ZIM(1)

📦
version 0.77.2 · 12 versions
, in arch rolling

✨ zim — A Desktop Wiki Editor ✨

okay so like, hi bestie 💖 welcome to the zim(1) manual page — that's section 1 of the user commands, iykyk. This is the whole thing, every flag, no skips, and I promise it's gonna be way more fun than whatever you were doing before. Let's go 🫶

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

here's the whole vibe check of how you actually call it:

usage: zim [OPTIONS] [NOTEBOOK [PAGE_LINK]]
   or: zim --gui [OPTIONS] [NOTEBOOK [PAGE_LINK]]
   or: zim --server [OPTIONS] [NOTEBOOK]
   or: zim --export [OPTIONS] NOTEBOOK [PAGE]
   or: zim --import [OPTIONS] NOTEBOOK PAGE FILES
   or: zim --search [OPTIONS] NOTEBOOK QUERY
   or: zim --index  [OPTIONS] NOTEBOOK
   or: zim --convert-notebook [OPTIONS] NOTEBOOK
   or: zim --plugin PLUGIN [ARGUMENTS]
   or: zim --manual [OPTIONS] [PAGE_LINK]
   or: zim --help

and the fine print about those placeholders, because details matter bestie ✨

  • NOTEBOOK can be a local file path, a local file URI, or a notebook name.
  • PAGE is a fully specified page name.
  • PAGE_LINK is a fully specified page name, optionally extended with an anchor ID.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so Zim is a graphical text editor that you use to maintain a whole collection of wiki pages. Think of it as your little hoard of knowledge 💅

Each page can contain links to other pages, simple formatting, and images. Pages live in a folder structure — like an outliner, if you know what that is — and they can have attachments. And the coolest part? Creating a new page is as easy as linking to a nonexistent page. Literally that's it. Iconic behavior ✨

All your data is stored in plain text files with wiki formatting, which is lowkey the best part because you can always see it and it's never locked up. Various plugins add extra functionality on top, like a task list manager, an equation editor, a tray icon, and support for version control. Obsessed honestly 🔥

Zim can be used to:

  • Keep an archive of notes
  • Keep a daily or weekly journal
  • Take notes during meetings or lectures
  • Organize task lists
  • Draft blog entries and emails
  • Do brainstorming

main character note-taking app, no cap 👑

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

💜 General Options

  • --gui — run the editor. this is the default, so like, you're already doing this one.
  • --server — run the web server.
  • --export — export to a different format.
  • --import — import one or more files into a notebook.
  • --search — run a search query on a notebook.
  • --index — build an index for a notebook.
  • --plugin — call a specific plugin function.
  • --manual — open the user manual. (hi, that's this!)
  • -V, --verbose — print information to terminal.
  • -D, --debug — print debug messages.
  • -v, --version — print version and exit.
  • -h, --help — print this text.

🌈 GUI Options

  • --list — show the list with notebooks instead of opening the default notebook.
  • --geometry — window size and position as WxH+X+Y.
  • --fullscreen — start in fullscreen mode.
  • --non-unique — start a new process, do not connect to an existing process.
  • --standalone — start a new process per notebook, implies --non-unique.

🍓 Server Options

  • --port — port to use (defaults to 8080).
  • --template — name or filepath of the template to use.
  • --private — serve only to localhost.
  • --gui — run the gui wrapper for the server.

🧚 Export Options

  • -o, --output — output directory (mandatory option).
  • --format — format to use (defaults to 'html').
  • --template — name or filepath of the template to use.
  • --root-url — url to use for the document root.
  • --index-page — index page name.
  • -r, --recursive — when exporting a page, also export sub-pages.
  • -s, --singlefile — export all pages to a single output file.
  • -O, --overwrite — force overwriting existing file(s).
bestie pls note: -o / --output is mandatory. don't forget it or it's giving error 😭

🦄 Import Options

  • --format — format to read (defaults to 'wiki').
  • --assubpage — import files as sub-pages of PATH. This is implicit true when PATH ends with a ":" or when multiple files are given.

⭐ Search Options

  • -s, --scores — print score for each page.
  • -w, --whole-word — match whole words only.
  • -c, --match-case — match case sensitive.
  • --sorted — sort results either by name or by score.

🔥 Index Options

  • -f, --flush — flush the index first and force re-building.

👑 Convert Notebook Options !!!EXPERIMENTAL MAKE A BACKUP FIRST!!!

okay so this heading is literally yelling at you and it's not a joke: EXPERIMENTAL — MAKE A BACKUP FIRST 💀 like, actually back it up, fr fr.

  • --format — change the source format and re-write all pages in the new format ('zim-wiki', 'markdown').
  • --extension — optional file extension for the new pages, defaults to e.g. '.txt' for zim-wiki and '.md' for markdown.

Try zim --manual for more help. 🫶

🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

Jaap Karssenberg <jaap.karssenberg@gmail.com> — thank you for this icon, we stan 💖

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

The full documentation for zim is maintained as a zim notebook. The command

zim --manual

should give you access to the complete manual.

The website for zim can be found at https://www.zim-wiki.org — go say hi 🦋

and that's the whole page bestie, you ate it 💅 ✨

anyway this was zim 0.77.2, dated August 2026, and it's page ZIM(1) of the manual — periodt. 🎀💖

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