Tuning IntelliJ IDEA

In this part:

• Tuning IntelliJ IDEA
  • Changing IntelliJ IDEA properties
  • Managing *.vmoptions file
    • Example: Increasing the heap size
  • Managing idea.properties file
    • Example: Changing case of unicode literals
  • Specifying custom JDK, properties or vmoptions files across platforms
• File 'idea.properties'
• Project and IDE Settings
• Directories Used by IntelliJ IDEA to Store Settings, Caches, Plugins and Logs
• Networking in IntelliJ IDEA
• Color-Deficiency Adjustment

Changing IntelliJ IDEA properties

IntelliJ IDEA makes it possible to change *.vmoptions and idea.properties files without editing them in the IntelliJ IDEA installation folder.

To create an empty idea.properties file or to copy *.vmoptions file, choose the Help | Edit Custom Properties or Help | Edit Custom VM Options on the main menu respectively. Refer to the menu items description for details.

Managing *.vmoptions file

The location of the *.vmoptions file depends on the operating system you are currently using:

• For Windows: <IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea.exe.vmoptions or <IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea64.exe.vmoptions
• For *NIX: <IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea.vmoptions or <IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea64.vmoptions
• For macOS, you need to make a copy of the idea.vmoptions file in the IDE preferences folder and then edit this copy. The reason is that the app bundle is signed and you should not modify any files inside the bundle.

  Since version 12.0.0:
  The /Applications/IntelliJ Idea XX.app/bin/idea.vmoptions or the /Applications/IntelliJ Idea CE XX.app/bin/idea.vmoptions file must be copied to ~/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdeaXX/idea.vmoptions or ~/Library/Preferences/IdeaICXX/idea.vmoptions

  Since version 14.0.0, the /Applications/IntelliJ Idea XX.app/Contents/bin/idea.vmoptions or /Applications/IntelliJ Idea CE XX.app/Contents/bin/idea.vmoptions file must be copied to ~/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdeaXX/idea.vmoptions or ~/Library/Preferences/IdeaICXX/idea.vmoptions.

  
  

  For older versions, the settings are stored in /Applications/IntelliJ IDEA <version>.app/Contents/Info.plist.

To avoid editing files in the IntelliJ IDEA installation folder, do one of the following:

• From the main menu, choose Help | Edit Custom VM Options to create a copy of the idea.vmoptions file in the user home directory. Refer to Edit Custom VM Options for details.
• Copy the existing file from the IntelliJ IDEA installation folder somewhere and save the path to this location in the IDEA_VM_OPTIONS environment variable (IDEA64_VM_OPTIONS for 64 bit systems) .
• Copy the existing <IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea.exe.vmoptions or the <IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea64.exe.vmoptions file from the IntelliJ IDEA installation folder into your user home directory.

Then edit this file in the new location.

If the IDEA_VM_OPTIONS (IDEA64_VM_OPTIONS for 64 bit systems) environment variable is defined, or the *.vmoptions file exists, this file is used instead of the one located in the IntelliJ IDEA installation folder.

Example: Increasing the heap size

To increase IntelliJ IDEA heap size, you should copy the original idea.vmoptions file to the above-mentioned location, and then modify the -Xmx setting.

Managing idea.properties file

The idea.properties file located in the bin directory of the IntelliJ IDEA installation folder should not be edited. Instead of editing the original idea.properties file, create an idea.properties file in the following location, open it for editing and add the required properties:

• For Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.IntelliJIdeaXX or %USERPROFILE%\.IdeaICXX
• For *NIX: ~/.IntelliJIdeaXX or ~/.IdeaICXX
• For macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdeaXX or ~/Library/Preferences/IdeaICXX

Example: Changing case of unicode literals

IntelliJ IDEA allows defining whether non-ascii characters should use literals like '\u00AB' or '\00ab'.

This behavior is controlled by the system property idea.native2ascii.lowercase. By default, upper case characters are used.

If it is desirable to use lower case characters, create the file idea.properties in the location specified above, open it for editing and add the following line:

Specifying custom JDK, properties or vmoptions files across platforms

A custom JDK, *.properties and *.vmoptions files are specified across platforms in a unified way.

All the launchers look at the following environment variables:

• $<IDE-NAME>_JDK (<IDE-NAME>_JDK_64)
• $<IDE-NAME>_PROPERTIES
• $<IDE-NAME>_VM_OPTIONS