From The Document Foundation Wiki
This page is aimed to reference and document all the environment variables that are used in LibreOffice.
How to use environment variables
The exact syntax depends on the shell and the OS.
For Linux/bash, you can use SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN variable to use gen UI using export command:
export SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen
instdir/program/soffice
Another approach would be using it in the same command for running soffice:
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen instdir/program/soffice
Another way would be passing the environment variable using -env, but it only works for bootstrap variables. You should note that not every variable is a bootstrap variable.
instdir/program/soffice -env:SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen
For Windows, one should use set in order to set the environment variable. For example, to get an RTL UI, one should use SAL_RTL_ENABLED in this way:
SET SAL_RTL_ENABLED=1
path-to/soffice.exe
In PowerShell, this can be done by using a subshell to avoid permanently adding the variables:
pwsh -Command { $env:SAL_RTL_ENABLED=1; path-to/soffice.exe }
For one-liner in Windows to use as a shortcut, one could use set in a different way. For example, to run LO without SKIA in case of a problem and to additionally avoid restore:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c "set SAL_DISABLESKIA=1 && START /D ^"C:\Program Files\LibreOffice\program^" soffice.exe --norestore"
Another way would be passing the environment variable using -env (only bootstrap variables).
instdir/program/soffice -env:SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen
List of environment variables
 |
Note:
If you want to add a new environment variable to the LibreOffice source code, please note that:
- An environment variable is not the best way to handle the system configuration. Think about other ways of handling the system configuration that may be more appropriate.
- Please consider adding a prefix (like
SAL_) to avoid conflicts with other environment variables from other applications.
|
VCL
General
| Variable |
Description
|
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN |
Which VCL plugin to use instead of the auto-detected one. Possible values:
gen: X11 UI
qt5: Qt 5 UI
qt6: Qt 6 UI
kf5: KDE KF5 UI
kf6: KDE KF6 UI
gtk3: GTK 3 UI
gtk4: GTK 4 UI
gtk3_kde5: GTK 3 KDE 5 UI
win: Windows UI (Windows only)
osx: macOS X UI (macOS only)
A list of these VCL plugins can be extracted by:
grep vclplug Repository.mk in core.
|
SAL_RTL_ENABLED |
Enable right to left (RTL) UI, used for Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and other RTL languages.
|
SAL_NO_NWF |
Disable native widgets
|
SAL_FORCEDPI |
Force a specific DPI (gen, gtk3/gtk4, qt5/qt6/kf5/kf6 plugins only)
|
SAL_FORCE_HC |
force high-contrast mode
|
SAL_USE_SYSTEM_LOOP |
Calls std::abort on nested event loop calls. Currently just for Qt with many crashes. WIP.
|
SAL_NO_FONT_LOOKUP |
Disable font search and fallback and always use a hard-coded font name (for some unit tests)
|
SAL_DISABLE_WATCHDOG |
don't start the thread that watches for broken GL/Vulkan/OpenCL drivers
|
SAL_NO_MOUSEGRABS |
for debugging - stop blocking UI if a breakpoint is hit
|
LO_COLLECT_UIINFO |
Enable the uitesting logging, value is expected to be a relative file name that will be used to write the log under instdir/uitest/.
|
VCL_DOUBLEBUFFERING_AVOID_PAINT |
Don't paint the buffer, useful to see where we do direct painting
|
VCL_DOUBLEBUFFERING_FORCE_ENABLE |
Enable double buffered painting
|
VCL_DOUBLEBUFFERING_ENABLE |
Enable a safe subset of double buffered painting (currently in Writer, not in any other applications)
|
VCL_DEBUG_DISABLE_PDFCOMPRESSION |
Disable compression in the PDF writer
|
GTK
| Variable |
Description
|
VCL_GTK3_PAINTDEBUG |
in debug builds, if set to 1 then holding down ⇧ Shift + 0 forces a redraw event, ⇧ Shift + 1 repaints everything, and ⇧ Shift + 2 dumps cairo frames to PNGs as /tmp/frame<n>.png
|
GDK_SCALE=2 |
for X11-specific HiDPI scaling (just supports integers) [1]
|
Bitmap
| Variable |
Description
|
VCL_NO_THREAD_SCALE |
disable threaded bitmap scale
|
VCL_NO_THREAD_IMPORT |
disable threaded bitmap import
|
EMF_PLUS_DISABLE |
use EMF rendering and ignore EMF+ specifics
|
EMF_PLUS_LIMIT |
EMF+ records limit
|
OpenGL
| Variable |
Description
|
SAL_DISABLEGL |
disable OpenGL use
|
SAL_GL_NO_SWAP |
disable buffer swapping if set (should show nothing)
|
SAL_GL_SLEEP_ON_SWAP |
sleep for half a second on each swap-buffers.
