LYNX

Section: Misc. Reference Manual Pages (l)
Updated: Local
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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.

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 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 URL's."

-

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.

-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.

-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 rexeced 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.w3.org/default.html.

-editor=EDITOR

enable edit mode using the specified EDITOR. (vi, ed, emacs, etc.)

-emacskeys

enable emacs-like key movement.

-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.

-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.

-nobrowse

disable directory browsing.

-noexec

disable local program execution. (DEFAULT)

-nolist

disable the link list feature in dumps.

-noprint

disable print functions.

-noredir

prevents automatic redirection and prints a message with a link to the new URL.

-nostatus

disable the retrieval status messages.

-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.

-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.

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.

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 to go to file: URL's.

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.

mail - disable mailing feature.

news_post - disable 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 G)oto's.

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

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

-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, and the default configuration can be changed in userdefs.h.

-source

works the same as dump but outputs HTML source instead of formatted text.

-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 2.4-FM Release for UN*X/VMS

If you wish to contribute to the further development of Lynx, subscribe to our mailing list. Send email to <listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu> with "subscribe lynx-dev <your-name>" as the only line in the body of your message.

Send bug reports, comments, suggestions to <lynx-dev@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu>.

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 UN*X 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 UN*X 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 to everyone on the net who has contributed to Lynx's development either directly (through 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
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 01545

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 19:23:50 GMT, February 12, 2023