Frequently Asked Questions and Answers about w3m

General Questions, How to Get It, Required Environment

Compile and Install

• w3m doesn't compile on glibc 2.1 systems! (hint: it does)

Options, Commands, Usage

• w3m quits if started without parameters. What's wrong?

• w3m starts with black characters on a black screen. How do I change this?

• Does w3m support colours?

• Does w3m support monochrome display?

• How do I shift the display?

• How do I move from anchor to anchor?

• Netscape displays a word red, but w3m doesn't. Why?

• How do I change the colour of anchor-/image-/form links?

• w3m doesn't seem to use the variable EDITOR. Why?

• How do I quit a search or URL text input?

• How do I fill in forms with w3m?

• Seems like w3m is slower than Netscape or Lynx. Why?

• Loading time doesn't decrease when loading a previously seen page

• How do I download a linked file?

• How do I specify a proxy server?

• w3m freezes when I invoke an external browser.

• How do I change the default image viewer?

• How do I enter a URL?

• w3m appends a URL to the former one despite of having cleared the line with Ctrl-u. What to do?

Misc

• What is w3m's configuration file?

• What are these w3mxxxx files in my ~/.w3m directory for?

How do I pronounce "w3m"?

It's "W-three-M". It doesn't rhyme with "pteranodon".

Why is it called "w3m"?

It's an abbreviation of "WWW-to-Miru", which is Japanese for "See the WWW". So in English the name of this browser would be something like "stw3".

On which platforms does w3m work?

It runs on various versions of Unix, since version 990226 on OS/2 and since version 990303 also on MS-Windows with Cygwin32.
Current versions have been confirmed to run on:

• Solaris 2.5
• SunOs 4.1.x
• HP-UX 9.x and 10.x
• Linux 2.0.30 and 2.2.9 with glibc 2.1
• FreeBSD 2.2.8 and 3.1
• EWS4800 Release 12.2 Rev.A

Where can I get more information about w3m?

At the English w3m home page.

Is there a mailing list for w3m?

No. You may either mail your comments to the author or write them on the bulletin board.

Are there any binary distributions?

So far there are only binaries for the win/cygnus32 version. You can get them from here. Contact the author if you want to contribute binaries for other platforms.

w3m doesn't compile on glibc 2.1 systems! (hint: it does)

Go to the doc subdirectory. There is a file called README.glibc which contains a patch for glibc 2.1 systems.
If the patch gets rejected or you don't have 'patch' installed, you can most easily apply the changes yourself.
Open os_dep.c in the subdirectory gc in your favourite editor. Go to line 32. It reads

#     include 

Change the next line to:

#     if 2 == __GLIBC__ && __GLIBC_MINOR__ == 0

That's all.

w3m quits if started without parameters. What's wrong?

w3m is a pager. Therefore it just quits when invoked without any arguments. Possible arguments are:

1. A filename or an URL
2. Pipe from standard input
3. The -B option (Show bookmark file)
4. From a specified HTTP_HOME or WWW_HOME variable

w3m starts with black characters on black background. How do I change this?

When compiled with colour support, w3m assumes a white background and therefore displays black characters.
You may either change the background colour of your terminal (e.g. with the -bg option in a xterm) or take these steps:

• invoke w3m with 'w3m -M' (for monochrome),
• type 'o' for getting to the options screen
• Mark 'Display with colour' as ON and choose an arbitrary colour. Click on [OK].

Does w3m support colours?

Yes. When you run './configure', answer the question

Do you want to use color ESC sequence for kterm/pxvt 
[y]?

with 'y'.

Does w3m support monochrome display?

Yes. You may either

1. Answer the above mentioned 'configure' question with 'no', or
2. Invoke w3m with the -M option, or
3. Type 'o' within w3m to enter the options screen and turn off colour display mode.

How do I shift the display?

You can shift the display by moving the cursor to the edge of the screen. You may also use the ">"/"<" or "."/"," keys.
Another idea would be adjusting the xterm with the -geometry option (e.g. something like 'xterm -geometry 110x45 -bg white -name w3m -e w3m -B').

How do I move from anchor to anchor?

You can move to the next anchor using TAB. ESC TAB moves cursor to the previous anchor.

Netscape displays a word red, but w3m doesn't. Why?

w3m doesn't support <FONT COLOR=".."> tags. It won't be impossible to implement this, but I think it would make the document more difficult to read.

How do I change the colour of anchor-/image-/form links?

Type 'o' within w3m to get the 'options' screen. You can change these settings there.

w3m doesn't seem to use the variable EDITOR. Why?

Go to the 'options' screen using the "o" key. Any entry in the 'Editor' field will override the environment variable.
If you want to use the editor specified by EDITOR blank the field and push [OK].

How do I quit a search or URL text input?

Clear input text using Ctrl-u and hit RETURN.

How do I fill in forms with w3m?

Form input fields are displayed in red (or reverse). Move the cursor to them and hit RETURN. Then,

• if it is a text input field, put in your text on the bottom line,
• if it is a radiobutton or checkbox, that item is selected,
• if it is a textarea, an editor is spawned,
• if it is 'submit' or 'reset', well, just do it.

Seems like w3m is slower than Netscape or Lynx. Why?

w3m renders a HTML document in two passes. Therefore it displays the documentnot before having read the entire document.
Netscape or Lynx display the document before having read the whole page, and therefore seem faster.

Loading time doesn't decrease when loading a previously seen page

w3m doesn't have its own cache. Therefore, it reads the document from the server each time it accesses it. If possible, use a cache server.

How do I download a linked file?

Use 'a' (or 'd' with Lynx-like keybindings) or ESC RET. If you want to download an inline image, use ESC 'I'.

How do I specify a proxy server?

Set the environment variable HTTP_PROXY or use the option setting panel ("o" key). For example, if you want to use port 8000 of proxy.hogege.com, specify

    http://proxy.hogege.com:8000/

w3m freezes when I invoke an external browser.

Enter w3m's option screen using the 'o' key and specify

    netscape %s &

(if you are using netscape).

How do I change the default image viewer?

By default w3m uses xv to view images. If you want to change it into, let's say, 'display', add the following line to ~/.mailcap or /etc/mailcap.

image/*; display %s

You can specify external viewers of other file types as well:

image/*;                     display %s
application/postscript;      ghostview %s
application/x-dvi;           xdvi %s

How do I enter a URL?

Type SHIFT-U

w3m appends a URL to the former one despite of having cleared the line with Ctrl-u. What to do?

Enter the complete adress, e.g. http://www.slashdot.org.

What is w3m's configuration file?

It is ~/.w3m/config.

What are these w3mxxxx files in my ~/.w3m directory for?

These are temporary files used by w3m when reading documents from a WWW server. They are not cache files and are usually deleted when w3m is terminated. If there remain any temp files, please remove them by yourself.