w3m is a free software/open source text-based web browser and terminal pager. It has support for tables, frames,[4] SSL connections, color, and inline images on suitable terminals.[6] Generally, it renders pages in a form as true to their original layout as possible.
Developer(s) | Akinori Ito and team members |
---|---|
Initial release | 1995 |
Stable release | 0.5.3[1]
/ 15 January 2011 |
Preview release | v0.5.3+git20230121[2]
/ 21 January 2023 |
Repository |
|
Written in | C |
Operating system | OS/2,[3][4] Unix & Unix-like (Solaris, SunOS, HP-UX, Linux, FreeBSD and EWS-UX (EWS-4800),[5] Windows (with Cygwin), macOS (with Homebrew) |
Available in | English and Japanese |
Type | Web browser, Terminal pager |
License | MIT license |
Website | w3m |
The name "w3m" stands for "WWW wo miru (WWWを見る)", which is Japanese for "to see the WWW" where W3 is a numeronym of WWW.[7]
As of 2021[update], the original project appears to be inactive, while a currently maintained version exists and is packaged in various Linux distributions such as Debian and Fedora. This version is available from the repository of Debian developer Tatsuya Kinoshita.
The most notable feature is full keyboard navigability on everything.[6][better source needed][dubious ] For instance, searching using Google can be done through the terminal.[6] Links can be navigated using the arrow keys. Even gmail is navigable in the same manner.[6]
w3m is also used by the Emacs text editor via the emacs-w3m.el Emacs Lisp module.
Two forks of w3m add support for multiple character-encodings and for other features not in the original: