Command explanations --libdir=/etc: For some reason, the configure and make routine for lynx uses libdir as the prefix for the configuration file. We set this to /etc so that the system wide configuration file is /etc/lynx.cfg. : This enables support for linking zlib into Lynx. docdir=... helpdir=...: We set these variables to avoid getting the help and documentation files installed under /etc. : This enables support for linking SSL into Lynx. : This enables support for linking GnuTLS into Lynx.