Tuning PhpStorm
In this part:
- Tuning PhpStorm
- File 'idea.properties'
Changing PhpStorm properties
You can make PhpStorm work faster by editing the default
Java Virtual Machine (JVM) settings. These operations require certain understanding of
the JVM functionality and may cause unexpected problems. Therefore it is strongly
recommended that you address the
JetBrains Support
whereupon you will be provided with detailed instructions regarding which settings you need to update
and what values should be assigned to them.
See also Reporting Issues and Sharing Your Feedback.
PhpStorm makes it possible to change *.vmoptions
and
idea.properties
files without editing them in the PhpStorm installation folder.
To create an empty idea.properties
file or to copy
*.vmoptions
file, choose
the or
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 systems:
<PhpStorm installation folder>/bin/phpstorm.exe.vmoptions
or<PhpStorm installation folder>/bin/phpstorm64.exe.vmoptions
- For *NIX systems:
<PhpStorm installation folder>/bin/phpstorm.vmoptions
or<PhpStorm installation folder>/bin/phpstorm64.vmoptions
- For OS X systems,
you have to make a copy of the
phpstorm.vmoptions
file in the IDE preferences folder and then edit this copy. The reason is that app bundle is signed and you should not modify any files inside the bundle.- Since version 2016.1, the file
/Applications/PhpStorm.app/Contents/bin/phpstorm.vmoptions
should be copied to~/Library/Preferences/PhpStorm/phpstorm.vmoptions
. - For earlier versions, the file
/Applications/PhpStorm<version>.app/Contents/bin/idea.vmoptions
should be copied to~/Library/Preferences/PhpStorm<version>/idea.vmoptions
.
- Since version 2016.1, the file
To avoid editing files in the PhpStorm installation folder, one should:
- Do one of the following:
- Use the main menu command to create a copy
of the
phpstorm.vmoptions
file in the user home. Refer to Edit Custom VM Options for details. - Copy the existing file from the PhpStorm installation folder somewhere and save the
path to this location in the environment variable
WEBIDE_VM_OPTIONS
. - Copy the existing file
<PhpStorm installation folder>/bin/phpstorm.exe.vmoptions
or<PhpStorm installation folder>/bin/phpstorm64.exe.vmoptions
from the PhpStorm installation folder into the location under your user home.
- Use the main menu command to create a copy
of the
- Edit this file in the new location.
If WEBIDE_VM_OPTIONS
environment variable is defined, or the
*.vmoptions
file exists, then this file is used instead of the one located in
the PhpStorm installation folder.
Example: Increasing the heap size
To increase PhpStorm heap size, you should copy the original phpstorm.vmoptions
file to the
above-mentioned location, and then modify the -Xmx
setting.
Managing idea.properties file
The file idea.properties
, located in the bin
directory of the PhpStorm installation folder, should not be edited. Instead of editing the original
idea.properties
, create file idea.properties
in the location specified below, open it for editing and add the required properties.
So, depending on your platform:
- For Windows: in
%USERPROFILE%\.PhpStormXX
- For *NIX: in
~/.PhpStormXX
- For OS X: in
~/Library/Preferences/PhpStormXX
Example: Changing case of unicode literals
PhpStorm 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:
idea.native2ascii.lowercase=true
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: