Tuning IntelliJ IDEA
In this part:
- Tuning IntelliJ IDEA
- 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 the *.vmoptions and the idea.properties files without editing them in the IntelliJ IDEA installation folder.
To create an empty idea.properties file or to copy the *.vmoptions file, choose or from the main menu respectively.
Managing the *.vmoptions file
The location of the *.vmoptions file depends on your operating system:
- For Windows:
<IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea.exe.vmoptionsor<IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea64.exe.vmoptions - For *NIX:
<IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea.vmoptionsor<IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea64.vmoptions - For macOS, you need to make a copy of the
idea.vmoptionsfile 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.
To avoid editing files in the IntelliJ IDEA installation folder, do one of the following:
- From the main menu, choose to create a copy of the
idea.vmoptionsfile in the user home directory. - Copy the existing file from the IntelliJ IDEA installation folder somewhere and save the path to this location in the
IDEA_VM_OPTIONSenvironment variable (IDEA64_VM_OPTIONSfor 64 bit systems). - Copy the existing
<IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea.exe.vmoptionsor the<IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea64.exe.vmoptionsfile 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 the 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\configor%\USERPROFILE%\\.IdeaICXX\config - For *NIX:
~/.IntelliJIdeaXX/configor~/.IdeaICXX/config - For macOS:
~/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdeaXX/configor~/Library/Preferences/IdeaICXX/config
To open the idea.properties file in the editor, choose . If the file does not exist yet, IntelliJ IDEA creates it and opens in the editor.
Example: Changing the 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 idea.native2ascii.lowercase system property. By default, upper-case characters are used.
If you wish to use lower-case characters, create the idea.properties file in the location specified above, open it for editing and add the following line:
idea.native2ascii.lowercase=true
Specifying custom JDK, properties, or vmoptions files across platforms
A custom JDK, as well as *.properties and *.vmoptions files are specified across platforms in a unified way.
All launchers look at the following environment variables:
$<IDE-NAME>_JDK(<IDE-NAME>_JDK_64)$<IDE-NAME>_PROPERTIES$<IDE-NAME>_VM_OPTIONS