Where does Eclipse store preferences?

java eclipse formatting eclipse-rcp settings
CodyBugstein picture CodyBugstein · Jul 2, 2013 · Viewed 72.6k times · Source

When I change a setting in a window like in the screenshot below, where are those settings actually stored?

Bonus: Is there any way, using Java, Eclipse RCP etc, to access the settings programmatically?

Thanks!

Eclipse Preferences

Answer

Optional picture Optional · Jul 2, 2013

Source : Eclipse wiki

If you want to keep preferences from one version to the other, export them using File/Export/Preferences.

Preferences are stored in various places (this applies to Eclipse 3.1)

for each installation (but this may vary for multi-user installations), in files stored in: <eclipse_home>/eclipse/configuration/.settings/

There is typically one file per plugin, with a prefs extension. Note that very few plug-ins use installation-wide preferences.

for each workspace, in files stored in <workspace>/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings .

There is typically one file per plugin, with a prefs extension. for each project --for project-level settings -- in files stored in a .settings sub-directory of your project folder.

Here's the article to access preferences using java code.

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