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NAME

       surfraw - a fast unix command line interface to WWW services

SYNOPSIS

       surfraw elviname [options] search words ...
       sr elviname [options] search words ...
       sr -elvi
       sr bookmark

DESCRIPTION

       Surfraw  provides  a  fast  unix command line interface to a variety of
       popular WWW search engines and other artifacts of power.   It  reclaims
       google,  altavista,  dejanews,  freshmeat, research index, slashdot and
       many others from  the  false‐prophet,  pox‐infested  heathen  lands  of
       html‐forms,  placing  these  wonders  where  they  belong, deep in unix
       heartland, as god loving extensions to the shell.

       Surfraw consists of a collection of elvi, each of which  knows  how  to
       search a specific web site.  To see the list of elvi type:

        surfraw -elvi

       Note that sr is an alias for surfraw, so that could equally be

        sr -elvi

       To search using an elvis use:

        sr elviname [options] search terms..

       For  example,  to  search google for information on Debian ports, using
       the "I’m feeling lucky" option:

        sr google -l debian ports

   Adding the elvi to your path
       If you are a regular user of surfraw, you will  probably  get  sick  of
       typing  sr  or  surfraw  each time. You can regain the old behaviour of
       running  the  elvi  directly  by   adding   the   elvi   directory   (‐
       /usr/lib/surfraw)    to   your   path,   either   manually   or   using
       surfraw-update-path(1).

   Bookmarks
       Surfraw  supports  bookmarks.  To   add   a   bookmark,   add   it   to
       /etc/xdg/surfraw/bookmarks or $HOME/.config/surfraw/bookmarks

       The  format  of  the  bookmarks  file  is simple, each bookmark is on a
       separate line, with the bookmark and URL separated by whitespace, eg:

        ntk   http://www.ntk.net/

       To invoke a bookmark, use "surfraw bookmark" or "sr bookmark",  and  if
       an elvis of that name doesn’t exist, it searches for a bookmark of that
       name instead.

       There are some example bookmarks in /etc/xdg/surfraw/bookmarks

OPTIONS

       Use  sr elviname -help for elvi‐specific options.

       The following options work with all elvi.

       -help  Show summary of options (including elvi‐specific options).

       -version
              Show version of program.

       -browser=EXECUTABLE
              Set browser (default: sensible-browser).

       -elvi  Display a list of other Surfraw mechanisms for conquering  evil.

       -escape-url-args=yes|no
              Apply url escaping to arguments (default: yes)

       -q|-quote
              Bracket  all  arguments  with  " characters (default: no).  Note
              that putting quotes round arguments works now, so  you  can  do,
              for example:

               sr google foo "bar baz" bam

              and the quoting is passed on to the search engine

EXAMPLES

        $ sr ask why is jeeves gay?
        $ surfraw google -results=100 RMS, GNU, which is sinner, which is sin?
        $ sr austlii -method=phrase dog like
        $ /usr/lib/surfraw/rhyme -method=perfect Julian

CONFIGURATION

       Surfraw        uses        the         XDG         basedir         spec
       (http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-0.html)
       to locate config files. The default locations are shown below, but  can
       be  modified  by setting the environment variables $XDG_CONFIG_HOME and
       $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS.  See the spec for more details.

       Surfraw gets its configuration from three sources, in order:

       1.  Environment variables

       2.  /etc/xdg/surfraw/conf

       3.  $HOME/.config/surfraw/conf

       /etc/xdg/surfraw.conf and $HOME/.config/surfraw/conf are both fragments
       of bourne‐shell style shell script.

       /etc/xdg/surfraw.conf  should  use  def  and defyn to define variables.
       These functions set variables  unless  they  are  already  set  by  the
       environment.   defyn  is  used for boolean configuration variables, def
       for all others. For instance:

        def     SURFRAW_text_browser /usr/bin/lynx
        defyn   SURFRAW_graphical         no

       $HOME/.config/surfraw/conf should use sh‐style entries, eg:

        SURFRAW_text_browser=/usr/bin/lynx
        SURFRAW_graphical=no

       This is  because  you  want  them  to  override  environment  variables
       unconditionally.

CONFIGURATION VARIABLES

       SURFRAW_global_conf
              Location of global configuration file.

              Default:

               def SURFRAW_global_conf /etc/xdg/surfraw/conf

       SURFRAW_conf
              Location of per‐user configuration file.

              Default:

               def SURFRAW_conf $HOME/.config/surfraw/conf

       SURFRAW_graphical
              Whether to use a graphical browser.

              Default:

              defyn SURFRAW_graphical no

       SURFRAW_text_browser
              Name/path of text browser executable.  e.g. links, lynx, w3m

              Default:

              def SURFRAW_text_browser sensible-browser

       SURFRAW_graphical_browser
              Name/path   of   graphical  browser  executable.   e.g  mozilla,
              netscape etc.

              Default:

               def SURFRAW_graphical_browser sensible-browser

       SURFRAW_text_browser_args
              Text browser arguments, or "none".

              Default:

               def SURFRAW_text_browser_args none

       SURFRAW_graphical_browser_args
              Graphical browser arguments, or "none".

              Default:

               def SURFRAW_graphical_browser_args none

       SURFRAW_graphical_remote
              Whether to use "-remote openURL" for graphical browser.

              Default:

               defyn SURFRAW_graphical_remote yes

       SURFRAW_new_window
              When using SURFRAW_graphical_remote, open a new window?

              Default:

               defyn SURFRAW_new_window no

       SURFRAW_screen

              Name of screen command to run.

              Default:

               def SURFRAW_screen screen

       SURFRAW_new_screen
              If surfraw is running under screen(1), start a  new  screen  for
              each text browser invocation?

              Default:

               defyn SURFRAW_new_screen no

       SURFRAW_screen_args
              Arguments to pass to the SURFRAW_screen command

              Default:

               def SURFRAW_screen_args ""

       SURFRAW_quote_args
              Whether to "quote" all the arguments.

              Default:

               defyn SURFRAW_quote_args no

       SURFRAW_quote_ifs
              Whether to re‐quote arguments if they have spaces in, ie so:
               sr google foo "bar baz" bam
              works as expected.

              Default:

              defyn SURFRAW_quote_ifs    yes

       SURFRAW_results
              Default number of results to return (not supported by all elvi).

              Default:

               def SURFRAW_results 30

       SURFRAW_escape_url_args
              Whether to escape [% "$%&+,/:;<=>?@[{|}~’] characters in command
              line arguments subsequently used to construct a url.

              Default:

               defyn SURFRAW_escape_url_args yes

FILES

       /usr/lib/surfraw
              Location of the elvi.

       ${HOME}/.config/surfraw/elvi
              Per‐user elvi.

       /etc/xdg/surfraw/conf
              Default system wide configuration file.

       $HOME/.config/surfraw/conf
              Default per‐user config file

       /etc/xdg/surfraw/bookmarks
              System wide bookmarks file.

       $HOME/.config/surfraw/bookmarks
              Per‐user bookmarks file.

BUGS

       Please report any bugs found (or any web sites in need of surfrawizing)
       either via the debian bug tracking system (http://bugs.debian.org/)  or
       to the surfraw-devel list (surfraw-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org).

SEE ALSO

       http://alioth.debian.org/projects/surfraw/

PROPAGANDA

                                      Oh Baybe
                                     I need some
                                    Deep Linking
                                      Let us go
                                 Surfin’ in the raw!

       Read  HACKING.  Surfrawize  the soul of your favourite internet wonder.
       Join the Shell Users’ Revolutionary Front Against the WWW by submitting
       code.   Reclaim  heathen  lands.   Bear witness to the truth.  Its love
       will set you free.

       Join us on surfraw-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org

AUTHORS

       Originally written by Julian Assange.

       Now     maintained     by      the      surfraw-devel      team      <‐
       surfraw-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>.

       See the file AUTHORS for the full list of contributors.

       Man  page  by Ian Beckwith, based on the original README and an earlier
       man page by Christian Surchi.

COPYRIGHT

         Copyright (c) 2003-2008 The Surfraw-Devel Team
                                  <surfraw-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>
         Copyright (c) 2000-2001 Julian Assange <proff@iq.org>
         Copyright (c) 2001 Australian Institute for Collaborative Research
         Copyright (c) 2000 Melbourne Institute for Advanced Study

       The copyright holders listed above assert no rights on this release  of
       the  software ‘‘surfraw’’ and thereby explicity place this release into
       the into the public domain. Do what you will.

                                 Feb 03, 2004