NAME
links - lynx-like alternative character mode WWW browser
SYNOPSIS
links2 [options] URL
DESCRIPTION
links2 is a text mode WWW browser with ncurses interface, supporting
colors, correct table rendering, background downloading, menu driven
configuration interface and slim code.
Frames are supported. You can have different file formats associated
with external viewers. mailto: and telnet: are supported via external
clients.
links2 can handle local (file://) or remote (http:// or ftp://) URLs.
OPTIONS
Most options can be set in the user interface or config file, so
usually you do not need to care about them.
-g Run Links2 in graphics mode. If not given, Links2 will run in
text mode. Running in graphics mode means that Links2 will
probe all compiled‐in graphics devices and run on the first
found. If none found, links2 will not run in text mode. This
option works only if ‐‐enable‐graphics was given to ./configure.
-no-g Run in text mode (overrides previous -g).
-driver <driver name>
Graphics driver to use. Drivers are: x, svgalib, fb, directfb,
pmshell, atheos. List of drivers will be shown if you give it
an unknown driver. Available drivers depend on your operating
system and available libraries.
-mode <parameter>
Pass a parameter to the graphics driver. On SVGAlib, this is
widthxheightxdepth, (where depth is 16, 256, 32K, 64K, 16M or
16M32) and defines the graphics mode, on X the format is
WIDTHxHEIGHT and defines the window size.
-display <x-display>
Set Xwindow display.
-force-html
Treat files with unknown type as html rather than text. (can be
toggled with ’\’ key)
-source <url>
Write unformatted data stream to stdout.
-dump <url>
Write formatted document to stdout.
-width <number>
For dump, document will be formatted to this screen width (but
it can still exceed it if lines can’t be broken).
-codepage <codepage>
For dump, convert output to specified character set -- for
example iso-8859-2, windows-1250.
-anonymous
Restrict links so that it can run on an anonymous account. No
local file browsing. No downloads. Executing of viewers is
allowed, but user can’t add or modify entries in association
table.
-no-connect
Runs links2 as a separate instance - instead of connecting to
existing instance.
-download-utime <0>/<1>
Set time of downloaded files to last modification time reported
by server.
-async-dns <0>/<1>
Asynchronous DNS resolver on(1)/off(0).
-max-connections <max>
Maximum number of concurrent connections. (default: 10)
-max-connections-to-host <max>
Maximum number of concurrent connection to a given host.
(default: 2)
-retries <retry>
Number of retries. (default: 3)
-receive-timeout <sec>
Timeout on receive. (default: 120)
-unrestartable-receive-timeout <sec>
Timeout on non restartable connections. (default: 600)
-format-cache-size <num>
Number of formatted document pages cached. (default: 5)
-memory-cache-size <bytes>
Cache memory in Kilobytes. (default: 1024)
-image-cache-size <bytes>
Cache memory in Kilobytes. (default: 1024)
-http-proxy <host:port>
Host and port number of the HTTP proxy, or blank. (default:
blank)
-ftp-proxy <host:port>
Host and port number of the FTP proxy, or blank. (default:
blank)
-socks-proxy <user@host:port>
Userid, host and port of Socks4a, or blank. (default: blank)
-append-text-to-dns-lookups <text>
Append text to dns lookups. It is useful for specifying fixed
tor exit node. (default: blank)
-only-proxies <0>/<1>
"1" causes that Links won’t initiate any non-proxy connection.
It is useful for anonymization with tor or similar networks.
-download-dir <path>
Default download directory. (default: actual dir)
-aggressive-cache <0>/<1>
Always cache everything regardless of server’s caching
recomendations. Many servers deny caching even if their content
is not changing just to get more hits and more money from ads.
-language <language>
Set user interface language.
-http-bugs.http10 <0>/<1>
(default 0) "1" forces using only HTTP/1.0 protocol. (useful for
buggy servers that claim to be HTTP/1.1 compliant but are not)
"0" enables using both HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1.
