command-prompt.md

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Usage via the command prompt	Command prompt	120

Notepad++ supports various case-sensitive command line parameters to control its startup and affect its behavior.

Help usage

notepad++ [--help] [-multiInst] [-noPlugin]
  [-l<Language>] [-udl="My UDL Name"]
  [-L<langCode>]
  [-n<line>] [-c<column>] [-p<pos>] [-x<left-pos>] [-y<TopPos>]
  [-monitor] [-nosession] [-notabbar] [-ro] [-systemtray] [-loadingTime]
  [-alwaysOnTop] [-openSession] [-r]
  [-qn="Easter Egg Name" | -qt="Text to Type" | -qf="D:\path to\file"]
  [-qSpeed(1|2|3)] [-quickPrint]
  [-settingsDir="d:\your settings dir\"] [-openFoldersAsWorkspace]
  [-titleAdd="additional title bar text"]
  [-pluginMessage="text for plugin(s)"]
  [filepath]

• --help: The help message for command line arguments. It will be shown before Notepad++'s launch.
• -multiInst: Launch another Notepad++ instance, so user can have several Notepad++ simultaneously.
• -noPlugin: Launch Notepad++ without loading any plugin.
• -l: Open file or display ghost typing with syntax highlighting of choice. Language is a short identifier string, of which the following are allowed: normal, php, c, cpp, cs, objc, d, java, rc, html, xml, makefile, pascal, batch, ini, nfo, asp, sql, vb, javascript, css, perl, python, lua, tex, cobol, fortran, bash, actionscript, nsis, tcl, lisp, scheme, asm, diff, props, postscript, ruby, smalltalk, vhdl, kix, autoit, Gui4Cli, powershell, caml, ada, verilog, matlab, haskell, inno, cmake, yaml, r and jsp.
• -udl="My UDL Name": Open file with User Defined Language (UDL) syntax highlighting My UDL Name active. If the UDL name does not conain spaces, the quote marks aren't required around the name (like -udl=MyUDL). The UDL name should match an existing UDL. Mutually exclusive with -l (UDL will take priority over standard syntax highlighter). (new to v8.1.2)
• -L: Apply indicated localization, langCode maps to the localization file name: {{< expand "show Language Codes" >}} code | file ---|--- ab, abk | abkhazian.xml af | afrikaans.xml an | aragonese.xml ar, ar-dz, ar-bh, ar-eg, ar-iq, ar-jo, ar-kw, ar-lb, ar-ly, ar-ma, ar-om, ar-qa, ar-sa, ar-sy, ar-tn, ar-ae, ar-ye | arabic.xml az | azerbaijani.xml be | belarusian.xml bg | bulgarian.xml bn | bengali.xml br-fr | breton.xml bs | bosnian.xml ca | catalan.xml co, co-fr | corsican.xml cs | czech.xml cy-gb | welsh.xml da | danish.xml de, de-at, de-de, de-li, de-lu, de-ch | german.xml el | greek.xml eo | esperanto.xml es-ar | spanish_ar.xml es, es-bo, es-cl, es-co, es-cr, es-do, es-ec, es-sv, es-gt, es-hn, es-mx, es-ni, es-pa, es-py, es-pe, es-pr, es-es, es-uy, es-ve | spanish.xml et | estonian.xml eu | basque.xml exy | extremaduran.xml fa | farsi.xml fi | finnish.xml fr, fr-be, fr-ca, fr-fr, fr-lu, fr-mc, fr-ch | french.xml fur | friulian.xml ga | irish.xml gl | galician.xml gu | gujarati.xml he | hebrew.xml hi | hindi.xml hr | croatian.xml hu | hungarian.xml id | indonesian.xml it, it-ch | italian.xml ja | japanese.xml ka | georgian.xml keb | kabyle.xml kk | kazakh.xml kn | kannada.xml ko, ko-kp, ko-kr | korean.xml ku | kurdish.xml ky | kyrgyz.xml lb | luxembourgish.xml lij | ligurian.xml lt | lithuanian.xml lv | latvian.xml mk | macedonian.xml mn | mongolian.xml mr | marathi.xml ms | malay.xml ne, nep | nepali.xml nl, nl-be | dutch.xml nn | nynorsk.xml no, nb | norwegian.xml oc-aranes | aranese.xml oc | occitan.xml pa, pa-in | punjabi.xml pl | polish.xml pt-br | brazilian_portuguese.xml pt, pt-pt | portuguese.xml ro, ro-mo | romanian.xml ru, ru-mo | russian.xml sc | sardinian.xml sgs | samogitian.xml si | sinhala.xml sk | slovak.xml sl | slovenian.xml sq | albanian.xml sr-cyrl-ba, sr-cyrl-sp | serbianCyrillic.xml sr | serbian.xml sv | swedish.xml ta | tamil.xml te | telugu.xml tg-cyrl-tj | tajikCyrillic.xml th | thai.xml tl | tagalog.xml tr | turkish.xml tt | tatar.xml ug-cn | uyghur.xml uk | ukrainian.xml ur, ur-pk | urdu.xml uz-cyrl-uz | uzbekCyrillic.xml uz | uzbek.xml vec | venetian.xml vi, vi-vn | vietnamese.xml yue | hongKongCantonese.xml zh-tw, zh-hk, zh-sg | taiwaneseMandarin.xml zh, zh-cn | chineseSimplified.xml zu, zu-za | zulu.xml {{< /expand >}}
• -n: Scroll to indicated line (LineNumber) on filepath.
• -c: Scroll to indicated column (ColumnNumber) on filepath.
• -p: Scroll to indicated 0 base position (Position) on filepath.
• -x: Move Notepad++ to indicated left side position (LeftPos) on the screen.
• -y: Move Notepad++ to indicated top position (TopPos) on the screen.
• -monitor: Open file with file monitoring enabled
• -nosession: Launch Notepad++ without previous session.
• -notabbar: Launch Notepad++ without tabbar.
• -ro: Make the filepath read only.
• -systemtray: Launch Notepad++ directly in system tray.
• -loadingTime: Display Notepad++ loading time.
• -alwaysOnTop: Make Notepad++ always on top.
• -openSession: Open a session. filepath must be a session file.
• -r: Open files recursively. This argument will be ignored if filepath contain no wildcard character.
• -qn="Easter Egg Name": Launch ghost typing to display easter egg via its Easter Egg Name.
• -qt="Text to Type": Launch ghost typing to display a text via the given Text to Type
• -qf="D:\path to\file": Launch ghost typing to display a file content via the file path D:\path to\file
• -qSpeed(1|2|3): Ghost typing speed. Value from 1 to 3 for slow, fast, and fastest
• -quickPrint: Print the file given as argument filepath then quit Notepad++
• -settingsDir="d:\your settings dir\": Override the default settings dir (new to v7.9.2)
• -openFoldersAsWorkspace: Any folders listed as arguments will be opened as a workspace, rather than opening all the contained files individually (new to v7.8)
• -titleAdd="additional title bar text": Add a dash and a space and the supplied text to the right side of the application title bar (new to v8.0.0)
• -pluginMessage="text for plugin(s)": if plugin developers need extra command line arguments, then users can add this option, and the plugin will be notified that it can parse that string for extra information (new to v8.4.2)
• filepath: file or folder name to open (absolute or relative path name)

