W3M(1) User Commands W3M(1)
w3m - a text based web browser and pager
w3m [OPTION]... [ file | URL ]...
w3m is a text based browser which can display local or remote web
pages as well as other documents. It is able to process HTML tables
and frames but it ignores JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets. w3m
can also serve as a pager for text files named as arguments or passed
on standard input, and as a general purpose directory browser.
w3m organizes its content in buffers or tabs, allowing easy
navigation between them. With the w3m-img extension installed, w3m
can display inline graphics in web pages. And whenever w3m's HTML
rendering capabilities do not meet your needs, the target URL can be
handed over to a graphical browser with a single command.
For help with runtime options, press "H" while running w3m.
When given one or more command line arguments, w3m will handle
targets according to content type. For web, w3m gets this
information from HTTP headers; for relative or absolute file system
paths, it relies on filenames.
With no argument, w3m expects data from standard input and assumes
"text/plain" unless another MIME type is given by the user.
If provided with no target and no fallback target (see for instance
option -v below), w3m will exit with usage information.
Command line options are introduced with a single "-" character and
may take an argument.
-B with no other target defined, use the bookmark page for
startup
-H Deprecated! Do not use! use -o high-intensity=true instead
-M monochrome display
-no-mouse
deactivate mouse support
-num display each line's number
-N distribute multiple command line arguments to tabs. By
default, a stack of buffers is used
-ppc num
width of num pixels per character. Range of 4.0 to 32.0,
default 8.0. Larger values will make tables narrower.
(Implementation not verified)
-ppl num
height of num pixels per line. Range of 4.0 to 64.0.
(Implementation not verified)
-title, -title=TERM
use the buffer name as terminal title string. With specified
TERM, this sets the title configuration style accordingly
-v with no other target defined, welcome users with a built-in
page
-W toggle wrapping mode in searches
-X do not initialize/deinitialize the terminal
+num go to line num; only effective for num larger than the number
of lines in the terminal
-cols num
HTML is rendered to lines of num characters
-cookie, -no-cookie
use stored cookies and accept new ones, or do neither
-F render frames
-graph, -no-graph
use or do not use graphic characters for drawing HTML table
and frame borders
-header string
append string to the HTTP(S) request. Expected to match the
header syntax Variable: Value
-m Render the body of Usenet messages according to the header
"Content-type"
-no-proxy
do not use proxy
-post file
use POST method to upload data defined in file. The syntax to
be used is var1=value1[&var2=value2]...
-4 IPv4 only. Corresponds to dns_order=4 in configuration files
-6 IPv6 only. Corresponds to dns_order=6 in configuration files
-insecure
use insecure SSL config options, alias for -o
ssl_cipher=ALL:eNULL:@SECLEVEL=0 -o ssl_min_version=all -o
ssl_forbid_method= -o ssl_verify_server=0
-l num number of lines preserved internally when receiving plain text
from stdin (default 10,000)
-r use caret notation to display special escape characters (such
as ANSI escapes or nroff-style backspaces for bold and
underlined characters) instead of processing them
-s squeeze multiple blank lines into one
-t num set tab width to num columns. No effect on stdout
Data type/encoding options
-I charset
user defined character encoding of input data
-O charset
user defined character encoding of output data
-T type
explicit characterization of input data by MIME type
Options for data output, followed by immediate exit
-dump dump rendered page into stdout. Set implicitly when output is
directed to a file or pipe
-dump_source
dump the page's source code into stdout
-dump_head
dump response of a HEAD request for a URL into stdout
-dump_both
dump HEAD, and source code for a URL into stdout
-dump_extra
dump HEAD, source code, and extra information for a URL into
stdout
-help show a summary of compiled-in features and command line
options
-show-option
show all available configuration options
-version
show the version of w3m
-bookmark file
use file instead of the default bookmark.html file
-config file
use file instead of the default configuration file
-o option=value
modify one configuration item with an explicitly given value;
without option=value, equivalent to -show-option
-debug use debug mode (only for debugging)
-reqlog
log headers of HTTP communication in file ~/.w3m/request.log
Experimental options might change in the future or even be removed.
Feedback to the author is highly welcome.
-R restore session
-cookie-jar file
use file instead of the default cookie file
-session file
use file instead of the default session file
Session management
If -R is given, w3m will restore a session from a session file. If
no session file is provided with -session the default session file is
used. The default session file will be deleted after restoring a
session when exiting w3m. If a session file is given it will not be
deleted. If URLs or files were given as parameters they will be
loaded after restoring the session and added to the first tab. If -N
and -R are given the old session is restored as is and any new buffer
are opened in separate tabs. Note: Session management is still an
experimental feature and might change in the future!
