How to use?

[Ionică Bizău (Johnny B.)]

I downloaded binary file:

$ ./edbrowse-static-linux-x86_64 -e ../Documents/index.html 
no ssl certificate file specified; secure connections cannot be verified
163

How can I view the page?

[eklhad]

./edbrowse-static-linux-x86_64 -e ../Documents/index.html
no ssl certificate file specified; secure connections cannot be verified

This is a warning message only.
Your config file $HOME/.ebrc does not contain a certfile directive,
to indicate a file of trusted certificates.
A line like this works for some distributions.

certfile = /etc/pki/tls/cert.pem

However, different distributions put this certificate file in different places.
In any case, the message is just a warning, and edbrowse marches on.

163

This is the size of the file that you pulled into buffer, index.html.
It is surprisingly small, 163 bytes.
It probably has links to other documents, thus not very big itself.
edbrowse is a text program, not a screen program.
It doesn't show you anything unless you ask for it.
It is in fact modeled after /bin/ed.
Try it:

ed ../Documents/index.html

It too will simply print 163, and sit there, waiting for you to do something.
ed and edbrowse have a similar interface, no onscreen menus or help,
you just have to read the manual.
So in edbrowse, you can print what is there with ,p, just like ed,
but it is all html tags and likely not very understandable.
edbrowse has the additional b command, for browsing,
which is where we go beyond ed.
Type b and hit return, edbrowse will print another number,
the size of the rendered text, the size of the browsed file,
perhaps something like 86 .
Now ,p will show you the rendered text.
If the file is in fact links to other files, those hyperlinks
will be in braces, as in

{chapter 1}
{chapter 2}
...

The g command will `go' to a link, like clicking on it.

I cannot reproduce the entire users guide in this short email.
It is part of the package on github, in the doc directory,
and usually maintained at
http://www.eklhad.net/edbrowse/usersguide.html

Karl Dahlke

P.S. I wrote and emailed this reply using edbrowse.

[Ionică Bizău (Johnny B.)]

Very interesting! 😄

Yeah, the file contains only a paragraph and an alert. But how can I open HTML pages/websites like in lynx or elinks, with some visual things (like buttons, inputs etc)?

Also, where is my alert displayed?

[eklhad]

how can I open HTML pages/websites

If the url is farily standard in its syntax,
just open it, like a file.
Or you can force the issue by putting http:// in front.
My personal website, for instance,
which is, not surprisingly, edbrowse friendly, you can access via

edbrowse www.eklhad.net

(eklhad my last name backwards)
You get two numbers,
4223
2716
The first is the size of the raw html, the second is the size of the
rendered text.
Edbrowse browses a website automatically.
You don't have to type the b command.

Input fields are in angle brackets, like
First name <>
Last Name <>
Phone number <>

See the users guide for more details.

where is my alert displayed?

Is this a javascript alert?
alert("hello world");
If yes then it is simply sent to standard out, just like everything
else edbrowse does.
This is truly a command line editor browser,
the only one of its kind.

I should tell you that javascript support is limited,
and doesn't work on some websites.
A 100% js and jquery and ajax and pluggin compatible browser
is simply too big a job for 3 volunteers to handle.
But we do the best we can.
Would be great if NFS or some such funded this program.

There is also a wikipedia article that describes edbrowse
at a very high level.

All the best,

Karl Dahlke

[Ionică Bizău (Johnny B.)]

Thank you so much!