1 LYNX 2 Name lynx - a general purpose distributed information browser for the World Wide Web 2 Synopsis lynx [options] [path or URL] use "lynx -help" to display a complete list of current options. 2 Description Lynx is a fully-featured World Wide Web (WWW) client for users running cursor-addressable, character-cell display devices (e.g., vt100 terminals, vt100 emulators running on Windows 95/NT or Macintoshes, or any other "curses-oriented" display). It will display hypertext markup language (HTML) documents containing links to files residing on the local system, as well as files residing on remote systems running Gopher, HTTP, FTP, WAIS, and NNTP servers. Current versions of Lynx run on Unix, VMS, Windows 95/NT, 386DOS and OS/2 EMX. Lynx can be used to access information on the World Wide Web, or to build information systems intended primarily for local access. For example, Lynx has been used to build several Campus Wide Information Systems (CWIS). In addition, Lynx can be used to build systems isolated within a single LAN. 2 Options At start up, Lynx will load any local file or remote URL specified at the command line. For help with URLs, press "?" or "H" while running Lynx. Then follow the link titled, "Help on URLs." If more than one local file or remote URL is listed on the command line, Lynx will open only the last interactively. All of the names (local files and remote URLs) are added to the G)oto history. Lynx uses only long option names. Option names can begin with double dash as well, underscores and dashes can be intermixed in option names (in the reference below options are with one dash before them and with underscores). Lynx provides many command-line options. Some options require a value (string, number or keyword). These are noted in the reference below. The other options set boolean values in the program. There are three types of boolean options: set, unset and toggle. If no option value is given, these have the obvious meaning: set (to true), unset (to false), or toggle (between true/false). For any of these, an explicit value can be given in different forms to allow for operating system constraints, e.g., -center:off -center=off -center- Lynx recognizes "1", "+", "on" and "true" for true values, and "0", "-", "off" and "false" for false values. Other option-values are ignored. The default boolean, number and string option values that are compiled into lynx are displayed in the help-message provided by lynx -help. Some of those may differ according to how lynx was built; see the help message itself for these values. The -help option is processed before any option, including those that control reading from the lynx.cfg file. Therefore runtime configuration values are not reflected in the help-message. - If the argument is only `-', then Lynx expects to receive the arguments from the standard input. 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). It can also be used to avoid having sensitive information in the invoking command line (which would be visible to other processes on most systems), especially when the -auth or -pauth options are used. -accept_all_cookies accept all cookies. -anonymous apply restrictions for anonymous account, see also -restrictions. -assume_charset=MIMEname charset for documents that don't specify it. -assume_local_charset=MIMEname charset assumed for local files, i.e., files which lynx creates such as internal pages for the options menu. -assume_unrec_charset=MIMEname use this instead of unrecognized charsets. -auth=ID:PASSWD set authorization ID and password for protected documents at startup. Be sure to protect any script files which use this switch. -base prepend a request URL comment and BASE tag to text/html outputs for -source dumps. -bibp=URL specify a local bibp server (default http://bibhost/). -blink forces high intensity background colors for color mode, if available and supported by the terminal. This applies to the slang library (for a few terminal emulators), or to OS/2 EMX with ncurses. -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. -center Toggle center alignment in HTML TABLE. -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. -cmd_log=FILENAME write keystroke commands and related information to the specified file. -cmd_script=FILENAME read keystroke commands from the specified file. You can use the data written using the -cmd_log option. Lynx will ignore other information which the command-logging may have written to the logfile. Each line of the command script contains either a comment beginning with "#", or a keyword: exit causes the script to stop, and forces Lynx to exit immediately. key the character value, in printable form. Cursor and other special keys are given as names, e.g., "Down Arrow". Printable 7-bit ASCII codes are given as-is, and hexadecimal values represent other 8-bit codes. set followed by a "name=value" allows one to override values set in the lynx.cfg file. -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, it is equivalent to setting the COLORTERM environment variable. (If color support is instead provided by a color- capable curses library like ncurses, Lynx relies completely on the terminal description to determine whether color mode is possible, and this flag is not needed and thus unavailable.) A saved show_color=always setting found in a .lynxrc file at startup has the same effect. A saved show_color=never found in .lynxrc on startup is overridden by this flag. -connect_timeout=N Sets the connection timeout, where N is given in seconds. -cookie_file=FILENAME specifies a file to use to read cookies. If none is specified, the default value is ~/.lynx_cookies for most systems, but ~/cookies for MS-DOS. -cookie_save_file=FILENAME specifies a file to use to store cookies. If none is specified, the value given by -cookie_file is used. -cookies toggles handling of Set-Cookie headers. -core toggles forced core dumps on fatal errors. Turn this option off to ask Lynx to force a core dump if a fatal error occurs. -crawl with -traversal, output each page to a file. with -dump, format output as with -traversal, but to the standard output. -curses_pads toggles the use of curses "pad" feature which supports left/right scrolling of the display. -debug_partial separate incremental display stages with MessageSecs delay -delay add DebugSecs delay after each progress-message -display=DISPLAY set the display variable for X rexec-ed programs. -display_charset=MIMEname set the charset for the terminal output. -dont_wrap_pre inhibit wrapping of text in
 when -dump'ing and -crawl'ing,
              mark wrapped lines in interactive session.

