kioclient

KDE command-line client for KIO network-transparent file operations

TLDR

Open a URL with its default KDE handler

$ kioclient exec [url]

Print the contents of a remote file to stdout

$ kioclient cat [sftp://user@host/path/to/file]

List the contents of a remote directory

$ kioclient ls [smb://server/share]

Copy one or more files via KIO

$ kioclient cp [path/to/source1] [path/to/source2] [path/to/destination]

Move a file via KIO

$ kioclient mv [path/to/source] [path/to/destination]

Remove a file via KIO

$ kioclient rm [url]

Create a new directory via KIO

$ kioclient mkdir [url]

Open the KDE Properties dialog for a URL

$ kioclient5 openProperties [url]

SYNOPSIS

kioclient command [arguments] [options]kioclient5 command [arguments] [options]kioclient6 command [arguments] [options]

kioclient is a thin command-line front-end to the KIO framework that powers file access throughout KDE (Dolphin, Konqueror, Gwenview, and many others). It lets shell scripts and users invoke the same network-transparent virtual filesystem that KDE applications use, treating remote shares, archives, and even the trash bin as if they were local paths.Any URL scheme implemented by an installed KIO worker can be used: file: for local paths, sftp: and fish: for SSH-based access, smb: for Windows shares, ftp: and webdav: for legacy network shares, trash: for the recycle bin, tar: and zip: for archive contents, and protocol-specific schemes such as man:, info:, mtp:, gdrive:, and many more. The available list depends on which kio-extras plugins are installed.In addition to plain file operations (cp, mv, rm, mkdir, ls, cat, download), kioclient can launch the default GUI handler for a resource through exec, which is the easiest way to script "open this URL in the right KDE app". The openProperties command displays the same Properties dialog that Dolphin shows on right-click.On modern distributions, kioclient is split into a Qt5 binary (kioclient5) and a Qt6 binary (kioclient6). The unversioned kioclient symlink, where present, points at whichever build the distribution treats as default.

PARAMETERS

--commands

Print the list of available commands.

--overwrite

Overwrite destination files when copying or moving.

--interactive

Use interactive dialogs (default for GUI usage).

--noninteractive

Suppress dialogs; useful for scripts.

--platform name

Choose the Qt Platform Abstraction plugin (e.g. xcb, wayland, offscreen).

--help

Print help and exit.

--version

Print the program version.

COMMANDS

exec url [mimetype]

Open url with the default handler registered for its MIME type. If mimetype is given, that handler is used instead of the detected type.

cat url

Write the contents of the file at url to standard output.

ls url

List entries in the directory at url.

cp source ... destination

Copy one or more sources to destination via KIO. Sources and destination may be any supported URL scheme.

mv source ... destination

Move sources to destination via KIO.

rm url

Delete the file or directory at url via KIO.

mkdir url

Create a new directory at url.

download [url]

Copy url to a local file selected through a save dialog. If no URL is given, a file picker opens.

openProperties url

Display the KDE Properties dialog for url.

CAVEATS

kioclient requires a running D-Bus session and the appropriate Qt platform plugin. On a headless server, set QTQPAPLATFORM=offscreen or pass --platform offscreen, otherwise the command may fail to connect to the display.Authentication for remote protocols is delegated to kwalletd / kwallet6. The first time a credential is needed, a graphical password dialog is shown; in non-interactive shells the operation will hang or fail unless the credential is already cached.The set of usable URL schemes depends on installed KIO worker packages. A scheme that works in Dolphin but not from a fresh kioclient invocation usually means the worker plugin is installed but its D-Bus session has not been started.

HISTORY

kioclient has shipped with KDE since the KDE 3 era as a way for shell scripts and other applications to drive the KIO framework that Konqueror introduced. It was rewritten for KDE 4 alongside KIO itself and renamed to kioclient4 to coexist with the KDE 3 version. The Qt5-based kioclient5 appeared with KDE Frameworks 5 in 2014, and kioclient6 followed the KDE Frameworks 6 release in 2024.