|
Skia
| Variable |
Description
|
SAL_DISABLESKIA=1 |
force disabled Skia
|
SAL_ENABLESKIA=1 |
enable Skia, unless denylisted (and if the VCL backend supports Skia)
|
SAL_FORCESKIA=1 |
force using Skia, even if denylisted
|
SAL_SKIA=raster|vulkan|metal |
select Skia's drawing method, by default Vulkan or Metal are used if available
|
SAL_DISABLE_SKIA_CACHE=1 |
disable caching of complex images
|
SAL_SKIA_KEEP_BITMAP_BUFFER=1 |
SkiaSalBitmap will keep its bitmap buffer even after storing in SkImage
|
OpenGL,Skia
| Variable |
Description
|
SAL_WITHOUT_WIDGET_CACHE |
disable LRU caching of native widget textures
|
Qt
| Variable |
Description
|
QT_SCALE_FACTOR=2 |
for HiDPI testing (also supports float)
|
SAL_VCL_QT_NO_FONTCONFIG (from LO 24.8 on)
SAL_VCL_QT5_NO_FONTCONFIG (until LO 24.2) |
ignore fontconfig provided font substitutions
|
SAL_VCL_QT_NO_NATIVE (from LO 24.8 on)
SAL_VCL_QT5_NO_NATIVE (until LO 24.2) |
disable QStyle'd controls
|
SAL_VCL_QT_USE_QFONT |
use QFont for text layout and rendering (default is to use cairo)
|
Mac
| Variable |
Description
|
SAL_FORCE_HIDPI_SCALING |
set to 2 to fake HiDPI drawing (useful for unit tests, windows may draw only top-left 1/4 of the content scaled)
|
Dark mode
| Variable |
Description
|
VCL_ICONS_FOR_DARK_THEME |
Use dark theme for LibreOffice icons
|
VCL_MACOS_FORCE_DARK_MODE |
Enables dark mode for macOS (the implementation is incomplete)
|
VCL_MACOS_USE_SYSTEM_APPEARANCE |
Use system settings (light mode or the dark mode as configured within system preferences)
|
Direct2D
Others
| Variable |
Description
|
LIBO_VCL_DEMO |
Used internally by vcldemo to differentiate the execution with the normal VCL main application as it does not use the complex configurations for icon themes and cursor images
|
VCL_DRAW_WIDGETS_FROM_FILE |
|
VCL_DUMP_BMP_PATH |
|
VCL_EVENT_INJECTION |
|
test
| Variable |
Description
|
LO_TEST_LOCALE |
the locale to be used during unit tests. Defaults to en-US.
|
desktop
General
| Variable |
Description
|
| DISPLAY |
X11 display to use.
|
OOO_DISABLE_RECOVERY |
Disables the recovery dialog.
|
OOO_EXIT_POST_STARTUP |
Exit right after startup, for profiling purposes.
|
SAL_DISABLE_USERMIGRATION |
Disable automatic conversion of old user configurations.
|
LibreOfficeKit
| Variable |
Description
|
LOK_DEBUG |
Draw a small red rectangle in the top left corner so that it's easy to see where a new tile begins.
|
LOK_ALLOWLIST_LANGUAGES |
Set the Allowlisted languages
|
LOK_DEBUG_TILES |
Draw a small red rectangle in the top left corner so that it's easy to see where a new tile begins
|
SAL_LOK_OPTIONS |
':' delimited options - avoiding ABI change for new parameters. Parameters can be: unipoll, profile_events, sc_no_grid_bg, sc_print_twips_msgs, notebookbar
|
oox
ppt
| Variable |
Description
|
OOX_NO_SMARTART_WARNING |
don't warn on SmartArts missing their DrawingML fallback
|
sax
fastparser
| Variable |
Description
|
SAX_DISABLE_THREADS |
don't thread sax parsing
|
Language Variables
| Variable |
Description
|
ALL_LANGS |
|
LANG |
|
LANGUAGE |
|
LC_ALL |
|
LC_CTYPE |
|
LC_MESSAGES |
|
System Variables
| Variable |
Description
|
HOME |
Home folder for the current user
|
JAVA_HOME |
Path to JDK folder
|
OS |
|
PATH |
List of directories to search for the executable files. This is used on Unix/Linux, Windows, macOS and many other platforms with slight difference that Windows uses ; instead of : to separate directories.
