Command-line interface
A terminal is a text-based way to run programs. It is normally pre-installed on your computer. The command prompt may also be called:
- Command Prompt
- Console
- MS-DOS Prompt
Running VLC from the terminal gives you access to many commands and features in VideoLAN which you would not otherwise have.
This page describes how to access the terminal and start VLC in it.
Windows
In windows, this is called the command prompt. To open the command prompt,
- Click on the Start Menu and select Run.
- In the Run box, type command (or cmd for newer windows) and press enter.
The command prompt will look something like this
C:\>
To run VLC, you will need to know where you installed VLC: the default is C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC. So to start vlc, type
"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\VLC" options
replacing options with the name of the file to play and it's options.
Mac OSX
You can run VLC on Mac OS X using a terminal application, such as Terminal.app in /Applications/Utilities. In the terminal window type
./VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC options
replacing options with the name of the file to play and it's options.
You can replace the "VLC" at the end of the path with "clivlc" to suppress the launch of any Mac-like interface. VLC won't even appear in the Dock then.
Linux/Unix
To get a linux terminal, you should probably run Konsole or Xterm. The terminal normally looks like a $ or a %. If you are logged in as root (generally a bad idea) it will probably be a #. To run vlc, you can normally type
vlc options
replacing options with the name of the file to play and it's options.
