Lynx browser no cookie prompt

Question

How can i turn off cookie prompts and disallow cookies in the Lynx browser?

Here is my .lynxrc:

ACCEPT_ALL_COOKIES:FALSE
SET_COOKIES:FALSE

Thanks

Answer 1

That's the wrong syntax for .lynxrc (it's correct for lynx.cfg—the two files use different format).

The documentation for the features in lynx.cfg is extracted from its comments into the website:

• ACCEPT_ALL_COOKIES (website):

  ACCEPT_ALL_COOKIES – Cookies Description

  If ACCEPT_ALL_COOKIES is set TRUE, Lynx will accept cookies from all domains with no user interaction. This is equivalent to automatically replying to all cookie 'Allow?' prompts with "A"lways. Note that it does not preempt validity checking, which has to be controlled separately (see below). The default is defined in userdefs.h and can be overridden here, or in the .lynxrc file via an o(ptions) screen setting. It may also be toggled via the -accept_all_cookies command line switch. Default value

  ACCEPT_ALL_COOKIES:FALSE

• versus lynx.cfg

  .h2 ACCEPT_ALL_COOKIES
  # If ACCEPT_ALL_COOKIES is set TRUE, Lynx will accept cookies from all
  # domains with no user interaction.  This is equivalent to automatically
  # replying to all cookie 'Allow?' prompts with 'A'lways.  Note that it
  # does not preempt validity checking, which has to be controlled separately
  # (see below).
  # The default is defined in userdefs.h and can be overridden here, or
  # in the .lynxrc file via an o(ptions) screen setting.  It may also be
  # toggled via the -accept_all_cookies command line switch.
  #
  #ACCEPT_ALL_COOKIES:FALSE
  

Because .lynxrc is written by the program, there is no need to manually edit it. Initially (through the 1990s) Lynx settings were either in lynx.cfg or .lynxrc, with no overlap. That was intentional, since Lynx was often used in a kiosk configuration where the user was prevented from changing settings that were intended to be the same for all users. Later, other developers added features that they intended to be in both the system- and user-configurable files. Still later (in 2001), the ENABLE_LYNXRC feature was introduced to allow users to save any setting. However, the cookie configuration dates from that interim period, as you can see by the customized comment in the .lynxrc file which Lynx would save from the Options menu:

# accept_all_cookies allows the user to tell Lynx to automatically
# accept all cookies if desired.  The default is "FALSE" which will
# prompt for each cookie.  Set accept_all_cookies to "TRUE" to accept
# all cookies.
accept_all_cookies=off

Answer 2

SET_COOKIES:FALSE does the trick on Lynx Version 2.9.0dev.5 (27 Feb 2020).

If you wish to use your own lynx.cfg, and you are on bash, you need to update .profile and add the following line. You can also execute it directly on the command prompt.

LYNX_CFG=~/lynx.cfg; export LYNX_CFG

Then ~/lynx.cfg, will look like

#includes the default lynx config (Debian distro)
INCLUDE:/etc/lynx/lynx.cfg

SET_COOKIES:FALSE

Answer 3

It looks likes lynx's documentation is completely outdated.

~/.lynxrc must contain:

accept_all_cookies=off

Here's how I've found it out. Please delete ~/.lynxrc, run lynx, press O, and then configure it (don't forget to mark the checkbox: Save options to disk).

---

The utility and its documentation are completely messed up: I've read the sources and accept_all_cookies only accepts TRUE and FALSE both of which are not what the OP is looking for.

There's also the cookie_reject_domains option but it doesn't accept wildcards:

# Note that in order to match cookies, domains have to be spelled out exactly
# in the form in which they would appear on the Cookie Jar page (case is
# insignificant).  They are not wildcards.  Domains that apply to more than
# one host have a leading '.', but have to match *the cookie's* domain
# exactly.

In short, you may want to fix the utility and send them a patch.