MOTHRA(1) MOTHRA(1)
NAME
mothra - retrieve and display World-Wide Web files
SYNOPSIS
mothra [ -dvak ] [ -m mtpt ] [ url ]
DESCRIPTION
Mothra uses webfs(4) to retrieve and display files from the
World-Wide Web, by name or through hypertext links. Web
names, called URLs, have a peculiar syntax:
http://9front.org/
https://code.9front.org/hg/plan9front/
http://cat-v.org/
The part up to the first colon gives the protocol for
retrieving the file. http:, Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol,
is the usual way of accessing web files.
// begins the Internet address of the server where the file
resides. The address may contain a colon and a TCP port
number, which overrides the default port number for the ser-
vice. Next comes a file name. Finally, the file name may
be followed by # and a string giving a label within the file
where the display should begin.
Mothra starts with the url given on the command line,
defaulting to the environment variable $url.
There are a number of options:
-a Alt display. Starts in alt display mode, see menu com-
mands table below.
-k Kill images. Don't fetch/display images.
-m Specify the webfs(4) mountpoint with -m mtpt. The
default is /mnt/web.
-v Verbose mode. Causes HTML errors to be printed on
file-descriptor 2.
-d Enables debug mode.
The display contains the last message from mothra, a box
where typed commands appear, a scrollable list of previously
visited files, the title and URL of the current file, and
the scrollable text of the current file.
Button 1 selects and displays a file, either from the list
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MOTHRA(1) MOTHRA(1)
of previously visited pages or from a link (indicated by
underlined text or a boxed image) in the current file. But-
ton 2 shows the URL of a file, but does not retrieve or dis-
play it. Button 3 pops up a menu of commands:
alt display Collapse or expand the navigation boxes at the
top of the browser window.
moth mode Enter moth mode and switch to the moth cursor.
If the HREF of an image link is different from
the URL of the image itself, a link to the HREF
will be printed on the right side of the image.
Clicking an image or link with mouse button 1
prompts the user to save a copy of the file in
the current directory. Clicking mouse button 2
sets the target as the current URL. Clicking
the moth mode menu option again exits moth
mode.
snarf Copy the current entry text or selected page
text to snarf buffer. If nothing is selected,
the current URL is copied.
paste Paste the snarf buffer to the current text
entry.
plumb Plumb the current URL.
search Search for a regular expression in the current
page.
save hit Save the current URL to the hit list.
hit list Retrieve and display the hit list.
exit Ask for confirmation and quit.
The typed commands are:
a Toggle alt display.
g url Go to the page with the given URL.
j n Jump to page n from the list of previously
viewed pages.
k Toggle killing of images.
m Enter or exit moth mode.
r Reload the current page.
s file Save the current page in the given file.
W file Capture a screenshot of the entire browser
window in the given file.
w file Capture a screenshot of the content area in
the given file.
q Quit.
When mothra retrieves a direct link to a file that is not an
HTML document (for example a GIF or JPEG image), it will
start up an appropriate viewer, for example page (see
page(1)) for most image files.
FILES
$home/lib/mothra/hit.html the hit list
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MOTHRA(1) MOTHRA(1)
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/mothra
SEE ALSO
webfs(4)
BUGS
Files are saved in the form received, not in the form sug-
gested by the name in an s command. A directory index saved
from moth mode may be written in the local directory as a
file named index. Sanitizing remote file names for the local
file system is imperfect.
Mothra is distributed in a preliminary state; it has more
than its share of bugs. Note that mothra, like the other
Guardian Monsters, has no particular concern for humanity.
HISTORY
Mothra first appeared in Plan 9 from Bell Labs (1995). It
was later modified for inclusion in 9front (September,
2011).
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