-http-bugs.allow-blacklist <0>/<1>
(default 1) "1" defaults to using list of servers that have
broken HTTP/1.1 support. When links2 finds such server, it will
retry the request with HTTP/1.0.
-http-bugs.bug-302-redirect <0>/<1>
(default 1) Process 302 redirect in a way that is incompatible
with RFC1945 and RFC2068, but the same as Netscape and MSIE.
Many pages depend on it.
-http-bugs.bug-post-no-keepalive <0>/<1>
(default 0) No keepalive connection after post requests. For
some buggy servers.
-http-bugs.bug-no-accept-charset <0>/<1>
(default 0) Do not send Accept-Charset field of HTTP header.
Because it is too long some servers will deny the request. Other
servers will convert content to plain ascii when Accept-Charset
is missing.
-http-bugs.no-compression <0>/<1>
(default 0) "1" causes that links won’t advertise HTTP
compression support (but it will still accept compressed data).
Use it when you communicate with server that has broken
compression support.
-http-bugs.retry-internal-errors <0>/<1>
(default 0) Retry on internal server errors (50x).
-http.referer <0>/<1>
(default 0) 0 - do not send referer. 1 - send the requested URL
as referer. 2 - send fake referer. 3 - send real referer. 4 -
send real referer only to the same server.
-http.fake-referer <string>
Fake referer value.
-http.fake-user-agent <string>
Fake user agent value.
-http.extra-header <string>
Extra string added to HTTP header.
-ftp.anonymous-password <string>
Password for anonymous ftp access.
-ftp.use-passive <0>/<1>
Use ftp PASV command to bypass firewalls.
-ftp.fast <0>/<1>
Send more ftp commands simultaneously. Faster response when
browsing ftp directories, but it is incompatible with RFC and
some servers don’t like it.
-menu-font-size <size>
Size of font in menu.
-background-color 0xRRGGBB
Set menu background color in graphics mode. RRGGBB are hex.
-foreground-color 0xRRGGBB
Set menu foreground color in graphics mode. RRGGBB are hex.
-scroll-bar-area-color 0xRRGGBB
Set color of scroll bar area. RRGGBB are hex.
-scroll-bar-bar-color 0xRRGGBB
Set color of scroll bar. RRGGBB are hex.
-scroll-bar-frame-color 0xRRGGBB
Set color of scroll bar frame. RRGGBB are hex.
-display-red-gamma <fp-value>
Red gamma of display. (default 2.2)
-display-green-gamma <fp-value>
Green gamma of display. (default 2.2)
-display-blue-gamma <fp-value>
Blue gamma of display. (default 2.2)
-user-gamma <fp-value>
Additional gamma. (default 1)
-bfu-aspect <fp-value>
Display aspect ration.
-aspect-on <0>/<1>
Enable aspect ratio correction.
-dither-letters <0>/<1>
Do letter dithering.
-dither-images <0>/<1>
Do image dithering.
-display-optimize <0>/<1>/<2>
Optimize for CRT (0), LCD RGB (1), LCD BGR (2).
-gamma-correction <0>/<1>/<2>
Type of gamma correction: (default 2) 0 - 8-bit (fast). 1 -
16-bit (slow). 2 - automatically detect according to speed of
FPU.
-bookmarks-codepage <codepage>
Character set of bookmarks file.
-bookmarks-file <file>
File to store bookmarks.
-html-assume-codepage <codepage>
Use the given codepage when the webpage did not specify its
codepage. (default: ISO 8859-1)
-html-hard-assume <0>/<1>
Use always character set from "-html-assume-codepage" no matter
what server sent.
-html-tables <0>/<1>
Render tables. (0) causes tables being rendered like in lynx.
-html-frames <0>/<1>
Render frames. (0) causes frames rendered like in lynx.
