--- name: "zathura-sandbox" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "zathura" version: "2026.10.23-2" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/zathura" --- # zathura-sandbox(1) a document viewer Part of [zathura(1)](/zathura/1.md). ## NAME zathura - a document viewer ## SYNOPSIS zathura \[-c PATH\] \[-d PATH\] \[-p PATH\] \[-w PASSWORD\] \[-P NUMBER\] \[--fork\] \[-l LEVEL\] \[-s\] \[-x CMD\] \[--synctex-forward INPUT\] \[--synctex-pid PID\] \[-find STRING\] \ ## DESCRIPTION **zathura** is a highly customizable and functional document viewer. It provides a minimalistic and space saving interface as well as an easy usage that mainly focuses on keyboard interaction. **zathura** displays the given files. If a single hyphen-minus (-) is given as file name, the content will be read from the standard input. If no files are given, an empty **zathura** instance launches. ## OPTIONS - **-c,***--config-dir**=*****path** Path to the config directory - **-d,***--data-dir**=*****path** Path to the data directory - **-p,***--plugins-dir**=*****path** Path to the directory containing plugins - **-w,***--password**=*****password** The documents password. If multiple documents are opened at once, the password will be used for the first one and zathura will ask for the passwords of the remaining files if needed. - **-P,***--page**=*****number** Opens the document at the given page number. Pages are numbered starting with 1, and negative numbers indicate page numbers starting from the end of the document, -1 being the last page. - **-f,***--find**=*****string** Opens the document and searches for the given string. - **-l,***--log-level**=*****level** Set log level (debug, info, warning, error) - **-x,***--synctex-editor-command**=*****command** Set the SyncTeX editor command. Overrides the synctex-editor-command setting. - **--synctex-forward=***input* Jump to the given position. The switch expects the same format as specified for synctex's view -i. If no instance is running for the specified document, a new instance will be launched (only if --synctex-pid is not specified). - **--synctex-pid=***pid* Instead of looking for an instance having the correct file opened, try only the instance with the given PID. Note that if the given PID does not have the correct file open or does not exist, no new instance will be spanned. - **--mode=***mode* Start in a non-default mode - **--fork** Fork into background - **--version** Display version string and exit - **--help** Display help and exit ## MOUSE AND KEY BINDINGS General - **J, PgDn** Go to the next page - **K, PgUp** Go to the previous page - **h, k, j, l** Scroll to the left, down, up or right direction - **Left, Down, Up, Right** Scroll to the left, down, up or right direction - **^t, ^d, ^u, ^y** Scroll a half page left, down, up or right - **t, ^f, ^b, space, \, y** Scroll a full page left, down, up or right - **gg, G, nG** Goto to the first, the last or to the nth page - **P** Snaps to the current page - **H, L** Goto top or bottom of the current page - **^o, ^i** Move backward and forward through the jump list - **^j, ^k** Bisect forward and backward between the last two jump points - **^c, Escape** Abort - **a, s** Adjust window in best-fit or width mode - **/, ?** Search for text - **n, N** Search for the next or previous result - **o, O** Open document - **f** Follow links - **F** Display link target - **c** Copy link target into the clipboard - **:** Enter command - **r** Rotate by 90 degrees - **Meta-r** Rotate page by 90 degrees - **^r** Recolor (grayscale and invert colors) - **R** Reload document - **Tab** Show index and switch to **Index mode** - **d** Toggle dual page view - **D** Cycle opening column in dual page view - **F5** Switch to presentation mode - **F11** Switch to fullscreen mode - **^m** Toggle inputbar - **^n** Toggle statusbar - **Escape** Hide notification bar - **+, -, =** Zoom in, out or to the original size - **zI, zO, z0** Zoom in, out or to the original size - **n=** Zoom to size n - **mX** Set a quickmark to a letter or number X (may conflict with default action of X, e.g. 