# phpman > man > html2text(1)
[html2text(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/html2text/1/markdown) General Commands Manual [html2text(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/html2text/1/markdown)
## NAME
html2text - an advanced HTML-to-text converter
## SYNOPSIS
### html2text -help
### html2text -version
**html2text** [ **-unparse** | **-check** ] [ **-debug-scanner** ] [ **-debug-parser** ] [ **-rcfile** _path_ ] [
### -style -width -o -nobs -ascii -utf8
] [ **-nometa** ] [ _input-file_ ... ]
## DESCRIPTION
**html2text** reads HTML documents from the _input-file_s, formats each of them into a stream of
plain text characters, and writes the result to standard output (or into _output-file_, if the
### -o
If no _input-file_s are specified on the command line, **html2text** reads from standard input. A
dash as the _input-file_ 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 substi‐
tutes for the elements it cannot render. **html2text** parses HTML 4 input, too, but not always
as successful as other HTML processors. It also accepts syntactically incorrect input, and
attempts to interpret it "reasonably".
The way **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 **-rc**‐‐
**file** 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 format‐
ting properties), then "reasonable" defaults are assumed. The RC file format is described in
the [**html2textrc**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/html2textrc/5/markdown) manual page.
Debian version of **html2text** also can do input and output recoding (see
/usr/share/doc/html2text/README.Debian for more info). **html2text** tries to fetch encoding
from HTML document. If encoding is not specified, you can use **-ascii** and **-utf8** options. Out‐
put is converted to user's locale charset (LC_CTYPE).
## OPTIONS
### -nometa
By default, Debian version of **html2text** use 'meta http-equiv' tag for input recoding.
This option cancels this behavior.
### -ascii -nometa
this option, plain **ASCII** is used instead. To find out how non-ASCII characters are
rendered, refer to the file "ascii.substitutes".
### -utf8 -nometa
fying this option, **UTF-8** is used instead (both for input and output). This option im‐
plies **-nobs**.
### -check
cessed otherwise. In this mode of operation, **html2text** will report on parse errors and
scan errors, which it does not in other modes of operation. Note 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-parser
Let **html2text** report on the tokens being shifted, rules being applied, etc., while
scanning the HTML document. This option is for diagnostic purposes.
### -debug-scanner
Let **html2text** report on each lexical token scanned, while scanning the HTML document.
This option is for diagnostic purposes.
### -help
### -nobs
score-backspace-character" and boldface letters like "character-backspace-character".
Because of issues with UTF-8, Debian version of **html2text** doesn't produce backspaces,
so this option really does nothing.
### -o
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.
### -rcfile
Attempt to read the file specified in _path_ as RC file.
### -style
Style **pretty** changes some of the default values of the formatting parameters docu‐
mented in [**html2textrc**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/html2textrc/5/markdown). To find out which and how the formatting parameter defaults
are changed, check the file "pretty.style". If this option is omitted, style **compact**
is assumed as default.
### -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.
### -version
Print program version and exit.
### -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_.
## 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 - ),
## RESTRICTIONS
Debian version of **html2text** have no http support. Use **html2text** through pipes with curl or
wget instead. See README.Debian for more information.
**html2text** was written to convert HTML 3.2 documents. When using it with HTML 4 or even XHTML
1 documents, some constructs present only in these HTML versions might not be rendered.
## AUTHOR
**html2text** was written up to version 1.2.2 by Arno Unkrig <> for GMRS Software
GmbH, Unterschleissheim.
Current maintainer and primary download location is:
Martin Bayer <>
This man page was modified for Debian by Eugene V. Lyubimkin <> ⟨⟩
## SEE ALSO
[**html2textrc**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/html2textrc/5/markdown), [**less**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/less/1/markdown), [**more**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/more/1/markdown)
2008-09-20 [html2text(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/html2text/1/markdown)