Eclipse IDE Memory Settings

Overview

Eclipse memory settings are defined in the eclipse.ini configuration file. This file allows us to configure important Eclipse IDE memory settings. The memory settings for the Java Virtual Machine which runs the Eclipse IDE can be configured in this file.

Configuration File

We can find the eclipse.ini file under the Eclipse home directory. On Windows, for example, if the Eclipse IDE was installed in the C:\eclipse directory the path for the file would be

C:\eclipse\eclipse.ini

We can use a normal text editor like Notepad, Textpad, etc to open the file.

Eclipse IDE Configuration File

VM Memory Settings

The JVM memory settings are defined with the -vmargs parameters.

-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=11
-Dosgi.instance.area.default=@user.home/eclipse-workspace
-Dsun.java.command=Eclipse
-XX:+UseG1GC
-XX:+UseStringDeduplication
–add-modules=ALL-SYSTEM
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=11
-Dosgi.dataAreaRequiresExplicitInit=true
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.graphics.Resource.reportNonDisposed=true
-Xms256m
-Xmx2048m

Eclipse INI File Windows

-Xms

The -Xms parameter defines the initial heap size of the JVM. In the example, the initial Java heap memory size is 256 MB.

-Xmx

The -Xmx parameter defines how large the Java Heap memory size can get up to. In the example, the maximum heap memory size is up to 2048 MB or 2 GB.

In case the Eclipse IDE is slow and depending on the machine’s physical memory configuration, we can edit and fine-tune these -vmargs memory parameters in the file to make Eclipse IDE run faster.

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