A plain text rendering of the web page
http://www.crl.com/~subir/lynx/lynx_help/Lynx_users_guide.html
Lynx Users Guide v2.8
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 character-cell display). It will display Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML) documents containing links to files on
the local system, as well as files on remote systems running
http, gopher, ftp, wais, nntp, finger, or cso/ph/qi servers, and
services accessible via logins to telnet, tn3270 or rlogin
accounts (see URL Schemes Supported by Lynx). Current versions
of Lynx run on Unix, VMS, Windows95/NT, 386DOS and OS/2 EMX.
Lynx can be used to access information on the WWW, 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.
Table of Contents
* Lynx online help
* Viewing local files with Lynx
* Leaving Lynx
* Starting Lynx with a Remote File
* Starting Lynx with the WWW_HOME environment variable.
* Navigating hypertext documents with Lynx
* Printing, Mailing, and Saving rendered files to disk.
* Viewing the HTML document source and editing documents
* Downloading and Saving source files.
* Reloading files and refreshing the display
* Lynx searching commands
* Lynx Options Menu
* Comments and mailto: links
* USENET News posting
* Lynx bookmarks
* Jump command
* Directory Editing
* Scrolling and Other useful commands
* Lynx and HTML Forms
* Lynx and HTML Tables | Lynx and HTML Tabs
* Lynx and HTML Frames | Lynx and HTML Banners
* Lynx and HTML Footnotes | Lynx and HTML Notes
* Lynx and HTML Lists
* Lynx and HTML Quotes
* Lynx and Client-Side-Image-Maps
* Lynx and Client-Side-Pull
* Lynx and State Management (Me want cookie!)
* The Lynx command line
* Lynx development history
Lynx online help
Online help is available while viewing any document. Press the
'?' or 'H' key (or the 'h key if vi-like key movement is not on)
to see a list of help topics. See the section titled Navigating
hypertext documents with Lynx for information on navigating
through the help files.
In addition, a summary description of all the Lynx keystroke
commands and their key bindings is available by pressing the 'K'
key (or the 'k' key if vi-like key movement is not on).
Viewing local files with Lynx
Lynx can be started by entering the Lynx command along with the
name of a file to display. For example these commands could all
be used to display an arbitrary ASCII text or HTML file:
UNIX
lynx filename
lynx /home/my-dir/filename
lynx ~/filename
VMS
lynx filename
lynx dua5:[my-directory]filename
lynx /dua5/my-directory/filename
lynx ~/filename
lynx sys$login:filename
lynx /sys$login/filename
Win32/DOS
lynx file:///filename
lynx filename
lynx c:/dir/filename
lynx //n/dir/filename
When executed, Lynx will clear the screen and display as much of
the specified file as will fit on the screen. Pressing a
down-arrow will bring up the next screen, and pressing an
up-arrow will bring up the previous screen. If no file is
specified at startup, a default file will be displayed. (The
default is configured by the system administrator when the
command is installed.)
Lynx will display local files written in the HyperText Markup
Language (HTML), if the file's name ends with the characters
.html, .htm, .shtml, .htmlx, .html3, or .ht3. HTML is a file
format that allows users to create a file that contains (among
other things) hypertext links to other files. Several files
linked together may be described as a hypertext document. If the
filename does not have one of the suffixes mapped by Lynx to
HTML, the -force_html command line option can be included to
force treatment of the file as hypertext.
When Lynx displays an HTML file, it shows links as "bold face"
text, except for one link, which is shown as "highlighted" text.
Whether "boldface" or "highlighted" text shows up as reverse
video, boldface type, or a color change, etc. depends on the
display device being used (and the way in which that device has
been configured). Lynx has no control over the exact
presentation of links.
The one link displayed as "highlighted" text is the currently
"selected" link. Lynx will display the file associated with the
selected link when a right-arrow or a Return key is pressed. To
select a particular link, press the up-arrow or down-arrow keys
until the desired link becomes "highlighted," and then press the
right-arrow or Return key to view the linked information.
Information included in the HTML file tells Lynx where to find
the linked file and what kind of server will provide it (i.e.
HTTP, Gopher, etc.).
Lynx renders HTML files and saves the rendition, not the source,
for initial display and should you select the link again. If you
do select a link again and have reason to desire a new fetch and
rendering of the file, use the NOCACHE command, normally mapped
to 'x' and 'X', instead of the right-arrow or Return key when
positioned on the link. You also can force a new fetch and
rendering of the currently displayed document via the RELOAD
command, normally mapped to Control-R.
When a binary file is encountered Lynx will ask the user if
he/she wishes to download the file or cancel. If the user
selects 'D' for download, Lynx will transfer the file into a
temporary location and present the user with a list of options.
The only default option is Save to disk, which is disabled if
Lynx is running in anonymous mode. Any number of additional
download methods may be defined in the lynx.cfg file by the
system administrator. Programs like kermit, zmodem and FTP are
some possible options.
Leaving Lynx
To exit Lynx use the 'q' command. You will be asked whether you
really want to quit. Answering 'y' will exit and 'n' will return
you to the current document. Use 'Q' or Control-D to quit
without verification.
Starting Lynx with a Remote File
If you wish to view a remote file (that is, a file residing on
some computer system other than the one upon which you are
running Lynx) without first viewing a local file, you must
identify that file by using a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
URLs take the general form:
PROTOCOL :// HOST / PATH
where
PROTOCOL
identifies the communications protocol (scheme) used by
the server that will provide the file. As mentioned
earlier, Lynx (and any WWW client) can interact with a
variety of servers, each with its own protocol.
HOST
is the Internet address of the computer system on which
the server is running, and
PATH
is a scheme-specific field which for some schemes may
correspond to a directory path and/or filename.
Here are some sample URLs.
HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)
http://www.crl.com/~subir/lynx.html
Gopher
gopher://gopher.micro.umn.edu/11/
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/lynx/README
WAIS (Wide Area Information Service protocol)
wais://cnidr.org/directory-of-servers
A URL may be specified to Lynx on the command line, as in:
lynx http://kufacts.cc.ukans.edu/cwis/kufacts_start.html
Lynx also will attempt to create a complete URL if you include
adequate portions of it in the startfile argument. For example:
wfbr will be expanded to:
http://www.wfbr.edu/ and:
ftp.more.net/pub will be expanded to:
ftp://ftp.more.net/pub
See URL Schemes Supported by Lynx for more detailed information.
Starting Lynx with the WWW_HOME environment variable.
You may also specify a starting file for Lynx using the WWW_HOME
environment variable,
UNIX
ksh
export WWW_HOME=http://www.w3.org/
csh
setenv WWW_HOME http://www.w3.org/
VMS
define "WWW_HOME" "http://www.w3.org/"
win32
WWW_HOME=http://www.w3.org/ [or in registry]
Note that on VMS the double-quoting must be included to preserve
casing.
Navigating hypertext documents with Lynx
The process of moving within a hypertext web, selecting and
displaying links is known as "navigation." With Lynx almost all
navigation can be accomplished with the arrow keys and the
numeric keypad.
+-------+-------+-------+
| TOP | /|\ | Page |
arrow keys | of | | | UP |
| text 7| | 8| 9|
+---------+ +-------+-------+-------+
| SELECT | | | | |
| prev /|\| | <--- | | ---> |
| link | | | 4| 5| 6|
+---------+---------+---------+ +-------+-------+-------+
| BACK | SELECT | DISPLAY | | END | | | Page |
|<-- prev | next | | sel. -->| | of | | | DOWN |
| doc. | link \|/| link | | text 1| \|/ 2| 3|
+---------+---------+---------+ +-------+-------+-------+
There are also a few other keyboard commands to aid in
navigation. The Control and Function keys used for navigation
within the current document are described in Scrolling and Other
useful commands. Some additional commands depend on the fact
that Lynx keeps a list of each link you visited to reach the
current document, called the History Page, and a list of all
links visited during the current Lynx session, called the
Visited Links Page. The HISTORY keystroke command, normally
mapped to Backspace or Delete, will show you the History Page of
links leading to your access of the current document. Any of the
previous documents shown in the list may be revisited by
selecting them from the history screen. The VLINKS keystroke
command, normally mapped to uppercase 'V', will show the Visited
Links Page, and you similarly can select links in that list. The
MAIN_MENU keystroke command, normally mapped to 'm' and 'M',
will take you back to the starting document unless you specified
the -homepage=URL option at the command line. Also, the LIST
keystroke command, normally mapped to 'l' and L', will create a
compact list of all the links in the current document, and they
can be selected via that list.
The 'i' key presents an index of documents. The default index is
usually a document pointing to servers around the world, but the
index can be changed by the system administrator or on the
command line using the -index=URL switch, and therefore depends
on how the Lynx program you are using was configured.
If you choose a link to a server with active access
authorization, Lynx will automatically prompt for a username and
a password. If you give the correct information, you will then
be served the requested information. Lynx will automatically
send your username and password to the same server if it is
needed again.
Printing, Mailing, and Saving rendered files to disk.
Rendered HTML documents, and plain text files, may be printed
using the 'p' command while viewing the document. After pressing
the 'p' key a menu of Print Options will be displayed. The menu
will vary according to several factors. First, some sites set up
special accounts to let users run Lynx to access local
information systems. Typically these accounts require no
passwords and do not require users to identify themselves. As a
result such accounts are called "anonymous" accounts, and their
users are considered "anonymous" users. In most configurations,
all Lynx users (including anonymous users) are able to mail
files to themselves and print the entire file to the screen.
Additional print options are available for users who are using
Lynx from their own accounts (that is, so-called "non-anonymous
users"). In particular, the Save to a local file option allows
you to save the document into a file on your disk space. Any
number of additional print options may also be available as
configured by your system administrator.
Some options, such as Save to a local file, involve prompting
for an output filename. All output filename entries are saved in
a circular buffer, and any previous entries can be retrieved for
re-use by pressing the up-arrow or down-arrow keys at the
prompt.
Note that if you want exact copies of text files without any
expansions of TAB characters to spaces you should use the
Download options.
Viewing the HTML document source and editing documents
When viewing HTML documents it is possible to retrieve and
display the unrendered (i.e., the original HTML) source of the
document by pressing the '\' (backslash) key. The document must
be reloaded from the server or disk to be displayed on the
screen unrendered, since Lynx originally rendered what it
received and does not still have it as source. When viewing
unrendered documents you may print them as any normal document.
Selecting the Print to a local file option from the Print Menu,
makes it possible to save the source of the document to disk so
that you may have a local copy of the document source, but it is
better to Download the source.
NOTE: When saving an HTML document it is important to name the
document with a .html extension, if you want to read it with
Lynx again later.
Lynx can allow users to edit documents that reside on the local
system. To enable editing, documents must be referenced using a
"file:" URL or by specifying a plain filename on the command
line as in the following two examples:
Command
lynx file://localhost/FULL/PATH/FILENAME
lynx path/filename.html
In addition, the user must also specify an editor in the Options
Menu so that Lynx knows which editor to use. If the file is
specified correctly and an editor is defined, then you may edit
documents by using the 'e' command. When the 'e' command is
entered your specified editor is spawned to edit the file. After
changes are completed, exit your editor and you will return to
Lynx. Lynx will reload and render the file so that changes can
be immediately examined.
Downloading and Saving source files.
If the DOWNLOAD keystroke command ('d' or D) is used when
positioned on a link for an HTML, plain text, or binary file,
Lynx will transfer the file, without rendering or modification,
into a temporary location and present the user with a list of
options, as when a link for a binary file of a type for which no
viewer has been mapped is activated. As described above, the
only default Download option is Save to disk, which is disabled
if Lynx is running in anonymous mode, and any number of
additional download methods such as kermit and zmodem may be
defined in the lynx.cfg file by the system administrator.
Downloading the sources of HTML and plain text files, instead of
toggling to display the source ('\') and then using Printing
options, ensures that no modifications of the source (e.g.,
expansions of TAB characters to a series of spaces) will occur.
Some options, such as Save to disk, involve prompting for an
output filename. All output filename entries are saved in a
circular buffer, and any previous entries can be retrieved for
re-use by pressing the up-arrow or down-arrow keys at the
prompt.
Reloading files and refreshing the display
The RELOAD (Control-R) command will reload and re-render the
file that you are currently viewing. The REFRESH (Control-L or
Control-W) command will refresh or wipe the screen to remove or
correct any errors that may be caused by operating system or
other messages.
The NOCACHE ('x' or 'X') command can be used in lieu of ACTIVATE
(Return or right-arrow) to request an uncached copy and new
rendition for the current link, or resubmission of a FORM, if a
cache from a previous request or submission exits. The request
or submission will include Pragma: no-cache and Cache-Control:
no-cache in its headers.. Note that FORMs with POST content will
be resubmitted regardless of whether the NOCACHE or ACTIVATE
command is used (see Lynx and HTML Forms).
Lynx searching commands
Two commands activate searching in Lynx: '/' and 's'.
While viewing a normal document use the '/' command to find a
word or phrase within the current document. The search type will
depend on the search option setting in the Options Menu. The
search options are case sensitive and case insensitive. These
searches are entirely local to Lynx.
Some documents are designated index documents by virtue of an
ISINDEX element in their HEAD section. These documents can be
used to retrieve additional information based on searches using
words or phrases submitted to an index server. The Lynx
statusline will indicate that you are viewing such a document,
and if so, the 's' key will invoke a statusline prompt to enter
a query string. The prompt can be specified via a PROMPT
attribute in the ISINDEX element. Otherwise, Lynx will use an
internally configured prompt. The address for submitting the
search can be specified via an HREF or ACTION attribute.
Otherwise, Lynx will use the current document's URL and append
your query string as a ?searchpart (see Supported URLs).
All search words or strings which you have entered during a Lynx
session are saved in a circular buffer, and can be retrieved for
re-use by pressing the up-arrow or down-arrow keys at the prompt
for a search word or string. Also, you can use the 'n'ext
command to repeat a search with the last-entered search word or
phrase, starting from the current position in the document. The
word or phrase matches will be highlighted throughout the
document, but such highlighting will not persist for new
documents, or if the current document is reloaded. The search
cycles to the top of the document if the word or phrase is not
located below your current position.
Although HTML Forms have largely replaced index documents for
searches via http servers, they are still useful for performing
searches directly via WAIS or Gopher servers in conjunction with
the internal gateways for such servers. For example, an HTML
index document can act as a cover page describing a WAIS
database and how to formulate query strings for searching it,
and include an element such as:
<ISINDEX PROMPT="Enter WAIS query:"
HREF="wais://net.bio.net/biologists-addresses">
for submitting a search of the Biologist's Addresses database
directly to the net.bio.net WAIS server.
Lynx Options Menu
The Lynx Options Menu may be accessed by pressing the 'o' key.
The current Options Menu contains the following configurable
options.
Options Menu
E)ditor : emacs
D)ISPLAY variable : aixtest.cc.ukans.edu:0.0
mu(L)ti-bookmarks: OFF B)ookmark file: lynx_bookmarks.html
F)TP sort criteria : By Filename
P)ersonal mail address : [log in to unmask]
S)earching type : CASE INSENSITIVE
preferred document lan(G)uage: en
preferred document c(H)arset : NONE
display (C)haracter set : ISO Latin 1
raw 8-bit or CJK m(O)de : ON show color (&) : OFF
V)I keys: OFF e(M)acs keys: OFF sho(W) dot files: OFF
popups for selec(T) fields : ON show cursor (@) : OFF
K)eypad mode : Numbers act as arrows
li(N)e edit style : Default Binding
l(I)st directory style : Mixed style
U)ser mode : Advanced
user (A)gent : [User-Agent header]
local e(X)ecution links : FOR LOCAL FILES ONLY
An option can be changed by entering the capital letter or
character in parentheses for the option you wish to change (e.g.
'E' for Editor or '@' for show cursor). For fields where text
must be entered, simply enter the text by typing on the
keyboard. The Line Editor can be used to correct mistakes, and
Control-U can be used to erase the whole line. When you are done
entering a change press the Return key to get back to the
Command? prompt.
For fields where you must choose one of two choices, press any
key to toggle the choices and press the Return key to finish the
change.
For fields where you potentially have more than two choices,
popup windows may be evoked which function homologously to those
for select fields in HTML Forms. The popup windows will be
invoked only if you have popups for select fields set to ON (see
below). Otherwise, your cursor will be positioned at the current
choice, and you can press any key to cycle through the choices,
then press the Return key to finish the change.
When you are done changing options use the 'r' command to return
to Lynx or the '>' command to save the options to a .lynxrc file
and return to Lynx.
The following table describes the options available on the
Options Menu:
Editor
The editor to be invoked when editing browsable files,
and sending mail or comments. The full pathname of the
editor command should be specified when possible.
DISPLAY variable
This option is only relevant to X Window users. The
DISPLAY (Unix) or DECW$DISPLAY (VMS) variable is picked
up automatically from the environment if it has been
previously set.
Multi-bookmarks
Lynx supports a default bookmark file, and up to 26
total bookmark files (see below). When multi-bookmarks
is OFF, the default bookmark file is used for the 'v'iew
bookmarks and 'a'dd bookmark link commands. If
multi-bookmark support is available in your account, the
setting can be changed to STANDARD or ADVANCED. In
STANDARD mode, a menu of available bookmarks always is
invoked when you seek to view a bookmark file or add a
link, and you select the bookmark file by its letter
token (see Bookmark file, below) in that menu. In
ADVANCED mode, you instead are prompted for the letter
of the desired bookmark file, but can enter '=' to
invoke the STANDARD selection menu, or RETURN for the
default bookmark file.
Bookmark file
When multi-bookmarks is OFF, this is the filename and
location of your default personal bookmark file. Enter
'B' to modify the filename and/or location via the Line
Editor. Bookmark files allow frequently traveled links
to be stored in personal easy to access files. Using the
'a'dd bookmark link command (see Lynx bookmarks) you may
save any link that does not have associated POST content
into a bookmark file. All bookmark files must be in or
under your account's home directory. If the location
specified does not begin with a dot-slash (./), its
presence will still be assumed, and referenced to the
home directory. When multi-bookmarks is STANDARD or
ADVANCED, entering 'B' will invoke a menu of up to 26
bookmark files (associated with the letters of the
English alphabet), for editing their filenames and
locations (filepath), and descriptions. Lynx will create
bookmark files, if they don't already exist, when you
first 'a'dd a bookmark link to them. However, if you've
specified a subdirectory (e.g.,
./BM/lynx_bookmarks.html), that subdirectory must
already exist. Note that on VMS you should use the URL
syntax for the filepath (e.g., not
[.BM]lynx_bookmarks.html). For Win32, see [???].
FTP sort criteria
This option allows you to specify how files will be
sorted within FTP listings. The current options include
"By Filename", "By Size", "By Type", and "By Date".
Personal mail address
This mail address will be used to help you send files to
yourself and will be included as the From: address in
any mail or comments that you send. It will also be sent
as the From: field in HTTP or HTTPS requests if
inclusion of that header has been enabled via the
NO_FROM_HEADER definition in lynx.cfg (the compilation
default is not to send the header), or via the -from
command line toggle.
Searching type
Searching type has two possible values: CASE INSENSITIVE
(default) and CASE SENSITIVE. The searching type effects
inter-document searches only, and determines whether
searches for words within documents will be done in a
case-sensitive or case-insensitive manner.
Preferred Document Language
The language you prefer if multi-language files are
available from servers. Use RFC 1766 abbreviations,
e.g., en for English, fr for French, etc. Can be a
comma-separated list, which may be interpreted by
servers as descending order of preferences. You can also
make your order of preference explicit by using q
factors as defined by the HTTP protocol, for servers
which understand it, for example: da, en-gb;q=0.8,
en;q=0.7
Preferred Document Charset
The character set you prefer if sets in addition to
ISO-8859-1 and US-ASCII are available from servers. Use
MIME notation (e.g., ISO-8859-2) and do not include
ISO-8859-1 or US-ASCII, since those values are always
assumed by default. Can be a comma-separated list, which
may be interpreted by servers as descending order of
preferences. You can also make your order of preference
explicit by using q factors as defined by the HTTP
protocol, for servers which understand it, for example:
iso-8859-5, utf-8;q=0.8
Display Character set
This option allows you to set up the default character
set for your specific terminal. The display character
set provides a mapping from the character encodings of
viewed documents and from HTML entities into viewable
characters. It should be set according to your
terminal's character set so that characters other than
7-bit ASCII can be displayed correctly, using
approximations if necessary. You must have the selected
character set installed on your terminal.
Raw 8-bit or CJK Mode
Whether 8-bit characters are assumed to correspond with
the selected character set and therefore are processed
without translation via the chartrans conversion tables.
Should be ON by default when the selected character set
is one of the Asian (CJK) sets and the 8-bit characters
are Kanji multibytes. Should be OFF for the other
character sets, but can be turned ON when the document's
charset is unknown (e.g., is not ISO-8859-1 and no
charset parameter was specified in a reply header from
an HTTP server to indicate what it is) but you know by
some means that you have the matching display character
set selected. Should be OFF when an Asian (CJK) set is
selected but the document is ISO-8859-1. The setting
also can be toggled via the RAW_TOGGLE command, normally
mapped to '@', and at startup via the -raw switch.
Show color.
This option will be present if color support is
available. If set to ON or ALWAYS, color mode will be
forced on if possible. If (n)curses color support is
available but cannot be used for the current terminal
type, selecting ON is rejected with a message. If set to
OFF or NEVER, color mode will be turned off.
ALWAYS and NEVER are not offered in anonymous accounts.
If saved to a .lynxrc file in non-anonymous accounts,
ALWAYS will cause Lynx to set color mode on at startup
if supported. If Lynx is built with the slang library,
this is equivalent to having included the -color command
line switch or having the COLORTERM environment variable
set. If color support is provided by curses or ncurses,
this is equivalent to the default behavior of using
color when the terminal type supports it. If (n)curses
color support is available but cannot be used for the
current terminal type, the preference can still be saved
but will have no effect.
A saved value of NEVER will cause Lynx to assume a
monochrome terminal at startup. It is similar to the
-nocolor switch, but (when the slang library is used)
can be overridden with the -color switch.
If the setting is OFF or ON when the current options are
saved to a .lynxrc file, the default startup behavior is
retained, such that color mode will be turned on at
startup only if the terminal info indicates that you
have a color-capable terminal, or (when the slang
library is used) if forced on via the -color switch or
COLORTERM variable. This default behavior always is used
in anonymous accounts, or if the option_save restriction
is set explicitly. If for any reason the startup color
mode is incorrect for your terminal, set it
appropriately on or off via this option.
VI keys
If set to ON then the lowercase h, j, k, and l keys will
be mapped to left, down, up, and right arrow,
respectively. The uppercase H, J, K, and L keys remain
mapped to their configured bindings (normally HELP,
JUMP, KEYMAP, and LIST, respectively).
Emacs keys
If set to ON then the CTRL-P, CTRL-N, CTRL-F, and CTRL-B
keys will be mapped to up-arrow, down-arrow,
right-arrow, and left-arrow, respectively. Otherwise,
they remain mapped to their configured bindings
(normally UP_TWO lines, DOWN_TWO lines, NEXT_PAGE, and
PREV_PAGE, respectively).
Show dot files
If display/creation of hidden (dot) files/directories is
enabled, you can turn the feature on or off via this
setting.
Popups for select fields
Lynx normally uses a popup window for the OPTIONs in
form SELECT fields when the field does not have the
MULTIPLE attribute specified, and thus only one OPTION
can be selected. The use of popup windows can be
disabled by changing this setting to OFF, in which case
the OPTIONs will be rendered as a list of radio buttons.
Note that if the SELECT field does have the MULTIPLE
attribute specified, the OPTIONs always are rendered as
a list of checkboxes.
Show cursor for current link or option.
Lynx normally hides the cursor by positioning it to the
right and if possible the very bottom of the screen, so
that the current link or OPTION is indicated solely by
its highlighting or color. If show cursor is set to ON,
the cursor will be positioned at the left of the current
link or OPTION. This is helpful when Lynx is being used
with a speech or braille interface. It also is useful
for sighted users when the terminal cannot distinguish
the character attributes used to distinguish the current
link or OPTION from the others in the screen display.
Keypad as arrows, numbered links, or numbered links and form
fields
This option gives the choice among navigating with the
arrow keys, or having every link numbered so that the
links may be selected or made current by numbers as well
as using the arrow keys, or having every link as well as
every form field numbered so that they can be selected
or sought by numbers. See the
Follow link (or page) number: and
Select option (or page) number:
help for more information.
Line edit style
This option allows you to set alternate key bindings for
the built-in line editor, if your system administrator
has installed alternates. Otherwise, Lynx uses the
Default Binding.
List directory style
Applies to Directory Editing. Files and directories can
be presented in the following ways:
Mixed style
Files and directories are listed together in
alphabetical order.
Directories first
Files and directories are separated into two
alphabetical lists. Directories are listed
first.
Files first
Files and directories are separated into two
alphabetical lists. Files are listed first.
User Mode
There are three possible choices: Novice, Intermediate,
and Advanced.
Novice
In Novice mode two lines of help are displayed
at the bottom of the screen.
Intermediate
Intermediate mode turns off the help lines.
Advanced
Advanced mode displays the URL of the currently
selected link at the bottom of the screen.
User Agent
The header string which Lynx sends to servers to
indicate the User-Agent is displayed here. Changes may
be disallowed via the -restrictions switch. Otherwise,
the header can be changed temporarily to a string such
as L_y_n_x/2.8 for access to sites which discriminate
against Lynx based on checks for the presence of "Lynx"
in the header. If changed during a Lynx session, the
default User-Agent header can be restored by deleting
the modified string in the Options Menu. Whenever the
User-Agent header is changed, the current document is
reloaded, with the no-cache flags set, on exit from the
Options Menu. Changes of the header are not saved in the
RC file.
NOTE that Netscape Communications Corp. has claimed that
false transmissions of "Mozilla" as the User-Agent are a
copyright infringement, which will be prosecuted. DO NOT
misrepresent Lynx as Mozilla. The Options Menu issues a
warning about possible copyright infringement whenever
the header is changed to one which does not include
"Lynx" or "lynx".
Local execution scripts or links
Local execution can be activated by the system
administrator. If it has not been activated you will not
see this option in the Options Menu.
When a local execution script is encountered Lynx checks
the users options to see whether the script can be
executed. Users have the following options:
Always off
Local execution scripts will never be executed
For Local files only
Local execution scripts will only be executed if
the script to be executed resides on the local
machine, and is referenced by a URL that begins
with file://localhost
Always on
All local execution scripts will be executed
If the users options permit the script to be executed
Lynx will spawn a shell and run the script. If the
script cannot be executed Lynx will show the script
within the Lynx window and inform the user that the
script is not allowed to be executed and will ask the
user to check his/her options.
Comments and mailto: links
At any time while viewing documents within Lynx, you may use the
'c' command to send a mail message to the owner of the current
document if the author of the document has specified ownership.
If no ownership is specified then comments are disabled. Certain
links called mailto: links will also allow you to send mail to
other people. Using the mail features within Lynx is
straightforward.
Once you have decided to send a comment or have selected a
mailto: link a new screen will appear showing you to whom you
are sending the message. Lynx will ask for your name, your
e-mail address, and the subject of the message. If you have
filled in the "personal mail address" field in the Options Menu,
your e-mail address will be filled in automatically. After
entering the above information, if you have an editor defined in
the Options Menu and you are not an anonymous user then your
specified editor will be spawned for you so that you can enter
your message. If you do not have an editor defined or you are an
anonymous user, a simple line mode input scheme will allow you
to enter your message.
