title: Command line parameters
role: manual
tags: #command #configuration #manual #zettelstore
syntax: zmk
back: 00001004000000 00001004011200
backward: 00001004000000 00001004011200 00001004059900
box-number: 1
copyright: (c) 2020-present by Detlef Stern <ds@zettelstore.de>
created: 20210126175322
forward: 00001004010000 00001004050200 00001004050400 00001004051000 00001004051100 00001004051200 00001004051400 00001004059900 00001010040200
lang: en
license: EUPL-1.2-or-later
modified: 20221128161932
published: 20221128161932
visibility: public

Zettelstore is not just a service that provides services of a zettelkasten.
It allows to some tasks to be executed at the command line.
Typically, the task (""sub-command"") will be given at the command line as the first parameter.

If no parameter is given, the Zettelstore is called as
```
zettelstore
```
This is equivalent to call it this way:
```{="sh"}
mkdir -p ./zettel
zettelstore run -d ./zettel -c ./.zscfg
```
Typically this is done by starting Zettelstore via a graphical user interface by double-clicking to its file icon.
=== Sub-commands
* [[``zettelstore help``|00001004050200]] lists all available sub-commands.
* [[``zettelstore version``|00001004050400]] to display version information of Zettelstore.
* [[``zettelstore run``|00001004051000]] to start the Zettelstore service.
* [[``zettelstore run-simple``|00001004051100]] is typically called, when you start Zettelstore by a double.click in your GUI.
* [[``zettelstore file``|00001004051200]] to render files manually without activated/running Zettelstore services.
* [[``zettelstore password``|00001004051400]] to calculate data for [[user authentication|00001010040200]].
Every sub-command allows the following command line options:
; [!h|''-h''] (or ''--help'')
: Does not execute the sub-command, but shows allowed command line options (except ''-h'' / ''--help'').
; [!l|''-l LOGSPEC'']
: Makes the given logging level specification effective for this command.
Details, including syntax, can be found in the description for the [[''log-level''|00001004010000#log-level]] key of the startup configuration.
To measure potential bottlenecks within the software Zettelstore, there are some [[command line flags for profiling the application|00001004059900]].