Re: changing lynx default homepage from the comand line?

Big picture  goal for whom?
As it is my goal, and I state otherwise, I am unsure why you  choose to 
claim this is my goal.
This issue is moot, and I consider the thread to be closed.
I am asking the admin here to make the change for me, end of story.



On Sun, 17 Nov 2019, Tim Chase wrote:

> The big picture goal is to create a local/user-specific lynx.cfg file
> in your home directory.  This can be as minimal as that one
> "STARTFILE" line produced by the `echo` command, and then start lynx
> using that config file.
>
> You can use a text-editor to create/edit the ~/.lynx.cfg file and
> append the line
>
>  STARTFILE:https://ca.yahoo.com/news
>
> at the bottom.  Alternatively you can use "echo" to append the file
> (creating it if it doesn't already exist):
>
>  $ echo "STARTFILE:https://ca.yahoo.com/news" >> ~/.lynx.cfg
>
> With that local/user-specific config file available, you can then
> start lynx manually using that config file:
>
>  $ lynx -cfg=$HOME/.lynx.cfg
>
> but typing that whole thing every time gets tedious.  So to avoid
> that tedium, you want to let your shell know that when you type
> "lynx" (or "ly" or whatever short-hand you want) that you really mean
> "every time I type `lynx`, pretend that I added -cfg=$HOME/.lynx.cfg
> after it".  You can do this with an alias or with a function though
> the function is a bit more flexible. This would be created in one of
> your shell startup files. However the exact syntax and file-names for
> that startup file depend on the shell you're using. That's why I'm
> interested in the output of
>
>  $ basename $SHELL
>
> to make sure which shell you're running.  In all liklihood, it's
> "bash" in which case it would also help for you to provide the output
> of
>
>  $ ls ~/.bash*
>
> If that output includes a .bash_aliases file, that's the best place
> to put an alias/function.  Otherwise, you can just append it to your
> .bashrc (which would most likely be among the output).
>
> However your shell could also be any of a number of common
> alternatives like sh, ash, dash, zsh, ksh, csh, tcsh, fish, or yet
> others.  Each one has its own configuration files and making sure
> that the edit takes place in the right one is essential to ensuring
> that the alias/function gets created properly.
>
> But then once you have the alias/function in your local start-up
> file, every time you type "lynx" (or "ly" or whatever short-hand you
> prefer), it will start with your preferred configuration.
>
> -tim
>
>
> On 2019-11-17 14:10, Karen Lewellen wrote:
>> Tim,
>> *should* is an interesting concept.  What should  be does not
>> always translate into what is.
>> For example,
>> Your echo line below is a fantastic example of the kind of command
>> line idea I have been seeking the entire time.
>> However, because there are   about ten different  lynx.cfg files in
>> the home directory of my site hosted here on shellworld, running it
>> did not produce any changes.
>> I got no errors, meaning  likely something was changed, just not
>> the lynx.cfg file governing  my karenlewellen.com workspace hosted
>> at shellworld.
>> still, it was at least the sort of  solution I desired, a simple
>> command line  that could be run without editing altering or
>> changing anything else.
>> As I said to rick,  that he has done something himself in no way
>> translates to  the approximately 7 billion others sharing our world.
>> Karen
>>
>>
>> On Sun, 17 Nov 2019, Tim Chase wrote:
>>
>>> There are system-level config files which you should be able to
>>> read but not modify.  There are also user-level config files
>>> which you are expected to be able to read and modify to make your
>>> life easier.
>>>
>>> Yes, you can manually specify a config file every time on the
>>> command line, or specify the start-URL on the command-line every
>>> time, or establish environment variables every time you log in,
>>> or define a function/alias everytime you log in.
>>>
>>> But the purpose of creating local/user-level config files is for
>>> your own conveneince.  So that when you type "lynx" (or "ly" or
>>> whatever short-hand abbreviation you want), it does exactly what
>>> *you* want (within the software's limitations) every time.
>>>
>>> As David mentions, if your Shellworld account allows you to modify
>>> system-level config files, that would impact everybody on the
>>> system and be a big security issue.  But I suspect that the
>>> administrator left permissions as their defaults and so you can't
>>> change the site-wide settings as a mere user.  But you can copy
>>> the lynx.cfg file -- either from your system /etc/lynx.cfg or
>>> /usr/local/etc/lynx.cfg or downloading a copy from the internet
