Command line arguments

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Revision as of 14:30, 3 October 2007 by Alice Wyman (talk | contribs) ("-safe-mode" argument works in SeaMonkey 2, which opens in safe mode with add-ons disabled)
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You can use command line arguments to start your Mozilla application with special behavior.

How to use command line arguments

For Windows users

  • Go to "Start -> Run" and enter the file path and file name of the application, followed by the command line arguments. For example,
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -ProfileManager

(including the quotation marks). In this example the file path to the installation directory is C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox, the file name of the Firefox application is firefox.exe, and the command line argument we are using is ProfileManager. You should place a hyphen (-) directly before each command line argument that you wish to use.

  • If you regularly wish to start your application using command line arguments then you can also create a shortcut on your Desktop which includes them. To do this, right-click on an open space of the desktop and choose "New -> Shortcut". Follow the wizard to create the new shortcut. When it prompts you for location (not name), type the file path and file name followed by the command line arguments, exactly as in the example above.

For Linux and Mac OS X users

  • Open a Terminal window and type what you want to execute. On Linux, the shortcuts to your Terminal window will vary in location depending on your desktop environment. On Mac OS X go to your Applications/Utilities folder and choose "Terminal". Enter the path to the application, then a space, followed by a hypen (-) and the command-line argument. For example, to start the Firefox with the Profile Manager on Mac OS X, you would enter the following:
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -ProfileManager

List of command line arguments (incomplete)

See also the external links at the bottom of this article.

Command Result Example
profile "<path>" Starts with profile located at the given path.
Does not apply to Mozilla Suite or SeaMonkey 1.x
firefox.exe -profile "E:\myprofile"
P "<profile name>" Starts with a given profile name (profile name is case sensitive). firefox.exe -P "Joel User"
<url> Launches the application and opens the given URL(s). firefox.exe "www.mozilla.org|www.mozillazine.org"
safe-mode Launches the application with extensions disabled and the default theme.
Does not apply to Mozilla Suite or SeaMonkey 1.x
firefox.exe -safe-mode
no-remote Enables Firefox to run with multiple profiles; used with -P. Firefox 2 and later. firefox.exe -no-remote
height <value> Sets height of the startup window to <value>. firefox.exe -height 600
width <value> Sets width of the startup window to <value>. firefox.exe -width 800
ProfileManager Starts with Profile Manager. firefox.exe -ProfileManager
CreateProfile Create a new profile firefox -CreateProfile test
migration Starts the application with the Import Wizard
Does not apply to Mozilla Suite or SeaMonkey 1.x
firefox -migration
console Starts the application with a debugging console. firefox.exe -console
jsconsole Starts with the Error Console (Javascript Console). firefox.exe -jsconsole
inspector <url> Starts with the DOM Inspector. firefox.exe -inspector http://www.google.com/
chrome <url> Loads the specified chrome. firefox.exe -chrome chrome://inspector/content/inspector.xul
new-window <url> Loads a URL in a new browser window. firefox.exe -new-window <url>
new-tab <url> Loads a URL in a new tab. firefox.exe -new-tab <url>
install-global-extension "<path>" Installs an extension globally. firefox.exe -install-global-extension "C:\Temp\extension-file.xpi"

See also

External links