IntelliJ IDEA 2016.1 Help

Creating a Command Line Tool

The command line tools that are available from IntelliJ IDEA are listed in the Command Line Tool Support page of the Settings dialog box. Integration with command line tools is provided at the IntelliJ IDEA level, so once configured, a tool can be used in all your IntelliJ IDEA projects. Just activate and de-activate when necessary depending on the needs of each specific project.

You can update the command definitions of a tool and have the .xml definition file validated right in the IntelliJ IDEA editor.

In this section:

To create and configure a command line tool

  1. Open the IntelliJ IDEA settings and click the Command Line Tool Support.
  2. In the Command Line Tool Support page, click the Add button. In the Choose Tool to Add dialog box that opens, choose Custom Tool
  3. In the Tool Settings dialog box that opens, specify the following:
    1. Tool name and location.
    2. The alias to use in command calls instead of the full path to the tool.
    3. Brief explanation of the tool functionality.
  4. When you click OK, IntelliJ IDEA brings you to the Command Line Tool Support page, where the new tool is added to the list of available tool.
  5. Select the newly created tool and click the Open definition in editor button. In the tool definition .xml file that opens in the editor, define the tool commands.
  6. In the Show console in area, specify where you want the Input pane for typing commands opened:
    • To have the Input pane opened in a pop-up window, choose the Pop-up option.
    • To have the Input pane opened as a text box at the bottom of the Command Line Tools Console tool window, choose the Tool window option.

To activate a configured command line tool

  1. Open the IntelliJ IDEA settings, and then click the Command Line Tool Support.
  2. Select the Enable check box next to to the tool name.

See Also

Last modified: 13 July 2016