The order of the options is not important. Brackets indicate that the options are not required, and are not part of the command-line argument. The number of hyphens is significant, and the options are case sensitive.

For compatibility, Notepad++ will first try to identify the entire command line as a filename, even if it is unquoted. It is however not recommended to do this, as you should always quote the filename.

This help usage list can be accessed inside Notepad++ using the --help command line argument, or using the ?-menu's Command Line Arguments entry.

Additional Options

There are other Notepad++ command-line options which aren't included in the help usage list. These are intended for advanced usage or other special circumstances.

• -notepadStyleCmdline: When you follow the instructions in Other Resources > Notepad Replacement, to replace Windows' builtin notepad.exe with Notepad++, Windows will try to pass /p or /P as a command-line option when you try to print the file from the Explorer Context menu. Enabling this option allows Notepad++ to recognize that option, and convert it internally to the official -quickPrint option.
• -z: Causes Notepad++ to ignore the next command line argument (a single word, or a phrase in quotes). The only intended and supported use for this option is for the Notepad Replacement syntax.

Installer Options

The Notepad++ installer executable accepts the three NSIS command-line options:

• /S : silent installation
• /NCRC: skips the installer's CRC check
• /D=c:\blah or /D=c:\path with spaces\blah : overrides the default installation directory.
  • Do not put quotes around the path, even when there are spaces.
  • Because it allows spaces in the path, this option must be the last argument on the installer command line, if included.

Note : The installer options are case sensitive: /S will do a silent installation, whereas /s will not.