1 LYNX
NAME
lynx - a general purpose distributed information browser for the World
Wide Web
2 SYNOPSIS
Lynx [options] [path or URL]
use "lynx -help" to display a complete list of current options.
2 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 PCs or Macs, or any other "curses-oriented"
display). It will display hypertext markup language (HTML) documents con-
taining 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.
2 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 argument is only '-', then Lynx expects to receive
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). Encase it
in double-quotes ("-").
-anonymous
used to specify the anonymous account.
-assume_charset=MIMEname
charset for documents that don't specify it.
-assume_local_charset=MIMEname
charset assumed for local files.
-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.
-blink
forces high intensity bg colors for color mode, if available
and supported by the terminal.
Lynx needs to be compiled with the slang library for this flag.
-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.
-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.
A saved show_color=always setting found in a .lynxrc file at
startup has the same effect. A saved show_color=always found
in .lynxrc on startup is overridden by this flag.
-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.
-force_secure
toggles forcing of the secure flag for SSL cookies.
-from
toggles 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.
-ismap
toggles inclusion of ISMAP links when client-side
MAPs are present.
-link=NUMBER
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=NUMBER
number of articles in chunked news listings.
-newsmaxchunk=NUMBER
maximum news articles in listings before chunking.
-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. (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.
-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
send form data from stdin using POST method and dump results.
-preparsed
show HTML source preparsed and reformatted when used with -source
or in source view.
-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]...
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 to disk in the download and print
menus.
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 our 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 bookmark files.
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.)
-tlog
toggles use of a Lynx Trace Log for the current session.
-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.
-useragent=Name
set alternate Lynx User-Agent header.
-validate
accept only http URLs (for validation). Complete security
restrictions also are implemented.
-version
print version information
-vikeys
enable vi-like key movement.
-width=NUMBER
number of columns for formatting of dumps, default is 80.
2 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.
2 NOTES
This is the Lynx v2.8 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.
2 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 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 reports)
or indirectly (through inspiration and development of other systems).
2 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