ibus
Enable Intelligent Input Bus for multilingual input
SYNOPSIS
ibus [COMMAND] [ARGS…]
PARAMETERS
address
Show IBus D-Bus address.
activate-engine-by-name ENGINE
Activate input engine by name.
list-engine [LANG]
List all (or language-specific) input engines.
engine
Show currently active engine.
quit
Quit the IBus daemon.
restart
Restart the IBus daemon.
daemon [OPTIONS]
Start ibus-daemon with options (e.g., --replace).
-d, --daemon[=replace]
Start/replace ibus-daemon.
--daemonize
Daemonize ibus-daemon process.
-x, --exit
Exit ibus-daemon.
-v, --verbose[=LEVEL]
Enable verbose logging.
-h, --help
Show help.
--version
Print version info.
DESCRIPTION
IBus (Intelligent Input Bus) is a flexible input method framework for Linux/Unix systems, enabling complex text input for languages like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and others via input method editors (IMEs). It supports multiple backends (X11, Wayland) and integrates with desktops like GNOME, KDE, XFCE.
The ibus command provides CLI control for the IBus daemon: starting/restarting the service, listing/querying input engines, activating engines, and more. It communicates via D-Bus. Typically auto-launched by session managers, but manually invocable for troubleshooting or headless use.
Key features include per-application engine switching, emoji panels, and extensibility through engines (e.g., ibus-pinyin, ibus-mozc). Widely used in Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch for multilingual input.
CAVEATS
Requires D-Bus and graphical session (X11/Wayland); conflicts with other IM frameworks like fcitx. Not for headless servers. Environment vars like IBUS_ENABLE_SYNC_MODE may be needed for apps.
EXAMPLES
ibus list-engine
List engines.
ibus activate-engine-by-name "ibus-pinyin"
Switch to Pinyin IME.
ibus daemon --replace &
Restart daemon in background.
ENVIRONMENT
Set GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus, QT_IM_MODULE=ibus for app integration.
IBUS_ADDRESS_SERVER_ID for multi-seat.
HISTORY
Originated 2008 by Peng Gao (Red Hat) as SCIM successor. Initial release 1.0 (2009); gained popularity with GTK3/Qt5 support. Now at 1.5.x (2023+), with Wayland improvements and cloud dictionary engines.