To finish sending the message, exit your spawned editor or, if
you are using the simple line mode input scheme, type a '.'
(period) on a line by itself. You will be asked a final time
whether to send the message. If you press 'y', you will be
prompted whether to append your signature file if one was
defined in lynx.cfg and is accessible, and then the message will
be sent, whereas if you press 'n' the message will be deleted.
Entering Control-G in response to any prompts also will cancel
the mailing.
USENET News posting
While reading news articles with Lynx you should see a link that
says Reply to: user@host and, if the nntp server from which you
received the article supports posting from your site, a link
that says Followup to: newsgroup(s)
Reply to user@host
user@host will correspond to the mail address of the
person who posted the news article. Selecting the link
will allow you to send a message to the person who wrote
the message you are currently viewing. You will be given
the option of including the original message in your
reply.
Followup to newsgroup(s)
Selecting this link will allow you to post back to the
newsgroup that you are currently reading and any
newsgroups to which the message was cross-posted. You
will be given the option of including the original
message in your reply. Once you have typed in your
message, you will be asked for confirmation of whether
to proceed with the posting, and whether to append your
signature file if one was defined in lynx.cfg and is
accessible. See Supported URLs for more information
about the URL schemes for posting or sending followups
(replies) to nntp servers with Lynx.
Lynx bookmarks
It is often useful to place a bookmark to aid in returning
quickly to a document. To use the bookmark feature you must
first use the Options Menu to specify a bookmark filename.
To save a bookmark to the document you wish to place in the
bookmark file press the 'a' key and you will be asked:
Save D)ocument or L)ink to bookmark file or C)ancel?
(d,l,c):
Answer 'd' to save a link to the document you are currently
viewing or 'l' to save the link that is currently selected on
the page. Selecting 'c' will cancel without saving anything to
your bookmark file.
A bookmark file will be created in conjunction with acting on
the 'a'dd command if it does not already exist. Otherwise, the
link will be added to the bottom of the pre-existing bookmark
file. You must have created a bookmark file via the 'a'dd
command before you can view it.
Use the 'v' command to view the list of bookmarks you have
saved. While viewing the bookmark list you may select a bookmark
as you would any other link.
You can remove a link from the bookmark list by pressing the 'r'
key when positioned on that link. You also can use a standard
text editor (e.g., via the 'e'dit command while viewing a
bookmark file, if an external editor has been defined via the
Options menu) to delete or re-order links in the bookmark file,
or to modify a link name by editing the content of the Anchor
element for the link, but you should not change the format
within the line for the link, consisting of an LI element
followed by the Anchor element, nor cause the line to become
wrapped to a second line. You similarly can change the link
destination by editing the double-quoted value for the HREF
attribute in the Anchor start tag, but you should not otherwise
change the spacing within the start tag, nor add other
attributes. You can add a new link while editing by copying an
existing line for a link, to ensure the proper format, and then
modifying its HREF value and Anchor content, but you should not
add any other HTML markup to the bookmark file. If the format
and spacing (other than the Anchor content or HREF value) within
lines is changed or other HTML markup is added, the 'a'dd and
'r'emove commands may not work properly.
When multi-bookmarks (see Options Menu) is OFF, you will always
view or add links to the default bookmark file. When it is
STANDARD, a menu of up to 26 bookmark files will be invoked, and
you select the bookmark file by entering its letter token. When
it is ADVANCED, you will be prompted for the letter token, but
can enter '=' to invoke the STANDARD selection menu, or RETURN
for the default bookmark file.
Jump Command
A feature similar to the Lynx bookmarks is the jump command. The
jump command allows you to enter a shortcut name to access a
URL. If the jump feature is active, typing 'j' will produce a
prompt where you may enter the shortcut name. Type '?' at the
jump prompt for a list of shortcut names available.
All jump shortcut entries are saved in a circular buffer, and
any previous entries can be retrieved for re-use by pressing the
up-arrow or down-arrow keys at the prompt.
Note to System Administrators: Read the lynx.cfg file on how to
set up the jump command for your system and how to define
shortcut names.
Directory Editing
Lynx offers extended DIRED support on Unix (on VMS the more
powerful CSwing program is recommended for character cell
terminals, and can be offered via Lynx as a jump shortcut or
execution link). When a local directory is accessed using a URL
of the form file://localhost/path/, a new set of commands is
available. With DIRED support you can create, edit, delete,
copy, and move files on your local system. The commands
available in DIRED mode are
C)reate
Type 'c' to create a new file. New file will be empty.
D)ownload
Type 'd' to download selection using one of the options
defined by your system administrator.
E)dit
Type 'e' to spawn the editor defined in Options Menu and
load a selected file for editing.
F)ull Menu
Type 'f' to show full menu of options available for
selection. Menu may vary according to type of file
selected and compression facilities available.
M)odify
Type 'm' to modify the name or location of file. Then
type 'n' to rename the file or 'l' to move the file to a
different location.
R)emove
Type 'r' to remove the selected file or directory.
T)ag
Type 't' to tag highlighted file. Further operations
will be performed on tagged files instead of highlighted
ones.
U)pload
Type 'u' to upload a file to the present directory.
Upload methods are defined by your system administrator.
Scrolling and Other useful commands
A summary of all the keystroke commands and their key bindings
can be invoked via the KEYMAP command, normally mapped to 'k'
and 'K'. The following describes some of the most commonly used
commands.
^A
Control-A jumps you to the beginning of the current
document. It is a synonym for the Keypad Home key, and
can be used also when Links are numbered mode is on. The
Find Function key also is a synonym, and ideally the
latter has been mapped to the Function key labeled Home
if you are using an IBM Enhanced Keyboard.
^E
Control-E jumps you to the end of the current document.
It is a synonym for the Keypad End key, and can be used
also when Links are numbered mode is on. The Select
Function key also is a synonym, and ideally the latter
has been mapped to the Function key labeled End if you
are using an IBM Enhanced Keyboard.
^B
Control-B normally jumps you to the previous page of the
current document, and thus is a synonym for the Keypad
and Function Page-Up keys. However, Control-B acts as
right-arrow when emacs-like key movement is enabled (see
Lynx Options Menu).
^F
Control-F normally jumps you to the next page of the
current document, and thus is a synonym for the Keypad
and Function Page-Down keys. However, Control-F becomes
right-arrow when emacs-like key movement is enabled.
^N
Control-N normally jumps you forward two lines in the
current document. The Remove Function key (labeled
Delete on IBM Enhanced keyboards, and distinct from
their Backspace key) is a synonym. Control-N becomes
down-arrow when emacs-like key movement is enabled.
^P
Control-P normally jumps you back two lines in the
current document. The Insert Function key is a synonym.
Control-P becomes up-arrow when emacs-like key movement
is enabled.
)
The ) command jumps you forward half a page in the
current document.
(
The ( command jumps you back half a page in the current
document.
#
The '#' command jumps you to the pseudo Toolbar or
Banner if present in the current document. Use
left-arrow to return from there to your previous
position in the document.
!
When '!' is pressed your default shell will be spawned.
When you quit or exit the shell you will return to Lynx
(usually exit under Unix and logout under VMS). This
command is usually disabled for anonymous users. On VMS,
'$' normally is a synonym. On Win32, this has no effect
[???].
g
The 'g' command allows any URL to be viewed. Pressing
the 'g' command will bring up a prompt asking for a URL.
Type in the URL that you wish to view. All previously
entered goto URLs are saved in a circular buffer, and
can be accessed at the prompt by pressing the up-arrow
or down-arrow keys.
G
The 'G' command allows you to edit the URL of the
current document and then use that as a goto URL.
Pressing the 'G' command will bring up a prompt asking
you to edit the current document's URL. If you do not
modify it, or completely delete it, or enter Control-G,
the command will be cancelled. If the current document
has POST content associated with it, an Alert will be
issued. If you do edit that URL, and it does not simply
involve a fragment change (for seeking a position in the
current document), the modified URL will be submitted
with method GET and no POST content. If a modification
of the current document's URL results in a submission,
that modified URL will be entered into the circular
buffer for goto URLs, and can be accessed for further
modification via the 'g' command.
E
The 'E' command allows you to edit the URL (or ACTION)
of the current link and then use that as a goto URL.
Pressing the 'E' command will bring up a prompt asking
you to edit the current link's URL. If you do not modify
it, or completely delete it, or enter Control-G, the
command will be cancelled. Otherwise, the request for
the 'E'dited URL will be sent with method GET, and will
be entered into the circular buffer for goto URLs so
that it can be accessed for further modification via the
'g' command. Note that lower case 'e' invokes the editor
for the current document.
=
The '=' command shows information about the current
document and the currently selected link if there is
one. The number of lines in the file, URL, title, owner,
and type are shown.
^T
Control-T toggles Lynx trace mode on and off. This is
useful for diagnosing bad html. If you get a Bad HTML
statusline message when loading a document, enter
Control-T and then Control-R to reload the document in
trace mode. You also can submit the document for
validation via links in the online help menu. If you are
able to diagnose the problem, send a message about it to
the document's author.
;
The ; command shows the Lynx Trace Log (lynx.trace in
the home directory) if one has been started for the
current session. If a log has not been started, any
trace and other stderr messages will be sent to the
screen (and will disturb the normal display) unless the
system supports piping and that was used to redirect
stderr messages to a file. The log is started when Lynx
trace mode is turned on via the -trace command line
switch, or via the Control-T toggle, if Lynx has been
compiled to log the trace and other stderr messages. If
not, ability to create a log can be toggled on with the
-tlog switch. Note that this ability is disabled in
anonymous or validation accounts.