       -dump  dumps  the  formatted  output  of  the default document or those
              specified on  the  command  line  to  standard  output.   Unlike
              interactive mode, all documents are processed.  This can be used
              in the following way:

              lynx -dump http://www.subir.com/lynx.html

       -editor=EDITOR
              enable external editing, using the specified  EDITOR.  (vi,  ed,
              emacs, etc.)

       -emacskeys
              enable emacs-like key movement.

       -enable_scrollback
              toggles  compatibility  with  communication programs' scrollback
              keys (may be incompatible with some curses packages).

       -error_file=FILE
              define a file where Lynx will report HTTP access codes.

       -exec  enable local program execution (normally not configured).

       -fileversions
              include all versions of files in local VMS directory listings.

       -find_leaks
              toggle memory leak-checking.  Normally this is not compiled-into
              your  executable,  but  when  it  is,  it  can be disabled for a
              session.

       -force_empty_hrefless_a
              force HREF-less `A' elements to be empty (close them as soon  as
              they are seen).

       -force_html
              forces the first document to be interpreted as HTML.

       -force_secure
              toggles forcing of the secure flag for SSL cookies.

       -forms_options
              toggles whether the Options Menu is key-based or form-based.

       -from  toggles transmissions of From headers.

       -ftp   disable ftp access.

       -get_data
              properly  formatted  data  for  a  get form are read in from the
              standard input 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 the Lynx command syntax usage message.

       -hiddenlinks=[option]
              control the display of hidden links.

              merge hidden links show up as bracketed numbers and are numbered
              together with other links in the sequence of their occurrence in
              the document.

              listonly  hidden  links  are  shown  only  on  L)ist screens and
              listings generated by -dump or from the P)rint menu, but  appear
              separately  at  the  end  of  those  lists.  This is the default
              behavior.

              ignore hidden links do not appear even in listings.

       -historical
              toggles use of `>' or `-->' as a terminator for comments.

       -homepage=URL
              set homepage separate from start page.

       -image_links
              toggles inclusion of links for all images.

       -index=URL
              set the default index file to the specified URL.

       -ismap toggles inclusion of  ISMAP  links  when  client-side  MAPs  are
              present.

       -justify
              do justification of text.

       -link=NUMBER
              starting count for lnk#.dat files produced by -crawl.

       -listonly
              for -dump, show only the list of links.

       -localhost
              disable URLs that point to remote hosts.

       -locexec
              enable  local  program  execution from local files only (if Lynx
              was compiled with local execution enabled).

       -lss=FILENAME
              specify  filename  containing  color-style   information.    The
              default is lynx.lss.

       -mime_header
              prints  the  MIME  header  of  a fetched document along with its
              source.

       -minimal
              toggles minimal versus valid comment parsing.

       -nested_tables
              toggles nested-tables logic (for debugging).

       -newschunksize=NUMBER
              number of articles in chunked news listings.

       -newsmaxchunk=NUMBER
              maximum news articles in listings before chunking.

       -nobold
              disable bold video-attribute.

       -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.

       -nomargins
              disable left/right margins in the default style sheet.

