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 (>>). 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.
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, The Activity Log.
history - a plain text file which
stores history lists, used by history text fields and the
> command. See the section called “Transferring Text” and Appendix C, History Text Fields.
jars - this directory contains
plugins. See Chapter 9, Installing and Using Plugins.
jars-cache - this directory contains
plugin cache files which decrease the time to start jEdit. They
are automatically updated when plugins are installed or
updated.
killring.xml - stores recently
deleted text. See the section called “Transferring Text”.
macros - this directory contains
macros. See Chapter 8, Using Macros.
modes - this directory contains
custom edit modes. See Part II, “Writing Edit Modes”.
perspective.xml - an XML file that
stores the list of open buffers and views used to maintain
editor state between sessions.
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 9, Installing and Using Plugins.
pluginMgr-Cached.xml.gz -
this contains a cached copy of the last XML plugin list downloaded from plugin central. If you delete this file, a new one will be created next time you try to install a plugin via Plugin Manager.
printspec - a binary file that stores
printing settings when running under Java 2 version 1.4.
properties - a plain text file that
stores the majority of jEdit's and its plugins settings. For
more information see the section called “The jEdit properties file”.
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.
registers.xml - an XML file that
stores register contents. See the section called “General Register Commands” for
more information about registers.
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 2, Starting jEdit.
settings-backup - this directory
contains numbered backups of all automatically-written settings
files.
The jEdit properties file uses the Java
properties syntax to store key/value pairs. All of the values are
stored as strings, but are interpreted as other types (such as
integer or boolean) by plugins at runtime.
Editing and saving this file while jEdit is running means that until you restart jEdit again, all other changed settings will be lost.