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 in the third pass of options-processing, so any option which sets a value, as well as runtime configuration values are 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 and associated print/mail options. -child_relaxed exit on left-arrow in startfile, but allow save to disk and associated print/mail options. -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, and exit.

       -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.  If you give an empty filename, lynx uses a
              built-in monochrome scheme which  imitates  the  non-color-style
              configuration.

       -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.

       -nomore
              disable -more- string in statusline messages.

       -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

       -passive-ftp
              toggles passive ftp connections.

       -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.

       -read_timeout=N
              Sets the read-timeout, where N is given in seconds.

       -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.

       -session=FILENAME
              resumes from specified file on startup and saves session to that
              file on exit.

       -sessionin=FILENAME
              resumes session from specified file.

       -sessionout=FILENAME
              saves session to specified file.

       -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_cfg
              Print the configuration settings, e.g., as read from "lynx.cfg",
              and exit.

       -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,  .lynxrc,  .lynx-keymaps,  mime.types   and
              mailcap contents)
              16=binary string copy/append, used in form data construction.
              32=cookies
              64=character sets
              128=GridText parsing
              256=timing

       -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, and exit.

       -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.   This
              is  limited  by  the  number of columns that Lynx could display,
              typically 1024 (the MAX_LINE symbol).

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

       -xhtml_parsing
              tells Lynx that it can ignore certain tags which have no content
              in an XHTML 1.0 document.  For example "

" will be discarded. 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_HELPFILE If set, this variable overrides the compiled-in URL and configuration file URL for the Lynx help file. 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 v2.8.7 Release; development is in progress for 2.8.8. 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