       -nonrestarting_sigwinch
              This  flag  is  not  available  on all systems, Lynx needs to be
              compiled with HAVE_SIGACTION defined.  If available,  this  flag
              may  cause Lynx to react more immediately to window changes when
              run within an xterm.

       -nonumbers
              disable   link-    and    field-numbering.     This    overrides
              -number_fields and -number_links.

       -nopause
              disable forced pauses for statusline messages.

       -noprint
              disable most print functions.

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

       -noreferer
              disable transmissions of Referer headers.

       -noreverse
              disable reverse video-attribute.

       -nosocks
              disable SOCKS proxy usage by a SOCKSified Lynx.

       -nostatus
              disable the retrieval status messages.

       -notitle
              disable title and blank line from top of page.

       -nounderline
              disable underline video-attribute.

       -number_fields
              force numbering of links as well as form input fields

       -number_links
              force numbering of links.

       -partial
              toggles display partial pages while loading.

       -partial_thres=NUMBER
              number  of  lines  to  render  before  repainting  display  with
              partial-display logic

       -pauth=ID:PASSWD
              set  authorization  ID and password for a protected proxy server
              at startup.  Be sure to protect any script files which use  this
              switch.

       -popup toggles  handling  of  single-choice  SELECT  options  via popup
              windows or as lists of radio buttons.

       -post_data
              properly formatted data for a post form are  read  in  from  the
              standard input and passed to the form.  Input is terminated by a
              line that starts with `---'.

       -preparsed
              show HTML  source  preparsed  and  reformatted  when  used  with
              -source or in source view.

       -prettysrc
              show HTML source view with lexical elements and tags in color.

       -print enable print functions. (default)

       -pseudo_inlines
              toggles pseudo-ALTs for inline images with no ALT string.

       -raw   toggles  default  setting of 8-bit character translations or CJK
              mode for the startup character set.

       -realm restricts access to URLs in the starting realm.

       -reload
              flushes the cache on a proxy server  (only  the  first  document
              affected).

       -restrictions=[option][,option][,option]...
              allows a list of services to be disabled selectively. Dashes and
              underscores in option names can  be  intermixed.  The  following
              list is printed if no options are specified.

              all - restricts all options listed below.

              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.  Set  to  all  restricted,
              except    for:    inside_telnet,   outside_telnet,   inside_ftp,
              outside_ftp,   inside_rlogin,    outside_rlogin,    inside_news,
              outside_news,  telnet_port,  jump,  mail, print, exec, and goto.
              The settings for these, as well as additional goto  restrictions
              for specific URL schemes that are also applied, are derived from
              definitions within userdefs.h.

              dired_support - disallow local file management.

              disk_save - disallow saving to disk in the  download  and  print
              menus.

              dotfiles  -  disallow  access  to,  or creation of, hidden (dot)
              files.

              download - disallow some downloaders in the download menu  (does
              not imply disk_save restriction).

              editor - disallow external editing.

              exec - disable execution scripts.

              exec_frozen   -  disallow  the  user  from  changing  the  local
              execution option.

              externals - disallow  some  "EXTERNAL"  configuration  lines  if
              support  for  passing  URLs  to  external applications (with the
              EXTERN command) is compiled in.

              file_url - disallow using G)oto, served links or  bookmarks  for
              file: URLs.

              goto - disable the `g' (goto) command.

              inside_ftp  -  disallow  ftps for people coming from inside your
              domain (utmp required for selectivity).

              inside_news - disallow USENET news  posting  for  people  coming
              from inside your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

              inside_rlogin  -  disallow rlogins for people coming from inside
              your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

              inside_telnet - disallow telnets for people coming  from  inside
              your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

              jump - disable the `j' (jump) command.

              multibook - disallow multiple bookmarks.

              mail - disallow mail.

              news_post - disallow USENET News posting.

              options_save - disallow saving options in .lynxrc.

              outside_ftp  - disallow ftps for people coming from outside your
              domain (utmp required for selectivity).

              outside_news - disallow USENET  news  reading  and  posting  for
              people  coming  from  outside  your  domain  (utmp  required for
              selectivity).   This  restriction  applies  to  "news",  "nntp",
              "newspost",   and   "newsreply"   URLs,   but  not  to  "snews",
              "snewspost", or "snewsreply" in case they are supported.

              outside_rlogin - disallow rlogins for people coming from outside
              your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

              outside_telnet - disallow telnets for people coming from outside
              your domain (utmp required for selectivity).

              print - disallow most print options.

              shell - disallow shell escapes and lynxexec or lynxprog G)oto's.