'O' or 'P') - **'X** Goto quickmark saved at letter or number X - **q** Quit - **w** Toggle single-page mode Fullscreen mode - **J, K** Go to the next or previous page - **space, \, \** Scroll a full page down or up - **gg, G, nG** Goto to the first, the last or to the nth page - **^c, Escape** Abort - **F11** Switch to normal mode - **+, -, =** Zoom in, out or to the original size - **zI, zO, z0** Zoom in, out or to the original size - **n=** Zoom to size n - **q** Quit Presentation mode - **space, \, \** Scroll a full page down or up - **^c, Escape** Abort - **F5** Switch to normal mode - **q** Quit Index mode - **k, j** Move to upper or lower entry - **Up, Down** Move to upper or lower entry - **^u, ^d** Scroll and move up or down by half a screen - **l, Right, zo** Expand entry - **zO** Expand entry recursively - **L, zR** Expand all entries - **h, Left, zc** Collapse entry - **zC** Collapse entry recursively - **H, zM** Collapse all entries - **space, Return, ^j** Select and open entry - **gg, G** Goto to the first or last entry - **Tab, Escape, ^\[, ^c** Hide index and switch to normal mode Mouse bindings - **Scroll** Scroll up or down - **^Scroll** Zoom in or out - **Drag Button2 (middle button drag)** Pan the document - **Button1 (left click)** Follow link - **Drag Button1** Select text - **Drag S-Button1** Highlight region - **Button3 (right click)** Open popup menu to copy/save image (activates for images recognized by **export** command) ## COMMANDS - **bmark** Save a bookmark. - **bdelete** Delete a bookmark. - **blist** List bookmarks. - **bjump** Jump to given bookmark. - **jumplist** Show recent jumps in jumplist (by default last 5). Optional argument specifies number of entries to show. Negative value "-N" shows all except the first "N" entries. - **mark** Set a quickmark. - **delmarks** Delete a quickmark. Abbreviation: **delm**. - **close** Close document. - **quit** Quit zathura. Abbreviation: **q**. - **exec** Execute an external command. **$FILE** expands to the current document path, **$PAGE** to the current page number, and **$DBUS** to the bus name of the D-Bus interface. Alias: **!** (space is still needed after). - **info** Show document information. - **open** Open a document. Abbreviation: **o**. - **offset** Set page offset. - **print** Print document. - **write(!)** Save document (and force overwriting). Alias: **save(!)**. - **export** Export attachments. First argument specifies the attachment identifier (use completion with **Tab**), second argument gives the target filename (relative to current working directory). - **dump** Write values, descriptions, etc. of all current settings to a file. - **source** Source a configuration file. It is possible to change the config directory by passing an argument. - **hlsearch** Highlight current search results. - **nohlsearch** Remove highlights of current search results. Abbreviation: **nohl**. - **version** Show version information. ## CONFIGURATION The default appearance and behaviour of zathura can be overwritten by modifying the *zathurarc* file (default path: ~/.config/zathura/zathurarc). For a detailed description please consult [zathurarc(5)](/zathurarc/5.md). ## SYNCTEX SUPPORT Both SyncTeX forward and backwards synchronization are supported by zathura, To enable SyncTeX forward synchronization, please look at the *--synctex-forward* and *--synctex-editor* options. zathura will also emit a signal via the D-Bus interface. To support synctex backwards synchronization, zathura provides a D-Bus interface that can be called by the editor. For convince zathura also knows how to parse the output of the *synctex view* command. It is enough to pass the arguments to *synctex view*'s *-i* option to zathura via *--synctex-forward* and zathura will pass the information to the correct instance. For gvim forward and backwards synchronization support can be set up as follows: First add the following to the vim configuration: ``` function! Synctex() execute "silent !zathura --synctex-forward " . line('.') . ":" . col('.') . ":" . bufname('%') . " " . g:syncpdf redraw! endfunction map :call Synctex() ``` Then launch *zathura* with ``` zathura -x "gvim --servername vim -c \"let g:syncpdf='$1'\" --remote +%{line} %{input}" $file ``` Some editors support zathura as viewer out of the box: - • LaTeXTools for SublimeText (\) - • LaTeX for Atom (\) ## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES - **ZATHURA\_PLUGINS\_PATH** Path to the directory containing plugins. This directory is only considered if no other directory was specified using --plugins-dir. ## SANDBOX The **zathura-sandbox** binary runs zathura with a seccomp and/or landlock based sandbox enabled. Some features are disabled when using sandbox mode: - • saving/writing files - • use of input methods like ibus - • printing - • bookmarks and history - • D-Bus integration - • SyncTeX support - • accessibility support The sandbox mode is still experimental with some libc implementations. The current supported and tested libc implementations is glibc. ## KNOWN BUGS If GDK\_NATIVE\_WINDOWS is enabled you will experience problems with large documents. In this case zathura might crash or pages cannot be rendered properly. Disabling GDK\_NATIVE\_WINDOWS fixes this issue. The same issue may appear, if overlay-scrollbar is enabled in GTK\_MODULES. ## SEE ALSO *[zathurarc(5)](/zathurarc/5.md)* ## Author pwmt.org ## Copyright 2009-2026, pwmt.org