links2 - lynx-like alternative character mode WWW browser

links2 [options] URL

xlinks2 [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.

-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 compiledin graphics devices and run on the first found. If none found, links2 will not run in text mode. This option works only if enablegraphics was given to ./configure.

-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.

-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 <Kbytes>

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)

-download-dir <path>

Default download directory. (default: actual dir)

-assume-codepage <codepage>

Use the given codepage when the webpage did not specify its codepage. (default: ISO 8859-1)

-anonymous

Restrict links2 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.

-version

Prints the links2 version number and exit.

-help

Printf a help screen

The keys you may use while navigating are

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

TAB

next frame (text mode only)

ESC

menu/escape

F9

menu

F10

file menu

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

~/.links2/.links.cfg

Peruser configfile, automatically created by links2.

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.

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 shoudn'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>

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 <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.

elinks(1), links(1), lynx(1), w3m(1)