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

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

              useragent - disallow modifications of the User-Agent header.

       -resubmit_posts
              toggles forced resubmissions (no-cache)  of  forms  with  method
              POST  when  the  documents  they  returned  are  sought with the
              PREV_DOC command or from the History List.

       -rlogin
              disable recognition of rlogin commands.

       -scrollbar
              toggles showing scrollbar.

       -scrollbar_arrow
              toggles showing arrows at ends of the scrollbar.

       -selective
              require .www_browsable files to browse directories.

       -short_url
              show very long URLs in the status line with "..."  to  represent
              the portion which cannot be displayed.  The beginning and end of
              the URL are displayed, rather than suppressing the end.

       -show_cursor
              If enabled the cursor will not  be  hidden  in  the  right  hand
              corner  but  will  instead  be  positioned  at  the start of the
              currently selected link.  Show cursor is the default for systems
              without  FANCY_CURSES  capabilities.   The default configuration
              can be changed in userdefs.h  or  lynx.cfg.   The  command  line
              switch toggles the default.

       -show_rate
              If  enabled  the  transfer  rate  is  shown in bytes/second.  If
              disabled, no transfer  rate  is  shown.   Use  lynx.cfg  or  the
              options menu to select KB/second and/or ETA.

       -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.  For example

              lynx -source . >foo.html

              generates   HTML   source  listing  the  files  in  the  current
              directory.  Each file is marked  by  an  HREF  relative  to  the
              parent  directory.   Add  a  trailing  slash  to make the HREF's
              relative to the current directory:

              lynx -source ./ >foo.html

       -stack_dump
              disable SIGINT cleanup handler

       -startfile_ok
              allow non-http startfile and homepage with -validate.

       -stderr
              When dumping a document using -dump or  -source,  Lynx  normally
              does  not  display  alert  (error)  messages that you see on the
              screen in the status line.  Use the -stderr option to tell  Lynx
              to write these messages to the standard error.

       -stdin read the startfile from standard input (UNIX only).

       -syslog=text
              information for syslog call.

       -syslog-urls
              log requested URLs with syslog.

       -tagsoup
              initialize parser, using Tag Soup DTD rather than SortaSGML.

       -telnet
              disable recognition of telnet commands.

       -term=TERM
              tell  Lynx what terminal type to assume it is 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.)

       -timeout=N
              For win32, sets the network read-timeout, where N  is  given  in
              seconds.

       -tlog  toggles  between  using  a  Lynx  Trace Log and stderr for trace
              output from the session.

       -tna   turns on "Textfields Need Activation" mode.

       -trace turns on Lynx trace mode.  Destination of trace  output  depends
              on -tlog.

       -trace_mask=value
              turn  on  optional  traces, which may result in very large trace
              files.  Logically OR the values to combine options:
              1=SGML character parsing states
              2=color-style
              4=TRST (table layout)
              8=config (lynx.cfg and .lynxrc contents)
              16=binary string copy/append, used in form data construction.

       -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.

       trim_input_fields
              trim input text/textarea fields in forms.

       -underline_links
              toggles use of underline/bold attribute for links.

       -underscore
              toggles use of _underline_ format in dumps.

       -use_mouse
              turn  on  mouse  support, if available.  Clicking the left mouse
              button on a link traverses it.  Clicking the right mouse  button
              pops  back.   Click  on the top line to scroll up.  Click on the
              bottom line to scroll down.  The first few positions in the  top
              and  bottom  line may invoke additional functions.  Lynx must be
              compiled with ncurses or slang  to  support  this  feature.   If
              ncurses  is  used,  clicking  the  middle mouse button pops up a
              simple menu.  Mouse clicks may only work reliably while Lynx  is
              idle waiting for input.

       -useragent=Name
              set alternate Lynx User-Agent header.

       -validate
              accept  only  http  URLs  (for  validation).   Complete security
              restrictions also are implemented.

       -verbose
              toggle [LINK], [IMAGE] and [INLINE] comments with  filenames  of
              these images.

       -version
              print version information.

