Isn't it just firefox -p [name of profile]?
this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025
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Yes it is thanks
We share a single PC account and do exactly this to easily separate our profiles; here's what I have for my launcher for example:
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=David-Firefox
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
GenericName=Web Browser
Keywords=Internet;WWW;Browser;Web;Explorer
Exec=firefox %u -P David --class Davidfox
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=/home/david/Launchers/Firefox/Firefox-David.png
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=
StartupNotify=true
Actions=NewWindow;NewPrivateWindow;ProfileManager;
[Desktop Action NewWindow]
Name=Open a New Window
Exec=firefox -P David --class Davidfox -new-window
[Desktop Action NewPrivateWindow]
Name=Open a New Private Window
Exec=firefox -P David --class Davidfox -private-window
[Desktop Action ProfileManager]
Name=Open the Profile Manager
Exec=firefox -ProfileManager --class Davidfox
Here I'm using a custom icon to help tell our profiles apart on our dock and use a custom window class so each profile's windows will group with each other as well.
Thanks for sharing I did not understand the custom window class but hey that's a reason to read the Firefox CLI wiki
firefox --help ?
Sorry I'm a noob I didn't realize that these also have man pages
Not man pages tho. Just a short summary. Similiar to Windows CMD /? (but who still knows cmd nowadays).
Fwiw: there us a Gnome extension to add profiles to the top bar
I should have mentioned my DE is Cinnamon
The list of possible CLI parameters can be found in the Mozilla wiki https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/CommandLineOptions
or firefox --help
You're right I'm a noob I didn't realize that these also have man pages
that's completely fine :)
I think the biggest part of learning Linux is learning where to get help. Most programs have a help dialog with --help or -h, or man pages you can find somewhere. Even the terminal has a help dialog if you just type "help", most things are more user friendly than they seem!
If man pages are difficult to read, I recommend installing tealdeer (tldr). it shows a short summary of example command usages and it's great (e.g. tldr ls shows the different ways you can use ls)
Thanks I have tealdear installed after I saw the mental outlaw's video about it after months back. It is great indeed
First mental outlaw reference I’ve seen in the wild, 🍻
All the possible options explained very well here thanks