-html-images <0>/<1>
Display links to unnamed images as [IMG]
-html-image-names <0>/<1>
Display filename of an image instead of [IMG].
-html-display-images <0>/<1>
Display images in graphics mode.
-html-image-scale <percent>
Scale images in graphics mode.
-html-bare-image-autoscale <0>/<1>
Autoscale images displayed in full screen.
-html-numbered-links <0>/<1>
Number links in text mode. Allow quick link selection by typing
link number and enter.
-html-table-order <0>/<1>
In text mode, walk through table by rows (0) or columns (1).
-html-auto-refresh <0>/<1>
Process refresh to other page (1), or display link to that page
(0).
-html-target-in-new-window <0>/<1>
Allow opening new windows from html.
-html-margin <number of spaces>
Margin in text mode.
-html-user-font-size <size>
Size of font on pages in graphics mode.
-lookup <hostname>
Does name lookup, like command "host".
-version
Prints the links version number and exit.
-help Printf a help screen
More options can be seen with links2 -h
NAVIGATION KEYS
The keys you may use while navigating are
ESC menu/escape
F9 menu
F10 file menu
TAB next frame
PGDN page down
Space page down
PGUP page up
b page up
B page up
CursorDOWN
next link/down (text mode), scroll down (graphics mode)
CursorUP
prev link/up (text mode), up (graphics mode)
^INS copy to clipboard
^C copy to clipboard (OS/2 only)
INS scroll up (text mode only)
^P scroll up
DEL scroll down
^N scroll down
[ scroll left
] scroll right
HOME home
END end of page
CursorRIGHT
enter link/press button (text mode), scroll right (graphics
mode)
ENTER enter link/press button
CursorLEFT
go back (text mode), scroll left (graphics mode)
d download link (text mode only)
D download link (text mode only)
/ search in the page
? search back in the page
n find next match
N find next match backwards
f zoom actual frame
F zoom actual frame
^R reload page
g go to URL
G edit the current URL and goto the result
s bookmark manager
S bookmark manager
q quit, close window if more windows are open
Q quit, close window if more windows are open
= document informations
\ toggle HTML source/rendered view
EDITING KEYS
The following keys can be used while editing a line/jumping to a URL:
CursorRIGHT
move right
CursorLEFT
move left
HOME jump at the beginning
^A jump at the beginning
END jump at the end
^E jump at the end
^INS copy to clipboard
^B copy to clipboard
^X cut to clipboard (text mode only)
^V paste from clipboard (text mode only)
ENTER enter line
BACKSPACE
delete back character
^H delete back character
DEL delete character
^D delete character
^U delete from beginning of the line
^K delete to the end of the line
^W auto complete line
FILES
~/.links2/links.cfg
Per‐user configfile, automatically created by links2.
PLATFORMS
links2 is known to work on Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, IRIX, HPUX,
Digital Unix, AIX, OS/2 and BeOS. Port for Win32 is in state of
beta testing.
BUGS
Can’t connect to some FTP servers (Novell, NT). Connection stays
in "Request sent" state.
Frames don’t work if there’s more frames with same name. Turn
them off in such case.
You can’t upload large files; it takes _lots_ of memory.
You shouldn’t press ’^Z’ when you are in a viewer
Please report any other bugs you find to Mikulas Patocka
<mikulas@artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz>
LICENSE
links2 is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
the License, or (at your option) any later version.
AUTHOR
links2 was written by Mikulas Patocka, Karel ’Clock’ Kulhavy,
Petr ’Brain’ Kulhavy, and Martin ’PerM’ Pergel. See file
AUTHORS for a list of people contributing to this project.
The homepage of links2 can be found at
http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~clock/twibright/links
This manual page was written by Peter Gervai <grin@tolna.net>,
using excerpts from a (yet?) unknown links2 fan for the Debian
GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). Updated by Karel
Kulhavy.
SEE ALSO
lynx(1), w3m(1)
Aug, 2006