*
The '*' command toggles image_links mode on and off.
When on, links will be created for all images, including
inlines. If you have an image viewer mapped to the
image's MIME type, you can activate such links to view
an inline image. You should normally have this mode
toggled off.
@
The '@' command toggles raw 8-bit or CJK mode on and
off. When on, the charset is assumed to match the
selected character set and 8-bit characters are not
reverse translated with respect to the ISO-8859-1
conversion tables.
[
The '[' command toggles pseudo_inlines mode on and off.
When on, inline images which have no ALT string
specified will have an [INLINE] pseudo-ALT string
inserted in the Lynx display. When off, they will be
treated as having ALT="" (i.e., they'll be ignored). If
image_links mode is toggled on, the pseudo-ALT strings
will be restored, to serve as links to the inline
images' sources.
]
The ']' command is used to send HEAD requests for the
current document or link. It applies only to documents
or links (or form submit buttons) of http servers. A
statusline message will notify you if the context for
this command was inappropriate. The HEAD requests always
are sent to the http server, i.e., Lynx does not
retrieve any previous server replies from its cache.
Note that for form submissions, http servers vary in
whether they'll treat HEAD requests as valid and return
the CGI script's headers, or treat it as invalid and
return an error message.
^K
Control-K invokes the Cookie Jar Page if it contains
cookies.
z
Lynx supports completely interruptible I/O processes.
Press the 'z' key at any time during a connect or
transfer process and the process will be halted. If any
data was transferred before the interrupt, it will be
displayed.
numbers
Lynx offers other, advanced navigation features when
numbers are used to invoke the Follow link (or goto link
or page) number: or
Select option (or page) number:
prompts.
Lynx and HTML Forms
This section describes the Lynx Forms Interface. HTML gives
document providers the ability to create on-line forms which may
be filled out when the document is viewed. When a form is
submitted the information on the form can be used to search a
database or complete a survey.
An HTML Form provides for the use of buttons to perform an
action (such as submit), checkboxes, radio buttons or popups to
select options from a list, and fields for entering text.
Buttons:
Buttons are displayed in the same way that Lynx displays
links in a document. To "push" the button press the
right-arrow or Return key. If it is a form submission
button, you also can use the RESUBMIT ('x') or DOWNLOAD
('d') keystroke commands to "push" the button (see
below).
Checkboxes and Radio buttons
Checkboxes are displayed as square brackets: [ ] and
radio buttons are displayed as parenthesis: ( ). When a
box is checked or a button selected, an x appears in the
brackets: [x] or an asterisk appears within the
parenthesis: (*). To check a box or select a radio
button press the right-arrow or Return key.
Selection Fields
Selection fields are displayed as brackets with the
default option displayed between them: [default__]. To
select an option press the right-arrow or Return key. A
box with a border of asterisks (or line-drawing
characters) will pop up with the list of possible
options listed within the box. Use the up-arrow,
down-arrow, page-up, page-down, and other navigation
keys to move the cursor among options, and the
right-arrow or Return key to select an option. You also
can use the '/' and 'n'ext searching commands for
navigating to options which contain particular strings.
NOTE that the popup menu feature can be disabled via
compilation and/or configuration options, or via the
Options Menu, in which case the selection field options
will be converted to a list of radio buttons. The
default setting for use of popups or radio button lists
can be toggled via the -popup command line switch.
Text Entry Fields
Text entry (INPUT) fields are displayed as a row of
underscores the length of the entry field: _______. You
may enter text directly by typing at the keyboard. Use
the Line Editor keys to correct errors. If you try to
input more text than the field can hold, the line editor
will not accept the additional characters. If you fill a
text field the cursor will not move off the field but
remain at the last field position. Use the up-arrow, and
down-arrow, TAB or Return keys to move up, or down from
the text entry field. NOTE, however, that Return also
will submit the form if the text entry field is the only
non-hidden field in the form.
TEXTAREA fields are handled as if they were a series of
text entry (INPUT) fields for which successive lines
imply a newline at the end of the preceding line. You
enter text on each line to construct the overall
message. Any blank lines at the bottom of the TEXTAREA
field will be eliminated from the submission. The
up-arrow, and down-arrow or Return keys move you to the
preceding, or next line of the overall message, as for
INPUT fields, and the TAB key will move you down beyond
the bottom of the TEXTAREA field, or to the first line
on the next page if the overall field extends beyond the
currently displayed page.
In general, you can move around the form using the standard Lynx
navigation keys. The up-arrow and down-arrow keys, respectively,
select the previous or next field, box, or button. The TAB key
selects the next field (or next page of a TEXTAREA if it extends
onto the next page), box, or button.
NOTE: If you have a text input field selected you will not have
access to most of the Lynx keystroke commands, because they are
interpreted by the Line Editor as either text entries or editing
commands. Select a button or box when you want to use Lynx
keystrokes.
To submit the form press right-arrow or Return when positioned
on the form's submit button. If you've submitted the form
previously during the Lynx session, have not changed any of the
form content, and the METHOD was GET, Lynx will retrieve from
its cache what was returned from the previous submission. If you
wish to resubmit that form to the server with the same content
as previously, use the RESUBMIT command ('x') when positioned on
the submit button. The right-arrow and Return keys also will
invoke a no-cache resubmission if the reply from a form
submission included a META element with a no-cache Pragma or
Cache-Control directive:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Cache-Control" CONTENT="no-cache">
or the server sent a "Pragma" or "Cache-Control" MIME header
with a no-cache directive.
You also can use the DOWNLOAD ('d') keystroke command when
positioned on a form submit button if you wish to download the
server's reply to the submission instead of having Lynx render
and display it.
Forms which have POST as the METHOD, or a mailto: URL as the
ACTION, are always resubmitted, even if the content has not
changed, when you activate the submit button. Lynx normally will
not resubmit a form which has POST as the METHOD if the document
returned by the form has links which you activated, and then you
go back via the PREV_DOC (left-arrow) command or via the History
Page. Lynx can be compiled so that it resubmits the form in
those cases as well, and the default can be changed via
lynx.cfg, and toggled via the -resubmit_posts command line
switch.
If the form has one text entry field and no other fields except,
possibly, hidden INPUT fields not included in the display, then
that field also serves as a submit button, and pressing
right-arrow or Return on that field will invoke submission of
the form. Be sure to use up-arrow, down-arrow or TAB to move off
the text entry field, in such cases, if it is not your intention
to submit the form (or to retrieve what was returned from an
earlier submission if the content was not changed and the METHOD
was GET).
Forms can have multiple submit buttons, if they have been
assigned NAMEs in the markup. In such cases, information about
which one of the buttons was used to submit the form is included
in the form content.
Inlined images can be used as submit buttons in forms. If such
buttons are assigned NAMEs in the markup, for graphic clients
they can also serve as image maps, and the x,y coordinates of
the graphic client's cursor position in the image when it was
clicked are included in the form content. Since Lynx cannot
inline the image, and the user could not have moved a cursor
from the origin for the image, if no alternatives are made
available in the markup Lynx sends a 0,0 coordinate pair in the
form content. Document authors who use images as submit buttons,
but have at least some concern for text clients and
sight-challenged Webizens, should include VALUEs for the buttons
in such markup. Lynx will then display the string assigned to
the VALUE, as it would for a normal submit button. Some document
authors incorrectly use an ALT instead of VALUE attribute for
this purpose. Lynx "cooperates" by treating ALT as a synonym for
VALUE when present in an INPUT tag with TYPE="image". If neither
a VALUE nor an ALT attribute is present, Lynx displays
"[IMAGE]-Submit" as the string for such buttons. If clickable
images is set, the "[IMAGE]" portion of the string is a link for
the image, and the "Submit" portion is the button for submitting
the form. Otherwise, the entire string is treated as a submit
button. If a VALUE or ALT attribute is present and clickable
images is set, Lynx prepends "[IMAGE]" as a link for the image,
followed by '-' and then the attribute's value as the displayed
string for the submit button. Note that earlier versions of Lynx
would send a name=value pair instead of a 0,0 coordinate pair if
a TYPE="image" submit button was NAME-ed, had a VALUE attribute
in the INPUT tag, and was used to submit the form. The script
which analyzes the form content thus could be made aware whether
the submission was by a user with a graphic client and had image
loading turned on, or by a user who did not see the image nor
make a conscious choice within it. However, requests that this
be included in HTML specifications consistently have fallen on
deaf ears, and thus Lynx now "fakes" a 0,0 coordinate pair
whether or not a VALUE or ALT attribute is present in the INPUT
tag. Ideally, the script which analyzes the submitted content
will treat the 0,0 coordinate pair as an indicator that the user
did not see the image and make a conscious choice within it.
Forms can have hidden INPUT fields, which are not displayed, but
have NAMEs and VALUEs included in the content. These often are
used to keep track of information across a series of related
form submissions, but have the potential for including
information about the user that might be considered to represent
an invasion of privacy. NOTE, in this regard, that Lynx has
implemented the HTML 3.0 DISABLED attribute for all of its form
fields. These can be used to keep track of information across
submissions, and to cast it unmodifiable in the current form,
but keep the user aware that it will be included in the
submission.
