Command line options are used to specify various startup options for Mozilla applications. For example, you can use command line configuration options to bypass the Profile Manager and open a specific profile (if you have multiple profiles). You can also control how Mozilla applications open, which components open initially, and what the components do when they open. This page describes the commonly used options and how to use them. You can open the Command Line Interface by pressing Shift + F2.
Syntax Rules
But first, let's describe the syntax rules that apply for all options.
- Command parameters containing spaces must be enclosed in quotes; for example, "Joel User".
- Command actions are not case sensitive.
- Command parameters except profile names are not case sensitive.
- Blank spaces ( ) separate commands and parameters.
- Each message option follows the syntax
field=value, for example:to=foo@nowhere.netsubject=cool pageattachment=www.mozilla.orgattachment='file:///c:/test.txt'body=check this page or also in Thunderbird 52 and newer: body=c:\path\to\file.txt
- Multiple message options are separated by comma (,), for example:
"to=foo@nowhere.net,subject=cool page". Comma separators must not follow or precede spaces ( ). To assign multiple values to a field, enclose the values in single quotes ('), for example:"to='foo@nowhere.net,foo@foo.de',subject=cool page".
Using command line options
Command line options are entered after the command to start the application. Some options have arguments. These are entered after the command line option. Some options have abbreviations. For example, the command line option "-editor" can be abbreviated as "-edit". (Where abbreviations are available, they are described in the text below.) In some cases option arguments must be enclosed in quotation marks. (This is noted in the option descriptions below.) Multiple command line options can be specified. In general, the syntax is as follows:
application -option -option "argument" -option argument
Examples
The following examples show the use of the "-ProfileManager" command, which will open the Profile Manager prior to starting Firefox or Thunderbird:
Windows
Select Run from Windows Start menu. Type:
firefox -ProfileManager
Mac OS X
Go to Applications > Utilities. Open Terminal and type:
cd /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS ./firefox -ProfileManager
If you use Firefox Nightly, you can type:
cd /Applications/FirefoxNightly.app/Contents/MacOS ./firefox -ProfileManager
Linux
Open Terminal and type:
cd Thunderbird installation directory ./thunderbird -ProfileManager
The example above invokes the "-ProfileManager" command line option with Mozilla's Thunderbird mail client.
User Profile
-CreateProfile profile_name
Create a new profile in the default directory, but do not start application. The profile will be named profile_name in the profile manager. profile_name must not contain spaces ( ). To use this successfully no instance of the application must be running, or the -no-remote options must be used.
firefox -CreateProfile JoelUser
-CreateProfile "profile_name profile_dir"
Creates a new profile in the profile_dir directory, but do not start application. The profile will be named profile_name in the profile manager. Note profile_name and profile_dir are quoted together, and are separated by exactly 1 space (as with the previous syntax, profile_name must not contain spaces).
To use this successfully no instance of the application must be running, or the -no-remote options must be used.
NOTE: profile_dir must not exist and you must not already have a profile called profile_name.
firefox -CreateProfile "JoelUser c:\internet\joelusers-moz-profile"
-ProfileManager
Start with Profile Manager. Short form: -P without a profile name.
-P "profile_name"
Bypass Profile Manager and launch application with the profile named profile_name. Useful for dealing with multiple profiles. Note profile_name is case sensitive. If you don't specify a profile name then the profile manager is opened instead. You must use an upper case P on Linux with versions older than 7.x, as there lower case invokes Purify mode (memory and leak detection). Other platforms accept both upper and lower case.
firefox -P "Joel User"
-profile "profile_path"
Start with the profile with the given path. Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey2.x only.
"profile_path" can either be an absolute path ("/path/to/profile") or a relative path ("path/to/profile").
-new-instance
Open new instance, not a new window in running instance, which allows multiple copies of application to be open at a time.
firefox -new-instance -P "Another Profile"
Note: Not available for Windows, see bug 855899.
-no-remote
Do not accept or send remote commands; implies -new-instance.
firefox -no-remote -P "Another Profile"
-migration
Start with Import Wizard.
