When you launch GIMP, it will often be from a graphical menu where you simply click on the GIMP entry. This usually launches GIMP in its default form without any images loaded. If you launch GIMP from a console, or edit the command used to launch it from the menu, you can pass several options to it. These are in the format: gimp [options] files ...
GIMP Options
[-h] [--help]
Displays a list of available options, and gives a terse description of each one.
[-v] [--version]
Prints the version number of the installed GIMP.
[-b] [--batch commands]
Runs GIMP in batch (non-interactive) mode. Any parameters used as commands for -b will be passed to The GIMP to be interpreted by script-fu.
There exists another project that can assist a user needing batched image processing. The ImageMagick project is collection of tools and libraries built to benefit these types of operations.
[-g] [--gimprc gimprc]
Use an alternative gimprc (GIMP settings file) instead of the default which is usually located at ~/gimp-1.2/gimprc. This is useful where plug-in paths or machine specifications may be different.
[-n] [--no-interface]
Run without a user interface.
[-r] [--restore-session]
Attempt to restore a saved session. This will start GIMP with the various dialogs as they were in the saved state.
[--no-data]
Start GIMP without loading patterns, gradients, palettes and brushes. This significantly reduces the start-up time, and is often useful when using GIMP in non-interactive situations.
[--verbose]
Prints startup messages to the console, showing all the settings files which are parsed and the modules loaded. This is often useful in debugging situations.
[--no-splash]
Do not show the splash screen. This significantly decreases the load time, although you will not see the progress bar from the splash screen. This automatically implies
[--verbose]
.[--no-splash-image]
Do not show the splash screen image as part of the splash screen. Only shows text information in the splash screen. The progress indicator is still visible. This decreases GIMP's load time.
[--no-shm]
Do not use shared memory between GIMP and its plug-ins. Instead of using shared memory, GIMP will send data via pipe. This will result in slower performance than using shared memory.
[--no-xshm]
Do not use the X Shared Memory extension. If GIMP is being displayed on a remote X server, this probably needs to be enabled. It is also useful for any X server that doesn't properly support the X shared memory extension. This will result in slower performance than with X shared memory enabled.
[--display display]
Use the specified X display.
[--console-messages]
Do not pop-up dialog boxes on errors or warning, print them to the console instead.
[--debug-handlers]
Enable debug handlers which turns on the stack trace prompt for all signals, not just fatal ones.
[--system-gimprc gimprc]
Use an alternate system-wide gimprc file.