Forms most commonly are submitted to http servers with the
content encoded as ENCTYPE="application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
for analysis by a script, and Lynx treats that as the default if
no ENCTYPE is specified in the FORM start tag. However, you can
specify a mailto URL as the form's ACTION to have the form
content sent, instead, to an email address. In such cases, you
may wish to specify ENCTYPE="text/plain" in the form markup, so
that the content will not be encoded, but remain readable as
plain text.
Lynx also supports ENCTYPE="application/sgml-form-urlencoded"
for which all reserved characters in the content will be hex
escaped, as with application/x-www-form-urlencoded, but
semicolons (';') instead of ampersands ('&') will be used as the
separator for name=value pairs in the form content. The use of
semicolons is preferred for forms with the GET METHOD, because
the GET METHOD causes the encoded form content to be appended as
a ?searchpart for the form's ACTION, and if such URLs are used
in text/html documents or bookmark files without conversion of
the ampersands to SGML character references (& or &),
their being followed by form field NAMEs which might correspond
to SGML entities could lead to corruption of the intended URL.
NOTE, in this regard, that Lynx converts ampersands to &
when creating bookmarks, and thus the bookmark links will not be
vulnerable to such corruptions. Also NOTE that Lynx allows you
to save links in your bookmark file for documents returned by
forms with the GET METHOD, and which thus have the content
appended as a ?searchpart, but not if the METHOD was POST,
because the content would be lost and the link thus would be
invalid.
Lynx supports ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data" for sending form
content with name=value pairs encoded as multipart sections with
individual MIME headers and boundaries. However, Lynx does not
yet support INPUTs with TYPE="file" or TYPE="range" and will set
the DISABLED attribute for all of the form's fields if any
INPUTs with either of those two TYPEs are present, so that the
form can't be submitted. Otherwise, Lynx will submit the form
with the multipart ENCTYPE.
A Content-Disposition: file; filename=name.suffix header can be
used by CGI scripts to set the suggested filename offered by
Lynx for 'd'ownload and 'p'rint menu options to save or mail the
body returned by the script following submission of a FORM.
Otherwise, Lynx uses the last symbolic element in the path for
the FORM's ACTION, which is normally the script, itself, or a
PATH_INFO field, and thus might be misleading. This also can be
done via a META element in any document: <META
HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Disposition"
CONTENT="file; filename=name.suffix">
Lynx and HTML Tables
HTML includes markup for creating tables structured as arrays of
cells aligned by columns and rows on the displayed page.
Lynx recognizes the TABLE element and all of its associated
elements as described in ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1942.txt
and will process any ID attributes in the start tags for
handling as NAME-ed anchors, but does not create actual tables.
Instead, it treats the TR start tag as a collapsible BR (line
break), and inserts a collapsible space before the content of
each TH and TD start tag. This generally makes all of the
content of the table readable, preserves most of the intra-cell
organization, and makes all of the links in the table
accessible, but any information critically dependent on the
column and row alignments intended for the table will be missed.
If inherently tabular data must be presented with Lynx, one can
use PRE formatted content, or, if the table includes markup not
allowed for PRE content, construct the table using HTML Tabs. An
example table using TAB elements is included in the test
subdirectory of the Lynx distribution.
Lynx and HTML Tabs
Lynx implements the HTML 3.0 TAB element only when LEFT
alignment is in effect. If the alignment is CENTER or RIGHT
(JUSTIFY is not yet implemented in Lynx, and is treated as a
synonym for LEFT), or if the TAB element indicates a position to
the left of the current position on the screen, it is treated as
a collapsible space. For purposes of implementing TAB, Lynx
treats en units as half a character cell width when specified by
the INDENT attribute, and rounds up for odd values (e.g., a
value of either 5 or 6 will be treated as three spaces, each the
width of a character cell). See the example table using TAB
elements in the test subdirectory of the Lynx distribution as a
model for using this functionality.
Note that this Users Guide and the Supported URLs page include
TAB markup in a manner which degrades gracefully for WWW
browsers which do not support it. Toggle to display of source
and search for <tab to examine the use of TAB markup in these
documents.
Lynx and HTML Frames
Some implementations of HTML include markup, primarily designed
for graphic clients, that is intended to create an array of
simultaneously displayed, independently scrolling windows. Such
windows have been termed frames.
Lynx recognizes the Netscape and Microsoft Explorer FRAME,
FRAMESET, and NOFRAMES elements, but is not capable of windowing
to create the intended positioning of frames. Instead, Lynx
creates labeled links to the frame sources, typically positioned
in the upper left corner of the display, and renders the
NOFRAMES section. If the document provider has disregard for
text clients and sight-challenged Webizens, and thus does not
include substantive content in the NOFRAMES section or a link in
it to a document suitable for text clients, you can usually
guess from the labeling of the frame links which one has the
substantive material (if there is any), or you can try each of
those links to see if anything worthwhile is returned.
Some sites -- in ignorance of Lynx capabilities -- may tell you
(for example) "to view this page you need Netscape Navigator".
You can simply ignore such warnings and access the frames via
the Lynx-generated links as above.
Lynx and HTML Banners
Some implementations of HTML markup include provisions for
creating a non-scrolling window to be positioned at the top of
each page, containing links with brief, descriptive link names,
analogous to a Windows toolbar. Such windows have been termed
banners.
Lynx recognizes and processes all of the HTML 3.0 REL attribute
tokens in LINK elements for creating a banner, and a number of
others which have subsequently been proposed. These banner
tokens are Home, ToC, Contents, Index, Glossary, Copyright, Up,
Next, Previous, Prev, Help, Search, Top, Origin, Navigator,
Child, Disclaimer, Sibling, Parent, Author, Editor, Publisher,
Trademark, Meta, URC, Hotlist, Begin, First, End, Last, Pointer,
Translation, Definition, Chapter, Documentation, Biblioentry,
Bibliography, Bookmark and Banner. Any LINK elements with those
tokens as the REL attribute value, and an HREF attribute value
in the LINK, will invoke creation of a banner at the top of the
first page, with the element's HREF as the link, and the token
as the default link name. If a TITLE attribute is included in
the LINK, it's value will be used as the link name instead of
the default. Bookmark and Banner are intended to be accompanied
by a TITLE attribute, which in effect makes the namespace for
REL banner tokens infinite.
If the special token Help is used as the REL value and no HREF
is included in the LINK, Lynx will use it own HELPFILE URL for
that link. For the special token Home without an HREF, Lynx will
use the default STARTFILE (i.e., derived from the configuration
files or the WWW_HOME environment variable, not the command line
startfile if one was used). However, if a -homepage=URL was
specified on the command line, it's URL will be used as the
HREF. For the special token Index without an HREF, Lynx will use
the DEFAULT_INDEX_FILE derived from the configuration files, or
if an -index=URL was specified on the command line, it's URL
will be used as the HREF.
Lynx does not waste screen real estate maintaining the banner at
the top of every page, but the Lynx TOOLBAR keystroke command
('#') will, any time it is pressed, position you on the banner
so that any of its links can be activated, and pressing the
left-arrow when in the banner will return you to where you were
in the current document. The toolbar is indicated by a '#"
preceding its first link when present on the screen, that is,
when the first page of the document is being displayed. The
availability of a toolbar is indicated by a '#' at the top,
left-hand corner of the screen when the second or subsequent
pages of the document are being displayed.
Lynx also recognizes the HTML 3.0 BANNER container element, and
will create a banner based on its content if one has not already
been created based on LINK elements. Lynx treats the Microsoft
MARQUEE element as a synonym for BANNER (i.e., presenting it's
markup as a static banner, without any horizontal scrolling of
its content). Lynx does not prefix the BANNER or MARQUEE content
with a '#' because the content need not be only a series of
links with brief, descriptive links names, but does add a '#' at
the top, left-hand corner of the screen when the content is not
being displayed, to indicate it's accessibility via the TOOLBAR
keystroke command.
Lynx and HTML Footnotes
Lynx implements the HTML 3.0 FN element similarly to a named
Anchor within the current document, and assumes that the
footnotes will be positioned at the bottom of the document.
However, in contrast to named Anchors, the FN container element
is treated as a block (i.e., as if a new paragraph were
indicated whether or not that is indicated in its content) with
greater than normal left and right margins, and the block will
begin with a FOOTNOTE: label. For example, if the document
contains:
See the <A HREF="#fn1">footnote</A>.
activating that link will take you to the labeled rendering of:
<FN ID="fn1"><p>Lynx does not use popups for FN blocks.</p></FN>
i.e., position it at the top of the page. Then, upon reading the
footnote, you can return to your previous position in the
document by pressing the left-arrow key. The content of an FN
element can be any HTML markup that is valid in the BODY of the
document.
Lynx and HTML Notes
Lynx implements the HTML 3.0 NOTE element (Admonishment) as a
labeled block, i.e., as if a new paragraph were indicated
whether or not paragraphing markup is included in its content,
with greater than normal left and right margins, and with the
type of note indicated by an emphasized label based on the value
of its CLASS or ROLE attribute. If no CLASS or ROLE attribute is
included, the default label NOTE: will be used. Lynx recognizes
the values caution and warning, for which, respectively, the
labels CAUTION: or WARNING: will be used. The NOTE element can
have an ID attribute, which will be treated as a named Anchor,
as for HTML Footnotes, but the NOTE block need not be placed at
the bottom of the document. The content of a NOTE block can be
any HTML markup that is valid in the BODY of the document. This
is an example:
<NOTE CLASS="warning" ID="too-bad">
<p>The W3C vendors did not retain NOTE in the HTML 3.2 draft.</p>
</NOTE>
It will degrade gracefully for WWW browsers which do not support
NOTE, except for recognition of the ID attribute as a named
Anchor.