-override /path/to/override.ini
Load the specified override.ini file to override application.ini (browser/app/application.ini). This can be used to suppress the Migration Wizard at startup by loading the following override.ini. Firefox only.
[XRE] EnableProfileMigrator=0
Browser
-browser
Start with the browser component. Firefox and SeaMonkey only.
-url URL
Open URL in a new tab or window, depend on the browser option. -url can be omitted. You may list multiple URLs, separated by spaces. Firefox and SeaMonkey only.
firefox www.mozilla.com firefox www.mozilla.com developer.mozilla.org
-private
Opens Firefox in permanent private browsing mode. Firefox 3.6 and later only.
May not be applicable in older Ubuntu for Firefox 20 and later, confirmed to work in 14.04
-private-window
Opens a new private browsing window in an existing instance of Firefox. Firefox 20 and later only.
-private-window URL
Open URL in a new private browsing window. If a private browsing window is already open, a new tab is opened in the existing window. Firefox 29 and later only. Does not work in Firefox 31 on linux mint 17 nor on Firefox 48 on Windows 7. URL opens in a non-private window.
-new-tab URL
Open URL in a new tab. Firefox and SeaMonkey2.x only.
-new-window URL
Open URL in a new window. Firefox and SeaMonkey2.x only.
-search term
Search term with your default search engine. Firefox and SeaMonkey 2.1 and later only.
-preferences
Open Options/Preferences window. Firefox and SeaMonkey2.x only.
-setDefaultBrowser
Set the application as the default browser. Firefox only.
-foreground
Make this instance the active application.
Mail/News
-mail
Start with the mail client. Thunderbird and SeaMonkey only.
-news news_URL
Start with the news client. If news_URL (optional) is given, open the specified newsgroup. Thunderbird and SeaMonkey only.
thunderbird -news news://server/group
-compose message_options
Start with mail composer. See syntax rules. Thunderbird and SeaMonkey only.
thunderbird -compose "to=foo@nowhere.net"
-addressbook
Start with address book. Thunderbird and SeaMonkey only.
-options
Open Options/Preferences window. Thunderbird only.
-offline
Start with the offline mode. Thunderbird and SeaMonkey only.
-setDefaultMail
Set the application as the default email client. Thunderbird only.
Calendar
-calendar
Start with the calendar client. Sunbird only.
-subscribe URL or -url URL
Subscribe to the given URL. Sunbird only.
-showdate date
Show your schedule of the given date. Sunbird only.
sunbird -showdate 08/04/2008
Other Components
-editor URL or -edit URL
Start with editor (Composer) for the given URL (where URL is optional). SeaMonkey only.
seamonkey -edit www.mozilla.org
-jsdebugger
Start application with Browser Toolbox (formerly Browser Debugger). That is different to Venkman debugger (see option -venkman).
-jsconsole
Start application with the Error Console, or, in Firefox, the Browser Console.
-start-debugger-server port
Firefox only. Start the debugger server on port. This will enable another instance of Firefox to connect the Firefox Developer Tools to this Firefox instance. See the article on remotely debugging Firefox Desktop.
The port argument is optional, and if it is omitted, the server will listen on port 6000.
-inspector URL
Start with the DOM Inspector, if installed, and inspect the given URL (where URL is optional).
-devtools
Start with native Developer Tools opened.
-venkman
Start with the JavaScript debugger, Venkman, if installed.
-purgecaches
Gecko (layout engine) has a javascript cache, which is not reset on startup. This clears it.
-chat
Start with the IRC client, ChatZilla, if installed.
XULRunner
-app /path/to/application.ini
Start a new process running the XULRunner application at path/to. Also works with Firefox version 3 and above.
--register-global
Registers XULRunner on the system for all users. Must be run as admin / root.
--register-user
Registers XULRunner for a single user.
--unregister-global
Unregisters XULRunner for all users.
--unregister-user
Unregisters XULRunner for a single user.