Pager-like usage
Combine snippets of HTML code and preview the page
$ cat header.html footer.html | w3m -T text/html
Compare two files using tabs
$ w3m -N config.old config
Browser-like usage
Display web content in monochrome terminal
$ w3m -M http://w3m.sourceforge.net
Display embedded graphics
$ w3m -o auto_image=TRUE http://w3m.sourceforge.net
Display content from Usenet
$ w3m -m nntp://news.aioe.org/comp.os.linux.networking
Upload data for a URL using the POST method
$ w3m -post - http://example.com/form.php <<<'a=0&b=1'
Filter-like usage
Convert an HTML file to plain text with a defined line length
$ w3m -cols 40 foo.html > foo.txt
Output the bookmarks page as text with an appended list of links
$ w3m -B -o display_link_number=1 > out.txt
Conversion of file format and character encoding
$ w3m -T text/html -I EUC-JP -O UTF-8 < foo.html > foo.txt
Welcome users with a built-in page
$ w3m -v
w3m recognises the environment variable WWW_HOME as defining a
fallback target for use if it is invoked without one.
If the W3M_DIR environment variable is set to a directory name, w3m
will store its user files there instead of under the ~/.w3m
directory.
The default locations of some files are listed below. These locations
can be altered via the W3M_DIR environment variable.
~/.w3m/bookmark.html
default bookmark file
~/.w3m/config
user defined configuration file; overrides /etc/w3m/config
~/.w3m/cookie
cookie jar; written on exit, read on launch
~/.w3m/history
browser history - visited files and URLs
~/.w3m/keymap
user defined key bindings; overrides default key bindings
~/.w3m/mailcap
external viewer configuration file
~/.w3m/menu
user defined menu; overrides default menu
~/.w3m/mime.types
MIME types file
~/.w3m/mouse
user defined mouse settings
~/.w3m/passwd
password and username file
~/.w3m/pre_form
contains predefined values to fill recurrent HTML forms
README and example files are to be found in the doc directory of your
w3m installation. Recent information about w3m may be found on the
project's web pages at <https://w3m-pager.org>
w3m has incorporated code from several sources. Users have
contributed patches and suggestions over time.
Akinori ITO, and others. This version is maintained by Rene Kita
<mail@rkta.de>. Use <~rkta/w3m@lists.sr.ht> to contact the
developers.
w3m 0.5.5 2025-06-07 W3M(1)
NAME
w3m - a text based web browser and pager
SYNOPSIS
w3m [OPTION]... [ file | URL ]...
DESCRIPTION
w3m is a text based browser which can display local or remote web
pages as well as other documents. It is able to process HTML tables
and frames but it ignores JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets. w3m
can also serve as a pager for text files named as arguments or passed
on standard input, and as a general purpose directory browser.
w3m organizes its content in buffers or tabs, allowing easy
navigation between them. With the w3m-img extension installed, w3m
can display inline graphics in web pages. And whenever w3m's HTML
rendering capabilities do not meet your needs, the target URL can be
handed over to a graphical browser with a single command.
For help with runtime options, press "H" while running w3m.
ARGUMENTS
When given one or more command line arguments, w3m will handle
targets according to content type. For web, w3m gets this
information from HTTP headers; for relative or absolute file system
paths, it relies on filenames.
With no argument, w3m expects data from standard input and assumes
"text/plain" unless another MIME type is given by the user.
If provided with no target and no fallback target (see for instance
option -v below), w3m will exit with usage information.
OPTIONS
Command line options are introduced with a single "-" character and
may take an argument.
General options
-B with no other target defined, use the bookmark page for
startup
-H Deprecated! Do not use! use -o high-intensity=true instead
-M monochrome display
-no-mouse
deactivate mouse support
-num display each line's number
-N distribute multiple command line arguments to tabs. By
default, a stack of buffers is used
-ppc num
width of num pixels per character. Range of 4.0 to 32.0,
default 8.0. Larger values will make tables narrower.
(Implementation not verified)
-ppl num
height of num pixels per line. Range of 4.0 to 64.0.
(Implementation not verified)
-title, -title=TERM
use the buffer name as terminal title string. With specified
TERM, this sets the title configuration style accordingly
-v with no other target defined, welcome users with a built-in
page
-W toggle wrapping mode in searches
-X do not initialize/deinitialize the terminal
+num go to line num; only effective for num larger than the number
of lines in the terminal
Browser options
-cols num
HTML is rendered to lines of num characters
-cookie, -no-cookie
use stored cookies and accept new ones, or do neither
-F render frames
-graph, -no-graph
use or do not use graphic characters for drawing HTML table
and frame borders
-header string
append string to the HTTP(S) request. Expected to match the
header syntax Variable: Value
-m Render the body of Usenet messages according to the header
"Content-type"
-no-proxy
do not use proxy
-post file
use POST method to upload data defined in file. The syntax to
be used is var1=value1[&var2=value2]...
