Foobar2000:Commandline Guide

General information

Some features of foobar2000 can be accessed through a simple command line interface.

Each command line parameter is either parsed as a command (starting with a slash), or as the name of a file/folder that the user wishes to open or add to a playlist (the behaviour depends on other command line switches and setting under "Preferences > Shell Integration"). Arguments containing spaces can be escaped using double quotes, e.g. foobar2000.exe "01 First Track.mp3" or foobar2000.exe "/command:Play or pause" or foobar2000.exe /command:"Play or pause".

The set of available command line commands can be extended using additional components.

Basic commands

This is what foobar2000.exe /? shows as of version 1.1 – most of the commands are self-explanatory:

Available switches:
  /add <list-of-files> - appends the specified files to the current playlist instead of replacing the playlist content and playing them immediately
  /immediate - bypasses the "please wait" dialog when adding files
  /play, /pause, /playpause, /prev, /next, /rand, /stop - playback controls
  /exit - exits foobar2000
  /show, /hide - shows or hides the main foobar2000 window
  /config - opens the Preferences dialog
  /command:<menu command> - invokes the specified main menu command
  /playlist_command:<context menu command> - invokes the specified context menu command on current playlist selection
  /playing_command:<context menu command> - invokes the specified context menu command on currently played track
  /context_command:<context menu command> <files> - invokes the specified context menu command on the specified file

Clarifications

/add: Changes the default behaviour of "opening" (replace active playlist and start playback) files and directories found on the command line.

/immediate: foobar2000 always sorts incoming files using the pattern configured under "Preferences > Shell Integration". Because there is a possibility that more files belonging to the same batch will be passed to the program, adding the items really to a playlist is postponed until no new file is received for a short while, because only with the full set of incoming files they can be correctly sorted. Use this option to disable this behaviour for the currently added items.

/command:<...> and /xxx_command:<...>: The command names can be derived e.g. from the "Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts" dialog: look in the sub-section [main] for main menu commands (e.g. /command:Console) or [context] for the other types (e.g. /playing_command:Properties). Use only the final command name; do not specify the name of the parent menu or any other part of the menu path/group. (Note: this limits the usage of these commands in some cases; look into the Run Commands (foo_runcmd) component if you need more functionality.)

Extensions

Known components which provide additional command line functionality:

Masstagger (foo_masstag) – /tag:xxx commands for tag modifications.
Run Commands (foo_runcmd) – Family of /runcmd=... commands for advanced execution of main/context menu commands.