--install-app path/to/myapplication.(xpi|xulapp)
Installs the XULRunner application at path/to onto the system. Applications are installed into the default location for your system (program files|Applications|usr/lib) at vendorname/applicationName. Applications may be uninstalled per usual methods for your system.
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla XULRunner\1.8.0.4\xulrunner\xulrunner.exe" --install-app "C:\Users\Billdo\Desktop\myapplication.xpi"
/opt/xulrunner/1.8.0.4/xulrunner/xulrunner --install-app ~/Desktop/myapplication.xulapp
/Library/Frameworks/XUL.framework/xulrunner-bin --install-app ~/Desktop/myapplication.xpi
Chrome
-chrome chrome_URL
Load the specified chrome.
firefox -chrome chrome://inspector/content
-register chrome_URL
Register the specified chrome, but do not start application.
Add-ons
-install-global-extension /path/to/extension
Installs the extension into the application directory. The parameter is the path to the extension. You must have administrative privileges.
-install-global-theme /path/to/theme
Same as above, but for themes. You must have administrative privileges.
Note: Since Firefox 2.0.0.7, use of the -install-global-extension and -install-global-theme command line arguments have been restricted to only allow installing add-ons that are on local disks or mapped drives. Installing from a network share directly will no longer succeed.
-safe-mode
Launches the application with all extensions disabled, for that launch only. (Extensions are not loaded, but are not permanently disabled in the Extension Manager data source).
Locale
-UILocale locale
Start with locale resources as UI Locale.
firefox -UILocale en-US
Remote control
-remote remote_command
This feature was removed in Firefox 36.0, restored in 36.0.1 and removed again in 39.0. See bug 1080319.
Execute the specified remote_command in an already running application process.
firefox -remote "openURL(www.mozilla.org, new-tab)"
This option is only available on X-Windows Unix platforms.
Miscellaneous
-tray
Start application minimized to system tray. Useful with autorun.
-silent
Don't open default windows. Useful with those command-line arguments that open their own windows but don't already prevent default windows from opening. Firefox, Thunderbird3.x and SeaMonkey2.x only.
-console
Start application with a debugging console. Note: Windows only.
-attach-console
Write messages for the debugging console into the window which launched the application instead of opening a new window for the debugging messages. Only supported on the Windows operating system.
-h or -help or -?
Print the list of all available command line options. Note that on Windows this only works with a redirection such as |more (bug 355889). This option is available only in a command console.
-v or -version
Print application version. Note that on Windows this only works with a redirection such as |more (bug 355889). This option is available only in a command console.
-osint
Tells the application that it is being launched by the OS shell. This should not be specified unless the caller provides all of the functionality provided by the OS shell when launching the application (bug 384384).
-requestPending
Tells the application that there will be a Windows DDE request to open the same url specified on the command line. This should not be specified unless the caller provides all of the functionality provided by the OS shell when launching the application (bug 354005).
X11 options
These options are only available for an application build for and running atop the X11/X.org display and window system to be found on Linux and other Unix-based systems.
--display=DISPLAY
Set the X display to use
--class=WM_CLASS
Set the WM_CLASS resource class of the X11 windows created by the application.
--sync
Make X calls synchronous
--g-fatal-warnings
Make all warnings fatal
Other options need to be documented
-print-xpcom-dir-print-xpcom-dirlist-kill-killAll-f-ftimeout-fwait-unsetDefaultMail- GTK options
References
- Chrome: Command Line
- Test Documentation for Command-line Features (mozilla.org)
toolkit/xre/nsAppRunner.cppbrowser/components/nsBrowserContentHandler.jssuite/browser/nsBrowserContentHandler.jsmail/components/nsMailDefaultHandler.js- Installer command line options
Original Document Information
- Author(s): Ben Goodger, Steffen Wilberg, Seth Spitzer, Daniel Wang
- Copyright Information: Portions of this content are © 1998–2007 by individual mozilla.org contributors; content available under a Creative Commons license | Details.