LYNX(1) General Commands Manual LYNX(1) NAME lynx - a general purpose distributed information browser for the World Wide Web SYNOPSIS lynx [options] [optional paths or URLs] lynx [options] [path or URL] -get_data data -- lynx [options] [path or URL] -post_data data -- Use “lynx -help” to display a complete list of current options. DESCRIPTION Lynx is a fully-featured World Wide Web (WWW) client for users running cursor-addressable, character- cell display devices (e.g., vt100 terminals, vt100 emulators running on Windows 95/NT/XP/7/8 or any POSIX platform, 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/XP/7/8, DOS DJGPP and OS/2. Lynx can be used to access information on the World Wide Web, or to build information systems intended primarily for local access. For example, Lynx has been used to build several Campus Wide Information Systems (CWIS). In addition, Lynx can be used to build systems isolated within a single LAN. OPTIONS At start up, Lynx will load any local file or remote URL specified at the command line. For help with URLs, press “?” or “H” while running Lynx. Then follow the link titled, “Help on 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 shown 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 do not 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. -bibhost=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 toggles center alignment in HTML TABLE. Normally table cells are centered on the table grid. Set this option “on” to disable centering. The default is “off”. -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 or .lynxrc files. Lynx tries the cfg-file setting first. -collapse_br_tags toggles collapsing of BR tags. -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. The feature is normally available for curses configurations, but inactive. To activate it, use the “|” character or the LINEWRAP_TOGGLE command. Toggling this option makes the feature altogether unavailable. -debug_partial separate incremental display stages with MessageSecs delay -default_colors toggles the default-colors feature which is normally set in the lynx.cfg file. -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 when -dump'ing and -crawl'ing, mark wrapped lines of 
 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

              Files specified on the command line are formatted as HTML if their names end  with  one  of  the
              standard  web  suffixes  such  as “.htm” or “.html”.  Use the -force_html option to format files
              whose names do not follow this convention.

       -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.

              This is most useful  when  processing  files  specified  on  the  command  line  which  have  an
              unrecognized  suffix (or the suffix is associated with a non-HTML type, such as “.txt” for plain
              text files).

              Lynx recognizes these file suffixes as HTML:

                  “.ht3”,
                  “.htm”,
                  “.html3”,
                  “.html”,
                  “.htmlx”,
                  “.php3”,
                  “.php”,
                  “.phtml”,
                  “.sht”, and
                  “.shtml”.

       -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 “---”.

              Lynx  issues  an  HTTP  GET,  sending  the form to the path or URL given on the command-line and
              prints the response of the server.  If no path or URL is given,  Lynx  sends  the  form  to  the
              start-page.

       -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.

       -list_decoded
              for -dump, show URL-encoded links decoded.

       -list_inline
              for -dump, show the links inline with the text.

       -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 “---”.

              Lynx issues an HTTP POST, sending the form to the path or URL  given  on  the  command-line  and
              prints  the  response  of  the  server.   If no path or URL is given, Lynx sends the form to the
              start-page.

       -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 given on the command-line is
              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.

       -socks5_proxy=URL
              (Via  which) SOCKS5 proxy to connect: any network traffic, including all DNS resolutions but the
              one for URL itself, will  be  redirected  through  the  SOCKS5  proxy.   URL  may  be  given  as
              “proxy.example.com”,  “proxy.example.com:1080”,  “192.168.0.1”,  or “192.168.0.1:1080” (and IPv6
              notation if so supported).  A SOCKS5 proxy may also be specified via  the  environment  variable
              SOCKS5_PROXY.  This option controls the builtin SOCKS5 support, which is unrelated to the option
              -nosocks.

       -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  configuration (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

              512
                 detailed URL parsing

       -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_blank_lines
              toggles  trimming  of  trailing blank lines as well as the related trimming of blank lines while
              collapsing BR tags.

       -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.

       -unique_urls
              check for duplicate link numbers in each page and corresponding lists, and  reuse  the  original
              link number.

       -update_term_title
              enables  updating  the title in terminal emulators.  Use only if your terminal emulator supports
              that escape code.  Has no effect when used with -notitle.

       -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.

COMMANDS
       More than one key can be mapped to a given command.  Here are some of the most useful:

       •   Use Up arrow and Down arrow to scroll through hypertext links.

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

       •   Left Arrow or “u” will retreat from a link.

       •   Type “H”, “?”, or F1 for online help and descriptions of key-stroke commands.

       •   Type “k” or “K” for a list of the current key-stroke command mappings.

           If the same command is mapped to the  same  letter  differing  only  by  upper/lowercase  only  the
           lowercase mapping is shown.

       •   Type Delete to view history list.

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_CFG_PATH       If set, this variable overrides the compiled-in search-list of directories used  to
                           find  the  configuration files, e.g., lynx.cfg and lynx.lss.  The list is delimited
                           with ":" (or ";" for Windows) like the PATH environment variable.

       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 curses 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.  Protocols are indicated
                           in a URI by the name before “:”, e.g., “http” in “http://some.server.dom:port/” for
                           HTML.

                           Depending  on  your  system  configuration and supported protocols, the environment
                           variables recognized by lynx may include

                               cso_proxy
                               finger_proxy
                               ftp_proxy
                               gopher_proxy
                               https_proxy
                               http_proxy
                               newspost_proxy
                               newsreply_proxy
                               news_proxy
                               nntp_proxy
                               no_proxy
                               snewspost_proxy
                               snewsreply_proxy
                               snews_proxy
                               wais_proxy

                           See Lynx Users Guide for additional details and examples.

       SOCKS5_PROXY        Is inspected if -socks5_proxy has not been used (for the same content).

       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/Windows  platforms).   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.

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.

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.

NOTES
       This is the manual for Lynx v2.9.0dev.5; development is in progress for 2.9.0.

       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.

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,  in‐
       stead 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 estab‐
       lished documentation retrieval system (see the distribution files associated with the topic, or contact
       your System Administrator for further information).

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

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

       Foteos Macrides
       Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
       Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 01545

       Thomas E. Dickey
       

                                                                                                       LYNX(1)