Have Fun with Command Line Browser In Linux

I would like to mention about command line again. These days I was trying something different in my terminal .something smells good and useful .what was that ?Simply access the web pages in command line. A Google searched gave me solution .It is somewhat a special experience ,especially for a Geek. Imagine a situation like this.. if your GUI get crashes and you have only the command line access and u need to check one of your important mails ,no other ways .....Don't Worry, A software called links2 comes to help you .

  Links2 is a web browser which is based on 'links' and can be run in two modes. It will display web pages only in text when run in console mode and renders images in a variety of graphics formats when run in graphics mode from within a X window system. Without going to more technical let me explain what to do :

* Install Links2 to in your system : 

steps are simple . Connect to Internet and type following command to the terminal
         $ sudo apt-get install links2

The browser is designed to run in console mode. But it can be run in graphics mode too..the important feature is the speed. It render the Web-pages very fast .

* How to start and browse with links2 ?

Open terminal and type following command:

         $ links2 www.google.com

replace www.google.com with your site..

* Start links2 in graphics mode

Open terminal and type following command:

         $ links2 -g www.google.com

* Shortcuts used in links2 :

• '\' - toggle between viewing the web page and its source code.
• '/' - used to search for a word or term in the website that is displayed.
  
• [Esc]key - Shows a menu at the top of the browser from which you can also make choices.
  
• '=' - Provides further information about the web page such as its size, the web server serving the web page and its url.
  
• '|' - Pipe displays the header information.
  
• '<-' - left arrow will take you to the previous view. '->' - right arrow will take you forward to the latest view.
  
• [Page up]and[Page down]- these keys can be used to navigate through the web page one page at a time. But you can also use[Space bar]and 'b' key combination for the same.
  
• 'g' - will pop-up a dialog box where you can enter the url of the website you want to view. To open this dialog box with the url of the current page already entered, press 'G'.
  
• Move the mouse pointer over an image and press 'i' to see only the image.
  

Geeks please note :

You can find a hidden folder .links2/ in your home folder with configuration files .A file named links2.cfg contains all configurations.

Screen shots :

Google in Linux terminal

In Graphics mode