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 If you wish to contribute to the further development of Lynx, subscribe to our mailing list. Send email to with "subscribe lynx-dev" as the only line in the body of your message. Send bug reports, comments, suggestions to after subscribing. Unsubscribe by sending email to 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