gnumeric

gnumeric [OPTION...] [FILE...]

-h, --help
    Show help options and exit

--help-all
    Show all help options

--help-gnumeric
    Show gnumeric-specific help

--version
    Show release version

--recalc=<mode>
    Recalculation mode: always|demand|lazy|expr|none

--no-recalc
    Disable automatic recalculation

--autofit-width[=<COLS>]
    Auto-fit column widths (optionally specific columns)

--autofit-height[=<ROWS>]
    Auto-fit row heights (optionally specific rows)

--protect[=<PASSWORD>]
    Protect workbook or sheets with optional password

--unprotect[=<PASSWORD>]
    Unprotect with optional password

--print[=<SHEET[:RANGE]>]
    Print specified sheet or range

--plugin-path=<DIR>
    Directory for loading plugins

--disable-plugin=<NAME>
    Disable specific plugin

--enable-plugin=<NAME>
    Force enable specific plugin

--geometry=<WxH+X+Y>
    Set window geometry

--display=<DISPLAY>
    X display to use

--no-desktop-aware
    Disable desktop integration

--debug
    Enable general debugging

--debug-formulas
    Debug formula evaluation

Gnumeric is a powerful, free spreadsheet program for the GNOME desktop environment on Linux and Unix-like systems. Designed as a lightweight alternative to Microsoft Excel, it excels in accuracy for complex calculations, supports a wide range of file formats including MS Excel (.xls, .xlsx), OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods), CSV, HTML, and more. Key features include over 400 functions, multi-threaded recalculation, advanced statistical analysis, graphing capabilities with Gnumeric's plot engine, data import/export tools, and Python scripting support via plugins.

The gnumeric command launches an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for editing spreadsheets. It can open multiple files at once, perform auto-fitting of columns/rows, protect sheets with passwords, and handle printing directly from the command line. For batch operations without GUI, use companion tools like ssconvert for format conversion or ssdiff for comparing spreadsheets.

Gnumeric emphasizes speed, precision (using arbitrary-precision arithmetic where needed), and extensibility through plugins for added functionality like GDA database access or Perl/Python integration. It's ideal for users needing reliable numerical computations without Excel's bloat.

Gnumeric is a GUI application requiring GTK+ and GNOME libraries; not suitable for headless servers without X11 forwarding. Some advanced Excel VBA macros unsupported. Large files may consume significant memory.

Use ssconvert FILE1.xls FILE2.pdf for batch conversion; ssdiff for comparing spreadsheets.

Typically via package managers: apt install gnumeric (Debian/Ubuntu), dnf install gnumeric (Fedora). Requires GTK3.

Read: Excel, ODS, CSV, Gnumeric XML, HTML, LaTeX, etc.
Write: Excel, ODS, CSV, PDF, PNG (charts), HTML.

Development began in May 1998 by Miguel de Icaza and Jody Goldberg as part of early GNOME efforts. First stable release 1.0 in 2001. Actively maintained by GNOME community; latest versions (1.12+) focus on format compatibility, performance, and plugin ecosystem. Widely used in scientific computing for its formula precision.

ssconvert(1), ssdiff(1), libreoffice(1)