>>> -- to your home directory, modify it to your satisfaction, and
>>> then instruct lynx to use that config file instead.  For your
>>> purposes, you might even be able to just use "echo" to put the
>>> one line in a file without any text editor:
>>>
>>>  $ echo 'STARTFILE:https://example.com' >> ~/.lynx.cfg
>>>
>>> if you want to start at example.com
>>>
>>> You then modify your *local* (not system-wide) shell configuration
>>> file to create the command you use to override that config file:
>>>
>>>  $ echo 'lynx() { command lynx -cfg ~/.lynx.cfg "$@" ; }' >>
>>> ~/.bashrc
>>>
>>> or whatever your local shell-configuration file is depending on
>>> your shell. Again, would be helpful to know the output of
>>>
>>>  $ basename $SHELL
>>>
>>> to know which shell you're in.
>>>
>>> Once you've configured these two things, invoking lynx should give
>>> you the settings you want every time without needing to re-type
>>> them.
>>>
>>> The local/user-level configuration files are there specifically to
>>> make each user's life easier, without impacting other users on the
>>> same system.
>>>
>>> I'm still hoping I could get a Shellworld account so I can test
>>> some of these things to give you a more targeted reply, but I've
>>> not heard back from the admin on any of the occasions I've tried
>>> emailing them.
>>>
>>> -tim
>>>
>>> On 2019-11-16 22:39, Karen Lewellen wrote:
>>>> because this is not my service I wish to tamper with config files
>>>> as little  as possible.
>>>> If there is not a command line only method to accomplish this
>>>> task, much like  the -useragent one, then never mind.
>>>> thanks for all the ideas but  again  I am not interested in
>>>> altering lynx.cfg in any fashion.
>>>> Karen
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, 15 Nov 2019, Tim Chase wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Karen,
>>>>>
>>>>> You can combine Thorsten's advice to use "-cfg=FILENAME" with my
>>>>> previous shell-alias suggestion, which is what I've done in the
>>>>> past to specify a local config file.  With that in place, you
>>>>> can set your default home-page in your local lynx config file
>>>>> (say, ~/.lynx.cfg)
>>>>>
>>>>>  echo "STARTFILE:https://example.com" >> ~/.lynx.cfg
>>>>>
>>>>> and then have your function/alias specify the config file:
>>>>>
>>>>>  lynx() { command lynx -cfg=$HOME/.lynx.cfg "$@" ; }
>>>>>
>>>>> I happen to like the TEXTFIELDS_NEED_ACTIVATION:TRUE set in my
>>>>> .cfg file too, so this is how I get that behavior every time.
>>>>>
>>>>> -tim
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 2019-11-15 22:56, Thorsten Glaser wrote:
>>>>>> Karen Lewellen dixit:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I am seeking a command line method  to override the site
>>>>>>> listed as the homepage for lynx regularly,  i. e. the page
>>>>>>> that appears if i just entre lynx.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Then don’t enter just lynx ;-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Otherwise, you can override the homepage in the lynx.cfg file.
>>>>>> Since you’re on a shellserver you cannot do that system-wide,
>>>>>> but you can copy the system-wide one into your home directory
>>>>>> and use the -cfg=FILENAME option to point to the changed file.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The idea is  to change this  default homepage, not just simply
>>>>>>> visit a new site once.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But the “homepage” is only shown if you don’t tell it a site
>>>>>> to visit when starting.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It’s probably easiest to make an alias, something like this:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> echo "alias 'ly=lynx http://the.new.start.site'" >>~/.bashrc
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Then typing ly will start lynx with the other start page.
>>>>>> Easier than doing the config dance, unless you need that
>>>>>> anyway.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> bye,
>>>>>> //mirabilos
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> FWIW, I'm quite impressed with mksh interactively. I thought it
>>>>>> was much *much* more bare bones. But it turns out it beats the
>>>>>> living hell out of ksh93 in that respect. I'd even consider it
>>>>>> for my daily use if I hadn't wasted half my life on my zsh
>>>>>> setup. :-) -- Frank Terbeck in #!/bin/mksh
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Lynx-dev mailing list
>>>>>> [email protected]
>>>>>> https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lynx-dev
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>
>
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