Filed under: Software, Tips and tricks
Terminal Tips: Lynx
The UNIX and Open Source section of Apple's Mac OS X Downloads site features Lynx today. Lynx, as well as Links (another favorite of mine), is a Terminal-based, text-only web browser. Why would you want to use such a thing, you ask? Well, because since it simply ignores all non-text items in a webpage, the browsing experience is lightning fast compared to most modern browsers.
When you download the disk image, you'll find that if you follow the installation instructions, Lynx won't work. In order to correctly install Lynx, drag lynx.command to your Applications folder, as the README file instructs you to do. Now, launch your Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities/) and type
Now, simply close the window, navigate to lynx.command in your Applications folder and double-click it. Or, if you already have the Terminal open, you can simply type
When you download the disk image, you'll find that if you follow the installation instructions, Lynx won't work. In order to correctly install Lynx, drag lynx.command to your Applications folder, as the README file instructs you to do. Now, launch your Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities/) and type
open /usr/local/lib/ at the command line and hit enter. Now drag the lynx.cfg file from the Lynx disk image into the lib folder window that pops open. A dialog box will pop up warning you that you do not have permissions to write files to that folder. Click the Authenticate button and enter your Administrator password when prompted.Now, simply close the window, navigate to lynx.command in your Applications folder and double-click it. Or, if you already have the Terminal open, you can simply type
/Applications/lynx.command; exit at the command line. Lynx will open in the Terminal. Now, simply type g (for Go) to get a prompt where you can type in a web address of your choosing. Tab will tab you through links on pages. Return or the right-arrow will take you to the highlighted link. The left-arrow will take you back to the previous page, and hitting q will quit the browser. Easy. Have fun!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt parker said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Another great text only browser is Links:
http://links.sourceforge.net/
The nice thing about Links is that it supports tables and frames. There is also an option to run it in the X11 environment where it will support images.
Matt
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Keller said 12:20PM on 8-27-2005
I installed lynx and use it every once in a while. Its useful when you need to download a file from a place that requires login, and you need to do it either from a script or from the command line when ssh'ing in. Or just being able to ssh in to your computer and then use a browser to get back out and check a site from that IP address.
Anyway, I installed it with fink, which is probably easier than the above method, especially if you already have fink installed and/or need to install other command line tools.
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MusOX said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Links is much better than lynx simply from that standpoint of supporting frames. You would not believe how many times you get stopped by some site that has frames to jump you to another page.
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Gerald Buckley said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
When I open /usr/local/lib/ I get:
2005-05-31 22:58:40.656 open[847] No such file: /usr/local/lib/
I **DO** have a /usr/lib/ but that doesn't seem right...
Any ideas? Running 10.3.9...
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kevin Hardesty said 8:10PM on 7-02-2005
How do i set it up so i just type lynx and it opens like i used to?
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