--- name: "blender" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "blender" version: "17:5.2.3-5" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/blender" --- # blender(1) a full-featured 3D application ## NAME blender - a full-featured 3D application ## SYNOPSIS **blender \[args ...\] \[file\] \[args ...\]**\ ## DESCRIPTION **blender** is a full-featured 3D application. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline - modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, and video editing. Use Blender to create 3D images and animations, films and commercials, content for games, architectural and industrial visualizations, and scientific visualizations. https://www.blender.org ## OPTIONS Usage: blender \[args ...\] \[file\] \[args ...\]\ ### Render Options: - **-b or --background** Run in background (often used for UI-less rendering).\ - The audio device is disabled in background-mode by default\ and can be re-enabled by passing in '-setaudio Default' afterwards.\ - **-a or --render-anim** Render frames from start to end (inclusive).\ - **-S or --scene \** Set the active scene \ for rendering.\ - **-f or --render-frame \** Render frame \ and save it.\ - \* +\ start frame relative, -\ end frame relative.\ \* A comma separated list of frames can also be used (no spaces).\ \* A range of frames can be expressed using '..' separator between the first and last frames (inclusive).\ - - **-s or --frame-start \** Set start to frame \, supports +/- for relative frames too.\ - **-e or --frame-end \** Set end to frame \, supports +/- for relative frames too.\ - **-j or --frame-jump \** Set number of frames to step forward after each rendered frame.\ - **-o or --render-output \** Set the render path and file name.\ Use '//' at the start of the path to render relative to the blend-file.\ - You can use path templating features such as '{blend\_name}' in the path.\ See Blender's documentation on path templates for more details.\ - The '#' characters are replaced by the frame number, and used to define zero padding.\ - \* 'animation\_##\_test.png' becomes 'animation\_01\_test.png'\ \* 'test-######.png' becomes 'test-000001.png'\ - When the filename does not contain '#', the suffix '####' is added to the filename.\ - The frame number will be added at the end of the filename, eg:\ \# blender -b animation.blend -o //render\_ -F PNG -x 1 -a\ '//render\_' becomes '//render\_####', writing frames as '//render\_0001.png'\ - **-E or --engine \** Specify the render engine.\ Use '-E help' to list available engines.\ - **-t or --threads \** Use amount of \ for rendering and other operations\ \[1-1024\], 0 to use the system's processor count.\ ### Cycles Render Options: Cycles add-on options must be specified following a double dash.\ - **--cycles-device \** Set the device used for rendering.\ Valid options are: 'CPU' 'CUDA' 'OPTIX' 'HIP' 'ONEAPI' 'METAL'.\ - Append +CPU to a GPU device to render on both CPU and GPU.\ - Example:\ \# blender -b file.blend -f 20 -- --cycles-device OPTIX - **--cycles-print-stats** Log statistics about render memory and time usage.\ ### Format Options: - **-F or --render-format \** Set the render format.\ Valid options are:\ 'TGA' 'RAWTGA' 'JPEG' 'IRIS' 'PNG' 'BMP' 'HDR' 'TIFF'.\ - Formats that can be compiled into Blender, not available on all systems:\ 'OPEN\_EXR' 'OPEN\_EXR\_MULTILAYER' 'FFMPEG' 'CINEON' 'DPX' 'JP2' 'WEBP'.\ - **-x or --use-extension \** Set option to add the file extension to the end of the file.\ - ### Animation Playback Options: - **-a \ \** Instead of showing Blender's user interface, this runs Blender as an animation player,\ to view movies and image sequences rendered in Blender (ignored if '-b' is set).\ - Playback Arguments:\ - \-p \ \\ \ Open with lower left corner at \, \.\ \-m\ \ Read from disk (Do not buffer).\ \-f \ \\ \ Specify FPS to start with.\ \-j \\ \ Set frame step to \.\ \-s \\ \ Play from \.\ \-e \\ \ Play until \.\ \-c \\ \ Amount of memory in megabytes to allow for caching images during playback.\ \ Zero disables (clamping to a fixed number of frames instead).\ - ### Window Options: - **-w or --window-border** Force opening with borders, in a normal (non maximized) state.\ - **-M or --window-maximized** Force opening maximized.\ - **-W or --window-fullscreen** Force opening full-screen.\ - **-p or --window-geometry \ \ \ \** Open with lower left corner at \, \ and width and height as \, \.\ - **-con or --start-console** Start with the console window open (ignored if '-b' is set), (Windows only).\ - **--no-native-pixels** Do not use native pixel size, for high resolution displays (MacBook 'Retina').\ - **--no-window-frame** Disable all window decorations (Linux only).\ - **--no-window-focus** Open behind other windows and without taking focus.\ - ### Python Options: - **-y or --enable-autoexec** Enable automatic Python script execution.\ - **-Y or --disable-autoexec** Disable automatic Python script execution (Python-drivers & startup scripts), (default).\ - - **-P or --python \** Run the given Python script file.\ - **--python-text \** Run the given Python script text block.\ - **--python-expr \** Run the given expression as a Python script.\ - The expression may be a complete multi-line script;\ you are limited only by the platform's maximum argument length.\ - **--python-console** Run Blender with an interactive console.\ - **--python-exit-code \** Set the exit-code in \[0..255\] to exit if a Python exception is raised\ (only for scripts executed from the command line), zero disables.\ - **--python-use-system-env** Allow Python to use system environment variables such as 'PYTHONPATH'.\ This also enables user environment, see: '--python-use-user-env'.\ - **--python-use-user-env** Allow Python to use user's site-packages directory.\ This disables full isolation for the Python environment.\ - **--addons \** Comma separated list (no spaces) of add-ons to enable in addition to any default add-ons.\ - ### Network Options: - **--online-mode** Allow internet access, overriding the preference.\ - **--offline-mode** Disallow internet access, overriding the preference.\ - ### Logging Options: - **--log \** Enable logging categories, taking a single comma separated argument.\ - \--log "\*": log everything\ \--log "event": logs every category starting with 'event'.\ \--log "render,cycles": log both render and cycles messages.\ \--log "\*mesh\*": log every category containing 'mesh' sub-string.\ \--log "\*,^operator": log everything except operators, with '^prefix' to exclude.\ - **--log-level \** Set the logging verbosity level.\ - fatal: Fatal errors only\ error: Errors only\ warning: Warnings\ info: Information about devices, files, configuration, operations\ debug: Verbose messages for developers\ trace: Very verbose code execution tracing\ - **--log-show-memory** Show memory usage for each log message.\ - **--log-show-source** Show source file and function name in output.\ - **--log-show-backtrace** Show a back trace for each log message (debug builds only).\ - **--log-file \** Set a file to output the log to.\ - **--log-list-categories** List all available logging categories for '--log', and exit.\ - - ### Debug Options: - **-d or --debug** Turn debugging on.\ - \* Enables memory error detection\ \* Disables mouse grab (to interact with a debugger in some cases)\ \* Keeps Python's 'sys.stdin' rather than setting it to None\ - **--debug-value \** Set debug value of \ on startup.\ - - **--debug-events** Enable debug messages for the event system.\ - **--debug-handlers** Enable debug messages for event handling.\ - **--debug-libmv** Enable debug messages from libmv library.\ - **--debug-memory** Enable fully guarded memory allocation and debugging.\ - **--debug-jobs** Enable time profiling for background jobs.\ - **--debug-python** Enable debug messages for Python.\ - **--debug-depsgraph** Enable all debug messages from dependency graph.\ - **--debug-depsgraph-eval** Enable debug messages from dependency graph related on evaluation.\ - **--debug-depsgraph-build** Enable debug messages from dependency graph related on graph construction.\ - **--debug-depsgraph-tag** Enable debug messages from dependency graph related on tagging.\ - **--debug-depsgraph-no-threads** Switch dependency graph to a single threaded evaluation.\ - **--debug-depsgraph-time** Enable debug messages from dependency graph related on timing.\ - **--debug-depsgraph-pretty** Enable colors for dependency graph debug messages.\ - **--debug-depsgraph-uid** Verify validity of session-wide identifiers assigned to ID data-blocks.\ - **--debug-ghost** Enable debug messages for Ghost (Linux only).\ - **--debug-wintab** Enable debug messages for Wintab.