Tuning WebStorm
In this section:
- Changing WebStorm properties
- Managing *.vmoptions file
- Managing idea.properties file
- Specifying custom JDK, properties or vmoptions files across platforms
Changing WebStorm properties
You can make WebStorm 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.
WebStorm makes it possible to change *.vmoptions
and
idea.properties
files without editing them in the WebStorm 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
For Mac OS X systems: The file/Applications/WebStormXX.app/Contents/bin/webstorm.vmoptions
should be copied to ~/Library/Preferences/WebStorm XX/webstorm.vmoptions
To avoid editing files in the WebStorm installation folder, one should:
- Do one of the following:
- Copy the existing file from the WebStorm installation folder somewhere and save the
path to this location in the environment variable
WEBIDE_VM_OPTIONS
. - Copy the existing file
<WebStorm installation folder>/bin/webstorm$BITS.vmoptions
from the WebStorm installation folder into the location under user home:- For *NIX:
$HOME/.WebStorm XX/webstorm$BITS.vmoptions
- For Windows:
%USERPROFILE%\.WebStorm XX\webstorm%BITS%.exe.vmoptions
The value of the variable BITS depends in the JVM used to run WebStorm:
Refer to the support article Selecting the JDK version the IDE will run under for details.
- For *NIX:
- Copy the existing file from the WebStorm installation folder somewhere and save the
path to this location in the environment variable
- 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 file located in the WebStorm installation folder.
Example: Increasing the heap size
To increase WebStorm heap size, you should copy the original webstorm.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 WebStorm 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%\.WebStorm XX
- For *NIX: in
~/.WebStorm XX
- For Mac OS X: in
~/Library/Preferences/WebStorm XX
Example: Changing case of unicode literals
WebStorm 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: