GIMPTOOL(1)

📦

version 3.2.6 · 11 versions

💅 GIMPTOOL(1): okay bestie, let's talk `gimptool` 💅

okay so this is the General Commands Manual page for gimptool — that's the GIMPTOOL(1) manual, and it's giving "tiny script, big GIMP energy" ✨

💖 NAME 💖

gimptool — a script to perform various GIMPy functions 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

gimptool [--prefix[=DIR]] [--exec-prefix[=DIR]] [--version] [--help]
        [--quiet] [--silent] [-n] [--just-print] [--dry-run] [--recon]
        [--msvc-syntax] [--bindir] [--sbindir] [--libexecdir] [--datadir]
        [--sysconfdir] [--sharedstatedir] [--localstatedir] [--libdir]
        [--infodir] [--mandir] [--includedir] [--gimpplugindir]
        [--gimpdatadir] [--libs] [--libs-noui] [--cflags] [--cflags-noi]
        [--build plug-in.c] [--build-strip plug-in.c] [--install plug-in.c]
        [--install-strip plug-in.c] [--install-admin plug-in.c]
        [--install-bin plug-in] [--install-admin-strip plug-in.c]
        [--install-bin-strip plug-in] [--install-admin-bin plug-in]
        [--install-script script.scm] [--install-admin-script script.scm]
        [--uninstall-bin plug-in] [--uninstall-admin-bin plug-in]
        [--uninstall-script script.scm] [--uninstall-admin-script script.scm]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

gimptool is a tool that can, among other things, build plug-ins or scripts and install them if they are distributed in one source file 💅

It can also be used by programs that need to know what libraries and include-paths GIMP was compiled with. gimptool uses pkg-config for this task. For use in Makefiles, it is recommended that you use pkg-config directly instead of calling gimptool 👑

💅 OPTIONS 💅

gimptool accepts the following options:

--version — prints the currently installed version of GIMP on the standard output 🌸
--help — prints out the help blurb, showing commonly used commandline options 🫶
--quiet — runs quietly without echoing any of the build commands 🤫
--silent — runs silently without echoing any of the build commands. Same as --quiet 💀
-n — test mode. Prints the commands but doesn't actually execute them. Useful for making dry runs for testing 👀
--just-print — test mode. Prints the commands but doesn't actually execute them. Same as -n 🧪
--dry-run — test mode. Prints the commands but doesn't actually execute them. Same as -n 🦋
--recon — test mode. Prints the commands but doesn't actually execute them. Same as -n ✨
--msvc-syntax — useful on Windows. Outputs the compiler and linker flags in the syntax used by Microsoft's toolchain. Passed to the pkg-config command that does most of gimptool's work 🪟
--bindir — outputs the bindir used to install the GIMP 📁
--sbindir — outputs the sbindir used to install the GIMP 📁
--libexecdir — outputs the libexecdir used to install the GIMP 📁
--datadir — outputs the datadir used to install the GIMP 📁
--sysconfdir — outputs the sysconfdir used to install the GIMP 📁
--sharedstatedir — outputs the sharedstatedir used to install the GIMP 📁
--localstatedir — outputs the localstatedir used to install the GIMP 📁
--libdir — outputs the libdir used to install the GIMP 📁
--infodir — outputs the infodir used to install the GIMP 📁
--mandir — outputs the mandir used to install the GIMP 📁
--includedir — outputs the includedir used to install the GIMP 📁
--gimpdatadir — outputs the actual directory where the GIMP data files were installed 🗂️
--gimpplugindir — outputs the actual directory where the GIMP plug-ins were installed 🔌
--build plug-in.c — compiles and links plug-in.c into a GIMP plug-in 🔨
--build-strip plug-in.c — compiles, links, and strips plug-in.c into a GIMP plug-in ✂️
--install plug-in.c — compiles, links, and installs plug-in.c into the user's personal GIMP plug-in directory ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/GIMP/3.2/plug-ins) 💾
--install-strip plug-in.c — compiles, links, strips, and installs plug-in.c into the user's personal GIMP plug-in directory ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/GIMP/3.2/plug-ins) 🎀
--install-admin plug-in.c — compiles, links, and installs plug-in.c into the system-wide GIMP plug-in directory (/usr/lib/gimp/3.0/plug-ins) 👑
--install-bin plug-in — installs plug-in into the user's personal GIMP plug-in directory ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/GIMP/3.2/plug-ins) 💾
--install-admin-bin plug-in — installs plug-in into the system-wide GIMP plug-in directory (/usr/lib/gimp/3.0/plug-ins) 👑
--install-bin-strip plug-in — installs stripped plug-in into the user's personal GIMP plug-in directory ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/GIMP/3.2/plug-ins) ✂️
--install-admin-bin-strip plug-in — installs stripped plug-in into the system-wide GIMP plug-in directory (/usr/lib/gimp/3.0/plug-ins) ✂️👑
--install-script script.scm — installs script.scm into the user's personal GIMP script directory ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/GIMP/3.2/scripts) 📜
--install-admin-script script.scm — installs script.scm into the system-wide GIMP script directory (/usr/share/gimp/3.0/scripts) 📜👑
--uninstall-bin plug-in — uninstalls plug-in from the user's personal GIMP plug-in directory ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/GIMP/3.2/plug-ins) 🗑️
--uninstall-admin-bin plug-in — uninstalls plug-in from the system-wide GIMP plug-in directory (/usr/lib/gimp/3.0/plug-ins) 🗑️👑
--uninstall-script script.scm — uninstalls script.scm from the user's personal GIMP script directory ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/GIMP/3.2/scripts) 🗑️📜
--uninstall-admin-script script.scm — uninstalls script.scm from the system-wide GIMP script directory (/usr/share/gimp/3.0/scripts) 🗑️📜👑
--libs — prints the linker flags that are necessary to link a GIMP plug-in 🔗
--libs-noui — prints the linker flags that are necessary to link a GIMP plug-in, for plug-ins that do not require the GTK libraries 🔗🚫
--libs-geglop — prints the linker flags that are necessary to link a GEGL filter 🔗🟣
--cflags — prints the compiler flags that are necessary to compile a GIMP plug-in 🛠️
--clags-noui — prints the compiler flags that are necessary to compile a GIMP plug-in for plug-ins that do not require the GTK libraries 🛠️🚫
--clags-geglop — prints the compiler flags that are necessary to compile a GEGL filter 🛠️🟣
--prefix=PREFIX — if specified, use PREFIX instead of the installation prefix that GIMP was built with when computing the output for the --cflags and --libs options. This option is also used for the exec prefix if --exec-prefix was not specified. This option must be specified before any --libs or --cflags options 📍
--exec-prefix=PREFIX — if specified, use PREFIX instead of the installation exec prefix that GIMP was built with when computing the output for the --cflags and --libs options. This option must be specified before any --libs or --cflags options 📍

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

CC — to get the name of the desired C compiler 🧑‍💻
CFLAGS — to get the preferred flags to pass to the C compiler for plug-in building 🛠️
LDFLAGS — to get the preferred flags for passing to the linker 🔗
LIBS — for passing extra libs that may be needed in the build process. For example, LIBS=-lintl 🧺
PKG_CONFIG — to get the location of the pkg-config program that is used to determine details about your glib, pango, gtk and gimp installation 🧭

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

👑 AUTHORS 👑

gimptool was written by Manish Singh (yosh@gimp.org) and is based on gtk-config by Owen Taylor (owen@gtk.org) 💖

This man page was written by Ben Gertzfield (che@debian.org), and tweaked by Manish Singh (yosh@gimp.org), Adrian Likins (adrian@gimp.org) and Marc Lehmann (pcg@goof.com>) 🫶

okay that's the whole page, bestie — footer sign-off tea: source is GIMP Manual Pages, version is Version 3.2.6, and the page tag is GIMPTOOL(1) 💖🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from

arch rolling: gimp 3.2.6-2 · GPL-3.0-or-later
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 2026-11-06: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms