# Install w3m with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper Pager/text based browser. Version 0.5.6 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-22. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:w3m ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install w3m ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata - MacPorts (94%): ```sh sudo port install w3m ``` Evidence: MacPorts ports tree: www/w3m/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ### Linux - apk (92%): ```sh sudo apk add w3m ``` Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: w3m from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz - Debian apt (92%): ```sh sudo apt install w3m ``` Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: w3m from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz - dnf (92%): ```sh sudo dnf install w3m ``` Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: w3m from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst - Nix (92%): ```sh nix profile install nixpkgs#w3m ``` Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/w3/w3m/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 - pacman (92%): ```sh sudo pacman -S w3m ``` Evidence: Arch Linux sync databases: w3m from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz - zypper (92%): ```sh sudo zypper install w3m ``` Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: w3m from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:w3m - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 0.5.6 - **Source summary:** Pager/text based browser - **Homepage:** - **Repository:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** w3m - **Source archive:** - **Last updated:** 2026-06-22T14:06:37-07:00 - **Generated:** 2026-07-08T07:18:31+00:00 ## Executables - w3m (cli) - w3mman (cli) - w3m (alias) - w3mman (alias) ## Dependencies - bdw-gc - gettext - openssl@3 ## Build dependencies - gettext - pkgconf ## Uses from macOS - ncurses ## Install behavior - Post-install hook: not defined - Bottle: available on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux ## Freshness - Page generated: 2026-07-08 - Package-manager version: 0.5.6 - Package-manager updated: 2026-06-22 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://w3m.sourceforge.net/ - info: Release/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories. ## Project history and usage w3m is a classic text-mode web browser and pager. It is remembered not just as another terminal browser, but as a fast pager-derived browser that could render tables, frames, forms, cookies, authentication, and local or remote HTML in a terminal. ### Project history Akinori Ito's own history traces w3m back to an earlier pager called fm, written before 1991 for inspecting very long debug-output lines without wrapping. After Ito learned HTML and HTTP, he modified fm into a simple web browser; the first version of w3m was released at the beginning of 1995. The name comes from the Japanese phrase 'WWW wo miru', meaning roughly 'see the WWW', inheriting the naming pattern from fm, or 'File wo miru'. The project was originally motivated by the desire to glance quickly at web pages without starting a heavyweight graphical browser, while still keeping the pager behavior that made fm useful. w3m's major late-1990s transition came when Ito returned to the project in 1998 and implemented a table renderer and forms. The history page describes this as w3m being reborn as a practical web browser, because table-heavy pages had become common and incomplete table rendering made many pages unusable in text mode. ### Adoption history The official SourceForge project was registered in November 2001, and the project page summarizes w3m as both a pager and text-based browser. Its FAQ also documents portability across Unix variants, OS/2, and Windows via Cygwin in the early era, reflecting the tool's spread among terminal-heavy users and ports collections. ### How it is used w3m is used as a terminal browser for local files and web pages, as a pager for HTML or text passed as files or standard input, and as a scriptable formatter that can turn HTML into readable terminal output. Its FAQ notes that invoking w3m without arguments exits because it behaves as a pager; normal inputs are a filename, URL, pipe, bookmark view, visual startup, or home URL. Configuration is part of its Unix culture: the FAQ names `~/.w3m/config` as the configuration file, and w3m users commonly tune key bindings, color, proxies, external viewers, and editor integration for text-only workflows. ### Why package nerds care w3m matters because it occupies the intersection of pager, browser, and HTML formatter. Compared with Lynx, its project history emphasized table rendering, frame handling by conversion to tables, standard-input use, small size, and fast startup. That made it a favorite tool for reading documentation, testing HTML, browsing from remote shells, and automating text rendering of web content. ### Timeline - Before 1991: Ito wrote the fm pager for inspecting long debug-output lines. - Beginning of 1995: The first version of w3m was released. - 1998: Ito resumed development and implemented table rendering and forms. - 1999: The English history page was published, explaining w3m's origin and design tradeoffs. - 2001: The w3m SourceForge project was registered. - 2020s: Maintenance continues from the source repository referenced by current curation. ### Related projects - w3m is historically related to fm, its pager ancestor, and often compared with Lynx, the older text-mode browser. It also depends historically on Boehm GC, which Ito credited as important for implementing tables and forms. ### Sources - - - - - ## Security Notes narrow executable package without higher-risk signals. - **Geiger risk:** green / low - narrow executable package without higher-risk signals ## Configuration and credential file locations These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval. ## Configuration files - Unix: ~/.w3m/config, ~/.w3m/keymap ## Source Database Details - **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API - **Tap:** homebrew/core - **Full Name:** w3m - **Version Scheme:** 0 - **Revision:** 0 - **Head Version:** HEAD - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** head, stable ## Other Package-Manager Records - Debian apt - w3m - 0.5.3+git20230121-2.1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: w3m from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | WWW