Reading the handbook from console

[Carl Johnson]

<dteske at freebsd.org> writes:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Polytropon [mailto:freebsd at edvax.de]
>> Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2013 3:41 PM
>> To: dteske at freebsd.org
>> Cc: 'Fbsd8'; scotteberl at gmail.com; questions at freebsd.org
>> Subject: Re: Reading the handbook from console
>> 
>> On Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:48:33 -0800, dteske at freebsd.org wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > > -----Original Message-----
>> > > From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org [mailto:owner-freebsd-
>> > > questions at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Polytropon
>> > > Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2013 2:33 PM
>> > > To: Fbsd8
>> > > Cc: scotteberl at gmail.com; questions at freebsd.org
>> > > Subject: Re: Reading the handbook from console
>> > >
>> > > On Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:57:47 -0500, Fbsd8 wrote:
>> > > > Scott Eberl wrote:
>> > > > > I went ahead and installed the FreeBSD handbook onto my system and I
>> was
>> > > > > able to find it on disk per the motd notes but I'm wondering if there
> is a
>> > > > > preferred method for reading these since they are in html format. I
> tried
>> > > > > w3m and lynx and it looks like they are both not installed. Is there
>> > > > > something i'm missing for reading these or do I just need to install a
> cli
>> > > > > browser?
>> > > > >
>> > > > >
>> > > > Viewing html takes some form of browser.
>> > >
>> > > There is no text mode web browser in the base system.
>> > > Installing one is easy: As the HTML files generated
>> > > for the Handbook are good quality, they display nicely
>> > > in lynx, links, and w3m (probably the most prominent
>> > > three text mode web browsers).
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> > I must know...
>> >
>> > What is Polytropon's favorite of those listed? (and perhaps also "elinks" ?)
>> 
>> Hard to say, now that X is everywhere... :-)
>> 
>> In the past, I've started using lynx because it was "the
>> default". Somehow I even tend to remember that it was part
>> of the default installation in around FreeBSD 4 or so...
>> but that could be wrong.
>> 
>> Later on I tried w3m and also found it usable.
>> 
>> Today I'd say I prefer links for interactive text mode
>> browsing. Still "lynx -dump" is a welcome tool in some
>> of my scripts, and never change a running system. :-)
>> 
>
> Ok, the reason I ask is actually because I have this insane (?) idea of shoving
> one of the aforementioned solutions onto the installation media so that (gasp)
> we can have that functionality back like we had in the days of sysinstall.
>
> So naturally, my first question is "which one?"
>
> Thoughts?

I just looked at the DVD install disk and it has firefox, links1, links,
and w3m.  That should take care of most needs, but I don't know about
the CD disks.

-- 
Carl Johnson		carlj at peak.org