-4 IPv4 only. Corresponds to dns_order=4 in configuration files
-6 IPv6 only. Corresponds to dns_order=6 in configuration files
-insecure
use insecure SSL config options, alias for -o
ssl_cipher=ALL:eNULL:@SECLEVEL=0 -o ssl_min_version=all -o
ssl_forbid_method= -o ssl_verify_server=0
Text pager options
-l num number of lines preserved internally when receiving plain text
from stdin (default 10,000)
-r use caret notation to display special escape characters (such
as ANSI escapes or nroff-style backspaces for bold and
underlined characters) instead of processing them
-s squeeze multiple blank lines into one
-t num set tab width to num columns. No effect on stdout
Data type/encoding options
-I charset
user defined character encoding of input data
-O charset
user defined character encoding of output data
-T type
explicit characterization of input data by MIME type
Options for data output, followed by immediate exit
-dump dump rendered page into stdout. Set implicitly when output is
directed to a file or pipe
-dump_source
dump the page's source code into stdout
-dump_head
dump response of a HEAD request for a URL into stdout
-dump_both
dump HEAD, and source code for a URL into stdout
-dump_extra
dump HEAD, source code, and extra information for a URL into
stdout
-help show a summary of compiled-in features and command line
options
-show-option
show all available configuration options
-version
show the version of w3m
Options for overriding default settings and resources
-bookmark file
use file instead of the default bookmark.html file
-config file
use file instead of the default configuration file
-o option=value
modify one configuration item with an explicitly given value;
without option=value, equivalent to -show-option
-debug use debug mode (only for debugging)
-reqlog
log headers of HTTP communication in file ~/.w3m/request.log
Experimental options
Experimental options might change in the future or even be removed.
Feedback to the author is highly welcome.
-R restore session
-cookie-jar file
use file instead of the default cookie file
-session file
use file instead of the default session file
Session management
If -R is given, w3m will restore a session from a session file. If
no session file is provided with -session the default session file is
used. The default session file will be deleted after restoring a
session when exiting w3m. If a session file is given it will not be
deleted. If URLs or files were given as parameters they will be
loaded after restoring the session and added to the first tab. If -N
and -R are given the old session is restored as is and any new buffer
are opened in separate tabs. Note: Session management is still an
experimental feature and might change in the future!
EXAMPLES
Pager-like usage
Combine snippets of HTML code and preview the page
$ cat header.html footer.html | w3m -T text/html
Compare two files using tabs
$ w3m -N config.old config
Browser-like usage
Display web content in monochrome terminal
$ w3m -M http://w3m.sourceforge.net
Display embedded graphics
$ w3m -o auto_image=TRUE http://w3m.sourceforge.net
Display content from Usenet
$ w3m -m nntp://news.aioe.org/comp.os.linux.networking
Upload data for a URL using the POST method
$ w3m -post - http://example.com/form.php <<<'a=0&b=1'
Filter-like usage
Convert an HTML file to plain text with a defined line length
$ w3m -cols 40 foo.html > foo.txt
Output the bookmarks page as text with an appended list of links
$ w3m -B -o display_link_number=1 > out.txt
Conversion of file format and character encoding
$ w3m -T text/html -I EUC-JP -O UTF-8 < foo.html > foo.txt
Start with no input
Welcome users with a built-in page
$ w3m -v
ENVIRONMENT
w3m recognises the environment variable WWW_HOME as defining a
fallback target for use if it is invoked without one.
If the W3M_DIR environment variable is set to a directory name, w3m
will store its user files there instead of under the ~/.w3m
directory.
FILES
The default locations of some files are listed below. These locations
can be altered via the W3M_DIR environment variable.
~/.w3m/bookmark.html
default bookmark file
~/.w3m/config
user defined configuration file; overrides /etc/w3m/config
~/.w3m/cookie
cookie jar; written on exit, read on launch
~/.w3m/history
browser history - visited files and URLs
~/.w3m/keymap
user defined key bindings; overrides default key bindings
~/.w3m/mailcap
external viewer configuration file
~/.w3m/menu
user defined menu; overrides default menu
~/.w3m/mime.types
MIME types file
~/.w3m/mouse
user defined mouse settings
~/.w3m/passwd
password and username file
~/.w3m/pre_form
contains predefined values to fill recurrent HTML forms
SEE ALSO
README and example files are to be found in the doc directory of your
w3m installation. Recent information about w3m may be found on the
project's web pages at <https://w3m-pager.org>
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
w3m has incorporated code from several sources. Users have
contributed patches and suggestions over time.
AUTHOR
Akinori ITO, and others. This version is maintained by Rene Kita
<mail@rkta.de>. Use <~rkta/w3m@lists.sr.ht> to contact the
developers.
w3m 0.5.5 2025-06-07 W3M(1)