links2 - Man Page
lynx-like alternative character mode WWW browser
Examples (TL;DR)
- Visit a website in graphics mode:
links2 -g https://example.com
Synopsis
links [options] URL
Description
links 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.
links 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 Links in graphics mode. If not given, Links will run in text mode. Running in graphics mode means that Links will probe all compiled-in graphics devices and run on the first found. If none found, links 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 eaxmple 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 links 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>
Use a specific local IP address.
- -bind-address-ipv6 <ipv6 address>
Use a specific local IPv6 address.
- -no-libevent
Don't use libevent library.
- -no-openmp
Don't use OpenMP.
- -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)
- -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.
- -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 links 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.
- -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. (defult 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-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-text-color <0>-<15>
Text color in text mode.
- -html-link-color <0>-<15>
Link 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-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 links -h
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
- ^B
copy to clipboard
- ^V
paste from clipboard
- 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 or delete line (in textarea)
- ^W
auto complete line
Files
- ~/.links/links.cfg
Per-user configfile, automatically created by links.
Platforms
links is known to work on Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, IRIX, HPUX, Digital Unix, AIX, OS/2, BeOS and Win32.
Bugs
You can't upload large files; it takes _lots_ of memory.
Please report any other bugs you find to Mikulas Patocka <mikulas@artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz>
License
links 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
links 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 links can be found at http://links.twibright.com/
This manual page was written by Peter Gervai <grin@tolna.net>, using excerpts from a (yet?) unknown links fan for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). Updated by Karel Kulhavy.