jEdit stores settings, macros, and plugins as files inside the settings directory. In most cases, editing these files by hand is not necessary, since graphical tools and editor commands can do the job. However, being familiar with the structure of the settings directory still comes in handy in certain situations, for example when you want to copy jEdit settings between computers.
The location of the settings directory is system-specific; it is printed to the activity log (Utilities>Troubleshooting>Activity Log). For example:
[message] jEdit: Settings directory is /home/slava/.jedit |
Specifying the -settings switch on the command line instructs jEdit to store settings in a directory other than the default. For example, the following command will instruct jEdit to store all settings in the jedit subdirectory of the C: drive:
C:\jedit> jedit -settings=C:\jedit |
The -nosettings switch will force jEdit to not look for or create a settings directory; default settings will be used instead.
If you are using jEditLauncher to start jEdit on Windows, these parameters cannot be specified on the MS-DOS prompt command line when starting jEdit; they must be set as described in the section called "Starting jEdit".
jEdit creates the following files and directories inside the settings directory; plugins may add more:
abbrevs - a plain text file which stores all defined abbreviations. See the section called "Abbreviations".
activity.log - a plain text file which contains the full activity log. See Appendix B.
history - a plain text file which stores history lists, used by history text fields and the Edit>Paste Previous command. See the section called "Transferring Text" and Appendix C.
jars - this directory contains plugins. See Chapter 8.
macros - this directory contains macros. See Chapter 7.
modes - this directory contains custom edit modes. See Part II.
PluginManager.download - this directory is usually empty. It only contains files while the plugin manager is downloading a plugin. For information about the plugin manager, see Chapter 8.
printspec - a binary file which stores printing settings when running under Java 2 version 1.4.
properties - a plain text file which stores the majority of jEdit's settings.
recent.xml - an XML file which stores the list of recently opened files. jEdit remembers the caret position and character encoding of each recent file, and automatically restores those values when one of the files is opened.
server - a plain text file that only exists while jEdit is running. The edit server's port number and authorization key is stored here. See Chapter 1.
session - a list of files, used when restoring previously open files on startup.
settings-backups - this directory contains numbered backups of all automatically-written settings files (abbrevs, activity.log, history, properties, recent.xml, and session).