.\" Title: elinks
.\" Author:
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.73.2
.\" Date: 05/31/2009
.\" Manual: The Elinks text-browser
.\" Source: ELinks 0.13.GIT
.\"
.TH "ELINKS" "1" "05/31/2009" "ELinks 0\&.13\&.GIT" "The Elinks text\-browser"
.\" disable hyphenation
.nh
.\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
.ad l
.SH "NAME"
elinks \- lynx-like alternative character mode WWW browser
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
\fIelinks\fR [OPTION]\&... [URL]\&...
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.SH "DESCRIPTION"
\fIELinks\fR is a text mode WWW browser, supporting colors, table rendering, background downloading, menu driven configuration interface, tabbed browsing and slim code\&.
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Frames are supported\&. You can have different file formats associated with external viewers\&. mailto: and telnet: are supported via external clients\&.
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ELinks can handle both local files and remote URLs\&. The main supported remote URL protocols are \fIHTTP\fR, \fIHTTPS\fR (with SSL support compiled in) and \fIFTP\fR\&. Additional protocol support exists for \fIBitTorrent\fR \fIfinger\fR, \fIGopher\fR, \fISMB\fR and \fINNTP\fR\&.
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The homepage of \fIELinks\fR can be found at , where the ELinks manual is also hosted\&.
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.SH "OPTIONS"
Most options can be set in the user interface or config file, so usually you do not need to care about them\&. Note that this list is roughly equivalent to the output of running ELinks with the option \-\-long\-help\&.
.PP
\fB\-anonymous\fR \fI[0|1]\fR (default: 0)
.RS 4
Restricts
ELinks
so it can run on an anonymous account\&. Local file browsing, downloads, and modification of options will be disabled\&. Execution of viewers is allowed, but entries in the association table can\'t be added or modified\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-auto\-submit\fR \fI[0|1]\fR (default: 0)
.RS 4
Automatically submit the first form in the given URLs\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-base\-session\fR \fI\fR (default: 0)
.RS 4
Used internally when opening
ELinks
instances in new windows\&. The ID maps to information that will be used when creating the new instance\&. You don\'t want to use it\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-config\-dir\fR \fI\fR (default: "")
.RS 4
Path of the directory
ELinks
will read and write its config and runtime state files to instead of
\fI~/\&.elinks\fR\&. If the path does not begin with a \'/\' it is assumed to be relative to your
\fBHOME\fR
directory\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-config\-dump\fR
.RS 4
Print a configuration file with options set to the built\-in defaults to stdout\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-config\-file\fR \fI\fR (default: "elinks\&.conf")
.RS 4
Name of the configuration file that all configuration options will be read from and written to\&. It should be relative to
config\-dir\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-config\-help\fR
.RS 4
Print help for configuration options and exit\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-default\-mime\-type\fR (alias for mime\&.default_type)
.RS 4
The default MIME type used for documents of unknown type\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-default\-keys\fR \fI[0|1]\fR (default: 0)
.RS 4
When set, all keybindings from configuration files will be ignored\&. It forces use of default keybindings and will reset user\-defined ones on save\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-dump\fR \fI[0|1]\fR (default: 0)
.RS 4
Print formatted plain\-text versions of given URLs to stdout\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-dump\-charset\fR (alias for document\&.dump\&.codepage)
.RS 4
Codepage used when formatting dump output\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-dump\-color\-mode\fR (alias for document\&.dump\&.color_mode)
.RS 4
Color mode used with
\-dump\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-dump\-width\fR (alias for document\&.dump\&.width)
.RS 4
Width of the dump output\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-eval\fR
.RS 4
Specify configuration file directives on the command\-line which will be evaluated after all configuration files has been read\&. Example usage:
\fB\-eval \'set protocol\&.file\&.allow_special_files = 1\'\fR
.RE
.PP
\fB\-force\-html\fR
.RS 4
Makes
ELinks
assume documents of unknown types are HTML\&. Useful when using
ELinks
as an external viewer from MUAs\&. This is equivalent to
\fB\-default\-mime\-type\fR\fB text/html\fR\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-?\fR, \fB\-h\fR, \fB\-help\fR
.RS 4
Print usage help and exit\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-localhost\fR \fI[0|1]\fR (default: 0)
.RS 4
Restricts
ELinks
to work offline and only connect to servers with local addresses (ie\&. 127\&.0\&.0\&.1)\&. No connections to remote servers will be permitted\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-long\-help\fR
.RS 4
Print detailed usage help and exit\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-lookup\fR
.RS 4
Look up specified host and print all DNS resolved IP addresses\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-no\-connect\fR \fI[0|1]\fR (default: 0)
.RS 4
Run
ELinks
as a separate instance instead of connecting to an existing instance\&. Note that normally no runtime state files (bookmarks, history, etc\&.) are written to the disk when this option is used\&. See also
\-touch\-files\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-no\-home\fR \fI[0|1]\fR (default: 0)
.RS 4
Disables creation and use of files in the user specific home configuration directory (\fI~/\&.elinks\fR)\&. It forces default configuration values to be used and disables saving of runtime state files\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-no\-numbering\fR (alias for document\&.dump\&.numbering)
.RS 4
Prevents printing of link number in dump output\&.
