LYNX(1) Lynx - the text web browser 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 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. Lynx has been ported to many systems, including all variants of Unix, Windows (since Windows 95), DOS DJGPP and OS/2, as well as VMS and OS/390. 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:

       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 or "u" will retreat from a link.

       o   Type "H", "?", or F1 for online help and descriptions of key-stroke
           commands.

       o   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.

       o   Type Delete to view history list.

ENVIRONMENT
       In addition to various "standard" environment variables such as
       DISPLAY, HOME, PATH, SHELL, TMPDIR, USER, 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
                               http_proxy
                               https_proxy
                               news_proxy
                               newspost_proxy
                               newsreply_proxy
                               nntp_proxy
                               no_proxy
                               rlogin_proxy
                               snews_proxy
                               snewspost_proxy
                               snewsreply_proxy
                               telnet_proxy
                               tn3270_proxy
                               wais_proxy

                           See Lynx Users Guide for additional details and
                           examples.

       RL_CLCOPY_CMD       Pipe the contents of the current link using this
                           command as the target.

       RL_PASTE_CMD        Open a pipe to read from this command, pasting it
                           into the current editable-field or command-prompt.

       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
   Mailing Lists
       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.

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

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
       

SEE ALSO
       catgets(3), curses(3), environ(7), ftp(1), gettext(GNU), localeconv(3),
       ncurses(3), setlocale(3), termcap(5), terminfo(5)

Lynx 2.9.1                        2024-04-15                           LYNX(1)