Reference

links2(1)

lynx-like alternative character mode WWW browser

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.

-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‐in graphics devices and run on the first found. If none found, links2 will not run in graphics 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-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)

-timeout-when-trying-multiple-addresses <sec>

Timeout for connection when trying multiple addresses or when resuming a keepalive connection. (default: 3)

-bind-address <ip address or interface name>

Use a specific local IP address.

-bind-address-ipv6 <ipv6 address or interface name>

Use a specific local IPv6 address.

-no-libevent

Don't use libevent library.

-no-openmp

Don't use OpenMP.

-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)

-no-proxy-domains <domain,domain...>

No proxy for specified domains. (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.

-ssl.certificates <0>/<1>/<2>

(default 1) 0 - ignore invalid certificate. 1 - warn on invalid certificate. 2 - reject invalid certificate.

-ssl.builtin-certificates <0>/<1>

(default 0; on DOS and OpenVMS default 1) Use built-in certificates instead of system certificates.

-ssl.client-cert-key <filename>

Name of the PEM encoded file with the user private key for client certificate authentication.

-ssl.client-cert-crt <filename>

Name of the PEM encoded file with the user certificate for client certificate authentication.

-ssl.client-cert-password <text>

Password for the user private key.

-async-dns <0>/<1>

Asynchronous DNS resolver on(1)/off(0).

-dns-over-https <url>

DNS over HTTPS url.

-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-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.fake-firefox <0>/<1>

(default 0) Fake that the browser is Firefox in the HTTP header.

-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.set-iptos <0>/<1>

Set IP Type-of-service to high throughput on ftp connections.

-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.

-enable-cookies <0>/<1>

Enable cookies.

-save-cookies <0>/<1>

Save cookies 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.

-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.

-font <file>

Font file for normal text.

-font-bold <file>

Font file for bold text.

-font-monospaced <file>

Font file for monospaced text.

-font-monospaced-bold <file>

Font file for monospaced bold text.

-font-italic <file>

Font file for italic text.

-font-italic-bold <file>

Font file for italic bold text.

-font-monospaced-italic <file>

Font file for monospaced italic text.

-font-monospaced-italic-bold <file>

Font file for monospaced italc bold text.

-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-break-long-lines <0>/<1>

Break long lines in <pre> sections.

-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-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-text-color <0>-<15>

Text color in text mode.

-html-background-color <0>-<7>

Background color in text mode.

-html-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-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

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

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

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

^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

FILES

Per‐user configfile, automatically created by
~/.links2/links.cfg

links2.

PLATFORMS

links2 is known to work on Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, IRIX, HPUX, Digital Unix, AIX, OS/2, BeOS and Win32.

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 <[email protected]>

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://links.twibright.com/

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.

SEE ALSO

lynx(1), w3m(1)

History

-address-preference since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -aggressive-cache since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -append-text-to-dns-lookups since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -bfu-aspect since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -bookmarks-codepage since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -bookmarks-file since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -codepage since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -display since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -display-blue-gamma since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -display-green-gamma since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -display-optimize since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -display-red-gamma since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -dither-images since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -dither-letters since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -dns-over-https since Debian 12 (Bookworm); -download-utime since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -dump since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -enable-cookies since Debian 12 (Bookworm); -font since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -font-bold since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -font-cache-size since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -font-italic since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -font-italic-bold since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -font-monospaced since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -font-monospaced-bold since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -font-monospaced-italic since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -font-monospaced-italic-bold since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -force-html since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -ftp.anonymous-password since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -ftp.set-iptos since Debian 8 (Jessie); -ftp.use-erpt-epsv since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -ftp.use-passive since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -gamma-correction since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-assume-codepage since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-auto-refresh since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-background-color since Debian 10 (Buster); -html-bare-image-autoscale since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-break-long-lines since Debian 9 (Stretch); -html-display-images since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-frames since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-g-background-color since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -html-g-ignore-document-color since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -html-g-link-color since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -html-g-text-color since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -html-hard-assume since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-ignore-document-color since Debian 10 (Buster); -html-image-names since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-image-scale since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-images since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-link-color since Debian 10 (Buster); -html-numbered-links since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-table-order since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-tables since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-target-in-new-window since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -html-text-color since Debian 10 (Buster); -html-user-font-size since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -http-bugs.allow-blacklist since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -http-bugs.bug-no-accept-charset since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -http-bugs.http10 since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -http-bugs.no-compression since Debian 5.0 (Lenny); -http-bugs.retry-internal-errors since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -http.do-not-track since Debian 8 (Jessie); -http.extra-header since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -http.fake-firefox since Debian 9 (Stretch); -http.fake-referer since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -http.fake-user-agent since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -http.referer since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -https-proxy since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -image-cache-size since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -language since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -lookup since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -max-cookie-age since Debian 12 (Bookworm); -menu-background-color since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -menu-font-size since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -menu-foreground-color since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -no-g since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -no-libevent since Debian 9 (Stretch); -no-openmp since Debian 9 (Stretch); -no-proxy-domains since Debian 10 (Buster); -only-proxies since Debian 5.0 (Lenny); -overwrite-instead-of-scroll since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -save-cookies since Debian 12 (Bookworm); -save-url-history since Debian 8 (Jessie); -scroll-bar-area-color since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -scroll-bar-bar-color since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -scroll-bar-frame-color since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -smb.allow-hyperlinks-to-smb since Debian 8 (Jessie); -socks-proxy since Debian 5.0 (Lenny); -source since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -ssl.builtin-certificates since Debian 10 (Buster); -ssl.certificates since Debian 9 (Stretch); -ssl.client-cert-crt since Debian 9 (Stretch); -ssl.client-cert-key since Debian 9 (Stretch); -ssl.client-cert-password since Debian 9 (Stretch); -timeout-when-trying-multiple-addresses since Debian 10 (Buster); -user-gamma since Debian 4.0 (Etch); -width since Debian 4.0 (Etch).

-aspect-on until Debian 8 (Jessie); -assume-codepage until Debian 3.1 (Sarge); -background-color until Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -enable-javascript until Debian 4.0 (Etch); -fake-referer until Debian 5.0 (Lenny); -fake-user-agent until Debian 5.0 (Lenny); -foreground-color until Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -ftp.fast until Debian 9 (Stretch); -html-t-background-color until Debian 9 (Stretch); -html-t-ignore-document-color until Debian 9 (Stretch); -html-t-link-color until Debian 9 (Stretch); -html-t-text-color until Debian 9 (Stretch); -http-bugs.aggressive-cache until Debian 5.0 (Lenny); -http-bugs.bug-302-redirect until Debian 9 (Stretch); -http-bugs.bug-post-no-keepalive until Debian 9 (Stretch); -http-referer until Debian 5.0 (Lenny); -js.enable-all-conversions until Debian 4.0 (Etch); -js.enable-global-resolution until Debian 4.0 (Etch); -js.manual-confirmation until Debian 4.0 (Etch); -js.recursion-depth until Debian 4.0 (Etch); -js.verbose-errors until Debian 4.0 (Etch); -js.verbose-warnings until Debian 4.0 (Etch).