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HPR4408: Lynx - Old School Browsing

Hosted by Kevie on 2025-06-25 01:00:00
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Kevie , from the TuxJam podcast, takes a look at the Lynx command line browser and briefly discusses it's uses and if it still has a place in our modern times.


Some Useful Hot-keys:

g to go to a specific website

m goes to your start page (Main screen is what Lynx calls it)

o for options

h for help

p for print

q to quit program

/ search for text on a page


Navigation

< previous page

> forward page

up and down move between links on the page. Down or left will also cancel a command if pressed accidentally.

Pg Up and Pg Down scroll up or down a whole screen at a time.

ctrl n (down or next) and ctrl p (up or previous) will move the page up and down a couple of lines

a will add the current page to the bookmarks list

v views the list of bookmarks

, open the current page in another browser

G displays the URL and allows editing

ctrl L reloads the current page


Some Basic Config Edits:

Edit the file /etc/lynx/lynx.cfg (You will need to used sudo privileges to edit a system file)


To change the starting page go to Line 111 and add

STARTFILE:YOUR_CHOSEN_PAGE_URL

I used https://duckduckgo.com/lite


Don't forget to comment out the default one at line 105

To change the browser to open a link, go to Line 3141 and add

EXTERNAL:http:BROSWER_LAUNCH_COMMAND %s:TRUE

To use the default browser on modern Linux systems add xdg-open

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Mark

@hpr

I use lynx also when I need focus.



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