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Command line tutorial¶
Some developers like using the command line extensively. Godot is designed to be friendly to them, so here are the steps for working entirely from the command line. Given the engine relies on almost no external libraries, initialization times are pretty fast, making it suitable for this workflow.
Note
On Windows and Linux, you can run a Godot binary in a terminal by specifying its relative or absolute path.
On macOS, the process is different due to Godot being contained within an
.app bundle (which is a folder, not a file). To run a Godot binary
from a terminal on macOS, you have to cd to the folder where the Godot
application bundle is located, then run Godot.app/Contents/MacOS/Godot
followed by any command line arguments. If you've renamed the application
bundle from Godot to another name, make sure to edit this command line
accordingly.
Command line reference¶
General options
Command |
Description |
|
Display the list of command line options. |
|
Display the version string. |
|
Use verbose stdout mode. |
|
Quiet mode, silences stdout messages. Errors are still displayed. |
Run options
Command |
Description |
|
Separator for user-provided arguments. Following arguments are not used by the engine, but can be read from |
|
Start the editor instead of running the scene (target=editor must be used). |
|
Start the Project Manager, even if a project is auto-detected (target=editor must be used). |
|
Start the editor debug server ( |
|
Quit after the first iteration. |
|
Use a specific locale. |
|
Path to a project ( |
|
Scan folders upwards for 'project.godot' file. |
|
Path to a pack (.pck) file to load. |
|
Render thread mode ('unsafe', 'safe', 'separate'). See Thread Model for more details. |
|
Remote filesystem ( |
|
Password for remote filesystem. |
|
Audio driver. Use |
|
Display driver (and rendering driver). Use |
|
Renderer name. Requires driver support. |
|
Rendering driver (depends on display driver). Use |
|
Use a specific GPU (run with |
|
Text driver ('Fonts', 'BiDi', 'shaping') |
|
Pen tablet input driver. |
|
Enable headless mode ( |
|
Run the engine in a way that a movie is written (by default .avi MJPEG). Fixed FPS is forced when enabled, but can be used to change movie FPS. Disabling vsync can speed up movie writing but makes interaction more difficult. |
|
Force disabling of vsync. Run the engine in a way that a movie is written (by default .avi MJPEG). Fixed FPS is forced when enabled, but can be used to change movie FPS. |
Display options
Command |
Description |
|
Request fullscreen mode. |
|
Request a maximized window. |
|
Request windowed mode. |
|
Request an always-on-top window. |
|
Request window resolution. |
|
Request window position. |
|
Use a single window (no separate subwindows). |
|
Select XR mode (default/off/on). |
Debug options
Note
Debug options are only available in the editor and debug export templates
(they require debug or release_debug build targets, see
Target for more details).
Command |
Description |
|
Debug (local stdout debugger). |
|
Breakpoint list as source::line comma-separated pairs, no spaces (use %20 instead). |
|
Enable profiling in the script debugger. |
|
Show a GPU profile of the tasks that took the most time during frame rendering. |
|
Enable graphics API validation layers for debugging. |
|
Abort on GPU errors (usually validation layer errors), may help see the problem if your system freezes. |
|
Remote debug ( |
|
Show collision shapes when running the scene. |
|
Show path lines when running the scene. |
|
Show navigation polygons when running the scene. |
|
Print all StringName allocations to stdout when the engine quits. |
|
Simulate high CPU load (delay each frame by <ms> milliseconds). |
|
Force time scale (higher values are faster, 1.0 is normal speed). |
|
Disable render loop so rendering only occurs when called explicitly from script. |
|
Disable crash handler when supported by the platform code. |
|
Force a fixed number of frames per second. This setting disables real-time synchronization. |
|
Print the frames per second to the stdout. |
Standalone tools
Command |
Description |
|
Run a script. |
|
Only parse for errors and quit (use with |
|
Export the project using the given preset and matching release template (target=editor must
be used). The preset name should match one defined in export_presets.cfg. |
|
Like |
|
Like |
|
Convert project from Godot 3.x to Godot 4.x. |
|
Show what elements will be renamed when converting project from Godot 3.x to Godot 4.x. |
|
Dump the engine API reference to the given |
|
Disallow dumping the base types (used with |
|
Build the scripting solutions (e.g. for C# projects, target=editor must be used).
