1KITTY(1) kitty KITTY(1)
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6 kitty - kitty Documentation
7 kitty [options] [program-to-run ...]
9 Run the kitty terminal emulator. You can also specify the program to
11 run inside kitty as normal arguments following the options. For exam‐
12 ple: kitty sh -c "echo hello, world. Press ENTER to quit; read"
13 For comprehensive documentation for kitty, please see:
15 https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/
16
18 --class <CLS>
19 Set the class part of the WM_CLASS window property. On Wayland,
20 it sets the app id. Default: kitty
21 --name <NAME>
23 Set the name part of the WM_CLASS property (defaults to using
24 the value from kitty --class)
25 --title <TITLE>, -T <TITLE>
27 Set the window title. This will override any title set by the
28 program running inside kitty. So only use this if you are run‐
29 ning a program that does not set titles. If combined with kitty
30 --session the title will be used for all windows created by the
31 session, that do not set their own titles.
32 --config <CONFIG>, -c <CONFIG>
34 Specify a path to the configuration file(s) to use. All configu‐
35 ration files are merged onto the builtin kitty.conf, overriding
36 the builtin values. This option can be specified multiple times
37 to read multiple configuration files in sequence, which are
38 merged. Use the special value NONE to not load a config file.
39 If this option is not specified, config files are searched for
41 in the order: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/kitty/kitty.conf, ~/.con‐
42 fig/kitty/kitty.conf, $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/kitty/kitty.conf. The
43 first one that exists is used as the config file.
44 If the environment variable KITTY_CONFIG_DIRECTORY is specified,
46 that directory is always used and the above searching does not
47 happen.
48 If /etc/xdg/kitty/kitty.conf exists it is merged before (i.e.
50 with lower priority) than any user config files. It can be used
51 to specify system-wide defaults for all users.
52 --override <OVERRIDE>, -o <OVERRIDE>
54 Override individual configuration options, can be specified mul‐
55 tiple times. Syntax: name=value. For example: kitty -o
56 font_size=20
57 --directory <DIRECTORY>, -d <DIRECTORY>
59 Change to the specified directory when launching Default: .
60 --detach
62 Detach from the controlling terminal, if any
63 --session <SESSION>
65 Path to a file containing the startup session (tabs, windows,
66 layout, programs). Use - to read from STDIN. See the README file
67 for details and an example.
68 --hold Remain open after child process exits. Note that this only
70 affects the first window. You can quit by either using the close
71 window shortcut or Ctrl+d.
72 --single-instance, -1
74 If specified only a single instance of kitty will run. New invo‐
75 cations will instead create a new top-level window in the exist‐
76 ing kitty instance. This allows kitty to share a single sprite
77 cache on the GPU and also reduces startup time. You can also
78 have separate groups of kitty instances by using the kitty
79 --instance-group option
80 --instance-group <INSTANCE_GROUP>
82 Used in combination with the kitty --single-instance option. All
83 kitty invocations with the same kitty --instance-group will
84 result in new windows being created in the first kitty instance
85 within that group
86 --wait-for-single-instance-window-close
88 Normally, when using --single-instance, kitty will open a new
89 window in an existing instance and quit immediately. With this
90 option, it will not quit till the newly opened window is closed.
91 Note that if no previous instance is found, then kitty will wait
92 anyway, regardless of this option.
93 --listen-on <LISTEN_ON>
95 Tell kitty to listen on the specified address for control mes‐
96 sages. For example, kitty --listen-on=unix:/tmp/mykitty or kitty
97 --listen-on=tcp:localhost:12345. On Linux systems, you can also
98 use abstract UNIX sockets, not associated with a file, like
99 this: kitty --listen-on=unix:@mykitty. Environment variables in
100 the setting are expanded and relative paths are resolved with
101 respect to the temporary directory. To control kitty, you can
102 send it commands with kitty @ using the kitty @ --to option to
103 specify this address. This option will be ignored, unless you
104 set allow_remote_control to yes in kitty.conf. Note that if you
105 run kitty @ within a kitty window, there is no need to specify
106 the --to option as it is read automatically from the environ‐
107 ment. For UNIX sockets, this can also be specified in
108 kitty.conf.
109 --start-as <START_AS>
111 Control how the initial kitty window is created. Default: nor‐
112 mal Choices: fullscreen, maximized, minimized, normal
113 Debugging options
115 --version, -v
116 The current kitty version
117 --dump-commands
119 Output commands received from child process to stdout
120 --replay-commands <REPLAY_COMMANDS>
122 Replay previously dumped commands. Specify the path to a dump
123 file previously created by --dump-commands. You can open a new
124 kitty window to replay the commands with:
125 kitty sh -c "kitty --replay-commands /path/to/dump/file; read"
127 --dump-bytes <DUMP_BYTES>
129 Path to file in which to store the raw bytes received from the
130 child process
131 --debug-gl, --debug-rendering
133 Debug rendering commands. This will cause all OpenGL calls to
134 check for errors instead of ignoring them. Also prints out mis‐
135 cellaneous debug information. Useful when debugging rendering
136 problems
137 --debug-keyboard
139 This option will cause kitty to print out key events as they are
140 received
141 --debug-font-fallback
143 Print out information about the selection of fallback fonts for
144 characters not present in the main font.
145 --debug-config
147 Print out information about the system and kitty configuration.
148
150 Kovid Goyal
151
153 2020, Kovid Goyal
1540.17.3 Apr 23, 2020 KITTY(1)