|
PYTHONPATH |
List of directories to be added to Python sys.path
|
SHELL |
|
TMP |
|
TMPDIR |
|
| WAYLAND_DISPLAY |
"This tells Wayland clients which Wayland compositor to connect to. If it is not set, clients will try wayland-0 as a fallback. WAYLAND_DISPLAY is normally the name of a socket in XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, but it can also be an absolute path to a socket anywhere."
Environment variables for Wayland hackers
|
DESKTOP_LAUNCH |
|
DESKTOP_SESSION |
|
DISABLE_REDLINE |
|
GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID |
|
KDE_FULL_SESSION |
|
KDE_SESSION_VERSION |
|
SESSION_MANAGER |
|
TEMP |
|
TEST_LIB |
|
XDG_CACHE_HOME |
[2]
|
XDG_CONFIG_HOME |
[3]
|
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP |
[4]
|
XMODIFIERS |
|
Compile/build Variables
| Variable |
Description
|
CLANG_FORMAT |
|
CLANG_THRESHOLD |
|
CLASSPATH |
|
CXX |
|
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH |
|
ENABLE_RELEASE_BUILD |
|
INCLUDE |
|
INSTDIR |
|
LIBO_LD_PATH |
|
MSVC_USE_DEBUG_RUNTIME |
|
MSVC_USE_INDIVIDUAL_PDBS |
|
SRCDIR |
|
SRC_ROOT |
|
WORKDIR |
|
WORKDIR_FOR_BUILD |
|
Debug Variables
| Variable |
Description
|
CRASH_DUMP_ENABLE |
|
CPPCANVAS_DEBUG_EMFPLUS_DUMP_TO |
|
DBG_LWPIMPORT_DIR |
|
DBG_PDFIMPORT_DIR |
|
HELP_DEBUG |
|
SAL_DEBUG_UPDATES |
|
SAL_LOG |
|
SAL_LOG_FILE |
|
SD_DEBUG |
|
SAL_LOG_SYSLOG |
|
SW_DEBUG |
|
SW_DEBUG_HTML_PASTE_TO |
|
SW_DEBUG_MAILMERGE_DOCS |
|
SW_DEBUG_RTF_PASTE_FROM |
|
SW_DEBUG_RTF_PASTE_TO |
|
SW_DEBUG_WRITERFILTER |
|
LibreOffice Updater
| Variable |
Description
|
LIBO_UPDATER_BUILD |
|
LIBO_UPDATER_CHANNEL |
|
LIBO_UPDATER_TEST_ENABLE |
|
LIBO_UPDATER_TEST_REPLACE |
|
LIBO_UPDATER_TEST_RUNNING |
|
LIBO_UPDATER_TEST_UPDATE |
|
LIBO_UPDATER_TEST_UPDATE_CHECK |
|
LIBO_UPDATER_URL |
|
UNO/URE Variables
| Variable |
Description
|
UNODISABLELIBRARY |
|
UNO_ENV_LOG |
|
UNO_PATH |
|
URE_TEST_SETTHREADNAME |
|
Other Variables
| Variable |
Description
|
AVOID_BURN_IN_FOR_GALLERY_THEME |
|
CANVAS_SPRITE_BOUNDS |
|
CONNECTIVITY_TEST_MYSQL_DRIVER_JDBC |
|
CPPUNIT_TEST_NAME |
|
FUZZ_MAX_INPUT_LEN |
|
GALLERY_ENABLE_ID_DIALOG |
|
GALLERY_SHOW_HIDDEN_THEMES |
|
ISC_PASSWORD |
|
ISC_USER |
|
LIBO_FLATPAK |
|
LIBO_FORMULA_LOG_FILE |
|
LIBO_ONEWAY_STABLE_ODF_EXPORT |
|
LIBREOFFICE_FIREBIRD_LIB |
|
LIBREOFFICE_ICU_LIB |
|
LO_IMPORT_USE_PDFIUM |
|
LO_LEAN_EXCEPTION |
|
LO_TEST_LOCALE |
|
LO_TESTNAME |
|
MAX_CONCURRENCY |
|
MOZILLA_CERTIFICATE_FOLDER |
This is deprecated
|
OOO_ENABLE_LOCALE_DATA_CHECKS |
|
OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP |
|
OOO_INSTALL_PREFIX |
|
PDFIMPORT_RESOLUTION_DPI |
|
RESOURCE_NAME |
|
SAL_ACCESSIBILITY_ENABLED |
|
SAL_ANTIALIASED_TEXT_PRIORITY |
|
SAL_CONFIG_WINREG_RETAIN_TMP |
|
SAL_CUPS_PPD_RETAIN_TMP |
Normally when LibreOffice downloads the postscript printer description file (PPD) it parses and deletes it, with this set the file is retained for debugging purposes
|
SAL_DECIMALSEP_ENABLED |
|
SAL_DISABLE_CAIRO_DOWNSCALE |
|
SAL_DISABLE_CPD |
|
SAL_DISABLE_CUPS |
|
SAL_DISABLE_DEFAULTPRINTER |
|
SAL_DISABLE_FLOATGRAB |
|
SAL_DISABLE_MM02_GOODIES |
|
SAL_DISABLE_OPENCL |
|
SAL_DISABLE_OWN_IM_STATUS |
|
SAL_DISABLE_PRINTERLIST |
|
SAL_DISABLE_RENDER_POLY |
|
SAL_DISABLE_STACKING_CHECK |
|
SAL_DISABLE_SYNCHRONOUS_PRINTER_DETECTION |
|
SAL_DISABLE_USE_CAIRO_FOR_FATLINES |
|
SAL_EMBEDDED_BITMAP_PRIORITY |
|
SAL_ENABLE_FILE_LOCKING |
|
SAL_ENABLE_TIMER_BITMAPDRAW |
|
SAL_ENABLE_USE_CAIRO_FOR_POLYGONS |
|
SAL_FORCEGL |
|
SAL_HIGHPRIORITY_REPAINT |
|
SAL_IGNOREXERRORS |
|
SAL_NOLOCK_PROFILE |
|
SAL_NO_QUERYSAVE |
intended for use by QA to suppress the warning on changed documents; any value is accepted even SAL_NO_QUERYSAVE="false" blocks the dialog! (tdf#143578)
|
SAL_NO_XINITTHREADS |
|
SAL_PPDPARSER_LOCALE |
|
SAL_RAND_REPEATABLE |
|
SAL_SWITCH_OFF_ANTIALIASING_FOR_HOR_VER_BORTDERLINES |
|
SAL_SYNCHRONIZE |
|
SAL_TRANSPARENT_FLOATS |
|
SAL_USEINPUTMETHOD |
|
SAL_VISUAL |
|
SAL_WHEELLINES |
|
SAL_XKEYBOARDGROUP |
|
SC_FLOAT |
|
SC_FORCE_CALCULATION |
|
SC_MAX_GROUP_LENGTH |
|
SC_MAX_MATRIX_ELEMENTS |
|
SC_NO_THREADED_CALCULATION |
|
SC_OPENCL_DEVICE_OVERRIDE |
|
SD_SHOW_NUMBERING_PAGE |
|
SFX_MEDIUM_REUSE_STREAM |
|
SOFFICE_BIN |
|
STAR_PROFILE_LOCKING_DISABLED |
|
STOC_FORCE_NO_JRE |
|
STOC_FORCE_SYSTEM_LAF |
|
SVP_LISTENER_PORT |
|
SVX_DRAW_HANDLES |
|
SYSTEM_BOOST |
|
TAGLOGGERTMP |
|
TDOC |
|
TestUserDir |
|
TRACE_EVENT_RECORDING |
|
Commands
In order to retrieve the list of environment variables, use the following command on the core folder (point and dollar sign because there are such vars):
git grep -h -I 'getenv\s*(\s*"[A-Z0-9_]\+' | sed 's/.*"\([A-Za-z0-9_$.]\+\)".*/\1/g' | sort -u
When we get the list of environment variables, we want also to see where they are used. Here is the command that searches for files that use an environment variable:
git grep -I -H '"\s*ENV_VAR_NAME\s*"'
See Also