Implies |
|
Generate GDExtension header file 'gdnative_interface.h' in the current folder. This file is the base file required to implement a GDExtension. |
|
Generate JSON dump of the Godot API for GDExtension bindings named 'extension_api.json' in the current folder (target=editor must be used). |
|
Benchmark the startup time and print it to console. |
|
Benchmark the startup time and save it to a given file in JSON format. |
Path¶
It is recommended that your Godot editor binary be in your PATH environment
variable, so it can be executed easily from any place by typing godot.
You can do so on Linux by placing the Godot binary in /usr/local/bin and
making sure it is called godot (case-sensitive).
Setting the project path¶
Depending on where your Godot binary is located and what your current working directory is, you may need to set the path to your project for any of the following commands to work correctly.
This can be done by giving the path to the project.godot file
of your project as either the first argument, like this:
godot path_to_your_project/project.godot [other] [commands] [and] [args]
Or by using the --path argument:
godot --path path_to_your_project [other] [commands] [and] [args]
For example, the full command for exporting your game (as explained below) might look like this:
godot --headless --path path_to_your_project --export-release my_export_preset_name game.exe
Creating a project¶
Creating a project from the command line can be done by navigating the
shell to the desired place and making a project.godot file.
mkdir newgame
cd newgame
touch project.godot
The project can now be opened with Godot.
Running the editor¶
Running the editor is done by executing Godot with the -e flag. This
must be done from within the project directory or a subdirectory,
otherwise the command is ignored and the Project Manager appears.
godot -e
If a scene has been created and saved, it can be edited later by running the same code with that scene as argument.
godot -e scene.tscn
Erasing a scene¶
Godot is friends with your filesystem and will not create extra metadata files.
Use rm to erase a scene file. Make sure nothing references that scene.
Otherwise, an error will be thrown upon opening the project.
rm scene.tscn
Running the game¶
To run the game, simply execute Godot within the project directory or subdirectory.
godot
When a specific scene needs to be tested, pass that scene to the command line.
godot scene.tscn
Debugging¶
Catching errors in the command line can be a difficult task because they
scroll quickly. For this, a command line debugger is provided by adding
-d. It works for running either the game or a single scene.
godot -d
godot -d scene.tscn
Exporting¶
Exporting the project from the command line is also supported. This is especially useful for continuous integration setups.
Note
Using the --headless command line argument is required on platforms
that do not have GPU access (such as continuous integration). On platforms
with GPU access, --headless prevents a window from spawning while the
project is exporting.
# `godot` must be a Godot editor binary, not an export template.
# Also, export templates must be installed for the editor
# (or a valid custom export template must be defined in the export preset).
godot --headless --export-release "Linux/X11" /var/builds/project
godot --headless --export-release Android /var/builds/project.apk
The preset name must match the name of an export preset defined in the
project's export_presets.cfg file. If the preset name contains spaces or
special characters (such as "Windows Desktop"), it must be surrounded with quotes.
To export a debug version of the game, use the --export-debug switch instead
of --export-release. Their parameters and usage are the same.
To export only a PCK file, use the --export-pack option followed by the
preset name and output path, with the file extension, instead of
--export-release or --export-debug. The output path extension determines
the package's format, either PCK or ZIP.
Warning
When specifying a relative path as the path for --export-release, --export-debug
or --export-pack, the path will be relative to the directory containing
the project.godot file, not relative to the current working directory.
Running a script¶
It is possible to run a .gd script from the command line.
This feature is especially useful in large projects, e.g. for batch
conversion of assets or custom import/export.
The script must inherit from SceneTree or MainLoop.
Here is an example sayhello.gd, showing how it works:
#!/usr/bin/env -S godot -s
extends SceneTree
func _init():
print("Hello!")
quit()
And how to run it:
# Prints "Hello!" to standard output.
godot -s sayhello.gd
If no project.godot exists at the path, current path is assumed to be the
current working directory (unless --path is specified).
The first line of sayhello.gd above is commonly referred to as
a shebang. If the Godot binary is in your PATH as godot,
it allows you to run the script as follows in modern Linux
distributions, as well as macOS:
# Mark script as executable.
chmod +x sayhello.gd
# Prints "Hello!" to standard output.
./sayhello.gd
If the above doesn't work in your current version of Linux or macOS, you can always have the shebang run Godot straight from where it is located as follows:
#!/usr/bin/godot -s