       -vikeys
              enable vi-like key movement.

       -wdebug
              enable  Waterloo  tcp/ip packet debug (print to watt debugfile).
              This applies only  to  DOS  versions  compiled  with  WATTCP  or
              WATT-32.

       -width=NUMBER
              number of columns for formatting of dumps, default is 80.

       -with_backspaces
              emit backspaces in output if -dump'ing or -crawl'ing (like `man'
              does)

2 Commands
       o  Use Up arrow and Down arrow to scroll through hypertext links.

       o  Right arrow or Return will follow a highlighted hypertext link.

       o  Left Arrow will retreat from a link.

       o  Type "H" or "?" for  online  help  and  descriptions  of  key-stroke
          commands.

       o  Type  "K"  for  a  complete  list  of the current key-stroke command
          mappings.

2 Environment
       In addition to various "standard" environment variables such  as  HOME,
       PATH,  USER,  DISPLAY, TMPDIR, etc, Lynx utilizes several Lynx-specific
       environment variables, if they exist.

       Others may be created or modified by Lynx to pass data to  an  external
       program, or for other reasons.  These are listed separately below.

       See  also  the  sections  on  SIMULATED CGI SUPPORT and NATIVE LANGUAGE
       SUPPORT, below.

       Note:  Not all environment variables apply to all  types  of  platforms
       supported  by  Lynx, though most do.  Feedback on platform dependencies
       is solicited.

       Environment Variables Used By Lynx:

       COLORTERM           If set, color capability for the terminal is forced
                           on  at  startup time.  The actual value assigned to
                           the variable is ignored.   This  variable  is  only
                           meaningful  if  Lynx  was  built  using  the  slang
                           screen-handling library.

       LYNX_CFG            This variable, if set, will  override  the  default
                           location  and name of the global configuration file
                           (normally,  lynx.cfg)  that  was  defined  by   the
                           LYNX_CFG_FILE  constant  in  the  userdefs.h  file,
                           during installation.  See the userdefs.h  file  for
                           more information.

       LYNX_LOCALEDIR      If  set,  this  variable  overrides the compiled-in
                           location of the  locale  directory  which  contains
                           native language (NLS) message text.

       LYNX_LSS            This  variable,  if  set, specifies the location of
                           the  default  Lynx  character  style  sheet   file.
                           [Currently  only meaningful if Lynx was built using
                           experimental color style support.]

       LYNX_SAVE_SPACE     This variable, if set, will  override  the  default
                           path prefix for files saved to disk that is defined
                           in the lynx.cfg  SAVE_SPACE:  statement.   See  the
                           lynx.cfg file for more information.

       LYNX_TEMP_SPACE     This  variable,  if  set, will override the default
                           path prefix for temporary files  that  was  defined
                           during  installation, as well as any value that may
                           be assigned to the TMPDIR variable.

       MAIL                This variable specifies the default inbox Lynx will
                           check  for new mail, if such checking is enabled in
                           the lynx.cfg file.

       NEWS_ORGANIZATION   This variable, if set, provides the string used  in
                           the  Organization:  header of USENET news postings.
                           It will override the setting  of  the  ORGANIZATION
                           environment  variable,  if  it is also set (and, on
                           UNIX, the contents of an /etc/organization file, if
                           present).

       NNTPSERVER          If  set,  this  variable specifies the default NNTP
                           server that will be used for  USENET  news  reading
                           and posting with Lynx, via news: URL's.

       ORGANIZATION        This  variable, if set, provides the string used in
                           the Organization: header of USENET  news  postings.
                           On  UNIX,  it  will  override  the  contents  of an
                           /etc/organization file, if present.

       PROTOCOL_proxy      Lynx supports the use of proxy servers that can act
                           as firewall gateways and caching servers.  They are
                           preferable  to  the  older  gateway  servers   (see
                           WWW_access_GATEWAY,  below).  Each protocol used by
                           Lynx, (http,  ftp,  gopher,  etc),  can  be  mapped
                           separately  by setting environment variables of the
                           form   PROTOCOL_proxy    (literally:    http_proxy,
                           ftp_proxy,       gopher_proxy,       etc),       to
                           "http://some.server.dom:port/".   See  Lynx   Users
                           Guide for additional details and examples.