\ - **--debug-gpu** Enable GPU debug context and information for OpenGL 4.3+.\ - **--debug-gpu-force-workarounds** Enable workarounds for typical GPU issues and disable all GPU extensions.\ - **--debug-gpu-compile-shaders** Compile all statically defined shaders to test platform compatibility.\ - **--debug-gpu-shader-debug-info** Enable shader debug info generation (Vulkan only).\ - **--debug-gpu-scope-capture** Capture the GPU commands issued inside the given scope name.\ - **--debug-gpu-shader-source** Save the compiled GPU shader source code for the given shader name.\ The given name can contain leading or trailing wildcard "\*" to match multiple shaders.\ Files are saved in the current working directory inside a directory named "Shaders".\ - **--debug-gpu-shader-no-preprocessor** Skip preprocessor pass and rely on driver or shader compiler preprocessor instead.\ Also disable dead code elimination.\ - **--debug-gpu-shader-no-dce** Skip dead code elimination pass.\ - **--debug-gpu-no-texture-pool** Disable memory aliasing optimizations in the GPU texture pool.\ - **--debug-gpu-vulkan-local-read** Force Vulkan dynamic rendering local read when supported by device.\ - **--debug-wm** Enable debug messages for the window manager, shows all operators in search, shows keymap errors.\ - **--debug-xr** Enable debug messages for virtual reality contexts.\ Enables the OpenXR API validation layer, (OpenXR) debug messages and general information prints.\ - **--debug-xr-time** Enable debug messages for virtual reality frame rendering times.\ - **--debug-all** Enable all debug messages.\ - **--debug-io** Enable debug messages for I/O.\ - - **--debug-fpe** Enable floating-point exceptions.\ - **--debug-exit-on-error** Immediately exit when internal errors are detected.\ - **--debug-freestyle** Enable debug messages for Freestyle.\ - **--console-crash-handler** Use the console to report crashes.\ - **--disable-crash-handler** Disable the crash handler.\ - **--disable-abort-handler** Disable the abort handler.\ - **--verbose \** Set the logging verbosity level for debug messages that support it.\ - **-q or --quiet** Suppress status printing (warnings & errors are still printed).\ - ### GPU Options: - **--gpu-backend** Force to use a specific GPU backend. Valid options: 'opengl' or 'vulkan'.\ - **--gpu-device \** Select a specific GPU device, overriding the GPU device from user preferences for this\ run only. Accepted forms:\ - \* '\/\/\' (matches the identifier used in user\ \ preferences, with vendor PCI ID, device PCI ID and enumeration index all hex-encoded).\ \* '\' (no slashes) picks the Nth supported device by enumeration order, decimal.\ \* 'help' prints supported Vulkan devices and exits.\ - Only used with the Vulkan backend. Other backends print a warning and ignore this option.\ If the requested Vulkan device is unavailable, Blender falls back to the saved GPU\ preference unless '--gpu-device-no-fallback' is also set.\ - **--gpu-device-no-fallback** Fail instead of falling back when '--gpu-device' does not match a usable Vulkan device.\ - **--gpu-vsync** Set the VSync.\ Valid options are: 'on', 'off' & 'auto' for adaptive sync.\ - \* The default settings depend on the GPU driver.\ \* Disabling VSync can be useful for testing performance.\ \* 'auto' is only supported by the OpenGL backend.\ - **--gpu-compilation-subprocesses** Override the Max Compilation Subprocesses setting (OpenGL only).\ - **--profile-gpu** Enable CPU & GPU performance profiling for GPU debug groups\ (Outputs a profile.json file in the Trace Event Format to the current directory)\ - ### Misc Options: - **--open-last** Open the most recently opened blend file, instead of the default startup file.\ - **--app-template \** Set the application template (matching the directory name), use 'default' for none.\ - **-X or --factory-startup** Skip reading the 'startup.blend' in the user's home directory.\ - **--enable-event-simulate** Enable event simulation testing feature 'bpy.types.Window.event\_simulate'.\ - - **--env-system-datafiles** Set the BLENDER\_SYSTEM\_DATAFILES environment variable.\ - **--env-system-scripts** Set the BLENDER\_SYSTEM\_SCRIPTS environment variable.\ - **--env-system-extensions** Set the BLENDER\_SYSTEM\_EXTENSIONS environment variable.\ - **--env-system-python** Set the BLENDER\_SYSTEM\_PYTHON environment variable.\ - - **-noaudio** Force sound system to None.