Lynx, Gopher, and video files

2025-09-21

Getting Lynx to open video files

+ +

I've been using Lynx as a Gopher browser on Artix Linux, +and I like it a lot as it renders cleanly, has logical +keybindings, and enables following html links.

But...

Trying to open video files with an external application +wasn't working. Luckily on one test I saw an error +concerning "mpeg_play".

+ +

The only mention of this file is as a VIEWER entry in +lynx.cfg. But changing it to something else has no effect +at all.

+ +

Somewhere in lynx, mpeg_play is hardcoded. 🤔. Checking the Lynx source code, I found it in HTInit.c

Why short circuit the config file this way? Anyway, I wrote a bash script named mpeg_play:

+ +

+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+/usr/bin/mpv --title="Mpv" >/dev/null 2>&1 $1 +

+ +

chmod +x mpeg_play and put it in my PATH

+ +

and it works!
+Lynx can now play media files in Gopher holes. +(Note the --title parameter is to get it to play nice with dwm).

+ +

The question remains: why is this hard coded?

+ +

As for mpeg_play, it appears in Linux mailcap +entries in the 90's and seems to have been bundled +in ximagetools.

+ +

Mpeg_play appears to date back a long way as a UNIX application:

+ +

http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/software/mpeg_play

+ +

Update 2025-09-23

+ +

A little tweak made this script capable of opening playlists + +

----------

+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# necessary for Lynx browser video files
+# chmod +x and place in your PATH
+
+# mpv can sometimes take a few seconds to open when streaming
+# so I use notification that it's happening
+
+dunstify -t 2000 -a "Video" -u low -i "media-playback-start-symbolic"\
+  -h string:x-dunst-stack-tag:"Media" "MPV Launching" &
+
+# detect if playlist
+# Lynx uses an anonymous file in /tmp, so we can only
+# detect a file type by it's contents, not it's extension
+
+if [ "$(grep -c "EXT3MU" "$1")" -eq 1 ]; then
+  # this is a playlist
+  # I use dwm, the mpv options used here make it compatible
+  mpv --geometry=1068x600 --ontop --idle=yes --force-window=yes\
+    --playlist="$1" >/dev/null 2>&1 &
+else
+  mpv --geometry=1068x600 --ontop --idle=yes --force-window=yes\
+    "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1 &
+fi
+
+exit 0
+

----------

The latest version can be found at git.wittamore.fr

+ +