Lynx 2.9.3 on OpenVMS VAX: multi-user install, bookmarks and HTTPS

Installing the Lynx VMSINSTAL kit so it works for every user, giving each user their own bookmarks as their start page, and getting https: working without SSL. Verified on OpenVMS VAX V7.3 (node GOZER), Lynx 2.9.3 built with DEC C, TCP/IP Services (UCX).

The single fact this whole page turns on: a logical name can be system-wide, a DCL symbol cannot. Lynx needs both — Lynx_Dir is a logical, LYNX is a symbol — so the startup procedure has to run in two different places.

Two edits. Neither substitutes for the other, and doing only one is why an install looks like it worked for SYSTEM alone.

# For the system-wide Lynx_Dir logical, in SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM:

@SYS$MANAGER:LYNX$STARTUP

# For the LYNX symbol, in SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM:

@SYS$MANAGER:LYNX$STARTUP

The same line in both files. The procedure works out which half to do: Lynx_Dir is defined /SYSTEM when the caller holds SYSNAM, and the symbol is defined every time.

There is no DEFINE/SYSTEM for symbols. That is not a limitation to work around — it is why the SYLOGIN.COM edit is mandatory.

# Confirm the logical really is system-wide, not just yours:

SHOW LOGICAL/SYSTEM LYNX_DIR

%SHOW-S-NOTRAN, no translation for logical name LYNX_DIR is the whole bug in one line. It means only the account that ran the startup procedure has Lynx.

SUBMIT/USER= needs CMKRNL, which SYSTEM has. Batch jobs execute SYLOGIN.COM, so this exercises the real login path.

# Run a test procedure as another account:

SUBMIT/USER=ABLACK/LOG_FILE=DKA0:[ABLACK]TEST.LOG/NOPRINTER DKA0:[LYNX293.KIT]TEST.COM

The test account used here was ABLACK, UIC [200,20], authorised privileges NETMBX and TMPMBX only. If Lynx works there it works for anyone.

Each user gets their own bookmark file with no setup. Lynx prepends the home directory — SYS$LOGIN on VMS — to DEFAULT_BOOKMARK_FILE.

lynx.cfg

DEFAULT_BOOKMARK_FILE:lynx_bookmarks.html

It must stay a bare filename. An absolute path there gives the whole system one shared file.

Startfile precedence in Lynx is:

• command line
• WWW_HOME
• STARTFILE in lynx.cfg

So defining WWW_HOME at login makes a user's own bookmarks their start page while LYNX http://host/ still goes where it was told.

# What LYNX$STARTUP.COM defines, per user:

DEFINE/NOLOG WWW_HOME "file://localhost/SYS$LOGIN:LYNX_BOOKMARKS.HTML"

The quotes matter twice: Lynx looks up the lowercase name, and a logical name works inside a file: URL.

# 1. “BOOKMARK_FILE” is not a lynx.cfg keyword.

Only DEFAULT_BOOKMARK_FILE exists. A BOOKMARK_FILE: line is read, not recognised, and discarded with no warning at all. It looks like it works.

# 2. Do not use “lynx -book” to make bookmarks the start page.

It looks like exactly the right answer — the help text even says “use the bookmark page as the startfile”. But it also overrides a URL given on the command line, so with -book in the LYNX symbol, LYNX http://example.com/ silently opens bookmarks instead. Use WWW_HOME. -book is still fine to type by hand.

# 3. The bookmark file must be Stream_LF, or Lynx duplicates its own header.

This is the expensive one. Lynx appends a bookmark by reopening the file “a+”, rewinding, and re-reading it to find where to insert. On a variable-length record file that read comes back empty, so Lynx concludes the file is new and writes a second complete copy of the header, stranding the bookmarks after it.

DCL CREATE, OPEN/WRITE and COPY from a text file all produce variable-record files. Lynx itself writes Stream_LF.

# Check any bookmark file you made by hand:

DIRECTORY/FULL SYS$LOGIN:LYNX_BOOKMARKS.HTML

Record format: Stream_LF is what you need.

# Convert a variable-record file to Stream_LF:

CONVERT/FDL=BOOKSKEL.FDL BOOKSKEL.HTML LYNXBOOK.HTML

BOOKSKEL.FDL

FILE
        ORGANIZATION            sequential
RECORD
        CARRIAGE_CONTROL        carriage_return
        FORMAT                  stream_lf

BACKUP, VMSINSTAL and COPY all preserve the record format, so converting once at kit-build time is enough.

