Tuning WebStorm
In this part:
- Tuning WebStorm
- File 'idea.properties'
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
The location of the *.vmoptions
file depends on the operating system you are currently using:
- For Windows:
<WebStorm installation folder>/bin/webstorm.exe.vmoptions
or<WebStorm installation folder>/bin/webstorm64.exe.vmoptions
- For *NIX:
<WebStorm installation folder>/bin/webstorm.vmoptions
or<WebStorm installation folder>/bin/webstorm64.vmoptions
- For macOS, you need to make a copy of the
webstorm.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 2016.1, the
/Applications/WebStorm.app/Contents/bin/webstorm.vmoptions
file must be copied to~/Library/Preferences/WebStorm/webstorm.vmoptions
. - For earlier versions, the
/Applications/WebStorm<version>.app/Contents/bin/idea.vmoptions
file must be copied to~/Library/Preferences/WebStorm<version>/idea.vmoptions
.
- Since version 2016.1, the
To avoid editing files in the WebStorm installation folder, do one of the following:
- From the main menu, choose to create a copy of the
webstorm.vmoptions
file in the user home directory. Refer to Edit Custom VM Options for details. - Copy the existing file from the WebStorm installation folder somewhere and save the path to this location in the
WEBIDE_VM_OPTIONS
environment variable . - Copy the existing
<WebStorm installation folder>/bin/webstorm.exe.vmoptions
or the<WebStorm installation folder>/bin/webstorm64.exe.vmoptions
file from the WebStorm installation folder into your user home directory.
Then edit this file in the new location.
If the WEBIDE_VM_OPTIONS
environment variable is defined, or the *.vmoptions
file exists, this file is used instead of the one 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 idea.properties
file located in the bin
directory of the WebStorm 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%\.WebStorm XX
- For *NIX:
~/.WebStorm XX
- For macOS:
~/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: