Roue

Command line

Everything the wheel and the panel do, the roue command does too. Same presets, same engine, same rules: results go next to the originals, nothing is overwritten.

roue                         open the full panel (or show help without a desktop)
roue PRESET FILE...          shorthand for 'roue convert PRESET FILE...'
roue convert PRESET FILE...  convert files with a preset
roue list                    list presets
roue info FILE...            what Roue sees in a file
roue doctor                  check installed tools and desktop integration
roue history                 recent conversions
roue undo                    move the results of the last conversion to the trash
roue setup                   add the launcher, hotkey and Files menu
roue wheel [FILE...]         open the wheel (the hotkey runs this)
roue panel [FILE...]         open the full panel
roue quit                    stop Roue running in the background

roue convert#

roue convert PRESET FILE... [options]
roue PRESET FILE... [options]          # same thing

FILE can be a folder: Roue converts the files inside it (hidden files are skipped).

Option What it does
-o DIR, --output-dir DIR Write results to DIR instead of next to the originals.
-j N, --jobs N Run N conversions at once. Default: one per CPU core.
-r, --recursive Include files in sub-folders of folders.
--notify Show a desktop notification when done.
--json Print results as JSON, for scripts.
-q, --quiet Only print errors.
-v, --verbose Show the tool's output when something fails.

Examples:

roue jpg ~/Pictures/iPhone/*.HEIC
roue share-10mb screen-recording.mov
roue webp -o ~/site/img -j 8 ~/photos
roue pdf report.docx slides.pptx notes.md

Output, one line per file:

✓ IMG_2041.HEIC → IMG_2041.jpg (2.1 MB)
✓ IMG_2042.HEIC → IMG_2042.jpg (1.8 MB)
- photo.jpg: 'JPG' doesn't work on this image.
✗ broken.heic: libvips couldn't convert this image.
2 files converted · 4.6 MB saved · 1 failed · 1 skipped

✓ done, - skipped (wrong kind of file, or nothing to gain), ✗ failed.

JSON output#

roue convert gif clip.mov --json

{"preset": "gif", "jobs": [{"source": "/home/me/clip.mov", "state": "done",
  "outputs": ["/home/me/clip.gif"], "message": "", "input_bytes": 32575,
  "output_bytes": 192263}]}

state is one of done, failed, skipped, cancelled.

Exit codes#

Code Meaning
0 Everything converted (or was skipped).
1 At least one file failed.
2 Usage error, like an unknown preset id.
130 Interrupted with Ctrl+C. Running conversions are stopped and cleaned up.

roue list#

Option What it does
--for FILE... Only presets that take all these files.
--group GROUP Only image, video, audio, document or custom.
--all Include presets turned off in Preferences.
--json Machine-readable list, with accepts, rejects and available.

roue info#

roue info clip.mov

clip.mov
  type     video/quicktime (video)
  size     32.6 KB
  length   2.0 s
  video    h264 320x240
  audio    aac
  presets  mp4, gif, webm, share-10mb, share-25mb, compress-video, mute, mp3, opus, wav, flac

roue doctor#

Lists every tool with its path or "not installed", the presets that can't run and what they need, the command that installs everything missing, and the state of the drop panel (GTK), the hotkey and the Files menu.

roue history and roue undo#

roue history shows recent conversions (-n 20 for more). The last 50 are kept in ~/.local/state/roue/history.jsonl.

roue undo moves the results of the most recent conversion to the trash. Run it again to go one step further back. Originals are never touched, and nothing is deleted: restore from the trash if you change your mind.

roue setup#

Hooks Roue into your desktop, for your user only.

Option What it does
--binding KEYS Hotkey to set, default <Super><Shift>d. It runs roue wheel.
--no-hotkey Don't set the hotkey.
--no-nautilus Don't add the Files right-click menu.
--restart-files Restart Files so the menu shows up right away.
--remove Undo everything roue setup did.

Parts already installed by your package are left alone.

roue wheel#

roue wheel                     # the wheel, as a small window to drop files on
roue wheel a.png b.png         # the wheel at the pointer, for these files

Without files, this is what the hotkey runs. It also picks up files you copied in Files with Ctrl+C. With files, the wheel opens at the pointer showing the presets that fit them: click a slice to convert, or More… for the panel. See Desktop integration.

roue panel#

roue panel                     # open the full panel
roue panel a.png b.png         # open it with these files ready ("pick a tile")
roue panel --preferences       # open Preferences

Environment#

Variable What it does
NO_COLOR Turn off colours.
XDG_CONFIG_HOME Where roue/settings.yaml and roue/presets/ live (default ~/.config).
XDG_STATE_HOME Where the history lives (default ~/.local/state).
ROUE_DISABLE_TOOLS Pretend tools are missing, like vips,pandoc. Handy to test fallbacks.

Edit this page on GitHub