# How to use Lynx for Gopher

## Lynx browser

Lynx is a customizable text-based web browser for use in a text mode
environment. As of  May 2017, it is the oldest  web browser still in
general use and active development, having started in 1992. Lynx can
be used to  browse html webpages as well as  Gopher pages. Lynx does
not support Javascript.

Lynx used  to be  bundled in  the standard  installation of  all the
popular Linux distributions,  but sadly this is no  longer the case.
So one probably  first has to install the Lynx  browser with the use
of the package manager of your distribution, e.g.:

    apt-get install lynx

For customization simply press 'o' (options) within Lynx.

Lynx supports  the use of VI  style keybinding and the  use of Emacs
style binding.

## Using Lynx for Gopher

To open a Gopher  page in Lynx, simply call it  with the proper URL,
like:

   lynx gopher://bitreich.org/0/tutorials/lynx-w3m.txt

## Scrolling through an opened page

When the  visited page is longer  than can be shown  in the current
screen, use the spacebar to scroll down.

Some other useful keys:

- Ctrl-A to jump to the top of the page.
- Ctrl-E to jump to the end of the page.
- ( to jump half a page up
- ) to jump half a page down

## Navigating

In the standard configuration text is shown in the standard terminal
colors,  Gopherlinks are  colored  in green.  The  selected link  is
highlighted. Use the  up and down cursor arrow keys  on the keyboard
to select to a link. and use the Enter key or the right cursor arrow
key to follow the link.

When  following  a link  takes  a  long  time,  the request  can  be
cancelled with 'z'.

The left and right cursor arrow keys are used to navigate in through
history.  The left  cursor arrow  key moves  to the  previous opened
page, the right cursor arrow key follows the current link.

With VI keybinding configured, one can  also use the H,J,K, or L key
like the cursor arrow keys.

- Use 'g' to enter and follow a new URL.
- Use 'G' ( shift-G ) to edit the current URL and follow the edited URL.
- Use '=' to show the current URL and some meta data.

## Downloading data

When followin a  Gopherlink to a non-text element, f.e.  a binary or
an image, Lynx offers two choices:  D)ownload or C)ancel. Use 'c' to
cancel or 'd' to start the download. When the download has finished,
choose 'Save to disk' to enter a filename for the downloaded file.
Downloads in progress can be cancelled with 'z'.

## See the documentation

Lynx offers much more functionality  than described here, mostly for
browsing html-pages. See the documentation for more.