Win32 loader for NetBeans IDE

SYNOPSIS

runide.exe [options] arguments
runidew.exe [options] arguments
runide_multiuser.exe [options] arguments
runidew_multiuser.exe [options] arguments

DESCRIPTION

These two excutables are used to run NetBeans IDE on the Windows platforms (NT/95/98/2000). runide.exe is a console application, when it's run there is a console opened on the desktop with stderr and stdout output from the Java program, the user can type Ctrl+Break to get the thread dump, or type Ctrl+C to kill the whole program. runidew.exe is a pure window app. Otherwise they work exactly the same way. This is similar to java.exe and javaw.exe.

The loader loads the correct JVM (1.2 or later), builds the IDE's classpath, passes it along with some default parameters to the JVM, and lets the JVM launch the Java app. It also restarts the IDE after the auto update. The user can specify additional options. They are

-multi
runs IDE in multi-user mode, this is the default option for runide_multiuser.exe and runide_multiuser.exe

-jdkhome jdk_home_dir
use the specified JDK version instead of the default one. By default the loader looks into the Windows registry and uses the latest JDK available.

-hotspot
-classic
if the HotSpot JVM is installed it is used. The user can use the -classic flag to force the classic JVM to be used instead.

-cp:p additional_classpath
prepends the specified classpath onto the IDE's classpath

-cp:a additional_classpath
-cp additional_classpath
appends the specified classpath to the IDE's classpath

-Jjvm_flags
passes specified flags directly to the JVM

All options and arguments unrecognized by the loader are passed to the Java program. Options can be given on the command line or put in the file ${IDE_HOME>/bin/ide.cfg. The loader tries to read this file before it starts parsing the command line options. This means that even Java app's options can be put on this file (e.g. the -ui switch). In the ide.cfg file one can break the options into multiple lines.

About arguments containing spaces

If arguments like classpath or properties contain spaces, they must be enclosed in double quotes. Write two successive quotes to denote a quote inside an argument, for example "3 1/2 "" floppy drive".

A word of advice: if you have to specify arguments containing spaces and especially quotes, you'd better to use the ide.cfg file. Arguments specified on the command line are handled by the OS before the loader sees them. And on Windows how shell quoting works is sort of a black magic (to put it mildly).

Examples

To give the IDE extra memory
runide.exe -J-mx256m

Add my JARs into the IDE's classpath, my JARs are searched first

runide.exe -cp:p c:\this\is\my.jar;c:\this\is\your.jar

Arguments containing spaces

runide.exe -jdkhome "C:\Program Files\jdk1.2" -cp:p "C:\Program Files\sb\lib\sb.jar"

Todo's & open issues