       SSL_CERT_DIR        Set    to    the   directory   containing   trusted
                           certificates.

       SSL_CERT_FILE       Set to the full path and filename for your file  of
                           trusted certificates.

       WWW_access_GATEWAY  Lynx  still  supports  use of gateway servers, with
                           the  servers  specified  via   "WWW_access_GATEWAY"
                           variables  (where "access" is lower case and can be
                           "http", "ftp", "gopher" or  "wais"),  however  most
                           gateway  servers have been discontinued.  Note that
                           you do not include a terminal `/' for gateways, but
                           do   for   proxies   specified   by  PROTOCOL_proxy
                           environment variables.  See Lynx  Users  Guide  for
                           details.

       WWW_HOME            This  variable,  if  set, will override the default
                           startup  URL  specified  in   any   of   the   Lynx
                           configuration files.

       Environment Variables Set or Modified By Lynx:

       LYNX_PRINT_DATE     This  variable is set by the Lynx p(rint) function,
                           to  the  Date:  string  seen  in   the   document's
                           "Information  about"  page  (= cmd), if any.  It is
                           created for use by an external program, as  defined
                           in  a  lynx.cfg  PRINTER: definition statement.  If
                           the field does not  exist  for  the  document,  the
                           variable is set to a null string under UNIX, or "No
                           Date" under VMS.

       LYNX_PRINT_LASTMOD  This variable is set by the Lynx p(rint)  function,
                           to  the  Last  Mod:  string  seen in the document's
                           "Information about" page (= cmd), if  any.   It  is
                           created  for use by an external program, as defined
                           in a lynx.cfg PRINTER:  definition  statement.   If
                           the  field  does  not  exist  for the document, the
                           variable is set to a null string under UNIX, or "No
                           LastMod" under VMS.

       LYNX_PRINT_TITLE    This  variable is set by the Lynx p(rint) function,
                           to the Linkname:  string  seen  in  the  document's
                           "Information  about"  page  (= cmd), if any.  It is
                           created for use by an external program, as  defined
                           in  a  lynx.cfg  PRINTER: definition statement.  If
                           the field does not  exist  for  the  document,  the
                           variable is set to a null string under UNIX, or "No
                           Title" under VMS.

       LYNX_PRINT_URL      This variable is set by the Lynx p(rint)  function,
                           to   the   URL:   string  seen  in  the  document's
                           "Information about" page (= cmd), if  any.   It  is
                           created  for use by an external program, as defined
                           in a lynx.cfg PRINTER:  definition  statement.   If
                           the  field  does  not  exist  for the document, the
                           variable is set to a null string under UNIX, or "No
                           URL" under VMS.

       LYNX_TRACE          If set, causes Lynx to write a trace file as if the
                           -trace option were supplied.

       LYNX_TRACE_FILE     If set, overrides the compiled-in name of the trace
                           file,  which  is  either Lynx.trace or LY-TRACE.LOG
                           (the latter on the DOS platform).  The  trace  file
                           is in either case relative to the home directory.

       LYNX_VERSION        This  variable  is  always  set by Lynx, and may be
                           used by an external program to determine if it  was
                           invoked  by  Lynx.   See  also  the comments in the
                           distribution's sample mailcap file,  for  notes  on
                           usage in such a file.

       TERM                Normally,   this   variable  is  used  by  Lynx  to
                           determine the terminal type being  used  to  invoke
                           Lynx.  If, however, it is unset at startup time (or
                           has the value "unknown"), or if the -term  command-
                           line  option  is  used (see OPTIONS section above),
                           Lynx will set or  modify  its  value  to  the  user
                           specified  terminal  type  (for  the Lynx execution
                           environment).  Note: If set/modified by  Lynx,  the
                           values  of  the  LINES  and/or  COLUMNS environment
                           variables may also be changed.

2 Simulated Cgi Support
       If built with the cgi-links option enabled, Lynx allows access to a cgi
       script directly without the need for an http daemon.

