Opera's Command Line Options

This document lists the available command line switches for the UNIX and Windows platforms.

This document was last updated for Opera 9.1.

Content

UNIX Command Line Switches
Windows Command Line Switches
Kiosk Mode Switches
Remote Opera Commands for UNIX

UNIX Command Line Options

Note: UNIX command line switches are case sensitive. They use the prefix '-'. Example: to launch Opera without home page or saved sessions, enter opera -nosession on the command line. The full list of command line switches is given below, and may be recalled at any time by entering opera -help on the command line.

newwindow	Open URL in new window
newpage	Open URL in new tab
backgroundpage	Open URL in new tab in background
fullscreen	Start in full screen mode. Works only if no Opera instances are already running
iconic	Start in iconic mode
geometry <geometry>	Set geometry of toplevel window. Format: WIDTHxHEIGHT+XOFF+YOFF
remote "<command>"	Send command to another Opera window
noraise	No window raise when receiving remote commands. Only works for remote commands that do not open a dialog box
window <window id>	Launch remote opera window. Works for 'remote' and 'newwindow' commands
windowname <window name>	Launch remote opera window with a symbolic name. Works for 'remote' and 'newwindow' commands, will override 'newwindow' if a named window is located
restore	Restore default interface
nosession	Launch without saved sessions or home page
nowin	Launch without any open pages. Will disable any URL argument
nomail	Launch Opera without internal e-mail client
language <file>	Use translation from specified file
binarydir <path>	Location of version specific binaries
personaldir <path>	Location of alternative '.opera' directory
display <displayname>	Set the X display
fn <font>	Set the normal text font
bg <color>	Set the background color
fg <color>	Set the foreground color
visual TrueColor	Use TrueColor visual on an 8-bit display
cmap	Use private color map on an 8-bit display
smallicon	Use a smaller icon image
notrayicon	Do not show an opera icon in system tray
debugdns	Simple debugging of asynchronous dns lookup
debugfont	Simple debugging of font handling
debugjava	Simple debugging of Java
debugkeyboard	Simple debugging of keyboard events
debugmouse	Simple debugging of mouse presses
debugplugin	Simple debugging of plug-in handling
debugxerror	Simple debugging of X errors
disableinputmethods	Disable input methods
restoreextensions	Restore default file type extensions
postfix <name>	Append name to WM_CLASS and WM_WINDOW_ROLE
version	Display version number
full-version	Display version data and build details
kioskhelp	Display extra settings for kiosk mode operation
help or h	Display list of command line options

Note: A standalone URL argument or any of the switches 'newwindow', 'newpage', 'backgroundpage' or 'nowin' will disable 'remote' commands.

Windows Command Line Options

Note: The following Windows command line switches are case insensitive. Example usage to search for the planet Jupiter: opera.exe ? jupiter

/Settings <full path>	Launch with specified settings (opera6.ini) file
? <keywords>	Search for <keywords> with default search engine
/Debug	Voice debug mode

Kiosk Mode Switches

Kiosk mode switches are identical for the Windows, Mac OS X, and UNIX platforms. See the kiosk mode documentation for more details. To review the kiosk mode switches, enter opera -kioskhelp on the command line.

Remote Opera Commands for UNIX

All remote commands must be enclosed in quotation marks, for example:
opera -remote "openURL()"