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Note that this really affects only
\-dump, nothing else\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-no\-references\fR (alias for document\&.dump\&.references)
.RS 4
Prevents printing of references (URIs) of document links in dump output\&.
.sp
Note that this really affects only
\-dump, nothing else\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-remote\fR
.RS 4
Control a remote
ELinks
instance by passing commands to it\&. The option takes an additional argument containing the method which should be invoked and any parameters that should be passed to it\&. For ease of use, the additional method argument can be omitted in which case any URL arguments will be opened in new tabs in the remote instance\&.
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Following is a list of the supported methods:
.sp
.RS 4
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\fBping()\fR: look for a remote instance
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\fBopenURL()\fR: prompt URL in current tab
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\fBopenURL(\fR\fB\fIURL\fR\fR\fB)\fR: open URL in current tab
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\fBopenURL(\fR\fB\fIURL\fR\fR\fB, \fR\fBnew\-tab\fR\fB)\fR: open URL in new tab
.RE
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.RS 4
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\fBopenURL(\fR\fB\fIURL\fR\fR\fB, \fR\fBnew\-window\fR\fB)\fR: open URL in new window
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\fBaddBookmark(\fR\fB\fIURL\fR\fR\fB)\fR: bookmark URL
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\fBinfoBox(\fR\fB\fItext\fR\fR\fB)\fR: show text in a message box
.RE
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.RS 4
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\fBxfeDoCommand(\fR\fBopenBrowser\fR\fB)\fR: open new window
.RE
.RE
.PP
\fB\-session\-ring\fR \fI\fR (default: 0)
.RS 4
ID of session ring this
ELinks
session should connect to\&.
ELinks
works in so\-called session rings, whereby all instances of
ELinks
are interconnected and share state (cache, bookmarks, cookies, and so on)\&. By default, all
ELinks
instances connect to session ring 0\&. You can change that behaviour with this switch and form as many session rings as you want\&. Obviously, if the session\-ring with this number doesn\'t exist yet, it\'s created and this
ELinks
instance will become the master instance (that usually doesn\'t matter for you as a user much)\&.
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Note that you usually don\'t want to use this unless you\'re a developer and you want to do some testing \- if you want the
ELinks
instances each running standalone, rather use the
\-no\-connect
command\-line option\&. Also note that normally no runtime state files are written to the disk when this option is used\&. See also
\-touch\-files\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-source\fR \fI[0|1]\fR (default: 0)
.RS 4
Print given URLs in source form to stdout\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-touch\-files\fR \fI[0|1]\fR (default: 0)
.RS 4
When enabled, runtime state files (bookmarks, history, etc\&.) are written to disk, even when
\-no\-connect
or
\-session\-ring
is used\&. The option has no effect if not used in conjunction with any of these options\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-verbose\fR \fI\fR (default: 1)
.RS 4
The verbose level controls what messages are shown at start up and while running:
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.RS 4
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'0 means only show serious errors
.RE
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.RS 4
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'1 means show serious errors and warnings
.RE
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.RS 4
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'2 means show all messages
.RE
.RE
.PP
\fB\-version\fR
.RS 4
Print
ELinks
version information and exit\&.
