---
name: "ibus"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "ibus"
version: "1.5.34-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ibus"
---

# ibus(1)

command line utility for ibus

## NAME

**ibus** - command line utility for ibus

## SYNOPSIS

**ibus** *COMMAND* \[*OPTION*\]...

## DESCRIPTION

IBus is an Intelligent Input Bus. It is a new input framework for Linux OS. It provides full featured and user friendly input method user interface.  It also may help developers to develop input method easily.

**ibus** is a command line utility which can restart or exit ibus-daemon, get or set the current ibus engine or list the ibus engines.

Homepage: https://github.com/ibus/ibus/wiki

## COMMAND

- **help**

  Show the commands list.

- **engine** \[**ENGINE\_NAME**\]

  Show the curent ibus engine when **ENGINE\_NAME** is not given. Set  **ENGINE\_NAME** to the current ibus engine.

- **exit**

  Exit ibus-daemon.

- **list-engine**

  Show ibus engines list.

- **restart** \[**--type=TYPE\|--verbose\|--help**\]

  Restart ibus-daemon. This command tries to restart ibus-daemon via systemd firstly and directly secondary by default. If **--type=systemd** is given, It tries to restart via systemd only. If **--type=direct** is given, It tries to restart with an IBus API only. GNOME desktop runs ibus-daemon via systemd and other desktops run ibus-daemon directly.

- **start** \[**--type=TYPE\|--verbose\|--help**\]

  Start ibus-daemon. This command tries to start ibus-daemon via systemd firstly and directly secondary by default. If **--type=systemd** is given, It tries to start as a background process via systemd only. If **--type=direct** is given, It tries to start directly only as a foreground process and other option arguments of ibus command are sent to ibus-daemon. E.g. ibus start **--type=direct** **--xim** & GNOME desktop runs ibus-daemon via systemd and other desktops run ibus-daemon directly.

- **version**

  Show the ibus version.

- **read-cache** \[**--system\|--file=FILE\|--help**\]

  Show the content of the user registry cache if **--system** is not given. Show the content of the system registry cache if **--system** is given. Show the content of the custom registry cache  **FILE** if **--file=FILE** is given.

- **write-cache** \[**--system\|--file=FILE\|--help**\]

  Save the user registry cache if **--system** is not given. Save the system registry cache if **--system** is given. Save the custom registry cache **FILE** if **--file=FILE** is given.

  By default, it reads the component XML files from the standard component directory (*/usr/share/ibus/component*), you can set *IBUS\_COMPONENT\_PATH* environment variable for custom component directories, separated by ':'.

- **address**

  Show the D-Bus address of ibus-daemon.

- **read-config**

  Print the setting values in a gsettings configuration file.

- **reset-config**

  Reset the user setting values to the default ones in a gsettings configuration file.

- **watch**

  Under construction.

- **emoji** \[**--font=FONT\|--lang=LANG\|--help\|--partial-match**\]

  Launch IBus Emojier ( **ibus-emoji (1)** ) and save the selected emoji to your clipboard. Can choose an emoji font with **--font** option. Can choose a language of emoji annotations with **--lang** option. If LANG="en", IBus Emojier loads /usr/share/ibus/dicts/emoji-en.dict . **--partial-match** option enables to match annotations with a partial string. These settings are available with **ibus-setup (1)** utility.

- **im-module** \[**--type=TYPE\|--help**\]

  Show an internal im-module value in a virtual GTK application. If IBus is installed and configured properly, the output is "ibus". This sub-command is useful for some users who build IBus from the source codes and check the configurations. Currently the sub-command supports GTK applications only and the default is GTK3. If you wish to check a GTK4 application, you can specify **--type=gtk4** option and you can choose one of "gtk2", "gtk3" and "gtk4".

## BUGS

If you find a bug, please report it at https://github.com/ibus/ibus/issues

## SEE ALSO

[**ibus-emoji**(7)](/ibus-emoji/7.md)