# 4. WWW_HOME cannot point at a file that does not exist.

Lynx quits with lynx: Can't access startfile. So the startup procedure seeds an empty bookmark file into the user's SYS$LOGIN on first login. Without that seed there is an off-by-one login: the procedure runs before the user has added anything, so the first bookmark only shows up at their next login.

Can't Access `file://localhost/sys$common:[lynx]bookmarks.html'
Alert!: Unable to access document.

lynx: Can't access startfile

The instinct is to blame the URL syntax. It is almost always the file protection. A page in SYS$COMMON:[LYNX] that every user must open needs World:RE; files put there by hand land as (RWED,RWED,RE,) and only the owner can read them.

# Fix a shared page nobody else can read:

SET PROTECTION=(S:RWED,O:RWED,G:RE,W:RE) SYS$COMMON:[LYNX]BOOKMARKS.HTML

Proven by direct comparison: two files in that directory, same URL form, both present — the World:RE one rendered for an unprivileged account and the World: one produced exactly the message above.

Logical names are fine, including rooted concealed ones. The ~/ form is not: Lynx expands it to a doubled slash and cannot open the result.

Prefer Lynx_Dir: in lynx.cfg — it stays correct wherever the kit was installed.

No SSL in this build, so on its own:

Alert!: This client does not contain support for HTTPS URLs.

A proxy fixes it, but only a TLS-terminating gateway. Lynx sends the proxy a plain-HTTP absolute-URI request — literally GET https://host/path HTTP/1.0 over an unencrypted connection — and expects the page back in clear. It never sends CONNECT: that code in HTTP.c is inside #ifdef USE_SSL and is not compiled in. A stock Squid, which serves https: by tunnelling CONNECT, cannot work here however it is configured.

# Test a candidate proxy before trusting it — 200 means it will work:

printf 'GET https://example.com/ HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n' | nc 172.24.9.10 5001

405 or a CONNECT-only answer means it will not.

# Set it for every user and every mode, in lynx.cfg:

https_proxy:http://172.24.9.10:5001/

Only https: is proxied; plain http: keeps going out directly.

# Override it for one session — lowercase, so quoted on VMS:

DEFINE "https_proxy" "http://otherproxy:8080/"

# Turn proxying off for one session:

DEFINE "no_proxy" "*"

Logicals take precedence over lynx.cfg.

# From the kit directory, after a successful build:

@MAKE_KIT

Four details in MAKE_KIT.COM are load-bearing.

# 1. BACKUP takes ALL versions unless you say “;0”.

Without it a second build ships KITINSTAL.COM;2 and ;1, and VMSINSTAL restores both.

BACKUP KITINSTAL.COM;0,LYNX$STARTUP.COM;0,... LYNX293.A/SAVE_SET/BLOCK_SIZE=2048

# 2. /BLOCK_SIZE=2048 is not optional.

BACKUP's disk default of 32256 makes VMSINSTAL misframe the save set; it fails at restore with INVBLKSIZE or CRC errors.

# 3. COPY takes the HIGHEST version, which may not be the one you want.

A tree used for testing easily has a hand-made three-line LYNX.CFG sitting on top of the real 320-block one. Ship that by accident and every installation gets a three-line config. MAKE_KIT.COM now prints the block counts it picked up and refuses to build if they are implausible.

# 4. Bring the save set back in IMAGE mode, then repair the attributes.

A save set that has been through FTP or a zip arrives on VMS as a stream file and BACKUP will not read it.

SET FILE/ATTRIBUTES=(RFM:FIX,MRS:2048,LRL:2048,RAT:NONE) LYNX293.A

Worth knowing before you edit SYLOGIN.COM with anything that writes a new file rather than a new version — including DCL OPEN/WRITE. It reads the copy in SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR] but creates its output in SYS$SPECIFIC:[SYSMGR], which then silently shadows the real one.

# Name the common copy explicitly:

COPY SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]SYLOGIN.COM SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]SYLOGIN.COM;

# Confirm you left no shadow behind — %DIRECT-W-NOFILES is the answer you want:

DIRECTORY SYS$SPECIFIC:[SYSMGR]SYLOGIN.COM

A SYLOGIN.COM created without World:RE locks every non-privileged user out at login. Always stamp the protection after writing it.

Rule of thumb: if something works for SYSTEM and nobody else, you have a scope problem — check whether it is a logical or a symbol, and check the World protection.