.RE
Generated using output from ELinks version 0\&.13\&.GIT\&.
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.SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"
.PP
COMSPEC, SHELL
.RS 4
The shell used for File \-> OS Shell on DOS/Windows and UNIX, respectively\&.
.RE
.PP
EDITOR
.RS 4
The program to use for external editor (when editing textareas)\&.
.RE
.PP
ELINKS_CONFDIR
.RS 4
The location of the directory containing configuration files\&. If not set the default is
~/\&.elinks/\&.
.RE
.PP
ELINKS_TWTERM, LINKS_TWTERM
.RS 4
The command to run when selecting File \-> New window and if
TWDISPLAY
is defined (default
twterm \-e)\&.
.RE
.PP
ELINKS_XTERM, LINKS_XTERM
.RS 4
The command to run when selecting File \-> New window and if
DISPLAY
is defined (default
xterm \-e)\&.
.RE
.PP
FTP_PROXY, HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY
.RS 4
The host to proxy the various protocol traffic through\&.
.RE
.PP
NO_PROXY
.RS 4
A comma separated list of URLs which should not be proxied\&.
.RE
.PP
HOME
.RS 4
The path to the users home directory\&. Used when expanding
~/\&.
.RE
.PP
WWW_HOME
.RS 4
Homepage location (as in
\fBlynx\fR(1))\&.
.RE
.SH "FILES"
Configuration files controlled by ELinks are located in the user configuration directory, defaulting to \fI~/\&.elinks/\fR\&. In addition to the files listed below, a user defined CSS stylesheet can be defined using the \fIdocument\&.css\&.stylesheet\fR option\&.
.PP
@sysconfdir@/elinks\&.conf
.RS 4
Site\-wide configuration file\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.elinks/elinks\&.conf
.RS 4
Per\-user config file, loaded after site\-wide configuration\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.elinks/bookmarks
.RS 4
Bookmarks file\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.elinks/cookies
.RS 4
Cookies file\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.elinks/exmodehist
.RS 4
Exmode history file\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.elinks/formhist
.RS 4
Form history file\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.elinks/globhist
.RS 4
History file containing most recently visited URLs\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.elinks/gotohist
.RS 4
GoTo URL dialog history file\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.elinks/hooks\&.{js,lua,pl,py,rb,scm}
.RS 4
Browser scripting hooks\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.elinks/searchhist
.RS 4
Search history file\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.elinks/socket
.RS 4
Internal
\fIELinks\fR
socket for communication between its instances\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.mailcap, /etc/mailcap
.RS 4
Mappings of MIME types to external handlers\&.
.RE
.PP
~/\&.mime\&.types, /etc/mime\&.types
.RS 4
Mappings of file extensions to MIME types\&.
.RE
.SH "BUGS"
Please report any other bugs you find to the either the ELinks mailing list at or if you prefer enter them into the bug tracking system \&. More information about how to get in contact with developers and getting help can be found on the community page \&.
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.SH "LICENSE"
\fIELinks\fR 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; version 2 of the License\&.
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.SH "AUTHORS"
The \fILinks\fR browser \- on which \fIELinks\fR is based \- was written by Mikulas Patocka \&. \fIELinks\fR was written by Petr Baudis \&. See file AUTHORS in the source tree for a list of people contributing to this project\&.
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This manual page was written by Peter Gervai , using excerpts from a (yet?) unknown \fILinks\fR fan for the \fIDebian GNU/Linux system\fR (but may be used by others)\&. Contributions from Francis A\&. Holop\&. Extended, clarified and made more up\-to\-date by Petr Baudis \&. Updated by Zas \&. The conversion to Asciidoc and trimming was done by Jonas Fonseca \&.
.sp
.SH "SEE ALSO"
\fBelinkskeys\fR(5), \fBelinks.conf\fR(5), \fBlinks\fR(1), \fBlynx\fR(1), \fBw3m\fR(1), \fBwget\fR(1)
.sp