Geekbench 3 Command Line Tool

Geekbench 3 comes with a command-line tool called geekbench that provides the same functionality as the graphical user interface. This tool allows you to use Geekbench from a command prompt and automate it with shell scripts or batch files.

Install the Tool on Mac OS X

  • Click on the "Geekbench" menu.
  • Click on the "Install Terminal Command" menu item.

A dialog box will appear asking you to authenticate as an administrator; enter an administrator's username and password and click "OK". Another dialog box will appear with usage instructions (if the install was successful) or an error message (if the install encountered a problem). To use the tool enter the following command in a Terminal window:

geekbench

Technical Details: The geekbench command line tool is found inside the Geekbench application bundle. Installing the tool creates a symlink to the tool in /usr/local/bin. If you move Geekbench to another location you will need to re-install the tool as the symlink will point to an invalid location.

Install the Tool on Windows

  • Click on the "File" menu.
  • Click on the "Install Command Prompt Tool" menu item.

A dialog box will appear with usage instructions (if the install was successful) or an error message (if the install encountered a problem). To use the tool open a new command prompt window (command prompt windows that are already open won't be able to find the tool) and enter the following command:

geekbench

Technical Details: The geekbench command line tool is found inside the Geekbench install directory. Installing the tool adds the Geekbench install directory to your PATH environment variable.

Using the Tool

You can get help at any time with the --help switch:

geekbench --help

If you don't specify any command-line switches, Geekbench runs the 32-bit benchmarks. You can also run the 32-bit benchmarks by using the following switch:

geekbench --arch 32bit

You can run 64-bit benchmarks with the following command line switch (note that you will have to unlock Geekbench with a valid license key first!):

geekbench --arch 64bit

Geekbench displays its progress while it's running the workloads, and displays the section scores and overall scores once all the workloads have run. Geekbench will prompt you as to whether you want to upload the results to the Geekbench Result Browser.

If you don't want to be prompted (for example, you're running Geekbench as part of a script) you can answer this question on the command line with one of the following switches:

  • --upload will automatically upload the result to the Geekbench Result Browser.
  • --no-upload will not upload the result to the Geekbench Result Browser

You can save Geekbench results with the following command line (note that .geekbench is the recommended file extension for Geekbench results):

geekbench --save result.geekbench

You can also export Geekbench results to different formats. This is a great way to share your results with people who don't have Geekbench installed. Exporting is done with one of the following switches:

  • --export-html exports the result as an HTML file.
  • --export-text exports the result as a plain-text file.
  • --export-xml exports the result as an XML file.

You can load and display a saved Geekbench result with the following command line:

geekbench --load result.geekbench

When loading a result, you can manipulate it like any other result. You can upload the saved Geekbench result to the Geekbench Result Browser by using the following switches:

geekbench --load result.geekbench --upload

You can also export the saved Geekbench result in a different format. For example, the following command line with export the saved result as an HTML file:

geekbench --load result.geekbench --export-html

Troubleshooting

Mac OS X

If you receive a -bash: geekbench: command not found error message when trying to run Geekbench, either the Geekbench command-line tool wasn't installed correctly, or the Geekbench application bundle was moved. Please re-install the command-line tool.

If the problem persists, it's possible the geekbench link exists but points to the wrong location and Geekbench is unable to remove the incorrect link. Open the Terminal and run ls -al /usr/local/bin/geekbench to determine if the link was installed correctly. If the link exists remove the link with sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/geekbench.

If the problem still persists, please contact support.

Windows

If you receive a 'geekbench.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file. error message when trying to run Geekbench, the Geekbench command-line tool wasn't installed correctly, or the command prompt window was opened before the command-line tools were installed. Please close all open command prompt windows and open a new command prompt window. If the problem persists, please re-install the command-line tool and open a new command prompt window. If the problem still persists, please contact support.