       When  executing  such  "lynxcgi  scripts"  (if  enabled), the following
       variables may be set for simulating a CGI environment:

       CONTENT_LENGTH

       CONTENT_TYPE

       DOCUMENT_ROOT

       HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET

       HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE

       HTTP_USER_AGENT

       PATH_INFO

       PATH_TRANSLATED

       QUERY_STRING

       REMOTE_ADDR

       REMOTE_HOST

       REQUEST_METHOD

       SERVER_SOFTWARE

       Other environment variables are not inherited  by  the  script,  unless
       they   are   provided   via  a  LYNXCGI_ENVIRONMENT  statement  in  the
       configuration file.  See the lynx.cfg file, and  the  (draft)  CGI  1.1
       Specification 
       for the definition and usage of these variables.

       The CGI Specification, and other associated  documentation,  should  be
       consulted for general information on CGI script programming.

2 Native Language Support
       If  configured  and  installed  with Native Language Support, Lynx will
       display status and other messages in your local language.  See the file
       ABOUT_NLS  in  the  source distribution, or at your local GNU site, for
       more information about internationalization.

       The following environment  variables  may  be  used  to  alter  default
       settings:

       LANG                This  variable,  if  set, will override the default
                           message language.  It is an ISO 639 two-letter code
                           identifying  the  language.  Language codes are NOT
                           the same as the country codes given in ISO 3166.

       LANGUAGE            This variable, if set, will  override  the  default
                           message language.  This is a GNU extension that has
                           higher priority for  setting  the  message  catalog
                           than LANG or LC_ALL.

       LC_ALL              and

       LC_MESSAGES         These  variables,  if  set,  specify  the notion of
                           native language formatting style.  They are POSIXly
                           correct.

       LINGUAS             This  variable,  if  set  prior  to  configuration,
                           limits the installed languages to specific  values.
                           It  is  a space-separated list of two-letter codes.
                           Currently, it is hard-coded to a wish list.

       NLSPATH             This variable, if set, is used as the  path  prefix
                           for message catalogs.

2 Notes
       This  is the Lynx v2.8.6 Release; development is in progress for 2.8.7.

       If you wish to contribute to the further development of Lynx, subscribe
       to  our mailing list.  Send email to  with
       "subscribe lynx-dev" as the only line in the body of your message.

       Send bug reports, comments, suggestions to   after
       subscribing.

       Unsubscribe  by  sending  email  to   with
       "unsubscribe lynx-dev" as the only line in the body  of  your  message.
       Do not send the unsubscribe message to the lynx-dev list, itself.

2 See Also
       catgets(3),  curses(3),  environ(7),  execve(2),  ftp(1), gettext(GNU),
       localeconv(3),   ncurses(3),   setlocale(3),   slang(?),    termcap(5),
       terminfo(5), wget(GNU)

       Note that man page availability and section numbering is somewhat platform
       dependent, and may vary from the above references.

       A section shown as (GNU), is intended to denote that the topic  may  be
       available via an info page, instead of a man page (i.e., try "info subject",
       rather than "man subject").

       A section shown as (?) denotes that documentation on the topic  exists,
       but  is  not part of an established documentation retrieval system (see
       the distribution files associated with the topic, or contact your  System
       Administrator for further information).

2 Acknowledgments
       Lynx  has  incorporated  code  from a variety of sources along the way.
       The earliest versions of Lynx included code from Earl Fogel of  Comput-
       ing  Services at the University of Saskatchewan, who implemented HYPER-
       REZ in the Unix environment.  HYPERREZ was developed by Niel Larson  of
       Think.com  and  served  as  the  model  for the early versions of Lynx.
       Those versions also incorporated libraries from the Unix Gopher clients
       developed  at  the  University  of Minnesota, and the later versions of
       Lynx rely on the WWW client library code developed by  Tim  Berners-Lee
       and  the  WWW  community.  Also a special thanks to Foteos Macrides who
       ported much of Lynx to VMS and did or organized most of its development
       since  the  departures of Lou Montulli and Garrett Blythe from the Uni-
       versity of Kansas in the summer of 1994 through the release of  v2.7.2,
       and  to  everyone  on the net who has contributed to Lynx's development
       either directly (through patches, comments or bug reports) or indirect-
       ly (through inspiration and development of other systems).

2 Authors
       Lou  Montulli,  Garrett  Blythe, Craig Lavender, Michael Grobe, Charles
       Rezac
       Academic Computing Services
       University of Kansas
       Lawrence, Kansas 66047

       Foteos Macrides
       Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
       Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 01545

       Thomas E. Dickey