Displays a short synopsis of the available commands or provides detailed help on a specific command.

Prints the GLib version to which gio belongs.

Concatenates the given files and prints them to the standard output.

The cat command works just like the traditional cat utility.

Note: just pipe through cat if you need its formatting options like -n, -T or other.

Copies one or more files from SOURCE to DESTINATION. If more than one source is specified, the destination must be a directory.

The copy command is similar to the traditional cp utility.

Options

Shows information about the given locations.

The info command is similar to the traditional ls utility.

Options

Launch a desktop file from any location given.

The launch command extends the behavior of the open command by allowing any desktop file to be launched, not only those registered as file handlers.

Lists the contents of the given locations. If no location is given, the contents of the current directory are shown.

The list command is similar to the traditional ls utility.

Options

If no handler is given, the mime command lists the registered and recommended applications for the mimetype. If a handler is given, it is set as the default handler for the mimetype.

Handlers must be specified by their desktop file name, including the extension. Example: org.gnome.gedit.desktop.

Creates directories.

The mkdir command is similar to the traditional mkdir utility.

Options

Monitors files or directories for changes, such as creation deletion, content and attribute changes, and mount and unmount operations affecting the monitored locations.

The monitor command uses the GIO file monitoring APIs to do its job. GIO has different implementations for different platforms. The most common implementation on Linux uses inotify.

Options

Provides commandline access to various aspects of GIO’s mounting functionality.

Mounting refers to the traditional concept of arranging multiple file systems and devices in a single tree, rooted at /. Classical mounting happens in the kernel and is controlled by the mount utility. GIO expands this concept by introducing mount daemons that can make file systems available to GIO applications without kernel involvement.

GIO mounts can require authentication, and the mount command may ask for user IDs, passwords, and so on, when required.

Options

Moves one or more files from SOURCE to DESTINATION. If more than one source is specified, the destination must be a directory.

The move command is similar to the traditional mv utility.

Options

Opens files with the default application that is registered to handle files of this type.

GIO obtains this information from the shared-mime-info database, with per-user overrides stored in $XDG_DATA_HOME/applications/mimeapps.list.

The mime command can be used to change the default handler for a mimetype.

Environment variables will not be set on the application, as it may be an existing process which is activated to handle the new file.

Renames a file.

The rename command is similar to the traditional rename utility.

Deletes each given file.

This command removes files irreversibly. If you want a reversible way to remove files, see the trash command.

Note that not all URI schemes that are supported by GIO may allow deletion of files.

The remove command is similar to the traditional rm utility.

Options

Reads from standard input and saves the data to the given location.

This is similar to just redirecting output to a file using traditional shell syntax, but the save command allows saving to location that GIO can write to.

Options

Sets a file attribute on a file.

File attributes can be specified with their GIO name, e.g standard::icon. Note that not all GIO file attributes are writable. Use the --query-writable option of the info command to list writable file attributes.

If the TYPE is unset, VALUE does not have to be specified. If the TYPE is stringv, multiple values can be given.

Options

Sends files or directories to the ‘Trashcan’ or restore them from ‘Trashcan’. This can be a different folder depending on where the file is located, and not all file systems support this concept. In the common case that the file lives inside a user’s home directory, the trash folder is $XDG_DATA_HOME/Trash.

Note that moving files to the trash does not free up space on the file system until the ‘Trashcan’ is emptied. If you are interested in deleting a file irreversibly, see the remove command.

Inspecting and emptying the ‘Trashcan’ is normally supported by graphical file managers such as Nautilus, but you can also see the trash with the command: gio trash --list or gio list trash://.

Options

Lists the contents of the given locations recursively, in a tree-like format. If no location is given, it defaults to the current directory.

The tree command is similar to the traditional tree utility.

Options