Eclipse configuration files on Mac OS X

Posted on Tue 19 April 2011 in Eclipse

On Linux or Windows you can find the eclipse.ini file in the eclipse directory.
If you now run out of memory with some bigger projects you need to edit the eclipse.ini file to increase the max amount of memory for you eclipse java process.

1. Open Terminal and go to eclipse directory. My eclipse is located in Application directory.

#cd /Applications/eclipse/

2. Go where eclipse.ini is located. I am using Eclipse Ganymed so it looks like this:

#cd Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/
  1. I use vi for changing the file:
#vi eclipse.ini
  1. Make your changes and safe it. Here is an example for the file:
 -showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
-startup
../../../plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.101.R34x_v20080819.jar
--launcher.library
../../../plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.carbon.macosx_1.0.101.R34x_v20080731
-vmargs
-Xdock:icon=../Resources/Eclipse.icns
-XstartOnFirstThread
-Xms128m
-Xmx512m
-XX:MaxPermSize=512m
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.carbon.smallFonts

Note: Of course you also can use Finder to navigate into the directory and you can use Textedit for doing the changes. To open the Eclipse.app file you have to do "right click" on the Eclipse symbol in your eclipse directory and select 'show packagecontent'.

Eclipse