Installing Lynx

Contents [Home] [Download Lynx] [Resources] [Installing Lynx] Unzip Distribution File Create Batch File Edit AUTOEXEC.BAT Edit Configuration File Upgrading Lynx [Using Lynx] [Lynx Keymap] [Using Helper Apps] [Printing With Lynx] [Lynx Documentation]

What I will attempt to do in this document is to provide instructions for setting up Lynx on a Windows machine. It took me quite awhile to figure things out and I hope to spare others the head-scratching, which is the main point of this site. "csant" now has an installer for Lynx that'll do most the the below automatically. 1. Unzip Distribution File Once you have downloaded the distribution file unzip it into it's own folder. You can place Lynx's folder anywhere you choose but I strongly recommend that you put it in your root directory, in a folder that has less than eight characters in the folder name (because of the DOS 8.3 restriction). C:\Lynx will be used in for all examples here. [Top] 2. Create Batch File For Lynx to work properly, you need to set certain environmental variables. This can be done with the use of a DOS batch file that sets these variables than runs the Lynx executable. You can then run the Lynx by executing the batch file. For simplicity's sake, I would name the batch file Lynx.bat and place it in C:\Lynx. Below are the variables that you can set: HOME - sets your home directory. This is usually the folder that Lynx.exe is in. The home directory is where your bookmark files and most other files generated/used by Lynx will be stored. If you do not set the HOME variable, C:\WINDOWS\TEMP will be used by default. TEMP - sets your temporary directory. By default, this is C:\WINDOWS\TEMP. Temporary files like the History List, HTML source files, Cookie Jar Page etc. will be stored here. TMP - Same as above. Just use either one. LYNX_GFG - This tells Lynx where it's configuration file is. If Lynx cannot find this file, it will not start. By default, Lynx.exe will look in the same folder as it is in to find the file. USER - This tells Lynx your user-name which some websites or FTP servers might ask for. If absent, you are considered an anonymous user. TERM - This tells Lynx which type of terminal you are using. "vt100" seems to work just fine. It is not necessary to set this variable. WWW_HOME - Use this to set your start page; that is the page that you see when Lynx starts. It is strongly suggested that a local document is used. Sample Batch File @ECHO OFF set home=C:\Lynx set temp=C:\tmp set lynx_cfg=C:\Lynx\lynx.cfg set user=Kenneth set term=vt100 set www_home=D:\mydocu~1\start.html C:\Lynx\lynx.exe %1%2%3 Depending on the distribution, a sample batch file is may be included. [Top] 3. Edit AUTOEXEC.BAT Find your AUTOEXEC.BAT in your C:\ and add the following line to the file: SET HOME=[Path to Lynx folder] The above line will set the HOME enviromental variable whenever you boot your computer. This is the same as when you set it in Lynx.bat. I sometimes have to set the HOME variable in autoexec.bat for Lynx to start. Don't know why. One other thing that you may wish to change is the PATH variable. If you have never added anything to this variable, it should have only two or three entries. SET PATH=C:\Windows;C:\Windows\Command;C:\Windows\System You may want to add the path to the Lynx folder if you want to. This is useful if you want to invoke Lynx in a DOS box session. The above is all optional though, really. [Top] 4. Edit Configuration File Lynx gets most of its configuration settings from a text file named "lynx.cfg" in the Lynx folder. There is a very large number of settings, some of which do not apply to the Windows port. Lynx will probably work just fine if you tweak a few settings, like the proxy servers, start page etc. Extensive instructions are included in the lynx.cfg file itself and I will not go into any details here. [Top] 5. Upgrading Lynx If you are upgrading from a previous version of Lynx, you can just overwrite the old files. Unzip the new distribution into the same folder. You will retain the same settings if you choose not to overwrite Lynx.cfg (the configuration file). However, the newer Lynx.cfg could contain new settings that you may wish to change. I would suggest that you rename the old Lynx.cfg to Lynx.txt then compare it to the newer Lynx.cfg, changing the settings in Lynx.cfg as you go along. If there are any new settings, you will discover them. [Top]