View source for Interfaces

{{See also|Category:Interfaces|Category:Control VLC}}

Interfaces are the way you interact with {{VLC}}. Like anything else in VLC, they are modules, which allows for their interchangeability (see below).

== Main interfaces ==
VLC has four main graphical interfaces:
* The [[Qt Interface]] (qt) is the default interface on [[Linux]] and [[Windows]] starting with version 0.9.0.
: Used to be [[wxWidgets Interface]] (wx) before.
* The [[Skins|skins2 Interface]] is an interface where you can customize VLC's look (works on Linux and Windows).
* The [[macOS Interface]] is the default (and only) graphical interface on [[macOS]].
* The [[BeOS Interface]] is the default (and only) graphical interface on [[BeOS]].

== Full list ==
Besides the above main interfaces, VLC contains many more:
{|
|'''qt'''
| Current (>=0.9.0) default [https://www.qt.io/ Qt4] interface on [[Linux]] and [[Windows]].
|-
|'''wx'''
| Previous (<0.9.0) default [http://www.wxwidgets.org/ wxWidgets] interface on [[Linux]] and [[Windows]].
|-
|'''skins2'''
| Load VLC with a [[skin]]. (Linux and Windows only)
|-
|'''macosx'''
| Default [[Mac OS X]] interface.
|-
|'''minimal_macosx'''
| Minimal [[macOS]] interface.{{check}}<!-- Is it still called minimal_macosx or something else? -->
|-
|'''beos'''
| Default [[BeOS]] interface.
|-
| '''http'''
| [[Web Interface]], used for controlling VLC from over a network.
|-
| '''gestures'''
| [[Mouse Gestures]], where you can control VLC by moving the mouse
|-
| '''rc''', '''ncurses''', '''telnet'''
| [[Console|Console Interfaces]], non-graphical interfaces.
|-
| '''showintf'''
| Show interfaces module.
|-
| '''hotkeys''' and '''joystick'''
| Control VLC with the keyboard/joystick (see [[HotKeys]]).
|-
| '''dummy'''
| Don't use an interface ([[HotKeys]] still available).
|}

== Listing the available interfaces ==

To get a list of available interfaces, running VLC with the -l option:
 {{%}} vlc -l
This also displays the [[muxers]] and [[encoders]]/[[decoders]] and puts it in a file called "vlc-help.txt". On Linux, run
 {{%}} vlc -l | grep -iF interface
to display the interfaces.

== Using an interface ==

To run VLC with a different primary interface, use the following command:
 {{%}} vlc --intf ''name''
You can also use
 {{%}} vlc -I ''name''
You can also change the default in the [[Preferences]].

However, you can also launch more than one interface:
 {{%}} vlc --intf qt --extraintf sap,telnet,http
This will launch VLC with the default QT interface, but will also launch the [[SAP]], [[telnet]] and [[web interface]] in addition to the QT one. The default for this can also be changed in the preferences.

Note that if you only use the dummy interface, you won't be able to tell vlc to quit (except watching a video). You may have to break it manually with Ctrl+C; or use vlc://quit as the last item on the playlist.

[[Category:Control VLC|*]]
[[Category:Interfaces|*]]