browsable pager with excellent tables/frames support | https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/w3m - Debian apt - w3m-img - 0.5.3+git20230121-2.1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: w3m-img from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | inline image extension support utilities for w3m | https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/w3m - Nix - w3m: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/w3/w3m/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 - Ubuntu apt - w3m - 0.5.3+git20230121-2ubuntu5: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: w3m from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | WWW browsable pager with excellent tables/frames support | https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/w3m - Ubuntu apt - w3m-img - 0.5.3+git20230121-2ubuntu5: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: w3m-img from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | inline image extension support utilities for w3m | https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/w3m - apk - w3m - 0.5.6-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: w3m from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | text-based web & gopher browser, as well as pager | https://sr.ht/~rkta/w3m/ - apk - w3m-doc - 0.5.6-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: w3m-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | text-based web & gopher browser, as well as pager (documentation) | https://sr.ht/~rkta/w3m/ - apk - w3m-image - 0.5.6-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: w3m-image from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | text-based web & gopher browser, as well as pager (inline image support) | https://sr.ht/~rkta/w3m/ - apk - w3m-perl - 0.5.6-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: w3m-perl from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | text-based web & gopher browser, as well as pager (perl helper scripts) | https://sr.ht/~rkta/w3m/ - dnf - w3m - 0.5.3-67.git20230121.fc44: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: w3m from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst | Pager with Web browsing abilities | http://w3m.sourceforge.net/ - dnf - w3m-img - 0.5.3-67.git20230121.fc44: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: w3m-img from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst | Helper program to display the inline images for w3m | http://w3m.sourceforge.net/ - pacman - w3m - 0.5.6-1: normalized package name match | Arch Linux sync databases: w3m from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz | Text-based Web browser as well as pager | https://git.sr.ht/~rkta/w3m - zypper - w3m - 0.5.6-1.2: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: w3m from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst | A text-based WWW browser | https://git.sr.ht/~rkta/w3m - zypper - w3m-inline-image - 0.5.6-1.2: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: w3m-inline-image from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst | An inline image extension for w3m | https://git.sr.ht/~rkta/w3m - MacPorts - w3m: normalized package name match | MacPorts ports tree: www/w3m/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ## Related links - [Terminal utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/terminal-utilities/) - Matched terminal and command-line workflow metadata. - [Text processing packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/text-processing-tools/) - Matched text, document, or structured-data processing metadata. - [Networking and protocol packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/networking-protocol-tools/) - Matched network, protocol, or remote-service metadata. - [Web development packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/web-dev-tools/) - Matched web development metadata. - [gettext](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/gettext/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [openssl@3](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/openssl-3/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [pkgconf](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/pkgconf/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [dasht](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/dasht/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [nb](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/nb/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [nmh](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/nmh/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [tmpmail](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/tmpmail/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [links](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/links/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, html, networking, terminal, web-browser. - [chawan](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/chawan/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, networking, terminal, web-browser. - [felinks](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/felinks/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, networking, terminal, web-browser. - [lynx](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/lynx/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, networking, web-browser. - [amfora](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/amfora/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, networking, terminal. - [arss](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/arss/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, networking, terminal. - [bandwhich](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/bandwhich/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, networking, terminal. - [bitchx](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/bitchx/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, networking, terminal. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/w3m.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/w3m.yml) ## Sources - Nucleus package database - Geiger risk classifier - package-page enrichment - curated configuration and credential file locations - curated package history - package version freshness - av.db category and tag curation - package relationship graph - external package-manager database matches - cross-ecosystem install command graph