Command Line

Command Line Interface

GoldenDict-ng supports various command line arguments to control its behavior at startup.

Basic Usage

goldendict [options] [word]

Options

Option	Short	Description
--help	-h	Show help message and exit
--version	-v	Print version and diagnosis info
--log-to-file	-l	Save debug messages to gd_log.txt in the config folder
--reset-window-state	-r	Reset window state to defaults
--no-tts		Disable Text-to-Speech
--group-name <name>	-g	Change the dictionary group for main window
--popup-group-name <name>	-p	Change the dictionary group for popup window
--scanpopup	-s	Force word translation in popup window
--popup		Alias for --scanpopup
--main-window	-m	Force word translation in main window
--toggle-popup	-t	Toggle the scan popup window

Positional Arguments

Argument	Description
word	Word or sentence to query at startup

Examples

Query a word in main window

goldendict hello

Query a word in popup window

goldendict --popup hello
goldendict -s hello

Switch dictionary group

goldendict -g "English Dictionaries"
goldendict --group-name "Chinese Dictionaries"

Reset window state

goldendict --reset-window-state

Enable debug logging

goldendict --log-to-file

Toggle popup window

goldendict --toggle-popup

URL Scheme

GoldenDict-ng also supports URL scheme for integration with other applications:

goldendict://<word>?target=<window>

Parameter	Value	Description
word	URL-encoded word	The word to translate
target	popup or main	Target window (defaults to main)

Example:

goldendict://hello?target=popup

Environment Variables

Variable	Platform	Description
GOLDENDICT_FORCE_XCB	Linux	Force using X11 (Xcb) platform
GOLDENDICT_FORCE_WAYLAND	Linux	Force using native Wayland platform

Notes

• If another instance of GoldenDict-ng is already running, command line arguments will be forwarded to the running instance via IPC.
• When both --popup and --main-window are specified, the last one takes precedence.
• The --no-tts option clears all voice engines from the configuration.