Unzip the Distribution
# cd /opt
# tar -xzvf /path/to/ideaIC-10.5.tar.gzThis will create the directory /opt/idea-IC-107.105.
Create Symbolic Links
# cd /opt
# ln -sf /opt/idea-IC-107.105 /opt/idea
# ln -s /opt/idea/bin/idea.sh /usr/local/bin/ideaI overwrite the /opt/idea symlink each time I install a new version of IDEA. Creating the /usr/local/bin/idea symlink effectively adds idea to the system PATH. You'll only need to create this one the very first time you install IDEA.
Set JDK Environment Variable
idea.sh checks the IDEA_JDK, JDK_HOME and JAVA_HOME environment variables, in that order of preference, to determine the JVM it will use to run IDEA. Make sure one of these points to a JDK 6 installation. I am currently using JRockit, but the Sun JDK or OpenJDK will also work.
Update idea.vmoptions
The projects I work on are usually quite large, and my box is pretty beefy, so I always pump up the JVM's heap size and permgen size.
# cd /opt/idea/bin
# mv idea.vmoptions idea.vmoptions.orig
# cp /path/to/my/idea.vmoptions .For reference, here's my idea.vmoptions file, though you will probably not want to use it verbatim:
-Xms1500M
-Xmx3000M
-XX:MaxPermSize=500MCreate a GNOME .desktop File
This will add an application launcher to the GNOME Applications menu. As root, create a file named idea.desktop in /usr/share/applications with the following contents:
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Name=IntelliJ IDEA
GenericName=Java IDE
Comment=IntelliJ IDEA is a code-centric IDE focused on developer productivity. The editor deeply understands your code and knows its way around the codebase, makes great suggestions right when you need them, and is always ready to help you shape your code.
Exec=idea
Icon=/opt/idea/bin/idea_CE128.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Development;IDEIf you wish to tweak this file at all, the syntax for .desktop files can be found here.
4 comments:
Hi Ian,
since version 10 IDEA should be able to detect Java in your PATH - so no need to setting environment variables anymore.
Ah, good to know. I'll take a closer look at idea.sh and see what order of preference it uses. I'm guessing the *HOME vars would take precedence over PATH, since that's how most launch scripts for Java apps I've used do it.
CORRECTION: In my original post, there was a mistake in the idea.desktop file. The line:
Categories=Programming;IDE
should have instead been:
Categories=Development;IDE
Without this fix, the IDEA menu icon would show up in GNOME's "Other" menu, rather than in the "Programming" menu.
Another tiny alteration since at least v.11 is the desktop icon which is now simply named idea.png
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