Lynx-like alternative character mode www browser
links2 [options] URL
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.
Most options can be set in the user interface or config file, so usually you do not need to care about them.
-help
Print a help screen
-version
Prints the links version number and exit.
-lookup <hostname>
Does name lookup, like command "host".
-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\(hyin graphics devices and run on the first found. If none found, links2 will not run in graphics mode. This option works only if \(hy\(hyenable\(hygraphics 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-dir <path>
Default download directory. (default: actual dir)
-language <language>
Set user interface language.
-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)
-bind-address <ip address>
Use a specific local IP address.
-bind-address-ipv6 <ipv6 address>
Use a specific local IPv6 address.
-async-dns <0>/<1>
Asynchronous DNS resolver on(1)/off(0).
-download-utime <0>/<1>
Set time of downloaded files to last modification time reported by server.
-format-cache-size <num>
Number of formatted document pages cached. (default: 5)
-memory-cache-size <bytes>
Cache memory in bytes. (default: 1048576)
-image-cache-size <bytes>
Cache memory in bytes. (default: 1048576)
-font-cache-size <bytes>
Cache memory in bytes. (default: 2097152)
-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.
-address-preference <0>/<1>/<2>/<3>/<4>
(default 0) 0 - use system default. 1 - prefer IPv4. 2 - prefer IPv6. 3 - use only IPv4. 4 - use only IPv6.
-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)
-https-proxy <host:port>
Host and port number of the HTTPS 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.
-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.do-not-track <0>/<1>
(default 0) Send do not track request in the HTTP header.
-http.referer <0>/<1>/<2>/<3>/<4>
(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.use-erpt-epsv <0>/<1>
Use EPRT and EPSV commands instead of PORT and PASV.
-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.
-ftp.set-iptos <0>/<1>
Set IP Type-of-service to high throughput on ftp connections.
-smb.allow-hyperlinks-to-smb <0>/<1>
Allow hyperlinks to SMB protocol. Disabling this improves security, because internet sites cannot exploit possible bugs in the SMB client.
-menu-font-size <size>
Size of font in menu.
-menu-background-color 0xRRGGBB
Set menu background color in graphics mode. RRGGBB are hex.
-menu-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.
-bookmarks-file <file>
File to store bookmarks.
-bookmarks-codepage <codepage>
Character set of bookmarks file.
-save-url-history <0>/<1>
Save URL history on exit.
-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.
-overwrite-instead-of-scroll <0>/<1>
Overwrite the screen instead of scrolling it (valid for svgalib and framebuffer). Overwriting may or may not be faster, depending on hardware.
-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.
-html-t-text-color <0>-<15>
Text color in text mode.
-html-t-link-color <0>-<15>
Link color in text mode.
-html-t-background-color <0>-<7>
Background color in text mode.
-html-t-ignore-document-color <0>/<1>
Ignore colors specified in html document in text mode.
-html-g-text-color 0xRRGGBB
Text color in graphics mode.
-html-g-link-color 0xRRGGBB
Link color in graphics mode.
-html-g-background-color 0xRRGGBB
Background color in graphics mode.
-html-g-ignore-document-color <0>/<1>
Ignore colors specified in html document in graphics mode.
More options can be seen with links2 -h
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
CursorDOWN
next link/down
CursorUP
prev link/up
INS
scroll up
^P
scroll up
DEL
scroll down
^N
scroll down
[
scroll left
]
scroll right
HOME
home
END
end of page
CursorRIGHT
enter link/press button
ENTER
enter link/press button
CursorLEFT
go back
d
download link
/
search in the page
?
search back in the page
n
find next match
N
find next match backwards
f
zoom actual frame
^R
reload page
g
go to URL
G
edit the current URL and goto the result
^G
edit the current link and goto the result
s
bookmark manager
q
quit, close window if more windows are open
Q
quit without asking
=
document information
\
toggle HTML source/rendered view
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
^X
cut to clipboard (text mode only)
^B
copy to clipboard
^INS
copy to clipboard
^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
Per\(hyuser configfile, automatically created by links2.
links2 is known to work on Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, IRIX, HPUX, Digital Unix, AIX, OS/2, BeOS and Win32.
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 <[email protected]>
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.
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 <[email protected]>, using excerpts from a (yet?) unknown links2 fan for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). Updated by Karel Kulhavy.