domain.dom, domain1.dom, domain2"
VMS
define "no_proxy" "host.domain.dom, domain1.dom, domain2"
You can include a port number in the no_proxy list to override use
of a proxy server for the host accessed via that port, but not via
other ports. For example, if you use "host.domain.dom:119" and/or
"host.domain.dom:210", then news (port 119) URLs and/or any wais
(port 210) searches on that host would be excluded, but http, ftp,
and gopher services (if normally proxied) would still be included,
as would any news or wais services on other hosts.
If you wish to override the use of a proxy server completely (i.e.,
globally override any existing proxy variables), set the value of
"no_proxy" to "*".
Note that Lynx treats file URLs on the local host as requests for
direct access to the file, and does not attempt ftp if that fails.
It treats both ftp URLs and file URLs on remote hosts as ftp URLs,
and does not attempt direct file access for either. If ftp URLs are
being proxied, file URLs on a remote host will be converted to ftp
URLs before submission by Lynx to the proxy server, so no special
procedure for inducing the proxy server to handle them is required.
Other WWW clients may require that the http server's configuration
file have "Map file:* ftp:*" in it to perform that conversion.
The proxy and no_proxy variables also can be set at run time via
lynx.cfg.
Copies of the Lynx online help are included in the lynx_help
subdirectory tree and should be made accessible in response to
the Lynx 'h'elp command by defining HELPFILE in userdefs.h and/or
lynx.cfg to an appropriate file://localhost/path URL.
UNIX & VMS Step 6. (Hopefully Optional)
If something doesn't work, or you can't get it to compile at all, or
you can't figure out what one of the defines means, or if you just
want to make a comment, send an email message to the Lynx-Dev mailing
list (see the README file about subscribing to Lynx-Dev). Until Lynx
has been ported to all the world's operating systems, we expect there
will be some compatibility problems, but we'll do our best to help you.