Command line

glimt [OPTIONS] [FILE_OR_FOLDER ...] opens the files or folders given: a file with the rest of its folder, a folder at its first image, several folders as one list. man glimt says the same as this page, from Glimt 0.38.4. For scripts and AI assistants, and how to keep them safe, see Scripts and AI.

Options

• --back-up FOLDER: Copy Glimt's own folders (settings, marks and stars, collections, keyword tree, plugins and decoders; not the thumbnails) to a new folder glimt-backup-DATE in FOLDER, as File → Back Up Glimt's Data does, without opening a window: for cron or a systemd timer. A second backup the same day goes beside the first. Prints where it went; exits with 1 when FOLDER is no folder or lies inside Glimt's own folders, when there is nothing to back up, or when a file could not be copied.
• --check-config [FILE]: Tell what is wrong in the settings file, or in FILE, line by line: a line that is not setting=value, a setting that does not exist or is set twice, and a value that cannot be read or is out of range, with the value used instead. Prints OK and exits with 0 when nothing is wrong, else exits with 1, also when the file cannot be read. When it starts, Glimt tells the first of these in its window, but not a setting it does not know, which a newer Glimt beside it may have written.
• --fade off|short|long: How the slideshow goes from one image to the next: at once, or fading over 0.4 or 1 second. Kept for later starts.
• --fullscreen: Start in full screen.
• -h, --help: List the options and remote commands.
• --kiosk: Full screen with only the image, for a picture screen: the keys and the mouse browse, zoom, change the layout and run the slideshow, but there are no menus or panels, nothing changes files or settings beyond these, and Escape, Q, Ctrl+Q and closing the window are refused. Only glimt --remote quit (or --remote-all) ends it; where remote control cannot work, without $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, Ctrl+Q does. The desktop's own keys (switching windows, logging out) still work; to keep them away, run Glimt as the only program of a kiosk session, for example cage -- glimt --kiosk --slideshow ~/Pictures or as the program of a GNOME Kiosk session.
• --layout LAYOUT: Show several images at once, as View → Layout: 1 (one image), 2x1 (side by side), 1x2 (above each other) or 2x2 (four). Kept for later starts.
• --lock-settings: For a shared or public computer: Preferences do not open, the sort manager's folders stay as they are, View → Theme neither saves a theme nor opens a folder or the browser, and nothing is written to the settings file, so what is changed in the menus (the theme, the sort order, the zoom mode) lasts only until Glimt closes. Marks, keywords and collections are kept as always. An administrator can lock every Glimt on the computer by creating the file /etc/glimt/lock-settings; in a Flatpak, which does not see the computer's /etc, use the option.
• --name NAME: Name this Glimt: letters, digits, - and _, not only digits, at most 64 bytes (fewer in a Flatpak, whose socket path is longer). The window title shows it, and glimt --name NAME --remote COMMAND sends COMMAND to this Glimt only (with open, it starts one with that name if none runs). A named Glimt listens even when remote control is off in Preferences.
• --random: Show the slideshow in random order. Kept for later starts, as in the View menu.
• --remote COMMAND: Send COMMAND to the Glimt window used last, on this computer. Exits with 2 for a command Glimt does not know, and with 1 when no Glimt runs or none answers within 10 seconds.
• --remote-all COMMAND: Send COMMAND to every running Glimt of this user on this computer.
• --slideshow: Start the slideshow once the folder is read. Given a collection (.gqv) or a plain list of images (.txt, .m3u: one path on each line, relative to the list or absolute, # for comments), it plays them in the list's order, for example glimt --slideshow --fullscreen show.txt.
• -V, --version: Print the version.

Remote commands

Remote commands reach only the Glimt windows of the same user on the same computer: they go through a Unix socket in $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/glimt, which only that user can open. Glimt opens no network port. To control Glimt on another computer, run the command there, for example ssh you@laptop glimt --remote next.

• next, prev, first, last: Show the next, previous, first or last image.
• slideshow [on|off]: Start or stop the slideshow; without the word, the other of the two.
• random [on|off]: Random order on or off; without the word, the other.
• fullscreen [on|off]: Enter or leave full screen; without the word, the other.
• subfolders on|off: Include the images of the subfolders in the list, or not, as View → Include Subfolders; kept, as the menu's.
• open PATH: Show a file, folder or collection. If no Glimt is running, one is started.
• quit: Close Glimt.
• current: Print the path of the image shown.
• selection: Print the paths of the selected files, or of the image shown when none is selected.
• select PATH...: Select these files of the list (at most 100,000) and show the first; print those that are not in it. Sent right after open, it waits until the folder is read. It only selects: deleting or moving is left to the user.

current, selection and select print each path followed by a NUL byte, as find -print0 does, since a file name may hold a line break: read them with xargs -0 or read -d '', not line by line. No remote command deletes, moves or renames a file.

Examples

• glimt ~/Pictures: Show the images in ~/Pictures.
• glimt ~/Pictures/holiday/beach.jpg: Show that image, with the rest of its folder to browse.
• glimt ~/Pictures/2024 ~/Pictures/2025: Both folders as one list, for one slideshow across them.
• glimt smb://nas/photos: A folder on a network share, mounted with gio first.
• glimt --layout 2x2 ~/Pictures: Four images at once.
• glimt --slideshow --random --fullscreen ~/Pictures: A slideshow in random order on the whole screen.
• glimt --slideshow --fullscreen --fade long ~/show.txt: The images listed in show.txt, one path on each line, in that order, fading from one to the next.
• printf '%s\n' ~/Pictures/*.jpg > ~/show.txt: Make such a list of a folder, to put in the order you want in an editor.
• glimt --kiosk --slideshow ~/Pictures: A picture frame: only the image, nothing that changes files; ends with glimt --remote quit.
• glimt --name left ~/a & glimt --name right ~/b: Two windows that scripts can tell apart: glimt --name left --remote next reaches the first only.
• glimt --remote next: Go to the next image in the Glimt used last, for example from a desktop shortcut.
• glimt --remote open ~/Pictures/holiday: Show another folder in the running Glimt, or start one.
• glimt --remote select ~/Pictures/*sunset*: Select those images in the list; the ones not in it are printed.
• glimt --remote selection | xargs -0 cp -t ~/best: Copy the selected images to ~/best, also when a name holds a space or a line break.
• glimt --remote current | xargs -0 exiftool -Model: The camera of the image shown.
• glimt --remote-all quit: Close every Glimt.