\ - **-setaudio** Force sound system to a specific device.\ 'None' 'Default' 'SDL' 'OpenAL' 'CoreAudio' 'JACK' 'PulseAudio' 'WASAPI'.\ - - **-c or --command \** Run a command which consumes all remaining arguments.\ Use '-c help' to list all other commands.\ Pass '--help' after the command to see its help text.\ - This implies '--background' mode.\ - - **-h or --help** Print this help text and exit.\ - **/?** Print this help text and exit (Windows only).\ - **-r or --register** Register blend-file extension for current user, then exit (Windows & Linux only).\ - **--register-allusers** Register blend-file extension for all users, then exit (Windows & Linux only).\ - **--unregister** Unregister blend-file extension for current user, then exit (Windows & Linux only).\ - **--unregister-allusers** Unregister blend-file extension for all users, then exit (Windows & Linux only).\ - **--qos \** Set the Quality of Service (QoS) mode for hybrid CPU architectures (Windows only).\ - default: Uses the default behavior of the OS.\ high: Always makes use of performance cores.\ eco: Schedules Blender threads exclusively to efficiency cores.\ - **-v or --version** Print Blender version and exit.\ - **--** End option processing, following arguments passed unchanged. Access via Python's 'sys.argv'.\ - ### Other Options: - **--disable-depsgraph-on-file-load** Background mode: Do not systematically build and evaluate ViewLayers' dependency graphs\ when loading a blend-file in background mode ('-b' or '-c' options).\ - Scripts requiring evaluated data then need to explicitly ensure that\ an evaluated depsgraph is available\ (e.g. by calling 'depsgraph = context.evaluated\_depsgraph\_get()').\ - NOTE: this is a temporary option, in the future depsgraph will never be\ automatically generated on file load in background mode.\ - **--disable-liboverride-auto-resync** Do not perform library override automatic resync when loading a new blend-file.\ - NOTE: this is an alternative way to get the same effect as when setting the\ 'No Override Auto Resync' User Preferences Debug option.\ - **--debug-ffmpeg** Enable debug messages from FFmpeg video input and output.\ - **--debug-cycles** Enable debug messages from Cycles.\ - ### Argument Parsing: ### Arguments must be separated by white space, eg: \# blender -ba test.blend\ ...will exit since '-ba' is an unknown argument.\ ### Argument Order: ### Arguments are executed in the order they are given. eg: \# blender --background test.blend --render-frame 1 --render-output "/tmp"\ ...will not render to '/tmp' because '--render-frame 1' renders before the output path is set.\ \# blender --background --render-output /tmp test.blend --render-frame 1\ ...will not render to '/tmp' because loading the blend-file overwrites the render output that was set.\ \# blender --background test.blend --render-output /tmp --render-frame 1\ ...works as expected.\ ## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES $BLENDER\_USER\_RESOURCES Replace default directory of all user files.\ Other 'BLENDER\_USER\_\*' variables override when set.\ $BLENDER\_USER\_CONFIG Directory for user configuration files.\ $BLENDER\_USER\_SCRIPTS Directory for user scripts.\ $BLENDER\_USER\_EXTENSIONS Directory for user extensions.\ $BLENDER\_USER\_DATAFILES Directory for user data files (icons, translations, ..).\ \ $BLENDER\_SYSTEM\_RESOURCES Replace default directory of all bundled resource files.\ $BLENDER\_SYSTEM\_SCRIPTS Directories to add extra scripts.\ $BLENDER\_SYSTEM\_EXTENSIONS Directory for system extensions repository.\ $BLENDER\_SYSTEM\_DATAFILES Directory to replace bundled datafiles.\ $BLENDER\_SYSTEM\_PYTHON Directory to replace bundled Python libraries.\ $BLENDER\_CUSTOM\_SPLASH Full path to an image that replaces the splash screen.\ $BLENDER\_CUSTOM\_SPLASH\_BANNER Full path to an image to overlay on the splash screen.\ $BLENDER\_OCIO Path to override the OpenColorIO configuration file.\ If not set, the 'OCIO' environment variable is used.\ $SPNAV\_SOCKET The socket path to connect to the 3D-mouse daemon (Unix only).\ $TMPDIR Store temporary files here (UNIX Systems).\ The path must reference an existing directory or it will be ignored.\ ## SEE ALSO **luxrender(1)** ## AUTHORS This manpage was written for a Debian GNU/Linux system by Daniel Mester \ and updated by Cyril Brulebois \ and Dan Eicher \.