html2text

html2text

NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION OPTIONS FILES CONFORMING TO NOTES RESTRICTIONS AUTHOR SEE ALSO

NAME

html2text - an advanced HTML-to-text converter

SYNOPSIS

html2text -help html2text -version html2text [ __-unparse__ __-debug-scanner__ [ __-debug-parser__ __-rcfile__ ''path'' [unrenderable node] [unrenderable node] [ __-o__ ''output-file'' __-nobs__ [ ''input-uri'' ...

DESCRIPTION

html2text reads HTML 3.2 documents from the input-uris, formats each into a stream of plain text characters (ISO 8859-1) and writes the result to standard output (or into output-file, if the -o command line option is used).

Documents that are specified by an URI that begins with RFC 1738) are retrieved with the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (RFC 1945). URIs that begin with

If no input-uris are specified on the command line, html2text reads from standard input. A dash as the input-uri is an alternate way to specify standard input.

html2text understands all HTML 3.2 constructs, but can render only part of them due to the limitations of the text output format. However, the program attempts to provide good substitutes for the elements it cannot render. It also accepts syntactically incorrect input and attempts to interpret it __

The way in that html2text formats the HTML documents is controlled by formatting properties read from an RC file. html2text attempts to read $HOME/.html2textrc (or the file specified by the -rcfile command line option); if that file cannot be read, html2text attempts to read /etc/html2textrc. If no RC file can be read (or if the RC file does not override all formatting properties), then ''html2textrc__(5) manual page.

OPTIONS

-help

Print command line summary and exit.

-version

Print program version and exit.

-unparse

This option is for diagnostic purposes: Instead of formatting the parsed document, generate HTML code, that is guaranteed to be syntactically correct. If html2text has problems parsing a syntactically incorrect HTML document, this option may help you to understand what html2text thinks that the original HTML code means.

-check

This option is for diagnostic purposes: The HTML document is only parsed and not processed otherwise. In this mode of operation, html2text will report on parse errors and scan errors, which it does not in other modes of operation. Notice that parse and scan errors are not fatal for html2text, but may cause mis-interpretation of the HTML code and/or portions of the document being swallowed.

-debug-scanner

While scanning the HTML document, html2text reports on each lexical token scanned. This option is for diagnostic purposes.

-debug-parser

While scanning the HTML document, html2text reports on the tokens being shifted, rules being applied, etc. This option is for diagnostic purposes.

-rcfile path

Attempt to read the file specified in path as RC file.

-style ( compact | pretty )

Style pretty changes some of the default values of the formatting parameters documented in html2textrc(5). To find out which and how the formatting parameter defaults are changed, check the file compact is assumed as default.

-width width

By default, html2text formats the HTML documents for a screen width of 79 characters. If redirecting the output into a file, or if your terminal has a width other than 80 characters, or if you just want to get an idea how html2text deals with large tables and different terminal widths, you may want to specify a different width.

-o output-file

Write the output to output-file instead of standard output. A dash as the output-file is an alternate way to specify the standard output.

-nobs

By default, html2text renders underlined letters with sequences like more(1), less(1), or similar. For other applications, or when redirecting the output into a file, it may be desirable not to render character attributes with such backspace sequences, which can be specified with this command line option.

FILES

/etc/html2textrc

System wide parser configuration file.

$HOME/.html2textrc

Personal parser configuration file, overrides the system wide values.

CONFORMING TO

HTML 3.2 (HTML 3.2 Reference Specification - http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html32),__ RFC 1945__ (Hypertext Transfer Protocol - HTTP).

NOTES

html2text undergoes considerable effort to parse syntactically incorrect input, but is not always as successful as other HTML processors. If you have the possibility to correct the HTML source code, you may want to use the -unparse or -check options to find out what exactly html2text's problem is.

RESTRICTIONS

html2text provides only a basic implementation of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It requires the complete and exactly matching URI to be given as argument and will not follow redirections (HTTP 301/ 307).

AUTHOR

html2text was written up to version 1.2.2 by Arno Unkrig __

Current maintainer and primary download location is: Martin Bayer http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/mbayer/tools/html2text.html

SEE ALSO

html2textrc(5), less(1), more(1)