Lynx and HTML Lists
Lynx implements the HTML 3.0 list elements UL (Unordered List),
OL (Ordered List), and DL (Definition List), and their
associated attributes, and elements (LH, LI, DT, and DD) for the
most part as described in that specification. The lists can be
nested, yielding progressively greater indentation, up to six
levels. The HTML 2.0 MENU and DIR elements both are treated as
synonyms for UL with the PLAIN attribute (no bullets, see
below). Note, thus, that neither DIR nor MENU yields a series of
columns with 24-character spacing. A single nesting index is
maintained, so that different types of List elements can be used
for different levels within the nest. Also, the HTML 3.0 FIG,
CAPTION and CREDIT elements are treated as valid within list
blocks. They will be rendered with indentation appropriate for
the current nesting depth, and the CAPTION or CREDIT elements
will have a CAPTION: or CREDIT: label beginning the first line
of their content. The content of any APPLET or OBJECT elements
in the lists also will be indented appropriately for the current
nesting depth, but those will not invoke line breaks unless
indicated by their content, and it should not include markup
which is inappropriate within the list.
Lynx also supports the TYPE attribute for OL elements, which can
have values of 1 for Arabic numbers, I or i for uppercase or
lowercase Roman numerals, or A or a for uppercase or lowercase
letters, that increment for successive LI elements in the list
block. The CONTINUE attribute can be used to continue the
ordering from the preceding list block when the nesting depth is
changed.
Lynx treats the OL attributes START and SEQNUM as synonyms for
specifying the ordering value for the first LI element in the
block. The values should be specified as Arabic numbers, but
will be displayed as Arabic, Roman, or alphabetical depending on
the TYPE for the block. The values can range from -29997 to the
system's maximum positive integer for Arabic numbers. For Roman
numerals, they can range from 1 (I or i) to 3000 (MMM or mmm.).
For alphabetical orders, the values can range from 1 (A or a) to
18278 (ZZZ or zzz). If the CONTINUE attribute is used, you do
not need to specify a START or SEQNUM attribute to extend the
ordering from a previous block, and you can include a TYPE
attribute to change among Arabic, Roman, or alphabetical
ordering styles, or their casing, without disrupting the
sequence. If you do not include a START, SEQNUM or CONTINUE
attribute, the first LI element of each OL block will default to
1, and if you do not include a TYPE attribute, Lynx defaults to
Arabic numbers.
For UL blocks without the PLAIN attribute, Lynx uses *, +, o, #,
@ and - as bullets to indicate, progressively, the depth within
the six nesting levels.
Lynx treats UL, OL, DIR, and MENU blocks as having the COMPACT
attribute by default, i.e., single spaces between LH and LI
elements within those blocks. For DL blocks, double spacing will
be used to separate the DT and DD elements unless the COMPACT
attribute has been specified.
Lynx and HTML Quotes
The HTML 3.0 and later specifications provide for two classes of
quotation in HTML documents. Block quotes, designated by the
BLOCKQUOTE element (or it's abbreviated synonym BQ in HTML 3.0),
have implied paragraph breaks preceding and following the start
and end tags for the block. Character level quotes, designated
by the Q element, in contrast are simply directives in the
markup to insert an appropriate quotation mark.
Lynx renders block quotes with a greater than normal left and
right indentation. Lynx does not support italics, and normally
substitutes underlining, but does not underline block quotes so
as not to obscure any explicit emphasis elements within the
quotation. The BLOCKQUOTE or BQ block can include a CREDIT
container element, whose content will be rendered as an implied
new paragraph with a CREDIT: label at the beginning of its first
line.
Lynx respects nested Q start and end tags, and will use ASCII
double-quotes (") versus grave accent (`) and apostrophe ('),
respectively, for even versus odd depths in the nest.
Any ID attributes in BLOCKQUOTE, BQ or Q elements will be
treated as named Anchors.
Lynx and Client-Side-Image-Maps
HTML includes markup, designed primarily for graphic clients,
that treats inlined images as maps, such that areas of the image
within which a mouse cursor was positioned when the mouse was
clicked can correspond to URLs which should be retrieved. The
original implementations were based on the client sending an
http server the x,y coordinates associated with the click, for
handling by a script invoked by the server, and have been termed
server-side-image-maps. Lynx has no rational way of coping with
such a procedure, and thus simply sends a 0,0 coordinate pair,
which some server scripts treat as an instruction to return a
document suitable for a text client.
Newer HTML markup provides bases for the client to determine the
URLs associated with areas in the image map, and/or for a text
client to process alternative markup and allow the user to make
choices based on textual information. These have been termed
client-side-image-maps.
Lynx recognizes and processes the MAP container element and its
AREA elements, and will create a menu of links for the HREF of
each AREA when the link created for the IMG element with a
USEMAP attribute is activated. The menu uses the ALT attributes
of the AREA elements as the link names, or, if the document's
author has disregard for text clients and sight-challenged
Webizens, and thus did not include ALT attributes, Lynx uses the
resolved URLs pointed to by the HREF attributes as the link
names. Lynx uses the TITLE attribute of the IMG element, or the
TITLE attribute of the MAP, if either was present in the markup,
as the title and main header of the menu. Otherwise, it uses the
ALT attribute of the IMG element. If neither TITLE nor ALT
attributes were present in the markup, Lynx creates and uses a
[USEMAP] pseudo-ALT. The MAPs need not be in the same document
as the IMG elements. If not in the same document, Lynx will
fetch the document which contains the referenced MAP, and locate
it based on its NAME or ID attribute. All MAPs encountered in
documents during a Lynx session are cached, so that they need
not be retrieved repeatedly when referenced in different
documents.
If the IMG element also indicates a server-side-image-map via an
ISMAP attribute, Lynx normally will create a link for that as
well, using an [ISMAP] pseudo-ALT (followed by a hyphen to
indicate its association with the client-side-image-map) rather
than ignoring it, and will submit a 0,0 coordinate pair if that
link is activated. Although, the client-side-image-map may be
more useful for a client such as Lynx, because all of the URLs
associated with the image map can be accessed, and their nature
indicated via ALT attributes, Lynx-friendly sites can map 0,0
such that the server returns a for-text-client document
homologous to the content of FIG elements (see below). Inclusion
of such a link for submissions to the server can be disabled by
default via the configuration file (lynx.cfg), and the default
can be toggled via the -ismap command line switch.
Lynx also recognizes the HTML 3.0 FIG and OVERLAY elements, and
will handle them as intended for text clients. These are the
ideal way to handle client-side-image-maps, because the FIG
content provides complete alternative markup, rather than
relying on the client to construct a relatively meager list of
links with link names based on ALT strings.
The presently experimental OBJECT element encompasses much of
the functionality of the FIG element for client-side-image-maps.
Lynx will render and display the content of OBJECT elements
which have the SHAPES attribute equivalently to its handling of
FIG. Lynx also handles OBJECT elements with the USEMAP and/or
ISMAP attributes equivalently to its handling of IMG elements
with client-side-image-maps and/or server-side-image-maps.
Lynx and Client-Side-Pull
HTML includes provision for passing instructions to clients via
directives in META elements, and one such instruction, via the
token Refresh, should invoke reloading of the document, fetched
from a server with the same URL or a new URL, at a specified
number of seconds following receipt of the current document.
This procedure has been termed client-side-pull. An example of
such an element is:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="3; URL="http://host/path">
which instructs a client to fetch the indicated URL in 3 seconds
after receiving the current document. If the URL= field is
omitted, the URL defaults to that of the current document. A
no-cache directive is implied when the Refresh if for the same
URL.
Lynx recognizes and processes Refresh directives in META
elements, but puts up a labeled link, typically in the upper
left corner of the display, indicating the number of seconds
intended before a refresh, and the URL for the refresh, instead
of making the request automatically after the indicated number
of seconds. This allows people using a braille interface any
amount of time to examine the current document before activating
the link for the next URL. In general, if the number of seconds
indicated is short, the timing is not critical and you can
activate the link whenever you like. If it is long (e.g., 60
seconds), a server process may be generating new documents or
images at that interval, and you would be wasting bandwidth by
activating the link at a shorter interval.
Lynx State Management (Me want cookie!)
HTTP provides a means to carry state information across
successive connections between a browser and an http server.
Normally, http servers respond to each browser request without
relating that request to previous or subsequent requests. Though
the inclusion of INPUT fields with TYPE="hidden" can be used as
a sort of state management by HTML Forms, a more general
approach involves exchanges of MIME headers between the server
and browser. When replying to a request, the server can send a
Set-Cookie MIME header which contains information (cookies)
relevant to the browser's request, and in subsequent requests
the browser can send a Cookie MIME header with information
derived from previously received cookies.
State Management via cookie exchanges originally was implemented
by Netscape, and such cookies are now designated as Version 0. A
more elaborate format for cookies, designated as Version 1, is
being standardized by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task
Force). Lynx supports both Version 0 and Version 1 cookie
exchanges. This support can be disabled by default via the
SET_COOKIES symbol in the compilation (userdefs.h) and/or run
time (lynx.cfg) configuration files, and that default setting
can be toggled via the -cookies command line switch.
When cookie support is enabled, Set-Cookie MIME headers received
from an http server invoke confirmation prompts with possible
replies of 'Y'es or 'N'o for acceptance of the cookie, 'A'lways
to accept the cookie and to allow all subsequent cookies from
that domain (server's Fully Qualified Domain Name, or
site-identifying portion of the FQDN) without further
confirmation prompts, or ne'V'er to never allow cookies from
that domain to be accepted (silently ignore its Set-Cookie MIME
headers). All unexpired cookies are held in a hypothetical
Cookie Jar which can be examined via the COOKIE_JAR keystroke
command, normally mapped to Ctrl-K, for invoking the Cookie Jar
Page. The Cookie Jar, and any 'A'lways or ne'V'er 'allow'
settings, do not presently outlast the Lynx session.
A common use of cookies by http servers is simply to track the
documents visited by individual users. Though this can be useful
to the site's WebMaster for evaluating and improving the
organization of links in the various documents of the site, if
the user has configured Lynx to include a From MIME header with
the user's email address in http requests, or has passed
personal information to the server via a form submission, the
tracking might be used to draw inferences, possibly incorrect,
about that user, and may be considered by some as an invasion of
privacy.
An example of worthwhile State Management via cookies is the
setting of personal preferences, typically via a form submission
to the site, which will then apply to all documents visited at
that site.
If you accept cookies when accessing a site, but are given no
indication about how they will be used in subsequent requests to
that site, nor can infer how they will be used, you can Gobble
(delete) the cookies and/or change the 'allow' setting for its
domain via the Cookie Jar Page.
The Lynx command line
A summary of the Lynx command line options (switches) is
returned to stdout if Lynx is invoked with the -help switch. A
description of the options also should be available via the
system man (Unix) pages or help (VMS) libraries. On Win32,
typing lynx -help in a DOS window should display similarly. The
basic syntax of the Lynx command line can be represented as one
of the following:
Command
lynx [options]
lynx [options] startfile
where
startfile
is the file or URL that Lynx will load at start-up.
* If startfile is not specified, Lynx will use a
default starting file and base directory determined
during installation.
* If a specified file is local (i.e., not a URL) Lynx
displays that file and uses the directory in which
that file resides as the base directory.
* If a URL is specified, the file will be retrieved,
and only the server base directory will be relevant
to further accesses.
options
can be selected from the following list, where items in
all-caps indicate that a substitution must be made.
-
If the argument is only '-' (dash), 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).
On VMS, it must be encased in double-quotes
("-") and the keyboard input terminated with
Control-Z or the command file input terminated
by a line that begins with '$'. On Unix, the
keyboard input terminator is Control-D. On
Win32, [???].
-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:PW
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.
-core
toggles forced core dumps on fatal errors. (Unix
only)
-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 rexe-ced
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/
-editor=EDITOR
enable edit mode using the specified EDITOR.
(vi, ed, emacs, etc.)
-emacskeys
enable emacs-like key movement.
-enable_scrollback
toggles behavior compatible with the scrollback
keys in some communications software (may be
incompatible with some curses packages).
-error_file=FILENAME
the status code from the HTTP request is placed
in this file.
-locexec
enable local program execution from local files
only (if lynx was compiled with local execution
enabled).
-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 to HTTP or
HTTPS servers.
-ftp
disable ftp access.
-get_data
properly formatted data for a get form are read
in from stdin and passed to the form. Input is
terminated by a line that starts with '---'.
-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. Will be
used if a fetch of the start page fails or if it
is a script which does not return a document,
and as the URL for the 'm'ain menu command.
-image_links
toggles inclusion of links for all images.
-ismap
toggles inclusion of ISMAP links when
client-side MAPs are present.
-index=URL
set the default index file to the specified URL
-link=NUMBER
starting count for lnk#.dat files produced by
-crawl.
-localhost
disable URLs that point to remote hosts.
-mime_header
include mime headers and force source dump.
-minimal
toggles minimal versus valid comment parsing.
When minimal, any '-->' serves as a terminator
for a comment element. When valid, pairs of '--'
are treated as delimiters for series of comments
within the overall comment element. If
historical is set, that overrides minimal or
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
don't follow URL redirections
-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:PW
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.
The default configuration can be changed in
userdefs.h or lynx.cfg. It also can be set and
saved via the 'o'ptions menu. The command line
switch toggles the default.
-post_data
properly formatted data for a post form are read
in from stdin and passed to the form. Input is
terminated by a line that starts with '---'.
-preparsed
show 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
allows a list of services to be disabled
selectively and takes the following form:
lynx -restrictions=[option][,option][,option]...
This 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 settable 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.
inside_news
disallow USENET news posting for people
coming from inside you domain.
inside_rlogin
disallow rlogins for people coming from
inside your domain.
inside_telnet
disallow telnets for people coming from
inside your domain.
jump
disable the 'j' (jump) command.
mail
disallow mailing feature.
multibook
disallow multiple bookmarks.
news_post
disallow USENET News posting.
options_save
disallow saving options in .lynxrc.
outside_ftp
disallow ftps for people coming from
outside your domain.
outside_news
disallow USENET news posting for people
coming from outside you domain.
outside_rlogin
disallow rlogins for people coming from
outside your domain.
outside_telnet
disallow telnets for people coming from
outside your domain.
print
disallow most print options.
shell
disallow shell escapes.
suspend
disallow Control-Z suspends with escape
to shell on Unix.
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
(left-arrow) command or from the History Page.
-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. It also can be set and saved via the
'o'ptions menu. The command line switch toggles
the default.
-soft_dquotes
toggles emulation of the old Netscape and Mosaic
bug which treated '>' as a co-terminator for
double-quotes and tags.
-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. The log is named lynx.trace and is
created in the home directory when Lynx trace
mode is turned on via the -trace command line
switch (see below), or via the TOGGLE_TRACE
(Control-T) keystroke command. Once a log is
started for the session, all trace and other
stderr messages are written to the log. The
contents of the log can be examined during the
session via the TRACE_LOG (normally, ';')
keystroke command.
-trace
turns on Lynx trace mode. If a Lynx Trace Log
(lynx.trace in the home directory) has been
started for the current session, all trace and
other stderr messages are written to that log,
and can be examined during the session via the
TRACE_LOG (normally, ';') command.
-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.
No options are required, nor is a startfile argument required.
White space may be substituted for any equal sign ('=')
appearing in the option list above.
Lynx development history
Lynx grew out of efforts to build a campus-wide information
system at The University of Kansas. The earliest versions of
Lynx provided a user-friendly, distributed hypertext interface
for users connected to multiuser (Unix and VMS) systems via
curses-oriented display devices. A custom hypertext format was
developed to support hypertext links to local files and files on
remote Gopher servers. Using Gopher servers for distributed file
service allowed information providers to publish information
from a wide variety of platforms (including Unix, VMS, VM/CMS
and Macintosh). In addition, Lynx became the most user-friendly
Gopher client, although that was only an ancillary capability.
This distributed approach let providers retain complete control
over their information, but it made communication between users
and providers somewhat more difficult. Following the lead of
Neal Erdwien, of Kansas State University, the Lynx hypertext
format was extended to include links for including ownership
information with each file. This information made it possible
for users running Lynx clients to send comments and suggestions
via e-mail to the providers.
This early version of Lynx was also augmented to support
hypertext links to programs running on remote systems. It
included the ability to open a Telnet connection, as well as the
ability to start programs via rexec, inetd, or by direct socket
connects. These capabilities were included to allow users to
access databases or custom program interfaces.
A subsequent version of Lynx incorporated the World Wide Web
libraries to allow access to the full list of WWW servers, along
with the option to build hypertext documents in HTML, rather
than the native Lynx format. HTML has become far more widely
used, and the native format has been phased out. With the
addition of the WWW libraries, Lynx became a fully-featured WWW
client, limited only by the display capabilities offered in the
curses environment.
Lynx was designed by Lou Montulli, Charles Rezac and Michael
Grobe of Academic Computing Services at The University of
Kansas. Lynx was implemented by Lou Montulli and maintained by
Garrett Arch Blythe and Craig Lavender.
Foteos Macrides and members of the lynx-dev list have developed
and supported Lynx since release of v2.3 in May 1994. The
Lynx2-3FM code set was released as v2.4 in June 1995. The
Lynx2-4FM code set was released as v2.5 in May 1996. The
Lynx2-5FM code set was released as v2.6 in September 1996. The
Lynx2-6FM code set was released as v2.7 in February 1997. The
v2-7FM code set was released as v2.7.1 in April 1997. The
v2-7-1FM code set was released as v2.7.2 in January 1998. The
2.7.1 development set was released as v2.8 in March 1998.
Since early 1997, the Lynx code has expanded into autoconfigure
and PC versions. The branching of the Lynx source base from a
single source into two sources (FM/Foteos Macrides and
ac/autoconfigure) should be considered a healthy synergism among
groups of computer professionals acting in their spare time out
of a common goal.
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. 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 others) and the WWW community.
Contributors have generally been acknowledged in the CHANGES
file. Earlier CHANGES file can be found in the docs/
subdirectory of this distribution.
Information on obtaining the most current version of Lynx is
available at the current distribution page.
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